Monthly Archives: March 2009

Wall of Boxes

Since previous project, I’ve been thinking about creating a new cabinet. Something lots of little drawers. Sort of like either a Chinese pharmacy cabinet or a secretary cabinet.

The problem with secretary cabinets is that they’re not useful as furniture today. They used to be used as the nexus of all bills and correspondence of the house, but now the laptop has replaced this. I kind of like the look of an open secretary, but it’s completely useless due to the specialized nature of the furniture.

I think what I like about the Chinese pharmacy cabinets is that mystery they project. All the drawers look the same, but no matter what ails you, the pharmacist can open up some seemly random drawer and give you a potion to cure you. As a design per se, the cabinets are just more stylish filing cabinets.

I have no idea what I would do with a drawer cabinet, but I think I want one.

After the jump are some cabinets that I’ve been trying to draw inspiration from.

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Curiosity Cabinet

curiosity_cabinet

Jon Stam has designed an RFID curiosity cabinet. The cabinet is lined on both sides with drawers and boxes. The drawers contain objects, while the boxes contain a USB memory stick and an RFID chip. Placing the box near an RFID reader, causes the digital content to be displayed.

matandme has more photos info about this. DesignGuide.tv interview with Jon showing the cabinet off is after the jump.

The thing that drew me to this cabinet was the clean lines of it. When I first saw this, I had no idea it was RFID enabled. I particularly like the pulls on the drawers, or more precisely the lack of them. Many times when there’s pull-less drawers, the outer panel is beveled for fingers to. In his design the pull is simply the main drawer face, with a second panel inset slightly inside to completely close of the drawer when it’s closed.

One thing I don’t like about his design is that the digital curios are separate from the physical curios. I’m don’t think that distinction needs to be made. Digital objects don’t completely replace physical objects, (recordings, both audio and visual, excepted) but are complimenting them. For instance, when I traveled to Beijing, all my photos were digital, but those aren’t my only souvenirs. I have a Mao Book, a wad of cash, receipts, and tickets. It’s this collection, both physical and digital that commemorate my trip. It seems that a cabinet that attempts to recognize this dual nature of modern memories, should completely integrate them, rather than treat them as different things. If the each drawer contained the digital memories associated with the physical object contained in it, then this would be the case.

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QR Graffiti for Pirate Radio

Yuri Suzuki proposes using graffiti QR codes to promote pirate radio stations. Instead of broadcasting over the air, the audio is streamed directly to the phone whenever someone follows the QR code.

I would think one of the joys of running a pirate station is the overt illegality of it. Granted the FCC doesn’t often go around shutting down even prominent stations. (Except of course, when they do), but simply streaming over the Internet is like setting up a blog that no one reads. (*cough* *cough*)

Unfinished Swan

“Unfinished Swan” is an interactive project from Ian Dallas. The player exists in an all white world, which is slowly revealed as the player shoots black paint over the walls.

Ian insists on calling this a “game”, but I don’t think that’s really a good word for something like this. Games have goals and rewards. This doesn’t. There’s no story, no goals, no explicit reward. It’s an experience, an interesting experience to be sure, but it’s a paradoxically a passive one.

During his talk at TGS 2008 he says he’s surprised that “players” universally became bored within 20 seconds. The reason seems obvious, the lack of goals. I enjoyed watching the demo, but at the same time, I can’t imagine actually playing this for very long.

It seems like he’s going for sublime enjoyment, sort of like Katamari Damacy, but he’s forgotten that Katamari had goals and rewards. Yes, Katamari was a very stylish and simple game, but it was fun because of the challenges. Without challenges there’s nothing to motivate the player, and so he/she quickly becomes bored. Since Unfinished Swan doesn’t have goals, it’s much more of an interactive video rather than a “game”. Not that that’s a bad thing per se, but they should not be confused. If Swan had a story, not even really challenges, I could see it working more as a game. Judging from the demo above, there’s potentially one there, but from his all too brief talk, I wonder if he’s trying to make it too open ended and free form.

Thanks Paul.

Nightlife: Thursdays at the California Academy of Sciences

Each Thursday until October 29, San Francisco’s California of Academy of Science (55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park) stays open late for Nightlife, a 21 and up evening of booze, music, and science. ($10, 6pm to 10pm)

This is definitely something that I’m going to have to check out.

A similar event occurs, the first Friday of every month at LA’s Natural History Museum (900 Exposition Boulevard, LA), aptly named First Fridays. (notcot.com great photos of the LA event.)

Jeff Wall’s Invisible Man

BOOOOOOOM! highlights the work of Jeff Wall. The above photo is of course an interpretation of the narrator’s room from Ralph Ellison’s “The Invisible Man”.

When I was in junior high or early high school, my mom gave that book to read. I put it down after that scene (which if I remember correctly occurs on page six). “The man’s crazy,” I said. The idea that someone could, or even would, steal that much electricity just because he could, was beyond me. Now that I’m older, it’s one of those books that I need to revisit.