GENESIS 2 M D
ISSUE 00 ViewPoint is a publication by Design Products students at the Royal College of Art.
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WIP 2020
We would like to give you a glimpse of what are thinking, not just making. Welcome to our first issue: Genesis.
CONTRIBUTORS Moe Asari Rashmi Bidasaria Georgia Cottington Max Hornaecker Grace Keeton Tobias Lohe Elliot Lunn Sam Sheckells Simone Schiefer Rose Wakely Eric Saldanha Lia Raquel Marques Andrew Pierce-Scott
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Oliver Hawkes Marta Gaspar Maria Ramon Malika Khurana Chen-Ting Chien Freddie Keen Deirdre Dunham Anna Heck Andreas Kamolz Wendy Kim Rowan Vyvyan Charlie Humble-Thomas Carolina Hermenegildo
Editor’s Letter
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Georgia Cottington Grace Keeton Elliot Lunn Rashmi Bidasaria
We hope you enjoy our inaugural edition x
Royal College of Art attracts talent from all over the world; their ranking and prestige acting as a lighthouse, calling to young hopefuls. As students, we find its value in, among other things, its breathing living collective of interchanging ideas. It is this network of conversation between students that inspires insights, and breaks through creative blocks. It reaches beyond the known, challenging conventional methods and theories. We wanted to share DP’s creative voice and its position within the realms of art, design, and beyond. Our publication, View Point, is a curated collection giving readers a glimpse into the inner-workings of Design Products students. It is a testament to how we communicate as designers; we hope to represent a wide breadth of content that is reflective of DP’s diverse cohort. We want to: explore and investigate; discover and uncover; and above all, be both accepting and critical as we pave the way for a new age of creatives.
The theme for our inaugural edition is Genesis. Genesis; the origin or mode of formation of something. origin, source, root, beginning, commencement, start, outset, formation, emergence, development, evolution, coming into being, inception, origination, birth, creation, shaping, formulation, invention, engendering, generation, propagation.
To our readers,
Designed for Humans in Mind Oliver Hawkes Page 48
Exploring the Riverbank Max Hornaecker Page 54
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The first two Microsoft operating systems of the 1980’s, Windows 1.x and 2.x, had no startup chime. It was only in 1992 that a short trumpet sound was introduced on startup. Since then, Windows chimes have varied broadly in length, tone, and overall feeling. Starting in 2012, with Windows 8, Microsoft also began disabling its startup chimes.
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Macintosh chimes have been relatively simple from the start: almost always a single note or chord. The Macintosh chime that most of us are familiar with was first created in 1993 (in a slightly different pitch), and has changed little since then – until Apple removed the startup chime entirely in 2016.
Microsoft
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In an attempt to understand the evolution of these sentimental sounds and make something pretty, I have collected the most significant Macintosh and Windows startup chimes, visualized based on frequency and amplitude. So settle in with your Capri Sun (or equally nostalgic childhood beverage), fire up a YouTube compilation of startup chimes, and read on.
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What Can Opener are you? Simone Scheifer Page 36
Apple
The ubiquitous computer startup chime has come to hold a special place in our minds, memories, and hearts. Described astutely by YouTube user Manu Ginobilis Bald Spot as “an old friend you really missed and it’s exactly the same,” these chimes symbolize familiarity and comfort – as well as beginnings, possibilities, and promise of what could lay ahead.
Analogue Dreams Tobias Lohe Page 24
frequency band
The Sound of the Start(up)
CONTENTS The Disturbing Story of My Life Maria Ramon Page 64
Cry Grace Keeton Page 6
Designers should do less designing Sam Sheckells Pages 14 DIGGER Rowan Vyvyan Page 76
Are we afraid of robots? Andreas Kamolz Page 91
Terra Vermella Lia Raquel Marques Page 68
Prelude: dhoti Rashmi Bidasaria Page 8 Designer’s Approach to Art Chen-Ting Chien Page 74
Are we designing for the real world? Elliot Lunn Page 82
His Majesty of the Great Tree Deirdre Dunham Page 99
Machines/Yashica Marta Sternberg Page 60
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Photos Carolina Hermenegildo Page 75
Policing 5.0 Georgia Cottington Pages 19 Do you see what I mean? Eric Saldhana Page 80
Speculative Wendy Kim Page 33 Ops hold it. Andrew Pierce Scott Page 86
The Original Black Box Problem Rosie Wakely Page 44
Approaching blindness through craft, Frederick Keen Page 96
The Sound of the Taiwan Start(up) Anna Heck Malika Khurana Page 52 Page 51
Do alpha, then beta Charlie HumbleThomas Page 100
Design Manifesto Moe Asari Page 102
Cry When we are born, the first thing that doctors listen for is a cry, indicating the health of our lungs. We are born out of emotion, we are born with emotion. I am often taken aback at how much I can feel, how I feel, what I feel, when I feel, what sparks a reaction and why… As a designer, I want to tap into this, to target the vulnerable instances that reveal our humanity. Marie Kondo’s now famous question, “does this spark joy?” is something I find to be of ultimate relevance as I continue to develop my practice and voice as a designer. I am fascinated by the instinctual reaction people have to objects, words, colours - the variables designers utilize when conceiving a new idea into our physical world. Some triggers are universal (more or less), while others can be born of individual experience; a song that causes one person to cry with the emotional weight and another to dance, unburdened, about their small studio apartment.
I investigated such a universal trigger through my dissertation. I was able to garner an unfiltered reaction (even if for an instance) when I shared the topic with my peers: failure. Failure brings on disappointment, shame, even grief for an idea that did not come to fruition. There is much to be considered within the realm of vulnerability. But vulnerability does not always have to be targeted through negativity. One of my favourite projects, “People React To Being Called Beautiful,” by Shea Glover, was filmed in 2015. A high schooler at the time, Glover embarked on a project she had no idea would soon become a viral sensation. One by one, Glover captured the reactions of students and administrators as she told them “I’m taking pictures of things I find beautiful,” and one by one, she captured sincere and human reactions: shock, disbelief, and joy. While some do all they can to stifle their cry, it is only human and healthy to feel the cathartic release. After all, the honesty that can be attained via true vulnerability has the potential to lead to the birth of a new category of design. One that is truly and wholly human.
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PRELUDE : dhoti
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A garment worn by Hindus, consisting of a 15ft long material, sometimes a loose skirt-like loincloth or a tight wrap around.
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I gently wrap around her bosom, she embraces me. She hides her secrets in me, in multitudes of joy and sorrow, here I am her confidant.
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Damp with the saltiness of the sea, I am headed to a holy cleansing. This is my journey, skin to skin, soul to soul. I am moulded to you.
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Today, I am a companion. I am taken on his travels, to bring back fish in plenty. After a tiring tussle with the sea, I comfort him.
He lets me in on his silent thoughts. ‘ I see her draped in red, a vision.’ I wonder if he still sees with his tired eyes or just sits here to welcome the evening breeze.
Rashmi Bidasaria 14
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As I arrived at the RCA, I became aware that my story was not all that unique. Of course, many of my classmates on
Well, apparently not. I received my conditional acceptance during my spring break in 2018 and ran upstairs to my parents to tell them. “I guess you’re going to London,” I remember my dad saying. A lot has happened since, and upon reflecting on that time during the middle of my second year on the Design Products MA at the Royal College of Art, it has become quite clear to me why the College accepted my application and what they value in their students.
the interview, one of the first questions that popped up was something like, “your portfolio seems pretty varied and has a lot of fine art, how do you see this applying to design?” I crawled through the rest of the questions, then said goodbye to the interviewers and also goodbye to any chances of studying in Europe. Done.
Designers should do less designing
Like pretty much every other one of my fellow students, I could not explain how I landed an interview with the Royal College of Art. I had only applied because my brother had just moved to London, and the application being free didn’t hurt. My portfolio had only a few design pieces because my undergraduate degree in studio art wasn’t necessarily conducive to design projects.
I was excited that I’d made it that far, but I was convinced that this would be enough to expose me as a sham and the application board could then happily terminate my application and move onto prospective students that knew anything about design beyond Jony Ive or Dieter Rams. During
the Design Products programme are bonafide designers, but we also have architects, engineers, woodworkers, furniture builders, and so on. This diversity is very important to me and to the course. The RCA wants students who might not have done design and only design.
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Go for a walk and look around to see what you might notice (since us design students have been told a trillion times that we see the
However, if all you think about is product design, you’ll go absolutely crazy. Design isn’t the only way for designers to express themselves, and it shouldn’t be. It is too common to come across students
Expressing creativity in a multidisciplinary way can be a huge benefit to one’s design process and inspiration, and it can help mentally as well. Take a break. Turn that creative energy towards something that’s in no way related to getting marks or creating a mind map or sculpting some modelling foam into an ambiguous shape.
Design Products as a collective could care less about whether what we make are “products” in the conventional sense of the word. The programme is extremely idea-driven. What is that mysterious liquid on that desk? Why the hell are they doing that? At the RCA, the process of designing and exploration feels much more important than the final work that we present. Whether it comes out as a product or not is secondary. The exploration stage is where all the learning happens.
in the studio sat at their desks, pounding their heads into their hands trying to force the next great innovation that will earn them a Dezeen article (and the accompanying thoughtless negative comments at the bottom of the page). When doing a Masters, it can be normal to wake up at 4 in the morning in a cold sweat wondering if your entire project is pointless. The pressure felt during the second year of a Masters Degree can be intense, as obviously we must find some sort of job afterwards, so in a way it is hard to avoid. But forcing creativity seldom results in anything worth the stress.
No matter what kind of background we come from, designers choose the profession because of its creativity. We love having the freedom to define a problem instead of the problem being given to us. This freedom allows designers to come up with innovative solutions - ones that wouldn’t have been thought of if we started at solving a problem rather than going and finding the problem first.
world differently, apparently). You might even get a sweet abstract photo for your Instagram story. Grab a set of paints or pencils and start illustrating whatever you can think or see. Start carving some wood or bending some metal into weird shapes. Write a song. Make a little film about nothing. Ride a bike somewhere. Go cook something you’ve wanted to try. Start up something creative you’ve wanted to do for a long time but never felt that you could take time away for it. If someone asks you what you’re doing, and you reply “I have no idea”, then you might be getting somewhere.
Policing 5.o
When doing these things, if you can distract yourself from the amount of days until you find yourself stuttering and shaking in front of a bunch of tutors, you have succeeded. Maybe you’ll look at your “alternative exploration” and have some profound epiphany that will move your project forward. If not, revel in the fact that you’ve done something. That’s better than losing years of your life frantically scouring the web for an idea. Anything is progress and anything can help develop your creativity. And if you have time, try and make this a normal routine. Being a designer or a creative isn’t about technical skills and it isn’t always about final output. It’s about employing unique ways of thinking and being able to materialise abstract concepts into something worthwhile for the rest of us. It’s not easy. Take a creative break. Do something that gets you a strange look from your peers. Work on yourself as a designer by not doing design. See what happens - it may surprise you.
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“Through technology, power now operates in ways that are in one way or another inhuman, and so difficult to see and to comprehend. Due to its complexity, the technology acts like a kind of camouflage, that we can’t, and don’t, look under” Carl Miler
criminals and to deploy autonomous weapons; all of which are often biased, punitive and inequitable. A recent Amnesty International report on the Metropolitan Police’s “Matrix list”, a tool used to identify people potentially involved in gang violence, found that “More than threeThe Metropolitan quarters (78%) of people Police Act of 1829 on the Matrix are black, established the first a disproportionate modern, professional number given the Met’s police force in the own figures show that world. Robert Peele, only 27% of those the conservative home responsible for serious secretary at the time, youth violence are had a vision to create black”. Thus, highlighting a standardised civilian the unfaltering biases law enforcement service and problems that are that was “answerable bleeding through the to the public”. This obvious cracks in this intention is now being infant and untested tested and stretched technology” our into new directions by institutions are so hell artificial intelligence (AI) bent on utilising. Society technologies, which is facing budgets being police forces throughout squeezed in all areas the world are investing and an unrelenting vast quantities of pressure for results: the money into. As a result, police are no exception. implementation and use This is contributing to has risen by 270% in the apparent vital ‘need’ the last four years. It for AI as it could help to is drastically changing ease these dilemmas, but the priorities of the at what cost? police: how a crime is interpreted, how they As of February 2019, interact with the public 33% of police forces and what is deemed an in the UK use AI in acceptable way to live. surveillance, monitoring AI is currently being and predicting crime, used to predict crime with over 50% hoping to locations, potential adopt these technologies
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by 2020. This may seem radical, but it is actually a slow uptake compared to Dubai who plan to introduce patrol robots with artificial intelligence by 2020, stating they “want to be the smartest police force in the world with the smartest employees and happy residents”. Similarly, China is also at the forefront of AI police forces; their “AnBot can independently patrol, and upon a remote operator’s command, use its mechanical arm to grab people as well as deploy its ‘electrically charged riot control tool’.” Combining policing, the fundamental principle with which we enforce the rule of law, with a technology that “is in its infancy” has had and will continue to have problematic consequences. As summed up by Elizabeth E. Joh, professor of Criminal Law and Policing at U.C Davis School of Law, “policing is…different from other fields that have embraced AI. The police can
presence where there is a high probability of imminent danger and keeping track of people who may become dangerous[1]. It is a data driven version of policing in line with the philosophy that has dominated since the 1990’s when Broken Windows Theory became popular[2]. This theory highlights the correlation between the presence of vandalism, minor offences and disrepair and an increase in major crime. William Bratton police commissioner of New York instigated a crackdown on minor offences which resulted in 27% reduction in serious crime[3]. The issues that arise from this kind of punishmentbased targeting such as stop and search and zero tolerance policing, have been outlined in Chapter 2. In complete opposition to this, Eric Klinenberg has recently challenged the way that Bratton and many police forces since, have interpreted the theory through his new work on social infrastructure[4]. His research came from analysing Chicago during the 1995 heat wave disaster, looking at why areas of similar deprivation and ethnic
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detain, arrest, and even use deadly force in the appropriate circumstances”. The powers that the police have are extreme and there needs to be careful, considered and transparent use of AI within this field. Without the appropriate level of scrutiny, the lines determining who and what is controlling us become blurred.
demographic had the highest and lowest death tolls during the crisis. The findings from the studies showed that it was the neglect of public infrastructure such as benches, libraries and looked after streets which led to the success of certain neighbourhoods despite the traditional barriers, they had to surviving the heatwave[5]. It was this civic engagement The fact that our in their local area that societies will include drew people together artificial intelligence in to socialise and care for the future is inevitable, each other. He posed however, how can AI the question “what be incorporated in would have happened ways that embrace soft if we had responded qualitative data as well to broken windows as quantitative data? It not by sending in so is vital to create a form many police officers, of intelligence that has but instead by fixing space for a range of the windows” [6] and outputs that reflect found through work in the breadth of human Pennsylvania to improve experience, rather than public infrastructure, narrowing the kinds of even something as acceptable lives that are simple as a public bench, on offer to us through reduced major crime by an obsession with 40%. The crime did not empirical data analytics. transfer to other nearby The way in which the areas[7], a popular fear, law is implemented showing that fixing the by the police is at a windows is empirically crossroads in the a more effective technological revolution strategy to target crime that is gripping the than increased police world, there is an intervention. It is this alternative path which identification of places could use the potential of that need increased artificial intelligence for a social infrastructure and wholly different style of in what capacity, that the prevention. AI within police forces could be used effectively. Current prevention focuses primarily In conclusion, as a on increasing police way to summarise the
frightening nature of where police currently are heading with their use of AI and the alternative future that could be proposed, it makes sense to analyse them through Benjamin Bratton’s Stack; “a comprehensive political and design theory of planetary-scale computation”[1]. If we consider the police officer as the user of an AI predictive system such as NDAS (National Data Analytics Solution) [2], the technology in essence could be seen as propping up a larger very dangerous system of surveillance capitalism and human behaviour dictated by computer algorithms. The alternative future system based on identifying opportunities for public infrastructure uses the same interface but shifts the focus to constructing independent, resilient communities. This in turn, could foster healthier relationships to crime that are based not on surveillance for control but observation to build new styles of living. Creating a wholly new definition of what “prevention” means, that is not only answerable to the public but shaped by them.
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Analogue Dreams
A photographic journey through a day-dream
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They say there is a place. To get there takes patience. You need to wait for the right moment but the rewards will last a lifetime. They say there is a place ...
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to find your inner kid again
and stay for the long run,
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to bring joy,
or get lost in your work,
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to risk a leap,
or simply take a nap.
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Time flies and maybe it was all just a dream after all ...
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The Speculative How might speculative design play a role in the 21st century, an era in which industrial design and contemporary art have thus far ruled? Why do we need more designers? There are problems that can’t be solved by technology and are very closely related to psychology, considering how people think and behave. As a designer, I believe analysing human behaviour is a starting point of design, where design empathy originates. We live in a world of evermore “stuff” – what can sometimes seem to be a deluge of goods and shopping. We tend to assume that this has two implications: that we are more superficial, more materialistic; that our relationship to things comes at the expense of our relationships to people. Our relationship to possessions often remains profound. Typically, the closer our relationship with objects, the closer our relationships are with people. 35
“Objects are storytellers, and as users we share unique personal histories with them – rich, complex and meaningful narratives, which form layers of significance, over time,” claims Jonathan Chapman, in Emotionally Durable Design. It has commonly been assumed that there is always a conflict between beauty and function. However, this issue involves various social issues, such as the relationship between humans and products. Depending on the nature of this relationship, the value of products can vary; therefore, I was particularly interested in how people prioritise products differently. This may help to answer the question centred on the form, beauty, and function of everyday products. The emotional bond between humans and objects are complex. But at the same time, it is already created in people’s minds. By asking a question like, “What would you grab if your house were on fire?” we can better understand the bond between people and objects,
because people don’t have time to think about which object they would take. People usually say they would prioritise items of sentimental value over items of monetary value. The number of years you have lived in an area is also an important factor. By looking at the relation between object and person, I was able to pinpoint my areas of interest as a designer, and better appreciate the diversity and creativity of contemporary society. Speculative design should push the barrier further to broaden the audience. There’s a possibility that if we look closely at the personal relations of human to object, then we can reach a more diverse audience. We should think more about the medium through which this could happen, as it remains limited to elites who have access to places such as galleries or have a holistic understanding of background of art or design.
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Wendy Kim
What are you more likely to give someone as a present? ù) +) *) $) §)
a gift card something you’ve made something you’ve thrifted an amazon delivery a joke present
How often do you think about food? $) when someone reminds me I’ve forgotten to eat §) I dream about food all the time *) mostly when I am thinking about what to eat ù) do people think about other things? +) I’m a food designer
What can opener are you?
When do you get your best ideas? *) When you wake up in the middle of the night §) After hearing someone else talk about their ideas $) Sitting at your desk ù) After a nap +) With Lucy in the sky of diamonds Which one of these hashtag do you identify most with? *) #tbt ù) #design $) #hashtag +) #whatisahashtag §) I am too complex to be only one hashtag The best way to travel the world would be? $) to have a self driving car take you around ù) biking and camping along the way §) to relax on a cruise ship +) flying because you wont let yourself get guilted into using the train *) On a sail boat
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+) *) $) ù) §)
a peacock a donkey a pageant dog a fly a cat
What is your BBQ move? +) ù) §) *) $)
Hamburger Hot Dog Camembert Vegetables Pineapple
If you answered mostly + You are a Bully Beef can opener. You were popular in the 19th century and reached your peak during World War 1. You’re not easy to use and maybe even dangerous for today’s standards. Till this day, you are one of the fancier can openers and so you gave your owners pride. Time has confirmed your robust nature, which is not a common theme in today’s market, so you can be proud.
Your most likely are a reincarnation of ?
Who would you rather sit next to at a diner party? *) ù) $) +) §)
a corporate lawyer an economic historian a digital marketer a professional athlete a product designer
Which one of these public figures do you find the most over rated? §) *) +) $) ù)
Elon Musk Greta Thunberg Jonathan Ives Beyonce Le Corbusier
What would you want to be remembered for? $) ù) §) +) *)
your your your your your
dance moves success humour style smarts
Ready to find out which can opener you are?
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If you answered mostly with $ You are the most technologically advanced can opener of this bunch. Not only are you electric, but also handsfree. People like you because you make their lives sooo much easier. You get activated with one touch of the finger, like magic. Then the dance begins, you turn around the can lid cutting through it. Opening a can has never been this effortless.
If you answered mostly * You are a Ring Tab that serves as an integrated opening mechanism. Why don’t all food cans have you? Because canned food is inexpensive and most kitchens have can openers so there was no seen benefit to adding an opening system to the packaging. Contrary to canned food producers, the beverage industry was not able to resist the extra packaging cost because of the onthe-go nature of canned beverages. You could make can openers obsolete in a different economic framework, congrats!
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If you answered mostly § You are a can opener designed to help use the integrated ring tab used to open canned food. The grip is easier and there is no need for the user to have to get there finger in a small ring tab. Marketed as “great for people with long fingernails,” you generally are there to help all who struggle. Noble cause.
If you answered mostly with ù You are the ancestor of what resembles the can openers that are most common in kitchens today. Clamping the edge of the can between two wheels, and twisting a handle to move a blade around the lip, made opening cans less dangerous. Thanks to you, injuries were avoided and you most likely contributed to the success of canned food on a larger scale. Unfortunately you were flimsy and breakable.
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The original black box problem. When scientists look at the brain, they cannot determine its intelligence. In the last 110 years, psychologists have tried to develop the IQ test, looking at what stimulus comes into the brain, and what comes out of it to determine intelligence. This method misses the richness and diversity of the human brain and makes many assumptions about what are valued intelligence traits. I believe that an IQ test is a reflection of what is considered to be the “ideal human”. In Westen culture the ideal human is reflected in jobs that we value and pay a high price for, who can travel freely, and a metric of tests. Speed, efficiency, memory. Not everyone feels like they fit into this idea of the “ideal human.” any people struggle to
feel like a valid human, trying to push themselves into the narrow ideal which is presented as the “only option”. Perhaps the origins of where this feeling came from are so much a part of everyday life, they are invisible. People are not broken, they are trying to fit into a monoculture that excludes neurodiversity from its foundations. The IQ test is considered a reliable test of innate general intelligence. A test to see how well human hardware functions. But the metric itself is based on what particular privileged humans have deemed as ideal traits of human intelligence. Historically it has been used to show human intelligence as high above and separate from the “savage” animal kingdom. When scientists test animals the same human values are applied. When scientists test animals, they consider how similar or deviant they are from humans, not considering a radically different intelligence altogether. Animals are not tested on their own terms. There are also a lot of assumptions around why animals make certain choices; most notably that animals avoid pain and move towards pleasure and they choose mates that are best for evolution. However, both these assumptions have been found to be flawed. What would it be like if we rewrote the metric for intelligence? Can we genuinely value radically different wired brains?
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Roseanne Wakely 48
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Designed for humans in mind. Where the true value lies in modern design. An extract from a larger written piece. Technology is something that defines human beings, currently it surrounds us, there is not a day in our lives where we don’t interact with it. From waking up in the morning with an alarm to cleaning our teeth before we go to bed, manufacturers have provided us technologies to make our lives easier. Removing the burdens of waking up early enough to live a productive life or allay fears of tooth decay, but at what cost? Technology has supposedly given us the freedom to do more with our wealth and time. It has made our lives more efficient, from giving us the ability to more effectively plough our fields, to keeping up to date on politics and with our friends. But with this never-ending chase for freedom and efficiency, are we actually willingly giving up our freedoms to the companies that are selling them? With the neoliberal globalised marketplace being run by larger and more expansive multinational corporations than ever before, this reliance on unbound technological advancements to make our lives better is being brought into question. ‘Why has a culture so firmly based upon countless sophisticated
instruments, techniques, and systems remained so steadfast in its reluctance to examine its own foundations?... In the twentieth century it is usually taken for granted that the only reliable sources of improving the human condition stem from new machines, techniques and chemicals.’ The Whale and The Reactor - Langdon Winner Our economy develops assuming the promise of infinite growth in the system. This has been discussed thoroughly, both historically and philosophically, by writers such as Daniel Cohn in his book ‘The Infinite Desire or Growth,’ or economically in papers published around the world. These case studies reflected on the actual physical design changes that have occurred because of it. This also establishes the length to which people and communities are willing to go to take back control of a system that’s stopped serving their needs. Led by advancements in technology, the case studies address issues concerning the complexity that technological advancement is having on the way that, as
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humans, we go about our lives. In a similar irony, as described in Ruth Schartz Cowan’s book ‘More Work for Mother’, often technology is, in a round-about way, making a lot of what we do more arduous. Technology has given us more ways to stay connected, from superior coffee at the press of a button to fields that can feed ten times the amount of people that they previously could. But it has also made us completely reliant on the companies behind the technology, making for more work trying to keep up with the schemes that are running in the background. Technological advancement isn’t all doom, gloom and hard work though. After the industrial revolution, purchasing an object rather than making it became the norm, creating a hostage situation with companies and manufacturers, all while losing our making skills. But with modern distributed manufacturing and common peer-to-peer production, technological advancement is now allowing us to make more advanced and complex items than ever before. Furthermore, technological and user interface improvements in computeraided design and manufacturing having made for more intuitive platforms to design build, either individually
or collaboratively, on the world wide web. A culmination of technologies, including the internet, 3D printing, data processing and artificial intelligence, has made it easier than ever before for anyone to start making for their own needs again without the restriction of a board of executives requiring high volume sales or monetisation at every point. This critical mass of technology could kick the traditional capitalist system to the curb, helped by the dissolution of the investor capital marketplace. The one roadblock is in data management, as in Apple’s case who have used their wealth of resources to capture an immaterial wealth. This wholly modern system has currently been running free of consideration and control under the guise of convenience. The trust of many has been put into a few big companies with little consideration of the data being kept by someone other than yourself. Technological advancement has created a new desire for information wealth that should be considered more closely by society; either understanding the control that the data wealth can apply on our actions, or to devalue the role technology in our day-to-day lives as something that should be either wanted or not.
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Oliver Hawkes
The Sound of the Start(up)
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Malika Khurana
Microsoft The first two Microsoft operating systems of the 1980’s, Windows 1.x and 2.x, had no start-up chime. It was only in 1992 that a short trumpet sound was introduced on start-up. Since then, Windows chimes have varied broadly in length, tone, and overall feeling. Starting in 2012, with Windows 8, Microsoft also began disabling its start-up chimes.
Apple Macintosh chimes have been relatively simple from the start: almost always a single note or chord. The Macintosh chime that most of us are familiar with was first created in 1993 (in a slightly different pitch), and has changed little since then – until Apple removed the start-up chime entirely in 2016.
The ubiquitous computer start-up chime has come to hold a special place in our minds, memories, and hearts. Described astutely by YouTube user Manu Ginobilis Bald Spot as “an old friend you really missed and it’s exactly the same,” these chimes symbolize familiarity and comfort – as well as beginnings, possibilities, and promise of what could lay ahead. In an attempt to understand the evolution of these sentimental sounds and make something pretty, I have collected the most significant Macintosh and Windows startup chimes, visualized based on frequency and amplitude. So settle in with your Capri Sun (or equally nostalgic childhood beverage), fire up a YouTube compilation of startup chimes, and read on.
Taiwan
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Exploring the river bank A photographic journey through a day-dream
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It is a sunny yet cold Monday morning to go to the river. The tide is at its lowest at 11 AM, and I decide to be at the bank one hour before. The chances to find historic artefacts on the foreshore of the Thames is great, as in the course of history the inhabitants of London used the river to dispose of their waste, and then, through the introduction of the sewage system in Victorian times, objects even got washed down the pipes into the river. To scavenge the mud of the Thames for objects is called ‘Mudlarking’, and it means to search at low tide for anything that is worth picking up. This is how I found two lead toy warships, most probably from the early 20th century, under Tower Bridge. Today I am coming from St. Paul’s tube station, I walk towards Tate Modern, and before Millennium Bridge, I take a left turn, that brings me to Trig Lane stairs. As I get closer to the set of stairs, I see the low river and the uncovered bank, bathed in sunlight. I stop and hold for a minute, almost paralyzed by the uncanny beauty of the setting. My thoughts start to wander: what will I find today, what kind of stories will I grasp with my hands? Once down the slippery and mossy stairs, I find myself in an utterly different London: nobody is in sight, I am completely alone in a city of millions. The sounds coming from upstairs are now muffled, barely recognizable, the smells and odours are fishy and muddy, and particularly today, everything on the bank appears bright and colourful, I am even blinded by the sun reflected off shiny pieces of pottery and glass. I start to walk towards Blackfriars, one of my favourite spots, rich in clay pipes, to discover that today I have been there too early and so my chances to find objects are faint, as the spit of land on that side of the river is still too narrow to walk. As I lead back to where I came from, the waves of the passing boats start to hit the shore where I am walking, wetting my worn-out boots. I quickly salvage myself by running to a concrete structure, probably part of a drainage system of a closeby building, where something grabs my
attention: it’s a small round object, halfburied. It is hard to spot, as oyster shells, broken bricks, pieces of jugs and plates are spread all around, but the round edge is what grabbed me immediately. Straight lines, circles, right angles and decorations are some of the indicators to look for on the river bed, as it most likely stands for manmade objects. I slowly bend over and have a closer look at my finding: it’s a metallic piece of tube with some sort of decoration on it. As I slowly pull it out, I realise that the small tube is capped on one side and the pattern is all around it. After a few moments, It comes to my mind: it’s a sewing thimble. The constant movement of the waves, together with the movements of the tides, hide and unveil unthinkable objects, day in, day out. This temporary environment created by the natural occurrence of the river is what makes the foreshore so fascinating to me: it is impossible to foresee what kind of objects I will encounter and dig out. The weather this morning is surprisingly good as the sun shines and warms up after a few days of clouds and mist -a blessing to anyone here in London. Surprised and pleased with my finding, I continue to move towards East. For the rest of the day, I stray and pick up metal bits and pottery pieces with interesting floral decoration, without looking for something in particular. After two and a half hours of walking and searching for hidden treasures, I decide to grab my findings and leave the riverbank at Cousin Lane, from where I walk to Bank Underground Station. Once home, I wash the objects under warm water with a brush and the smell of the mud already comes to my nose. As the mud flows down the drain, I see and touch my findings with care for the first time. Once dry, I look at the most curious and precious ones and filter out those that cannot be researched, which I will be returned to the bank on the next occasion.
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The chances to find historic artefacts on the foreshore of the Thames is great, as in the course of history the inhabitants of London used the river to dispose of their waste, and then, through the introduction of the sewage system in Victorian times, objects even got washed down the pipes into the river. This is probably the reason why I found two lead toy warships, perhaps from the early 20th century, on the foreshore under Tower Bridge.
Max Hornaecker I once made my most fortunate finding: an almost intact clay pipe and a well-conserved Lofting thimble16 from the mid 17th century. [https://thimbles.host-ed.me/Early_English.html]
In the case of a clay pipe bowl, the symbols and initials of the producer stamped in the heel of the pipe are of help when researching to discover the complete object, from the material it is made of, the manufacturer, the production technique, the location of the kiln that probably fired the pipe, the purpose of the smoking pipe and the context it was employed.
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Machines with Pietro Proserpio Pietro is an Italian cinematic inventor and a very good friend. Pietro works on the construction of toys and machines made entirely out of recycled materials such as parts of bikes, washing machines, toasters and others. Almost anything. He picks them around Lisbon, over the time. He likes to join recycled pieces from different epoques and places, giving them a new life. When Pietro was a little kid he used to make his own toys, when he turned ten years old he started doing toys for his friends, then, when a father, he designed them for his kids, later on, as a grandfather, he started doing them for his grand children, and now, that he completed the wheel, he is doing it again for himself. He always loved mechanics and now, that he is a bit older, he found himself a bit more poetic, enjoying creating what he calls mechanic poetical pieces, where every machine has a story behind. I helped with the interior mechanical and electronic systems of the machines. I was meeting him every Friday, in his adorable workshop, at his place, a small corridor with every tool you would need. Machines are permanently exhibited in LX Factory, in Ler Devagar library, an old newspaper factory - Lisbon.
Yashica Lynx 14E 35mm film An old camera, that was just there, forgotten // When your grandfather smiles looking at you using his old camera, the one he thought was irreparable. Those are some pictures I took with an old Yashica Lynx 14E 35mm film.
Here are some pictures I took in the workshop with some work in progress.
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‘The disturbing story of my life - written by a plastic straw’ our careless use of the material that causes it to become a hazard to the well-being of our planet. After my failed attempt at a day without plastic, I shifted my perspective, hoping to find a way I could make a difference in a practical way. Amanda Keetley, founder of Less Plastic, claims, “If you want to reduce the amount of single-use plastic in the world, the first thing you can do is reduce it in your life.” I realized that rather than eliminate all plastic from my lifestyle, I had to be mindful of my plastic consumption and attempt to eliminate all single-use plastic. Ellie Mackay, Fellow and Ambassador for the Royal Geographical Society and pilot at The Plastic Tide, visited the Royal College of Art as a guest lecturer earlier this year to speak about her efforts to document plastic pollution on beaches around the world. She opened her lecture with a striking claim, “Your first ever toothbrush is still somewhere on Earth.” That statement has stayed with me, influencing my decision
to specifically tackle the mountainous, negative impact of single-use plastics. Sitting on all of this new-found knowledge, I knew I wanted to make a greater impact beyond simply making changes in my own life. Keetley claims, “the solution to plastics pollution starts with awareness.” Taking this to heart, I decided to use my dissertation as a tool for change. As David De Rothschild, leader of the Plastiki Expedition, said, “the first step to creating change is understanding,” and so, I embarked on my journey of creating a dissertation that would spread awareness and educate readers about the detrimental impacts of plastic pollution. Like I said before, I was privileged to grow up in a family that valued nature’s beauty and importance to our existence. If it weren’t for my parents’ efforts to educate me about the importance of recycling, I likely would not have been as primed to learn about this incredibly important topic. Not every child is lucky enough to have access
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Living in the outskirts of Valencia, a coastal city in Spain, I had a very close relationship with nature, particularly the sea. Every summer, we spent a week sailing around the Mediterranean. We would often take trips to the beach to picnic by the blue waters. We grew our own crops and had chickens in our back garden. Growing up, my parents did their best to educate my siblings and me about the threat that plastics posed to the earth, encouraging us to recycle whenever possible. Over the years, the wellbeing of this beautiful planet has always been at the forefront of my mind. I kept reading and learning what I could about the issue, all while hearing the phrase “plastic pollution,” everywhere. I felt like the problem was too big, it felt overwhelming, and I kept convincing myself that I was already doing enough as an individual to help tackle the issue. A few months into starting my Master’s degree at the Royal College of Art, I stumbled upon a video on Youtube. The video features Marine Biologist, Christine Figgner, and her team attempting to remove a 12cm plastic
straw from the nostril of a screaming tortoise. I was so devastated that I immediately burst into tears. It was incredibly eye-opening, I had to do something. Inspired by Susan Freinkel, author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, I attempted to immerse myself in a no-plastic lifestyle, using absolutely no plastic for an entire day. I set out optimistic, believing I could get through a measly, 24 hours without using plastic, but I quickly found that it was nothing short of impossible. As Freinkel said, “we all live in Plasticville.” No matter where I turned, or what I did, or how much I tried to avoid plastic, it was unavoidable. For as much as I was horrified by the video of the screaming tortoise, I also recognize the innovations that plastic has enabled. As Emily Pen, the founder of eXXpedition, asserts “Plastic is this amazing material because it’s designed to last forever and ever.” For example, through the use of plastics, medical apparatus became revolutionized allowing for as plastic IV bags. In other words, plastic has literally saved lives l; it is
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fact that “more than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year,” affecting not only the marine habitat, but all of its diverse inhabitants, as well. Plastic has invaded even our food chain, as over 240 different animal species have ingested plastics containing toxic chemicals that are released in their bodies, and eventually passed onto us. When you type “plastic pollution” into Google, over 216 million results are returned. For as much as I worked to inform myself, I realized I needed help organizing and defining the pivotal information that I could use in my story. I was fortunate enough to get in contact with Dr. Arturo Castillo Castillo, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College, who helped me sift through this extremely complex topic. I left this meeting understanding an important idea: plastics are not the enemy. It is our relationship with plastics, and the way we engage with them that is becoming toxic. I felt ready to tackle the issue and move forward with my dissertation.
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I fully recognize that this is not the ‘perfect child’s book’. That was never my goal. Rather, my aim is to propose a way by which we might begin to engage with younger audiences in a fun way, all while educating them about vital topics such as plastic waste. This is only the beginning of what I have made my life-long mission; an exploration of how I might make a greater impact on the global crisis of plastic pollution. I hope you enjoy!
Maria Ramon
to this. Dr. William Bird, Strategic Health Advisor to Natural England, was quoted in a report for Natural Thinking: “Children who don’t connect with nature before the age of 12 are less likely as adults to connect”. Bearing this in mind, I created my new mission: to write a children’s interactive and educational novel that might begin to shift habits of waste, and open the door to wider conversations of climate change as early in a child’s life as possible. Plastics are unfortunately, something that children will have to battle in their lifetime. It is today’s younger generations that will have to face the full impacts of plastic pollution, and therefore it is something that we cannot ignore. They are the future, we must engage and educate them before it is too late. I began to fully delve myself in my research and found facts that continued to validate my mission to make a change. I was stunned to discover that 50% of the plastic we produce (320 million tons in 2015) are for single-use purposes, and still, we only manage to recycle 9% of it. This is followed by the alarming
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Terra Vermelha. Terra Vermelha. Areia Vermelha. O dia-a-dia com a cor vermelha, a construção das casas em terra vermelha, os rios machados com a cor da terra vermelha.
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Lunda Norte. Terra rica em diamantes. Terra rica em identidade cultural. Terra rica em magia. Terra misteriosa. Fotografias tiradas na provincia da Lunda Norte, Angola.
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Red Soil. Red sand. Red Soil.
Day-to-day with the colour red, the construction of houses with red soil, the rivers stained with the colour of red sand.
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Lunda Norte. Land rich in diamonds. Land rich in cultural identity. Land rich in enchantment. Mysterious land
Photographs taken in the province of Lunda Norte, Angola.
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Designer’s approach to art: Is it design or art?
Carolina Hermenegildo
Did someone climb into the tree, or did someone just left the ladder?
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A very old house abandoned however, setting a line for its privacy.
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Digger Rowan Vyvyan
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Do you see what I mean? It is important to shed light on the way we speak To really focus on the words we use How language subtly evolved to mirror A singular perspective of the world, reproduced At a glance, we may not notice We may not know what we are looking for But if we keep an eye out for our biases We may be enlightened more and more The evidence may be abundant It may be staring us in the face But we can still be blinded to the obvious If we overlook the finer details It can be illustrated through examples put before us We can speculate, debate and contest Our point of view though, however relevant Cannot overshadow its influence
Its scope is vast and inexhaustible This synopsis is in no way complete But if my intention is still unclear Let me attempt to give another peek The dominance of visual metaphor Permeates imperceptibly through our outlook and speech Reflecting on every single line of this verse Do you see what I mean?
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Ocularcentrism, the privileging of vision over the other senses, manifests in the barriers that are created for people living with impairment - people like Taufiq - an advisor, wife, mother of three, born with total visual impairment.
Visionaries amongst us may be aware of its ubiquity Insightfully deducing the patterns in our speech Similarly, we must introspect, and challenge our ignorance And imagine a world more inclusive, one that’s for all within reach
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Are we really designing for the real world?
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Elliot Lunn
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Finite Fragments The world is running out of sand. Apart from water, sand is the most used resource by humankind; 50 billion tons are consumed every year. Concrete and glass could be considered pivotal uses of sand that have shaped the way we live, the way modern society lives. These materials play an integral part in our current society, from the structures we inhabit, to the objects we interact with on a daily basis. The construction industry’s production of concrete is the main contributor of sand scarcity. The Burj Khalifa (Dubai), currently the tallest skyscraper in the world, is said to have used 330,000 cubic meters of concrete - a recordbreaking amount. The building has a designed life span of 100 years, a seemingly long time. However, when compared to the almost 2000-year-old Roman concrete dome of the Pantheon (Rome), 100 years is no life at all! Population growth, increased demand and the development of a take - make - dispose society is causing us to burn through the world’s resources at an alarming rate.
To many, sand can appear to be an endless resource that covers beaches and deserts all around the world, but it is important to note that not all sand is the same. Desert sand eroded by air is too smooth and fine to be used in construction. Beach sand is full of contaminants such as shell, biomass and salt. Hard quartz grains, slowly water eroded, makes the perfect medium for the construction industry. This valuable material can be found at the bed of rivers and lakes across the world, and is being harvested as we speak. Developing countries such as China and India, where construction is booming, are using sand at an increasingly rapid rate. China is the biggest consumer of sand in the world; the country mines 230 million tons of sand from Lake Poyang every year. This excessive extraction has devastating environmental effects, from the removal of wildlife habitats to suspended silt preventing sunlight penetration, removing the oxygen and causing the lake’s ecosystems to die.
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The destructive effects of mining for sand are now evident around the world and many countries have put laws in place to protect areas. However, the profit still drives mining attempts. In India “sand miners have killed law enforcement officers who have attempted to halt the strip-mining of India’s rivers.” - National Geographic. When we consider the vast beaches generously scattered across the globe, the idea that sand could be a scarce resource seems almost comical. However, our global demand for building, energy and development is threatening one of the natural things we most admire and need. Despite attempts to enforce restrictions by some, there is no prevention of demand, which has the dangerous potential of leading to conflict and violence. By raising the concern for sand as a result of our insatiable demands, highlights yet another case of over consumption.
Elliot Lunn
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Ops hold it.
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Are we afraid of robots? - why we should be. A semantic observation about scary robot design. Within the past few years, artificial intelligence and robotic systems have increasingly shaped our lives and will inevitably continue to in the future. However, as recent studies have found the public remains sceptical about automated systems taking over human decision making and 76% of the US public “generally anticipate more negative than positive effects from widespread job automation�. Certainly, many of today’s technological developments and applications raise valid ethical questions from biased systems to the fear of misuse, all of which need addressing. But most of the human fear of automation and robots actually originates from other sources and represent anxieties deeply integrated within the human psyche. For example, the fear of annihilation fostered through popular conceptions of robots in fiction and media. Robots are often portrayed as highly uncanny humanoids with the sole intention of destroying the human race and the creation of a dystopian world.
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These human anxieties are often projected onto contemporary robotics but say little about the actual future. However, understanding these anxieties may help with questions arising in the design of robots. On the other side of those fictional conceptions, there are real issues that people are afraid of, such as being replaced by robots and loss of jobs caused by automated systems. Many believe these systems could take control, that we as individuals can not keep up with the speed of technological advancement, and last but not least the fear of the inability to differentiate between human and machine. Anticipating those fears and challenges, the science-fiction writer Asimov, already in 1942, defined the famous three laws of robotics. From this, scientists have developed widely recognised principles for the ethical use of robots focusing on transparency, vulnerability, and responsibility. . Robots are essentially automatic motorised tools, so why should we be afraid of them at all? from a rational point of view, removing the fear, robots have the possibility for a bright future in our life.
In order to counteract these already existing fears in the coming development of robots and intelligent systems, it is particularly important for designers to take a close look at the semantics of robots and analyse their appeal to others. Through modern sensor technologies, robots don’t need to be kept in safety cages like wild animals, they can safely operate in closest proximity to humans. These collaborative robots are specifically designed to be in direct contact with humans and far from being the ‘killing monsters’ from tabloids and films. However, some seem to be almost as equally scary and many questions remain unresolved. For example, huge plastic constructs with stiff smiley grins and blue LED lights as eyes are being placed in front of elderly people aiming for easy entertainment and care optimisation. With the aimed decline of costs for care, the dignity of the older generation is equally decreased. Is this a future to imagine for ourselves?
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Simplifying technological appearances by, hiding cable chaos behind sleek covers and introducing soft and gentle formal aesthetics seem to be the obvious solution to realise market-ready and usable products far from the reminiscent Terminator. Consequently, these forms evoke associations with the curves of a female body and almost cite the statues of Eve, the tragic biblical figure of the first woman created by Rodin, a master of capturing the beauty of the human body in stone and bronze. Even the movements of the robot, snakelike and winding, resemble the pose of the hiding Eve after being banned from paradise. The exact same names of both sculptures and robot hardly seem coincidental anymore. If we look beyond these external characteristics and focus on the actual being of the collaborative robot, we understand that it is essentially nothing more than a slave, unconditionally obeying his operating master1 who is using the touch of his hands to control and command the machine‌ The symbolic analogy does not need to be further explained and in contrast to that, the advertisement of the tech startup, which sells Eva as a coffee-making desktop robot, almost seems harmless.
Rodin
Automata
Rodin
IIWA, Kuka (3)
The objectification of female attributes into industrial slaves and the shivering design of care bots should be dumped straight into the uncanny valley - which already is filled to the top with other robot designs of the past.
1 which in most cases is a white male (google image search: “robot operator�).
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References (1) Link Ex machina: Source: Universal Pictures | Youtube (2) Laura Lezza, Getty images (3) Eve2: Wikipedia Eve1: Collection of Maryhill Museum of Art- IIWA , Automata.
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Approaching blindness through craft.
There’s a simple principle - try something out yourself and you’re likely to understand it better. Anyone who’s worn a blindfold can’t help but feel helpless. Imagine if this was permanent what critical difference it would make to your life - the number of things you would have to relearn or give up, the independence and freedom you once had, gone. But this is not how we should think about blindness. As part of a project at the RCA I approached an old friend for help and he agreed. From birth Sam has been partially sighted. I wanted to do a project to which I felt a strong personal connection and here was a good opportunity. My background is in furniture design and woodwork. Central to my feelings about craft is its capacity to enrich one’s life. I saw a design opportunity in bringing greater accessibility to Sam and others like him. One could expect the potential for crafts to be of benefit to blind people in a number of ways - an increased feeling of control over the world around them, the sense of pride after completing a project that they hadn’t thought possible - the sheer enjoyment and satisfaction: all the benefits usually associated with craft but on steroids. I suggested to Sam that I’d like to teach him woodwork and so we set to work marking and cutting dovetail joints. I’d approached the project expecting to design jigs - ones that would allow Sam to locate the correct position for each cut and guide the saw to as close to a perfect cut as possible. Yet it soon became obvious that this wouldn’t be the right approach. It dawned on me that one of the most important 96
one could be to him. It’s obvious that Sam has developed his own ways of protecting himself from mishap and so we should be careful not to assume helplessness where in fact there is much capability and foresight. Sam tells me, “I think touch is vital to me and it made me examine that quite a lot doing the carpentry stuff. Trusting your touch more than your eyes and also trusting that your touch wouldn’t harm you. Like getting your fingernail in a mark to let your hand be a guide for a saw which ultimately could look quite dangerous. But ultimately you can probably trust your touch on some things more than your eyes.” As well as a celebration of craft this experience altered my assumptions about what blind people can - and can’t do as well as Sam’s own anxieties - well aware of what for him could be deemed ‘too visual’. Sam explains, “I have myself an anxiety as part of my makeup of helplessness which is due to my vision or lack of vision. So I would like to see what I can do with this sort of stuff to combat that feeling. So you might be satisfied making a nice little box. I reckon I’m going to be really satisfied making a little box, or whatever we make. Because there’s a certain thing with my eyesight, - ‘can you do that?.. Really?’. Where does ‘this is too visual for
aspects of craft is the risk of getting things wrong and with it the capacity and satisfaction to improve with practice. My designing jigs to measure and cut could kill off that important pleasure and challenge. When objects are made by hand, no matter how many hours have been spent practicing the moves there is never 100% chance of a perfect cut. The sense of enjoyment in craft is increased when you learn from your mistakes, go back time and time again and find yourself becoming better at it. In the case of Sam and others like him it’s striking to observe, on a task such as marking up and cutting a dovetail joint, just how developed his sense of touch is. He soon learns how to make the marks and relocate them when the time comes to make a cut; only occasionally putting his working eye up close to the job as a means of double checking progress. Another anticipated approach was to ‘blindproof’ everything i.e. cutting down opportunities for injury. But one of the most interesting things that struck me was his natural approach to picking up and examining each tool. He familiarised himself with the saw, chisel, square, gently touching the edge of the blade and gauging the weight of each tool as a way of assessing what the dangers of each 97
would be as well placed as anyone with enough practice, to become an accomplished woodworker. It’s an important reminder of the ever present danger of designing solutions for problems that aren’t really there.
His Majesty of the Great Tree
I In a far away world, a distant land, we dream and imagine what life may be like free from the rules of the world we know today. Tabletop RPGS (role playing games) are a fantastic medium for community storytelling, critical world building, and exploration into cultures and traditions. To the players, these games lend a safe space to engage different narratives and ask deeper questions and find real world answers buried in the fiction. While the most popular game in this genre is the 1970’s classic, Dungeons and Dragons, there are games for whatever type of story you want to tell. Perhaps often overlooked is the connections players form with their fictional characters; in these worlds, you really can be anyone you want to be. These fictional personas are just that, fictional, but come with very real character traits, histories, and drives. I find it beautiful to bring the fictional into the physical, which is what dice makers across the globe try to do by evoking a character in a small resin cast polyhedral shell. Dice, four sided to twenty sided, add to your narrative and indicate the level of success on an unknown outcome. Even the most talented person has the chance to fail, and if the odds are not in your favour, you may surprise yourself.
Frederick Keen
you’ start and end?” Hearing Sam talk in this way reminds me that blind people are well aware of the assumptions and prejudices that sighted people have about them. Craft is now a tricky term to define with connotations of tradition, skill, time and high precision. But none of that should stop people from having a go because it’s fun and because it makes you feel good. Whether you are a good blind carpenter or a bad blind carpenter, there is still much value to be had in doing it anyway. Sam told me, “One of the first things I thought was, why doesn’t everyone try this? People should always make something. I found it, from the word go, tremendously exciting and therapeutic.” In working alongside Sam I was able to understand his reality in a way I hadn’t before. It showed me that looking at something familiar through a different microscope can be a much better way of exploring and understanding someone’s reality than wearing a blindfold - a momentary simulation followed by a swift escape. It also unexpectedly re-framed and revealed another way to think about craft in general. I have little doubt that Sam, with his well developed sense of method, touch and haptic understanding
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These dice, for His Majesty of the Great Tree, were cast entirely from scratch from the mould to the final product. Gold flakes and flowers allude to opulence and the beauty of nature, where the iridescent shards of purple and white add a whimsical view of what a faerie’s wings may look like. The numbers are painstaking painted on with a toothpick, and then sealed with a clear lacquer. These are the first sets of many more to come, each to tell their own story and bring a new character to
Deirdre Dunham
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As with all things, there had to be a first version. Someone or something drove the development, tested the idea, drew it out, built a prototype and defied naysayers. Studying pioneers, as they are often referred to, makes discoveries feel within reach. They turn intimidating ideas into approachable ones, and remind us that we all have to start somewhere; often, this can simply be a conversation or scribble. Whenever our motivations are clear, and there is a real need, pioneering in a field almost seems inevitable. Finding those motivations,though, an altogether different challenge.
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Charlie Humble-Thomas
(1) One of the first apple computers 1978 [Image Credit: Tempo.co] (2) The first demonstration of CNC machining, in this case, an aluminium ashtray. 1955 [MIT] (3) First mass produced object made using injection moulding; a billiard ball [American History Museum] (4) One of the first calculators, the Difference Engine, by Charles Babbage in 1832 [Encyclopaedia Britannica]. (5) The first printer, by a blacksmith, Johannes Gutenburg in 1440. [VRworld] (6) The first ‘antibiotic’, Penicillium notatum, discovered by accident by Alexander Fleming in 1928. [Science Museum] (7) Arguably the first mass manufactured object using metal machinery, the block pulley production line was designed by Isambard Brunel and Henry Maudsely in 1802. [Technology and Culture Vol. 25, No. 2, Apr., 1984 ]
Do αlpha, then βeta
A Design Manifesto
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Moe Asari