Over Grown in New York

This roof in New York has been left to grow on it's own! This is taking the idea of a green roof to the extreme but also quite logical to just let it grow, possibly a bit of pruning now and again. Lovely. I would love to try this with a town and see what happens over the years. Developing habitats that are more "alive" would be interesting as to cope with the destructive effects natural growths have on most ridged and imposing buildings.

Treehugger.com

Actually, Check this website out anyway.

"Clear Cut Robot"

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/giant-robot-fights-forest-fires.php?dcitc=TH_rotator I was told by my flat mate to check this new concept out for fighting forest fires. Basically, this is a huge 30 foot machine designed for clear cutting swathes of forest down to prevent more from catching fire. As far as I can tell this design has not properly taken shape and I cant find a small prototype anywhere. However, the idea behind this is so ambitious I loved it anyway, it looks like a transformer for a start so I was immediately bought.

There is a double edged view of something like this for me. In one sense it could be a fantastic step forward in robotics, engineering and safety. Or, it could be used to simply remove more forests at an unsustainable rate. Or even be used as a weapon, cutting down buildings or mounted with ballistics etc. This is all very fantastical however. But I am exited to see the push for this sort of thing and we as humans will use it in as many ways as we can - look at the nuclear bomb for instance. Nuclear power made as an energy solution and used as an end to so many lives.

The Folding Chair

That folding chair really was something! I watched the start of the video like a performance more than a display of functionality. And then - to my surprise - two people sat down and it seemingly supported them. I found it interesting to see such a low quality video and setting had little effect on my first impression of this intriguing solution. Most likely it was just because it was on the design studies blog. Still, I liked the fact there seemed to be some performance and even choreography involved. How exiting! Makes me wonder.

The Power of Context Following from Group Discussion

Going through this mind map I found a trend of how context effects people through culture surroundings and groups. Understanding this influence seems essential to understanding interior design, the context of a space within a space or area should be understood to provide the best solution. This need reveals an enormous calling to discover the world to achieve this to whatever level. There are sociological and physiological elements to discover within the actual aesthetic and physical design solution. As you can see in the mind map there is so much inter-connection within contexts that require a level of initiative and real interest in each area to truly understand issues within.

Personally, I feel an understanding of this subject can help me to grow in my thinking in general - rationality and logic, respect and tolerance etc. These qualities seem to fit very well with the full consideration and appreciation of context. How can I use these qualities to then influence others and create change and connection in the world around me?

Our last project has been incredibly difficult because of the new task of working in a group. As a designer I know my discipline involves working with others in every area of the design process from research to the trades and engineering and then clients. This is so important and to learn to work as a component in a functioning design machine is both exiting and daunting. We are both relational and individualistic beings after all. Cool stuff.

Dyson - The Game

Dyson is a fantastic new indie game which I have really enjoyed recently. It is a beautifully simple and elegant population game involving the colonisation and growth of planets.

The aim of the game involves the complete consumption of a system of orbits and consiquently the removal of all enemy seedlings on the map. Starting with an initial planet or two and some dyson trees from which your seedlings are born you begin to scout and then conquer.

This is one of my favorite games at the moment despite being surrounded by all the biggest and most sophisticated titles and graphics. The simplicity of the game and it's interface makes it very relaxing and enjoyable with curious beastly sounds from your colonies as you zoom in to see the orbit and growth. There is a real sense of life to the whole game. Every movement from the dyson trees to the transit and orbit of the seedlings is convincingly natural and smooth.

Visually, this game is one of my top favorites. Partly because I enjoy the crisp and simple design and layout of the 2 dimensional maps. The organic growth of each planet involves the rooting of dysons to the centre of each planet. Each level gives you a different team colour but a neat story line of empire and collectivity which gives you the impression of identity within a seemingly large and diverse species.

In general I enjoy the thinking behind this game because it proves and encourages the creation of simple and highly enjoyable entertainment - quite therapeutic as well. The colour is used sparingly and tastefully. White is predominant and to me, suggests a blank canvas or sketch pad page which I love the look of anyway. These creations using programs accesible to most people give an exiting outlet for design creativity and at an affordable pricebecause of this genre's humble source.

Proffessor Tom Inns: Service Design Lecture

Service design is an interesting perspective that I have only been properly aware of recently. To some extent I have never really thought of it a something of interest and possibility to me. The lecture was a good opportunity of me to realise more of this side of design.

As a fledgling designer I have typically thought of myself as a student designing concepts and realities in form and functionality. In a sense this is often a part of service design also. A bus service is a transport service involving the bus - a piece of design and engineering - to the ticket and drivers attitude, training and uniform. However, the more elusive aspect of service is the service it's self. I picked the Internet as my lecture activity choice, it made sense to rationalise it into a service as I do not see it as a product on it's own but a collection of elements. A service, as it's name suggests requires it to have some interaction with a user or users.

The Internet was my service of choice for the lecture. It was so difficult to separate the different elements of its design and to think of each part. There is the computer or other device that gives you access in the first place. Before you even use the service you need this interface, within that there are other interfaces like the keyboard, mouse and monitor known as the touch points. These touch points are the more obvious ones as I would say that the website it's self is in fact a key touch point, the only difference is that it is virtual. The Internet is a service which houses an infinite amount of other services. Online shopping, research, forums, communication etc are all housed in this vast sea of information. Following on from this obvious observation, I see that the main services that come to mind all originate from the real world translated into a screen based version. This provides immediate convenience and lack of physical material needed to utilise our everyday services.

On the other hand I see it as an exessively convienient tool for self indulgance and re making of ones self as I see in so many people. This upsets me. We have access to almost everything we need - and more. This exess is unavoidable and simply down to personal choice and self control. Shopping, gaming, talking, seeing are all elements of this service that are abused from trivial flippancy to curiosity and addiction. I use Facebook in a way that would seem as if I actually NEEDED it which I don't. I simply enjoy the comminicative and social boost it gives me instead of a real face to face conversation.

I do not think the Internet is inherantly bad or good but it is down to the supplier, user, service and so on that gives us the view we have of it. How do we impact something so integrated, powerful and elusive as modern designer? The key could be within the service but more so in how we act as people outside, personally as a designer.

Sat down to eat my lunch outside the Tower building today and began talking with a mature student called David. He was speaking about programing and language systems which learn through input principles and use these to come to logical conclusions. One of his concerns involved the loss of questioning and the embrace of assumption. In his line of work he found experts with knowledge and expertise requiring their skills to be placed into programs for others without this level of knowledge to use. The problem seemed to be that there was no encouragement to actually comprehend and then question the current expert opinion.

In "The Tipping Point" I was reminded of the rule of one hundred and fifty. When the distance between each person with a certain skill is reduced there is a closer and more interlinking relationship between skills and understanding in a much broader and more accessible way. Hierarchy was a word we discussed and how it fits into the problem David saw in the recording of knowledge and experience. The word came from the Greek hierarkhia relating to the religious order from high priest downwards. This hierarchy seemed to cause the reliance on assumption and obedience without the encouragement to question or rationalise.

I am glad I decided to sit outside to wait to pay my materials fee, I left 90 pounds lighter but with a little bit more information and and a slightly broader perspective on the way we learn and think.

"Childhood is known as the leaving age, teenage hood is known as the knowing age and maturity is known as the hoping age" - David from the bench outside the Tower building.

Tipping Point Mind Maps Assignment 1

General mind map Of the Tipping Point

Specific map of Chapter five. The "magic" number 150 has been interesting to read about. The psychology and reasoning behind the brain's channel capacity helped to see limits of memory and more importantly, how to take advantage of our relational natures. Within this number a great deal of benefits arise such as "transactive memory" -Daniel Wegner. A sharing of roles and responsibilities strengthen relationships and encourage interdisciplinary growth. There loses the need to have a hierarchy of superiors and as seen in Gore Tex peer pressure is even more potent a motivator than a "boss".

District 9

I am very impressed with this production. Directed by Neill Blomkamp and presented by Peter Jackson. Yesterday night I went along to see it at the cinema with little expectation and almost no knowledge of it's story or genre. I was going to see some scifi action and brilliant special effects. I got more than I expected from the visuals but something I did not expect was it's connection to real world affairs in discrimination and misunderstanding.

A mysterious alien vessel appears above Johannesburg, South Africa. An alien race is discovered on board and moved to the surface. This new area is known as District 9. The aliens are living in slums and brutally policed. The style of the film is like a documentary with interviews and footage of disturbing scenes within District 9. These scenes include the main character aborting an egg found in one of the shacks and abuse of many "prawns" as they are known to most humans.

This film is about racial hatred and ignorance through fear and a craving for power. The alien race simply provide a more digestible way to see this sort of human behavior towards the unknown. On top of this powerful message is the fact that it if full of the usual cliches yet achieves something different in my eyes. I have to say that the inclusion of spaceships, alien weaponry and realistic CGI helped the "digestion" of the film as well.

Ing The Thing

"We are not designing a chair but a sitting experience" - Mike Press

Our class is currently working on a group project designing a hypothetical exhibition space named 'Juteopolis' in the DCA. Aptly named after Dundee's jute textile heritage it is interesting to view an exhibition as an experience, it becomes something other than a display. It could be made real to whatever degree you wish.

Mike Press: Think BIG

Today's lecture held by Mike Press, the Dean of Design In DoJ was an inspiring one to say the least. And quite frightening. The title - 'Design in the Age of Knowlege, Experience and Terror' opened my eyes to a very new, exiting and daunting challenge to think BIG.

He set the scene with examples of this scale of thinking, introducing Isambard K Brunel - a large scale designer of the idustrial age photographed here infront of enormous shipyard chains. It was indeed inspiring to even hear of minds that go to these lengths to achive an outcome so large.

Being told that we were to be designers of the World was something that seems obvious but aslways convienient to ignore from my own personal experience. I felt compelled to look to the world in a new and much more urgant way. I hope that will continue. It is up to me to to change as well as making change happen in this world.

Press put an interesting point across about the fact that design bacame "small." I did not realise the emphasis placed on detail and "artefacts" in order to sell and to be consumed. Through the day I began to wonder how things could turn out if design bacame bigger again. with this added layer of detail and consumerism I wonder how the future can be moulded.

"If we think big we design big." An exiting fact about how to behave in this world of increasing diversity and ideas. How do I think big and therefor design big? All of his examles screamed at me to seek and nework with the world!