PLANET Future Interactions

A street interface seen in Marseilles, France the other day. Located in a very crowded and touristic area, and aimed at informing visitors, the specification that lead to this device certainly put a super strong emphasis on the firm and protected quality of the material. What is even more intriguing is the verticality of the keyboard with extra-large touch-keys.

Declan Shaw’s of Interactive Installation, Bird Soundscapes incorporate a dynamic three dimensional acoustic environment of birdsong which perform accelerated diurnal cycles. Individual ‘birds’ occupy positions in space, which move about in birdlike patterns and also reacting to the movement of the inhabitants. This is accompanied by a coloured light cycle which denotes the times of day.

An exceptional Philadelphia school is training students in food production and environmental care on an urban farm. The Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences is a magnet program with 600 students from throughout the city. Located in the upper Roxborough neighborhood, it includes a 130-acre farm with livestock, greenhouses, crops, and pastures.

Saul offers concentrations in Food Science, Floriculture and Greenhouse Management, Landscape Design, Large and Small Animal Science, and Natural Resource Management. In addition to the agricultural program, students take a full range of high-school, advanced-placement, and college-level courses. The results are impressive. Saul's average graduation rate is 95 percent, with 80 percent going on to college. Other students start their own businesses or are hired into skilled agricultural jobs right after graduation.

The following “interview” with me appears in the July/August 2009 issue of Interactions magazine, the ACM’s journal on interaction design. I say “interview” because it’s basically an edit on the sprawling chat Tish Shute had with me for her site, back in February of this year; as we know, even minor editorial alterations can produce disproportionate shifts in tone and emphasis, and that’s certainly the case here.

I should say from the outset that I don’t have much use for the ACM, and in particular greatly dislike their stance on access to publications, which flies in the face of my own conviction that the point (and power) of knowledge is to share it. Accordingly, I’m republishing the piece in its entirety here. For the sake of accuracy, I’ve left the editorial characterization of me and my work intact, but you should never, ever construe this as an endorsement of same. As ever, I hope you enjoy it.

“At the end of the world, plant a tree”
Six questions for Adam Greenfield

Consistent internet access has been hard to come by these past few days, post-Rome, so posts have suddenly come to a standstill – but I'll have new material up ASAP... More soon.

A thriplet of speaking engagement that should enthrall and excite in equal measure:

We have close ties with Geographic Information Science group over at Birbeck College, they are a great group and have just put a call out for a new lecturer:

This account by a brit teenager of how he used a Sony Walkman from back in the days is highly intriguing. The kid tells his story and compare it to the ipod. Some excerpts I enjoyed:

These four pictures depict different ATM interfaces from Lyon, Santa Monica, Lisbon and Paris. As usual, there is a lot to draw here: keyboard minimalism versus “a button for each bill needs”, presence or absence of jack-entry for headphone, paper annotation, ATM receipts dumped in the cracks, etc.

The Royal College of Art Show opened last week with some excellent work which no doubt wmmna will cover in depth. One project I particularly enjoyed was Tom Foulsham, an ex-Bartlett graduate and now graduate of the RCA’s Design Products programme.

Urban cycle studies are the science of everyday life, they focus on the daily routine of the city with its habits and rhythms as they occur in most citizens' lifes. It is the power of the normal that brings stability and the routine that ensures security with the cycles dynamic flow and continuation that keeps the city ticking. This is from urbantick.blogspot.com who are looking into the life of the city.

NB: This is a write-up of a talk that took place at Postopolis! LA during April 2009. Notes are taken in real-time, with editing and context added afterward so reader beware. All Postopolis! LA entries are gathered here.

NB: This is a write-up of a talk that took place at Postopolis! LA during April 2009. Notes are taken in real-time, with editing and context added afterward so reader beware. All Postopolis! LA entries are gathered here.

For his spring quarter 3rd year design studio Josh Ayer was asked asked to design a long span high speed rail station. His concept, designed with SketchUp, was the form of dolphins being that the site was right on the bay of San Diego. We don't know what grade the work archived but we really liked the movie:

The future direction of towns and cities is often a controversial subject tackled traditionally by local councils, interest groups and developers via pubic meetings and exhibitions. The use of blogs, Flickr groups, tweets and forums by architectural centres and councils is limited to say the least which is why it'll be interesting to keep and eye on the developments at Arc in Hull in Northern England.

Tehran graffiti shot on location with the original a1one, decks for Tehran Skates here, and more of his recent protest inspired pieces here.