Technology Artist
Great article over on Designboom which looks at adding a mechanical old style telephone mechanism over a modern smartphone electronics. Very steampunk.
It's an odd thing about such things, the designer in me hates it, but the artist in me loves it. But there is something deeper here. steampunk for me is like science fiction, in that it really isn't about the past or the future, but about the present, and our relationship to it being examined in a way that allows us to be creative. The rotary dialler and its mechanism attempts to put more life back into our everyday objects, life that has been smoothed away by a homogenised smartphone screen.
There is an even darker side about steampunk to me, in that we might be looking into our future, our post-apocalyptic future, where we cobble together the remaining bits of technology to make our day-to-day objects.
Anyway, to cheer us up here are some more photos, but for more you will have to go over to Designboom and read the story there.
I seriously want this. I hope they manufacture it!
via vimeo.com
Behold: The Pocket Piano!
designboom has an article on a natural and organic cocoa drink product that is produced by the Bribri women of Talamanca, Costa Rica. The "hockey puck" sized patties, which actually don't look that promising on initial inspection, are actually 100% cocoa with no sugar or anything else added.
You use a little grater, which also acts as a stirrer, to grate up the blocks and add hot water to make the drink.
fuseproject spotted the opportunity and realised that all it need was a design kick to get it going, so designed the little sack that the patties come in, the logo and the little grater. The project is designed to raise awareness of organic cocoa production and hence help save the rainforest.
More details on designboom and fuseproject
Designer Michael A Roopenian has made a wooden tactile keyboard that is designed to "strengthen the relationship between user and interface".
Lovely looking keyboard. I would love one.
More over on Cool Hunting
Meanwhile over on Designboom I saw this cork stool "Senta" that looked interesting.
Created by Fernando Brizio for a cork manufacturing company it is designed as a carry stool; you can pack the whole thing up and re-assemble it wherever you need to sit down. Fantastic for picnics, or, combined with the above article, for use sitting whilst sketching in your cork covered sketchbook.
Via Little Fine Day
This magic little cottage is a summer house/allotment for a family of four – Johanna‘s family. Just outside the city of Gothenburg, this tiny place is the summer house for a family of four.
via etsy.com
Via swiss-miss.com
This bicycle wine rack will allow you to go on the road with your wine (or I suppose nip to the shop to pick up a bottle). Mind the bumps now!
Pokitt is a flexible card carrier for smartcards and credit cards. Moulded from a soft flexible polymer material, it is designed to be unobtrusive in a pocket. It can only carry two cards at once, but you wont need to take your card Oyster card out to scan it as it works through the case.
I kind of like it.
via inhabitat.com
Inhabitat.com has an article on these speakers made from wood “harvested sustainably for the southern region of Patagonia”. Created by Santiago based Grupo Vibra (<a href="http://www.grupovibra.cl/).
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