Low Frequency Lifeform

Cornstarch and water (a non newtonian fluid) on a low frequency bass membrane takes on a freaky life of its own.

The Milky Way Transit Authority

Looking for the shortest connection from our solar system to Omega Centauri? Don´t panic! Just check the "Milky Way Transit Authority"-plan and prepare to change lines frequently.
Thanks to the universal 1933 design of Harry Beck, we can find our way through every metropolis on the planet.
Samuel Arbesman has now created a similar map of the milky way, which easily lets you find your way to the suburbia of our neighbouring Canis Major-galaxy (change at new-outer-junction!)

I once wrote about the "City Space"-record sleeve which used the map of the public transport system of Hamburg with global destinations instead of local stations. These maps are fascinating in their reduction of huge, chaotic places into an intelligent and aesthetically pleasing piece of functional artwork.


Speaking of interplanetary travel is a good excuse to post some pictures of the real rocket-man Wernher von Braun, who came to America after he cleverly managed to leave his old sugar-daddy (Hitler) for another one (Disney).



"Vurnurr van Brown" always knew how to strike a pose and he brilliantly established and exploited the image of the technocratic German nerd by cultivating an aura of icy elegance and dry genius (with a strong German accent).


For a long time I was never aware that von Braun teamed up with Walt Disney to steer the public and political interest towards his billion dollar dream of the space-age. Together with Disney he worked on some feature lengths films, "Disney´s Man in Space" which some see as the kickstart for the space-race. Disney is using all his skills at entertaining propaganda, which culminates in von Braun presenting his detailed (and funky) plans of rocket-design and space travel.


It´s fascinating and hypnotising and almost helps you to forget that only a few years before, von Braun was designing and building weapons of mass destruction with the help of enslaved victims of Nazi Germany.

Wernher von Braun in "Disney´s Man is Space"

Houses for the Subconscious

This year´s Venice Architecture Biennale is called "Out There: Architecture beyond building".
The abstract contribution by architect group Asymptote is called "Prototyping the future: Three houses for the subconscious".

Conceived and manufactured digitally it is comprised of three large fiberglass objects which are each meant to express forms of sophistication which are a result of high velocity, acceleration and speed, fluid dynamics ballistics and mathematically modeled form.

The three fiberglass "Motion-scapes" work as a half formed idea of a form that is neither house nor furniture, but something that anticipates a future potential for occupancy in one form or another.


Asymptote´s Hani Rashid explains: "what we are showing at the venice biennale is a piece conceived of and thought about as a potential architecture
and a potential place for architecture to reside. these works, caught somewhere between furniture and
large-scale buildings, exist in a kind of luminous ether, flowing down the stage as if trapped in a frozen
performance of architecture in the making."

For this and more on the exhibition check Designboom

Woof...hello, I am Rex! Woof woof...hello, I am Rex...

This perplexing video of "Big Dog", a walking machine, is currently all over the net. This must be the work of years and years of combined research of eager scientists financed by military funds.

Isn´t it kind of strange that the emotions that this extraordinary four legged machine evokes are more negative than positive? After short moment of admiration a feeling of creepiness and downright fear at the possibilities this robo-dog is capable of kicks in.
Sure, it could be helpful in many ways and terrains, but does anybody doubt the opressive use of "Big Dog"?

Even without any cuddly fur and some big soft eyes, "Big Dog" makes us believe that it´s alive! The way it moves on ice is just too familiar to be artificial.

Some have commented that they felt sorry for it, when it was kicked and tried to keep balance. I immediately expected it to turn around and go after the attacker!

Are we really so conditioned by watching sci-fi movies, or have we inherited the cynical approach that all new technology will be turned against its creators?

Maybe I followed the guys from Survival Research Laboratories for too long.

Mind the chair - You don´t see with your eyes, you see with your brain

Biomedical engineer Paul Bach y Rita devoted his work and research to the field of sensory substitution when his father suffered a stroke. He set up a rehabilitation center and nursed his father to full recovery. During his researches he found out that brain functions are flexible and not hard-wired.
This opened the door to help blind people to navigate hallways and finally he developed devices that deliver sensory information to the brain through a helmet by electrodes and solenoids.

In 1969 he put a set of electromagnetic solenoids in the back of a dentist chair, connected them to a camera and made people who sat down on "see" the pictures from the camera.

Bach y RIta died in 2006 and now designers Beta Tank and Peter Marigold have revived this idea.
They have constructed their prototype mind chair "the Polyprop" which looks like simple chair with an interesiting inner life.



A set of 400 solenoids is built into the back. When connected to a camera the visuals will be transformed and the person that sits on the chair will be able to "see" the image.

Sounds magical!


While the beneficial exploits for blind people are great, I can´t shake the feeling that the entertainmet and marketing industry and...the military are slobbering over all the possibilities of selling us stuff via our backs.

One one hand its a nice touch that todays designers have managed to fit the technique into a small, ordinary chair. The prototype from the 60s looked freakishly like a torture device. On the other hand: Aren´t all dentist chairs torture devices and is the fact that we can have this technology in any ordinary bus chair much more disquieting?

In the end, I would rather prefer to have mental images of lush, green hills played into my nervous system while sweating at the dentists...as long as they don´t feed you a trailer for "Saw 5".

The mind chair will be on display at the MoMa´s Design and the elastic mind exhibition from February 24 - May 12

Is this too good to be true or just a hype like all the 20 year old promises of virtual reality?