Eigenlabs Eigenharp

As the BBC article states, it really does look like something out of the bar scene with all the alien musicians in Star Wars, and it might be just that, really. This bassoon-looking instrument is the Eigenharp, and it's billed as "the most expressive electronic musical instrument ever made." It was initially thought up by John Lambert, software dev and musician alike, and he and his team have been taking steps towards making it a reality for eight years.

Lambert cites the stressful and all-around demanding nature of playing gigs with his whole rig to transport and set up. He compares his experience of playing with his ambient trance band to his solo fold gigs.

The gigs were really good fun, but the setting up was just a nightmare. Lots of stuff, equipment, wires, endless stress.

At the same time I would go to the folk club, take my acoustic guitar out of the box, tune it up, get a pint of beer, and play.

This was part of his inspiration for his new futuristic design. He now has all of the artistic control and expression he had with racks of synths, and the portability of his acoustic guitar, not to mention the ability to put on a more crowd-engaging live show.

Realizing that you can improve the way people do things through your designs is truly an empowering and inspirational thought. Think big and you'll see.

Image source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8294355.stm

Single Ladies Cover Video

More video amazement coming your way, from more independent artist folk -- is there any other kind? Pomplamoose Music is a collaboration between Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. Jack seems to run the recording and producing bits, from what I can tell, along with most of the instrumentation, and Nataly carries it home with her great voice and occasional bass guitar playing, clapping, and tambourine jangling (and thankfully since Jack looks a bit scary when tasked with playing the tambourine -- I don't think it's a coincidence that he's relinquished that responsibility on later videos). All joking aside, these two are amazing. Why they haven't decided to open a recording studio is beyond me. They are putting out an EP nowish though. Make sure to check out their YouTube channel for more great videos.

The thing I take away is that if you're ready to create, you can. Do it. For a couple thousand dollars you can have practically all the gear you need for pretty professional results.

Flip Book 2.0

VIDEOGIOCO by Donato Sansone from Enrico Ascoli - Sound Design on Vimeo.

Checkout this disturbing new approach to the common flip book. It's called VIDEOGIOCO by Donato Sansone from Enrico Ascoli Sound Design, and weird disembodied flying head antics aside, it a novel concept I have never thought of before. It is sort of a combination of stop motion cinematography, with more traditional illustrated animation, and maybe a bit of puppeteer action thrown in there for good measure. Oh, and maybe a flash of live action if you remember the brief real knife play.

Around 12 seconds in, you really see the full magnitude of the work that went into the illustration part of the project. Donato, or MILKYeyes as he refers to himself in the opening title, is totally surrounded by his creation. I wonder how he set up all the camera equipment, or even just moved around to flip the folds back and forth.

While I'm not sure this is a new genre, It's certainly is new to me, and it's nice to know that if you find yourself getting bored with what's out there, you can always redefine your media.

Sharky Tea-Infuser

Meet Sharky. He is a tea-infuser that looks, well, like a shark -- a shark's fin to be precise. When you put him in your cup of hot water, instead of just steeping your tea, he hints at the visual idea of chumming out nasty bloody gook (provided you use right kind of tea, I'm sure). Fun!

Get a set of these, and try and make some friends that both love tea and Jaws and have yourself a shark movie marathon!

Designs like this should spice up some of the more boring parts of life, and if you don't find it at least a tad amusing, I think it's time for a vacation. Thankfully Thanksgiving is practically here (pun intended). This is going in my ever growing "thinking differently" file. Why make the everyday everyday? Great design is a refreshing thing, just like a good cup 'c tea.

Image credit: lookslikegooddesign.com

Impact of Design: Berners-Lee Apologizes for Design Excess

Tim Berners-Lee, god to any geek -- and more and more to anyone, has recently admitted that when designing the World Wide Web he went a bit slash crazy. He says that the two forward slashes following "http:" in every web address are "unnecessary."

There you go, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I'm glad to see that even the greats of our time can admit when they have over-designed something and created a huge time suck for everyone who uses it. Think about it. How many more seconds would the world have if everyone didn't spend the early days of the web fingering in those two extra characters. Then there's the impact that extra printing all those URLs made to be considered too. Tim, you have brought me the gift of information so I will always forgive thee, but thanks for fessing up anyway. I only hope that I can be so humble in my future career.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8306631.stm

Stokke Gravity Chair

All I want for Christmas is the Stokke Gravity Chair. It provides four different sitting positions, including fully reclined and forwarding leaning, simply by shifting your weight. I wouldn't be surprised if it was more comfortable than a La-Z-Boy, while still being able to pull of the title of task chair, and remaining relatively light and mobile.

The ergonomic benefits of changing your position throughout the workday are obvious, and I really love chairs that provide a place to kneel, but why is high design so high priced? At $2,400, I don't think I will be privileged enough to own one anytime soon, and good luck getting your boss to buy you one too.

Why are mass produced things often times the worst things? I don't claim to fully understand the economic demands on mainstream furniture designers, but I wish they produced more ground breaking concepts like this more often. Design for the everyman is bland and sad.

Tricky Art

Above you'll find the work of artist Rob Gonsalves. It's a great optical illusion that displays a large ship with full sails morphing into an aqueduct over the open seas. It's amazing what the eye sees depending on where it's focused.

Controlling the gaze of the viewer is just as much an art form as painting itself. Where do you want your viewer's eyes to go? Why? How will you do it? Contrast, lines, illusion -- all these methods and more should be in your box of design tools. Remember, you're not just making a thing, but a mediated experience, and it is your task to guide a viewer through that experience using your design principles along way to meet that end. Ultimately you can't make someone look right where you want them to, but the odds are in your favor if you consider the mechanics of the human eye and mind.