robotmonkeys

the monkeys know all

  • Recovery.gov has a Logo

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    Obama unveiled logos for recovery.gov and the Department of Transportation’s TIGER project. The logos designed by Mode Project. The logos not only represent the economic recovery program, but will be affixed to projects that have been funded though the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

    The idea of affixing logos to the projects that are receiving ARRA funds reminds me of the blue eagle from the New Deal’s National Recovery Administration.

    The eagle was displayed in the windows of businesses that agreed to economic restrictions such as a minimum wage, maximum work hours, and minimum price laws.

    I like the idea of clearly marking how the money is being spent. Not only does it promote accountability (assuming of course that the logos are properly affixed), but also highlights just where tax money is being spent. Too often people complain that they never see where their tax money is going. That’s because it’s spread out and in the background. It’s road, the police, the fire truck, the post office, and the school. Perhaps it’s naïve, but maybe seeing a logo will promote an idea of community. I don’t know.

    The unveiling of the recovery.gov logo, caused me to notice that TARP doesn’t have a logo. Perhaps one of these could be displayed on doors of and ATMs of Citi and AIG.

    hooverflag tarp moneybag tarp logo

    via Swiss Miss

  • 9

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    via Almost Scientific and Design Related:

    Shane Acker created an animated short a while back about tiny numbered cloth people in a post-apocalyptic world. Tim Burton is turning the short into a full movie.

    Visually, it’s amazing, but I think I prefer the original short to the feature. The short doesn’t feature any dialog, and so that adds to the outerworldness of the story. I understand that most people can’t be bothered to watch something with no dialog (even Wall-E had dialog), but dialog forces extraneous notions like backstory, romantic subplots, interpersonal conflicts, that take away from experience the presented world. I’m not saying that these things can’t exist without dialog, they clearly can (well perhaps not backstory), but by using dialog they are brought to the forefront with a sledgehammer. Still, I’m hopeful for the feature.

    9, comes out surprsingly enough, 09-09-09. (That’s ten years to the day of the North American Dreamcast release.)

    Original short:

    Trailer:

  • Wall of Boxes

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    Since previous project, I’ve been thinking about creating a new cabinet. Something lots of little drawers. Sort of like either a Chinese pharmacy cabinet or a secretary cabinet.

    The problem with secretary cabinets is that they’re not useful as furniture today. They used to be used as the nexus of all bills and correspondence of the house, but now the laptop has replaced this. I kind of like the look of an open secretary, but it’s completely useless due to the specialized nature of the furniture.

    I think what I like about the Chinese pharmacy cabinets is that mystery they project. All the drawers look the same, but no matter what ails you, the pharmacist can open up some seemly random drawer and give you a potion to cure you. As a design per se, the cabinets are just more stylish filing cabinets.

    I have no idea what I would do with a drawer cabinet, but I think I want one.

    After the jump are some cabinets that I’ve been trying to draw inspiration from.

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  • Curiosity Cabinet

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    curiosity_cabinet

    Jon Stam has designed an RFID curiosity cabinet. The cabinet is lined on both sides with drawers and boxes. The drawers contain objects, while the boxes contain a USB memory stick and an RFID chip. Placing the box near an RFID reader, causes the digital content to be displayed.

    matandme has more photos info about this. DesignGuide.tv interview with Jon showing the cabinet off is after the jump.

    The thing that drew me to this cabinet was the clean lines of it. When I first saw this, I had no idea it was RFID enabled. I particularly like the pulls on the drawers, or more precisely the lack of them. Many times when there’s pull-less drawers, the outer panel is beveled for fingers to. In his design the pull is simply the main drawer face, with a second panel inset slightly inside to completely close of the drawer when it’s closed.

    One thing I don’t like about his design is that the digital curios are separate from the physical curios. I’m don’t think that distinction needs to be made. Digital objects don’t completely replace physical objects, (recordings, both audio and visual, excepted) but are complimenting them. For instance, when I traveled to Beijing, all my photos were digital, but those aren’t my only souvenirs. I have a Mao Book, a wad of cash, receipts, and tickets. It’s this collection, both physical and digital that commemorate my trip. It seems that a cabinet that attempts to recognize this dual nature of modern memories, should completely integrate them, rather than treat them as different things. If the each drawer contained the digital memories associated with the physical object contained in it, then this would be the case.

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  • QR Graffiti for Pirate Radio

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    Yuri Suzuki proposes using graffiti QR codes to promote pirate radio stations. Instead of broadcasting over the air, the audio is streamed directly to the phone whenever someone follows the QR code.

    I would think one of the joys of running a pirate station is the overt illegality of it. Granted the FCC doesn’t often go around shutting down even prominent stations. (Except of course, when they do), but simply streaming over the Internet is like setting up a blog that no one reads. (*cough* *cough*)

  • Unfinished Swan

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    “Unfinished Swan” is an interactive project from Ian Dallas. The player exists in an all white world, which is slowly revealed as the player shoots black paint over the walls.

    Ian insists on calling this a “game”, but I don’t think that’s really a good word for something like this. Games have goals and rewards. This doesn’t. There’s no story, no goals, no explicit reward. It’s an experience, an interesting experience to be sure, but it’s a paradoxically a passive one.

    During his talk at TGS 2008 he says he’s surprised that “players” universally became bored within 20 seconds. The reason seems obvious, the lack of goals. I enjoyed watching the demo, but at the same time, I can’t imagine actually playing this for very long.

    It seems like he’s going for sublime enjoyment, sort of like Katamari Damacy, but he’s forgotten that Katamari had goals and rewards. Yes, Katamari was a very stylish and simple game, but it was fun because of the challenges. Without challenges there’s nothing to motivate the player, and so he/she quickly becomes bored. Since Unfinished Swan doesn’t have goals, it’s much more of an interactive video rather than a “game”. Not that that’s a bad thing per se, but they should not be confused. If Swan had a story, not even really challenges, I could see it working more as a game. Judging from the demo above, there’s potentially one there, but from his all too brief talk, I wonder if he’s trying to make it too open ended and free form.

    Thanks Paul.

  • March 6: Flaming Lotus Girls

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    This Friday at the Opulent Temple (200 California Ave, Treasure Island, SF), the Flaming Lotus Girls are holding a fundraiser. ($20 pre-sale) Lasers, music, and the Serpent Mother.

  • The Language of Birds

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    Brian Goggin with Dorka Keehn created “The Language of Birds“, a series of self-illuminated books on permanent display at Columbus Avenue and Broadway in SF.

    The Chronicle covered the unveiling

  • Nightlife: Thursdays at the California Academy of Sciences

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    Each Thursday until October 29, San Francisco’s California of Academy of Science (55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park) stays open late for Nightlife, a 21 and up evening of booze, music, and science. ($10, 6pm to 10pm)

    This is definitely something that I’m going to have to check out.

    A similar event occurs, the first Friday of every month at LA’s Natural History Museum (900 Exposition Boulevard, LA), aptly named First Fridays. (notcot.com great photos of the LA event.)

  • Mamá Quilla: El Zumo de los Muertos

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    After the Tropicana clusterfuck (My god can PepsiCo hire a decent design firm? Apparently not. They’re in good company though.), we have these very cool Día de los Muertos juice cartons by Camille Forget.