Inventing Interactive

Oyster Reef restoration in Mobile Alabama

Grassroots Mapping

March 22, 2011 - In Present

I love maps. Their communication power to reveal and clarify our world is like little else. But they also have political power — and they can be used to influence how we interpret the world around us. (The blog Strange Maps is full of such examples.) GrassrootsMapping.org is a admirable project that seeks “to invert the traditional power structure of cartography.” The site teaches people how to use simple and inexpensive technology (a digital camera, a…

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Quick Post: Corning’s A Day Made of Glass

March 21, 2011 - In Quick - One comment

I’m normally a sucker for future vision videos, but Corning’s A Day Made of Glass, left me cold. It’s pretty, and full of subtle scenario details, but overall the interactions shown are so ordinary that it’s hard to get very excited. Maybe that’s just their point — this technology is becoming a standard part of our lives. But it would still be nice to see things pushed a bit further.

Crowd at SXSW agency talk (via @malbonnington)

Very Recent History: 15-Mar-11

March 15, 2011 - In Present

I’ve been distracted the past week, unable to do any “real” posts, but here are a few things I’ve been reading or seeing lately that have gotten me most excited… Agencies and SWSW I’m a relative outsider to the advertising agency world, but I find their ongoing discussions of how they need to evolve in the new digital age to be fascinating and exciting. They may frequently speak in terms that exclude the “technologists” they’re…

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Jim Campbell’s Reactive Works

March 9, 2011 - In Past

Back in 1997 Art Center‘s Williamson Gallery housed the exhibition “Memory, Reflection and Transformation, Reactive Works by Jim Campbell.” I was teaching there at the time and remember first seeing the show as I took a break from one of my classes. Walking through the gallery was a playful and social experience, as visitors together discovered the reaction the pieces gave. But it was the subtle use of technology and interaction to create remarkably beautiful…

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Quorra Hologram Sequence. © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Interview: GMUNK (TRON: Legacy)

March 2, 2011 - In Future, Present, Special - One comment

For Disney’s “TRON: Legacy,” Bradley Munkowitz, better known as GMUNK, was the lead animated graphics artist. He assembled and led a team of GFX all-stars who conceived, designed and animated approximately 10 minutes of UI sequences and holograms at Digital Domain for director Joseph Kosinski and visual effects supervisor Eric Barba. I was so happy that he agreed to do this interview about his involvement in that film. Q: Can you talk a little about…

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Quick Post: Applying Film Making Tools to Interaction Design

February 17, 2011 - In Quick

Johnny Holland‘s reports from Interaction 11 continue to be full of great stuff — and making me sad I wasn’t there. Here’s a fascinating presentaiton by Adam Connor on how film-techniques could be relevant to interaction designers. Particularly relevant as so often UX people talk about how “the story” is the most important part of design…

Very Recent History: 16-Feb-11

February 16, 2011 - In Present

Very Recent History – some of things I’ve been reading recently. It’s always great to see transparency in the design process, so it was nice to find, via the fantastic Gym Class Magazine, the openness of Esquire Magazine’s design team. Their creative director, Richard Turley, has a Tumbler blog, and their art department’s got a Flickr feed. They’re great collections of design inspiration, and it’s very brave to show their unused cover design explorations. I wish…

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Tate Trumps

February 11, 2011 - In Present

As museums struggle to find new ways to attract visitors and engage them, London’s Tate Modern has a pretty cool idea… use game-play to make museum-going more fun. How? With their iPhone app Tate Trumps. With the app, visitors: roam the gallery looking for artworks you think will score highly in one of three modes. In Battle mode, you need to ask yourself the question, “If this artwork came to life, how good would it…

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Quick Post: New UI Metaphors with Konkreet Performer

February 10, 2011 - In Quick

This video demo of Konkreet Performer, a music control and performance instrument for the iPad, was interesting because it positions itself as a break from traditional mixing-board metaphors for music UIs. I have no idea how usable it is, but it’s great to see the experimentation! (Link via CreativeApplications.Net.) It reminded me of this recent post, Against chrome: a manifesto — a nice rant against all the UI chrome and out-of-date metaphors that are gunking-up…

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