22 Oct 2011

New books

I got some really good things in the post today, a few days ago I ordered Tree of Codes and a print handbook and they've both arrived..


I've wanted a copy of Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Codes for ages after seeing it on the Visual Editions website. He took his favourite book, Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles, and literally carved a new story through die-cut technique from the existing pages.





And then here's the Print Handbook, its got information about paper sizes, dpi, colour & density, paper folds etc. Going to be a pretty good reference for printing I think!




21 Oct 2011

Zero

Our first project of Second year is 'Zero.' We were just given the word Zero and told to explore it... a very open brief. I looked into zero as a starting point, a changing point and a beginning. I became interested in the possibility of measuring zero and have been looking at the possibility of 'Ocm' existing.
When I photographed these rulers up close, I realised how different the 'Ocm' measurement mark is. I came to the conclusion that zero can't be described in the measurement of cm, 'nothing' cannot be measured. But if nothing is something... zero, then there must be some kind of measurement for it? For our crit I put up these pictures of blown-up rulers to show the difference in the zero line..




I need to work out how I'm going to properly visualise what I've found out and what to do with it now!

20 Oct 2011

Chandelier Spectacle





Stuart Haygarth's reinvention of discarded NHS glasses. Currently hanging in the Design Museum as part of the This is Design exhibition. I loved how the chandelier gave out a mixture of different lights & colours through the hundreds of lenses that it's made up of.

19 Oct 2011

Motion sensor clock

This digital clock is in the design museum at the moment as part of the Designers in Residence exhibition. At first when I just walked up to it it was just a plain black clock, but when it sensed some presence, it flashed up 'Hi'.. then quickly the time, then 'Good god' and then 'Bye.' It had a mind of its own..


It was designed and made by Hye-Yeon Park,

"On first glance the Mr. Clock has the illusion of having its own personality, it seems to playfully flip between nonsensical configurations of each seven-segment digit. Our expectation is for the digital display to show us the time but this clock rebelliously refuses. If clocks had personalities we must ask “what does a clock do when we are not looking at it?”. But this clock still retains its relationship to its owners, as you walk up close it remembers itself and resumes its time keeping function. It is only when we pay attention to this clock that it responds by telling us the time."