Late Night | Heart-a-thon

Combine a dimly lit room with Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Flickr.com, and an array of other comfort-rot activities, and you get a recipe for the dissolve of interest of most other things in life. Namely, my job as an industrial designer in the field of visual merchandising. I've been spending the past year partaking in the subtle manipulation of the consumer. Is this ethical? I don't know. As I take on several side projects, it has caused a disconnect for me. I have been able to step outside of myself and see what I do for more than its face value.



I hope I can find another job if I decide this isn't what I want anymore.

Oh by the way...knives are terrible for opening coconuts...FYI...gosh I hate that acronym...it is everything I hate about the suit life.

Thanks for the rant space...but who knows, perhaps it has some intrinsic value?

Sun, Sep 14, 2008  Permanent link

RSS for this post

Convergence Culture Explored

The Portland, OR Inverge and Cre8Con conferences were last week. You should scope their twitters and blogs at #Inverge and #Cre8Con.

It was amazing.

Sun, Sep 14, 2008  Permanent link

RSS for this post

Fabrication is a therapy I miss.

Hey there, I know this doesn't pertain to the theme of the site 100% but I think it is an interesting interaction of DIY culture and personalizing our material world to increase the familiarity of whatever it might be...

Back in 2003, I inherited a PC case from a friend of mine. It was a simple shell that I could modify as I saw fit.

What I did was pretty simple-I just took off the shell, added a strap, and added a steel handle for carrying. This evolved slowly into a peforated aluminum side panel, aluminum chassis (with 10 inch wheels), a speedometer, petentiometer, kawasaki ninja radiator fan, and ignition switch. The final piece after 4 years of messing with it looked like what you see in figure A.


Fig. A

Here are some detail shots of the pieces I made/assembled:
+
This piece was the biggest pain in my ass to design. Its function was to take a reading from the radiator fan in the front and make it read into MPH on the speedometer...




It worked fine. I was able to adjust the speed of the fan in analog fashion with the potentiometer...it is that dail looking thing in the upper left corner of the fascia...



On the top, I was able to have a handle pull back to expose the ignition switch...



It was also able to unlock from the welded aluminum chassis via a custom quick release lock...



And that was that. I added more fans that I had salvaged from a copier that I stole from work...



And I documented the pieces I made...



It was a good time. So, last year I built up another PC from the ground up and with the itch to fabricate, I started another PC modification project. You might recognize a couple of the pieces...

Here is a picture of the case as I recieved it...



I gave it some fresh paint with stencils, changed out the power switch to the old ignition switch, gave the power LED a subtle fade in./out circuit and added the old switch plate. I am waiting for the final piece to come in from a resin company that will have hydrangea set in resin panels with a slow pulse of light. It should be pretty.

Picture of the resin I am waiting for...



Here is where I am so far...



I am now working on the design for the sides.

Other projects include-

xbox 360 remote viewing screen for data stream navigation-6 weeks
infinity box-10 weeks
server remote for streaming all computer audio to bedside for alarm purposes.-25 weeks.


Have a great weekend people!

~Gabe

Fri, Mar 14, 2008  Permanent link

RSS for this post

Rice paper layers and the infallible rally of 'down'.

As a person falls through the air, and terminal velocity takes over, imagine them falling through rice paper. The friction, if continuous, should slow the person down.


Fig 1. Terminal velocity without buoyancy.

I wonder if the sheets got thicker, if this could be perceived as a life event like a rut. eventually, as we are falling through planks of rice paper that are an inch thick. We stop.

Letting the thing that slowed us down cling to our skin, maybe falling was a good thing.



mmm...

Maybe there is something to those papers, and what is contained within. Cozy death? Comfort rot?

Yawning fish? I don't know.

I will just keep falling through the air, hiding in my headphones.

Another gift for you-High speed balloon test!

Enjoy your Sunday humans.

~G

Sun, Mar 9, 2008  Permanent link

RSS for this post

Plucking Godstrings

Meta-thoughts of god are the physical representations of reality? Rambling mind?

bose-einstein condensate in reverse?








Tapping the water with a stick produces the same response...maybe we are all just a snow globe. Played with at one point or another.

I don't have a set faith nor do I believe in a physical "God" but I do respect those who do...lubrication is a necessity in the screwing of life.

I do think we have free will and the ability to change things, however if action predetermines the outcome, do we write our fates without realizing it? realize...real eyes...



This site makes me happy...rambles make me happy...and able to see things in new perspective.

Thanks!

~Gabe

Mon, Jan 21, 2008  Permanent link

RSS for this post

Body vs mind response

I think this is an important blog...here
I think more appropriately that blog should be called "Mental independence of the self"



Here was my response...



Back in ID school my thesis was making a sell-in tool for the implants that Kevin Warwick is dreaming up.

Exciting!

PS- I can't stop playing with the blue nebulatic thingy in the upper right...

PPS-I agree with the comment that form follows data, but more completely-form follows failure-Henry Petrowski. He came up to Portland to speak at the Schnitzer Hall about his new book "The Toothpick"...good brains in that man.

~Gabe

Sun, Jan 20, 2008  Permanent link

RSS for this post

Visual Echos

Pilot blog of spacecollective.org

Hi all,

I have 2 gifts for you.

1.Bedtime tunes

2. We feel fine



These two sites really make me happy.

The first is a open playlist for day and night music that appeals to yours truly. You can find everything from Portishead to Amos Lee and Beck. Very good stuff. It makes my head float in a bucket of warmth.

The second I stumbled on the developement video a while ago and the stumbled upon the final site about 7 months later. Basically, it scans blogs for "I feel" or I __ feel"...and then creates a quote and link with bouncy little dots that playfully move about the screen. You can view the emotions in a variety of ways including "mobs", "murmurs", and 'montages"...Some have pictures attached to the links and some are just the quotes. A really interesting look into the emotional collective of the web.




Creative nomadic tendencies are carried out in dangerous ways.

Fri, Jan 18, 2008  Permanent link

RSS for this post