Author: Kbaumlier

Kristen Baumlier’s work spans the full spectrum of interdisciplinary media, including performance, interactive installation, video and audio works.
The Food Pyramid Storage – Shelf System

The Food Pyramid Storage – Shelf System

Most of us store our fruits and vegetables in our refrigerator.  But is the optimal temperature for each of them? The design team FridayProject of Luca Boscardin and Valentina Raffaelli created a bookshelf that is a food storage system called the Food Pyramid, which gives structure and storage to food.

The storage system is based on the food pyramid.  Storage spaces are designed to give more space to the things that we are to eat more, and less to the foods that we are told to eat less of.  The piece is made out of painted steel, and has wooden drawers for bread pasta and cereals; dark drawers for the potatoes and onions; a terracotta box for vegetables; and shelves with space for eggs, herbs, and spices.

You can see more pictures of the shelf system in action on FridayProject’s website.

Images and Links:

www.fridayproject.it

Food Pyramid Information

The Cuddly – A Large Teddy Bear Out in Public

The Cuddly – A Large Teddy Bear Out in Public

In Warsaw Poland, there is a large number of historic public monuments that recognize past events of the last century.  Some of the monuments recognize wartime experiences, while others bring up social and political issues.

Artist Iza Rtukowska of the Forms and Shapes Foundation decided to create a sculpture that could be placed near Polish monuments, in order to “denunk them” and encourage interaction and dialogue.  Her work The Cuddly is a giant teddy bear that has been placed near monuments and other public places, and invites others to interact and play in its presence.

The huge teddy bear is made of fabric and foam, and has been placed in various locations in Poland, and is scheduled to be placed in other locations.  You can see Video of the making of the piece, and read more about the project on The The Forms and Shapes Foundation Website.

Links:

The Forms and Shapes Foundation

Video of the making of The Cuddly

 

Massively Multi-Player Thumb Wrestling Makes You Feel Good

Massively Multi-Player Thumb Wrestling Makes You Feel Good

I recently saw a new TED talk by Jane McGonigal where she had the audience play her favorite game – Massively Multiplayer tThumb-Wrestling. In the opening of her talk, she promises the audience that if they play this game for one minute, they will experience 10 positive emotions that include creativiety, contentment, joy, relief, love, surpise, and excitement.

The game is an expansion of thumb wrestling.  The principle of thumb-wrestling is simple. Two players take each others right hand and entangle their fingers – except the thumbs – forming a fist. The players then try to catch and freeze the opponent’s thumb.

To play the game Massivley-Player style, players form a group and play with 3 or four people.  You also can play two games at once, being part of a group with your left hand, and other group with your write.  As the number of players is unlimited, global thumb-wrestling may emerge through self-sustaining peer-to-peer networks and ad-hoc socializing.

In her talk, you watch as she asks each member of the audience to play, and they stand up and connect in to multi-player thumb circles, forming a large connected formation, where the whole audience playing the gmae.

In her talk, McGonigal talked about games and challenges “When we play a game, we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we’re more likely to reach out to others for help.”

McGongigal has been doing research about games and emotions, and this talk supports her interest in interactions that create oxytotin in our brain, which makes us feel happy and also connected to others. In her talk she talked about emotions and said, “If you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion … you dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you’re facing.”

The Massively Multiplayer Thumb-Wrestling game was introduced in 2004 by the group monochrom which is based in Austria.

To experience the game, go find 3 friends and ask them to play or check out the video on TED.com.

 

Images and Links:

Jane Mcgonigal – TED Talk 

monochrom.at- Massively Multiplayer Thumb-Wrestling

 

 

Monkey Light – Display Gif Animations on Your Bike Wheels

Monkey Light – Display Gif Animations on Your Bike Wheels

Earlier this summer, MonkeyLectric did a Kickstarter campaign for their Monkey Light Pro, which provides bicycle riders with the ability to show short gif animations on their bike wheels.

Want to show off a rainbow pattern, beating heart, or logo on your bike?  The Monkey Light Pro uses both LED light bars made of 256 full color LEDs and web-based technology in order to create animated images on bike wheels that are shown as you pedal.

The images of the device in action really shows how it works, so check out the images below. Users can use premade animations, and also can create their own from jpg, gif, avi, mov and other files and control what plays with a online playlist control.

 

 

 

 

 

Images and Links:

http://www.monkeylectric.com/monkey_light_pro/

 

 

 

 

The Food Font Thanksgiving Food Font Challenge

The Food Font Thanksgiving Food Font Challenge

Food Font is an interactive art project where people can make alphabets out of food, take pictures of each letter, and later use these and other food alphabets in a fun, free, interactive online design tool.

This year is the second Thanksgiving Food Font challenge for the Food Font project, where you are asked to make a Food Font alphabet our of your favorite Thanksgiving food.

Have you made an alphabet out of food yet?  Make a Thanksgiving alphabet, submit the pictures to the Food Font site, and alphabet  will be edited and loaded into the Food Font tool which is about to go into development later this month.

What kind of Thanksgiving food would make a great Food Font to write with in the Food Font tool?  Want to write something in Turkey?  Pumpkin pie?  Or your own Thanksgiving dinner?

You can print the alphabet checklists, then sit down at the Thanksgiving table or work in the kitchen.  Do it with your family – or by yourself.  Directions, an alphabet checklist, and other information are on the  Make a Food Font Alphabet page on the Food Font  site.

You do not need a lot of supplies – just some white plates or a white surface to work on, a digital camera, and some food.  Why not play and write with food? (and then eat it!)

For more information or if you have questions – send them to info [at} foodfont.com – or use the contact form on the site.

Take the challenge and make a Thanksgiving food alphabet!
Links:

Food Font – Make a Food Alphabet Page 

Food Font Project