Author: Kbaumlier

Kristen Baumlier’s work spans the full spectrum of interdisciplinary media, including performance, interactive installation, video and audio works.
Quaddel – a Process for Growing 3d Plants and Other Structures

Quaddel – a Process for Growing 3d Plants and Other Structures

Dominik Kolb and Christopher Bader, 26-year-old students at the University of Applied Sciences in Germany have developed a project where an interactive application can help users create abstract forms.

Called Quaddel, the project combines 3D printing and an interactive application to assist users in creating dynamic development of 3d imagery and output.

Quaddel’s formations are built on formulas, math, and randomization and create unique images that replicate coral, flowers, plants, and bronchial lungs.  The structures are organic, and the videos of the images forming are engaging.

The 3d models can be 3D printed, and go from a video to a physical object.  Check out some of the videos below, or check out the project page on Behance.

curvature based growth process that simulates coral like structures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--TUH-Y

 

Links and Image Sources:

Quaddel – www.youtube.com

www.behance.net – Quaddel

 www.deskriptiv.de/

Take 48 hours to Create New Amazing Services in a “Service Jam”

Take 48 hours to Create New Amazing Services in a “Service Jam”

What kind of new public services and programs are needed in your community?  Individuals interested in service design, design thinking, and innovation will meet at locations all over the world to develop brand new services and experience collaboration. In cities such as Los Angeles, Vienna, Chicago, and other places, teams will have one weekend to create ideas for new services.

How can an interaction with a bank, a bus, or getting your license at the DMV be improved?  How can riding a bus be as great as using an iPod?  How can problem solving and design thinking be applied to developing new services?

The “Global Service Jam” happens from Friday March 7 until Sunday March 9 when at 3pm, all new ideations of services will be published to the world. The event is like a brainstorming/meeting/ design session, where anyone can contribute ideas and skills.  In past service jams, teachers, entrepreneurs, designers, developers, business people, community activists, artists, architects, makers and thinkers worked together to create prototypes that can be seen on the Global Service Jam website.

Some past projects  from 2013 that included protoypes, videos, photos, and wireframed designs included:
Likuid
A simple device you can add to any water source in your house to track your water consumption. It will measure your water usage in real time so you can be more conscious of how much water you use, and help you save money along the way!

Emotional Drivers License
The emotional Drivers License that encourages positive driving behavior.

Food tracking project in feed’r
Feed’r.org is an independent food tracking service,that raises food awareness among consumers and creates transparency in food labeling.

You can read more about the event on the Service Design Jam – and you still  have time to organize one in your town.  Rules, ideas, and past projects can be viewed on the project website.

 

Links and Image Sources:

www.servicedesignjam.org

planet.globalservicejam.org

 

 

Good Money – A Project to Encourage Good Deeds

Good Money – A Project to Encourage Good Deeds

Good Money is a project by Good Virus that aims to inspire people to spend their money wisely and use their dollar bills for good. For the project, people stamp their $1 and $5 bills with text that reads: “This money has been used for good,” as well as provides a link to the Good Virus website. The idea is that through social influence, a chain reaction of good deeds will be started.”

For the project, Good Virus is asking anyone who finds one of its stamped dollar bills in circulation to log it on its website and enter the location where the bill, so the project’s influence can be mapped.

The creators write on the Good Virus site:

“We want to see if the Good Virus effect plays out with money. We’re thinking that if we give a few dollars to someone who needs food, the money is then in circulation. Perhaps the next person who gets the bill will read the message and be inspired to spend it on a good cause too, and so on and so on…

Good Virus of course isn’t about money, but the team behind the project is interested to see what develops.

To participate, you can buy the stamp for $9.50, or simply write “THIS MONEY HAS BEEN USED FOR GOOD” in your own letters. It doesn’t really matter. All We ask is that people track the serial number on the map below, so we can map and track the effect.

 

Image Sources and Links:

Good Money Project 

Kindness is Contagious -Video

 

 

 

 

 

Just Right – A Breakfast Installation

Just Right – A Breakfast Installation

Jennifer Rubell creates participatory artwork that is a hybrid of performance art, installation, and happenings. The pieces are often large in scale and use food and drink.  Past pieces have included a ton of ribs hung from the ceiling, with honey dripping on them; 2,000 hard-boiled eggs and a huge stack of latex gloves nearby to use for picking them up; 1,521 doughnuts hanging on a long wall; and a room built like a cell that was  padded with 1,800 cones of pink cotton candy.

I recently was looking for interesting food and art pieces, and came across an older piece that she did in 2010 for Art Basel.    The piece was installed behind the Rubell Family Collection (which is associated with her family.)  To get to the work, visitors had to slip through a hole in the wall to get into a courtyard.  Here there was a rundown house, with hundreds of bowls, spoons, napkins, and dozens of crockpots of porridge.  Two refrigerators with milk were nearby, and thousands of raisin and sugar packages were neatly arranged on pedestals.

Viewers were welcomed to eat the porridge, with brown sugar, raisins and milk and you can see documentation of this interactive food piece on Rubbell’s website and also in an online video.

 

Image Sources and Links:

Just Right – Youtube.com

jenniferrubell.com 

www.vernissage.tv- Video

 

 

 

 

Farmer’s Fridge – A Salad Vending Machine

Farmer’s Fridge – A Salad Vending Machine

Vending machines are usually stocked with chips, candy bars, and other packaged foods  In Illinois, Farmer’s Fridge is creating a new type of vending machines, that are filled with salads.  The company makes the salad fresh every day, and daily deliver them to a vending machine.  The idea behind the company is that healthy and tasty food can be easy to get.

The team behind the project write on their site about the project:

“Don’t think of the Farmer’s Fridge kiosk as a vending machine. It’s a veggie machine. And just as each salad is a culinary thing of beauty, the kiosk is a work of art in its own right. Made from reclaimed wood (provided by Modern Urban Woods of West Chicago) and even some recycled materials, each one is unique and user-friendly.”

Here is the daily schedule of how the kiosk project works:
1.  Fresh produce arrives every morning to where the salads are made.
2.  The team behind the project arrive at 5 a.m. and make everything from scratch.
3.  The salads are delivered to the machine at 10 a.m. and remove the unsold salads (which are donated to a local food pantry.)
4.  Any unsold salads are discounted by $1 at 6 p.m each night

The packaging, kiosk materials, napkins, and utensils are all recyclable or biodegradable

Sound good?  Currently there currently two Farmer’s Fridge locations, one at the Garvey Food Court and one at the Lake Forest Tollway Oasis.  Next time I drive to Wisconsin, and stop at the Lake Forest Tollway Oasis – I am going to plan on looking for the Farmer’s Fridge.

Image Sources and Links:

http://www.farmersfridge.com/