“It’s the way cultural progress takes place generally. Classical artists, for example, came out of a tradition of craftsmanship that was developed over long periods, with master artisans and others, and sometimes, you can rise on their shoulders and create new marvelous things. But it doesn’t come from nowhere. If there isn’t a lively cultural and educational system, which is geared towards encouraging creative exploration, independence of thought, willingness to cross frontiers, to challenge accepted beliefs… if you don’t have that, you’re not going to get the technology that could lead to economic gains.”

Noam Chomsky on the Purpose of Education | Brain Pickings

When people say design is about to enter it’s golden age, this is what I think of. Without a proper exploration of tools, craft, and history, it’s hard to get anywhere new when you’re so busy building on the shoulders of others. This is why design education will matter — and why until we see great design education we won’t see a renaissance of talented designers ready to take on new problems. 

“Last year, I visited Shanghai with Max Burton, one of Frog’s pre-eminent product design gurus who led the Nike watch team for many years pioneering some of the same unibody production techniques later adopted by Apple. Max and I are both watch geeks. He was planning to take some personal time to visit one of the factories he used to work with to look at the small-scale production of one of his own designs. This is about as close to the story as it gets, so I was happy to commit $500 to be one of the first in line for Max’s creation. Unfortunately, he came back empty-handed. Not only were the tooling costs out of reach. But it would have been impossible to reproduce the level of engagement that he was accustomed to from his Nike days. A significant part of the craft is in the manufacturing process, working back and forth, through numerous prototypes, to get to a satisfying design. That process is largely out of reach for a hardware startup.”

Kickstarter Rescues Startups That VCs Won’t Touch, But Here’s What’s Missing | Co.Design: business innovation design

Fabricant calls it, “A Sacrifice of Craft.” Fascinating. 

ETA: The article comes off a bit like, “hey, here’s some excuses for why hardware — which has been a Frog staple for years and years — is sucky.” But the real answer is, of course, the entire manufacturing process needs to and is about to change. 

“Ubiquitous Apple advertising has trained consumers to believe the magic and fill in the gaps when presented with a single image of a finger touching a beautiful screen or of a person sitting lazily on a couch. Renderings that would have seemed like science fiction 10 years ago are now taken at face value, imbued with a high degree of credibility. Part of that is due to amazing strides in technology. And part of it is due to the discipline in Cupertino. Apple has never shown us concepts; only real products. Now, consumers can look at one image of the Nest thermometer or the Fitbit and fill in all the blanks (while rushing to pre-order).”

Kickstarter Rescues Startups That VCs Won’t Touch, But Here’s What’s Missing | Co.Design: business innovation design
curiositycounts: As mentioned recently, conceptual design is highly appreciated around here. Which means this hotel designed to be partly submerged is a must-share — especially since it’s actually going to happen. Bonus points for the organization’s intent to make ecological preservation a priority.  Read more and see full design gallery. I don’t know wtf this is, but I can say, that if this is built, we’re clearly on the path to GIANT ASS SPACE SHIPS. The future doesn’t look so bad afterall.  High-res

curiositycounts:

As mentioned recently, conceptual design is highly appreciated around here. Which means this hotel designed to be partly submerged is a must-share — especially since it’s actually going to happen. Bonus points for the organization’s intent to make ecological preservation a priority. 

Read more and see full design gallery.

I don’t know wtf this is, but I can say, that if this is built, we’re clearly on the path to GIANT ASS SPACE SHIPS. The future doesn’t look so bad afterall. 

“

DA: You mentioned your vision of where the PC will be on every desk and in every home. You clearly have had a vision about the kinds of products that would come out and yet you said a minute ago, “This is just the beginning.” What do you see as lying ahead in terms of further unfolding of the vision that you have held onto so continuously over the last 20 years?

BG: Well, the PC will continue to evolve. In fact, you’ll think of it simply as a flat screen that will range from a wallet size device to a notebook, to a desktop, to a wall. And besides the size of the screen, the only other characteristic will be whether it is wired to an optic fiber or operating over a wireless connection. And those computers will be everywhere. You can find other people who have things that are in common. You can post messages. You can watch shows. The flexibility that this will provide is really quite incredible. And already there is the mania in discussing this so called “Information Highway” which is the idea of connecting up these devices not only in business, but in home, and making sure that video feeds work very well across these new networks. So we’ve only come a small way. We haven’t changed the way that markets are organized. We haven’t changed the way people educate themselves, or socialize, or express their political opinions, in nearly the way that we will over the next ten years. And so the software is going to have to lead the way and provide the kind of ease of use, security, and richness that those applications demand.

”

Hah! Bill Gates steals from Xerox PARC yet again! Mark Weiser pioneered this concept, which he coined “Ubiquitous Computing” in 1988. :)

Bill Gates, 1993, talking about the future.  (via cacioppo)

Appropriation aside, I’m far more interested in the implication Gates makes about what we’d like to do with ubiquitous computing — in terms of understanding what that would be, we really haven’t moved that much further from something Gates forecasted almost twenty years ago.

(via thegongshow)

“What you do is to take the different bits of material which you have gathered and feel them all over, as it were, with the tentacles of the mind. You take one fact, turn it this way and that, look at it in different lights, and feel for the meaning of it. You bring two facts together and see how they fit. What you are seeking now is the relationship, a synthesis where everything will come together in a neat combination, like a jig-saw puzzle.”

A recipe for producing ideas circa 1939 (via explore-blog)

(via explore-blog)

rhamphotheca: oceansoftheworld: Pyrosomes (Photo found here) That weird blue thing is a pyrosome. Pyrosomes, genus Pyrosoma, are free-floating colonial tunicates (marine filter-feeders, see this post) that live usually in the upper layers of the open ocean in warm seas, although some may be found at greater depths. Pyrosomes are cylindrical or conical shaped colonies made up of hundreds to thousands of individuals, known as zooids. Colonies range in size from less than one centimeter to several meters in length. The individuals that make up this giant, floating, colonial tunicate are only about 1 in (2 cm) long, but the giant pyrosome colony, which resembles a gigantic hollow tube, can be large enough for a person to fit inside. Each individual lies embedded in the wall of the tube, with one end drawing in nutrient-laden water from outside and the other end expelling water and waste inside. The expelled water is used to propel the giant pyrosome colony as a whole. A wave of bioluminescent light travels along the community if it is touched. (Source) High-res

rhamphotheca:

oceansoftheworld: Pyrosomes

(Photo found here)

That weird blue thing is a pyrosome. Pyrosomes, genus Pyrosoma, are free-floating colonial tunicates (marine filter-feeders, see this post) that live usually in the upper layers of the open ocean in warm seas, although some may be found at greater depths. Pyrosomes are cylindrical or conical shaped colonies made up of hundreds to thousands of individuals, known as zooids. Colonies range in size from less than one centimeter to several meters in length. The individuals that make up this giant, floating, colonial tunicate are only about 1 in (2 cm) long, but the giant pyrosome colony, which resembles a gigantic hollow tube, can be large enough for a person to fit inside. Each individual lies embedded in the wall of the tube, with one end drawing in nutrient-laden water from outside and the other end expelling water and waste inside. The expelled water is used to propel the giant pyrosome colony as a whole. A wave of bioluminescent light travels along the community if it is touched.

(Source)

(via alainrichert)