Gadget-charging juice is in the air all around us. Dennis Siegel’s small white boxes harvest it.
A piece in the current issue of Mother Jonesmakes a compelling case that lead, the element, can be traced as the cause of a surge in violent crimes in the '80s and early '90s. Exposure to leaded gasoline and lead-based paints, the theory goes, quietly tweaked the brains of an entire generation, causing lower IQs, hyperactivity, and behavioral issues that later manifested themselves as crime. It’s inconclusive whether lead is indeed the U.S.'s "real criminal element," as the story says, but it does get one thinking about the potential effects of the other myriad invisible forces all around us, like Wi-Fi or cellular signals.
Dennis Siegel, a digital media student at the University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany, has harnessed one such force for his most recent project, for a decidedly less worrisome aim. His Electromagnetic Harvesters are small devices that wirelessly leech off electromagnetic fields to charge AA batteries.
New York’s PS1 will be graced by a giant "party wall" made from the cast-offs from making decks. Also, there are pool boys involved.
Eco-friendly skateboard company Comet strives to minimize waste at its Ithaca, New York factory. But inevitably, there are scraps of wood leftover from the carving process. While they typically use the wood to heat the factory, or make "sweet cutting boards and other products," bro, this summer, the waste will find its sweetest home yet: at modern art outpost MoMA PS1 in Queens, New York, as the main building block of a massive outdoor installation where New Yorkers will spend the summer partying and mingling at concerts and events.
The rather literally named Party Wall was created by CODA, the Ithaca-based studio of architect Caroline O’Donnell, who was selected as this year’s winner in the Young Architects Program, an annual challenge to up-and-comers to create a summer-long installation for the museum’s courtyard that provides shade, seating, and water. "The architects must also work within guidelines that address environmental issues, including sustainability and recycling," according to the museum’s announcement. Past winners included a miniature-urban farm and a "trampoline strip club."
by: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine, 2013-01-22 18:20:54 UTC
In recent years, repairing and upgrading electronics has largely given way to a trend of disposable gadgets which fill up landfills – especially with regard to home appliances like coffee makers and toasters. However, French designer Gaspard Tiné-Berès proposes to repair and re-use discarded and damaged appliances, with readily available reclaimed materials providing the necessary components, and the bodies constructed from cork.
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Continue Reading Short Circuit project reuses unwanted kitchen appliances
The Solar Ship is designed to shorten the distance between doctors and patients in the developing world, where poor infrastructure often means that remote sick people don’t stand a chance.
Not long ago, the idea of building a solar-powered air-blimp to deliver things to remote places would have seemed a bit nuts. And, probably, it still is a bit nuts. But solar-driven air travel actually has credibility these days. Solar Impulse, a well-funded project based in Switzerland, has already flown a plane day and night using just the sun. It’s scheduled to go West Coast to East Coast this summer, and, eventually, around the world.
What is more, Jay Godsall, the prime-mover behind the Solar Ship--his dream since he was 16 years old--is highly motivated, has lived and worked in Africa, and knows how much remote communities need vital supplies, including vaccines. A lot of places are still beyond the range of helicopters, or bush doctors, or basic infrastructure, he says. And, fuel is often unavailable, expensive, or poor quality--making conventional air travel onerous, dangerous, or both.
Firebelly’s Dawn Hancock has found a way to inextricably link her design practice to helping her community, by incubating businesses and mentoring designers to create a chain of social consciousness.
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