dana gordon

During the Sonar festival in BCN, I participated in a workshop, which had the longest name ever: ‘Creating Space, exploring the spatial properties of electromagnetic fields as a carrier for sound’. The workshop was held by Edwin van de Heide, at the lovely Hangar centre. I created there a device that would not only express the electromagnetic zones with sound, but also with light. As we explore the space, the LED turns brighter according to the presence of electromagnetic fields.

JB created one that activates a vibration, so you can actually feel the field.
These tools reminded us of the Photo-phobes, in the sense that they are reacting to the condition of their environment, and they can collect their energy from it. Now, we developed several various versions of those. First of all we made the whole thing wireless. In terms of its design, we separated the location of the output from the input, using a longer shape. This makes it easier to reach those electromagnetic areas, while the display through sound, light or vibration is still close, held in the hand.

I am very excited about next week workshop in Berlin. It’s called Wilderness in the City, stay tuned for more.

Once again I had the great pleasure of visiting IDHO (Interaction Design Hands On) course of Holon Institute of Technology. I caught a glimpse of the last year exhibition; the leftovers of their prototypes look pretty slick. Check out their projects and exhibition video.
Anyway, the IDHO team of 2008 seems to be very promising. The talk was about design process and wearables, since that is their next topic. They already hold some fancy looking prototypes and even wearables!
It all took place at the charming space of the GarageGeek (the dorkbot-like community of Israel) in the casual ambiance of flip-flops and Goldstar beer. Bon courage IDHO students! Looking forward to seeing your results.

I encourage you to check out the interesting results we had at the Hybrid Wearable Workshop last week at Mediamatic . Although it was only a three days workshop, I believe we can proudly say, we managed the time very well and eventually, presented functioning prototypes demonstrating the interesting concepts that were developed. We had the pleasure to introduce the participants to the beautiful and very friendly to use Lilypad Arduino, designed especially to be sawed on fabric. You’re invited to view the photos of all the projects and the whole workshop process.

Sawed the circuit with conductive threads and conductive fabrics. When the ear (or tail) meets certain surfaces of the plush, it triggers a sound, changing according to it’s location.
I must admit, this prototype has a rather strange behaviour, I cannot always predict the sounds it produces and the timing, but that’s kind of lovely. Grrr…
Anyway, here are more photos and videos.

In the process of making a rather traditional LED Chanukah lamp, we created a revolutionary non-music instrument. In order to use this lamp as a “music practice” tool, use the LEDs as guitar’s strings and play your favourite music. Using the wire, every LED you touch closes its circuit, and instead of sound (which might be unpleasant in some cases), it produces beautiful blinking light.
So, there you go, the most friendly air guitar ever!
This blinking object is dedicated to Vanessa (aka Zergh), wishing her good luck in her guitar classes.

Just like the Highlander , wouldn’t it be handy to be able to sense other of your own kind when they are in your environment?
JB and I made this first working prototype, designed to sense other geeks in the neighbourhood. Each shirt recognises the other, and identify itself as part of the same community - When there’s a matching one in a radius of 5-10 meters, the shirt discreetly announces the user by vibrating. Then, by exploring the space, it’s possible to figure out who is the stranger sharing your interests. If you lost the vibe, you’re probably in the wrong direction…
Two hoodies are now waiting for you to try them on, at the dorkbot Paris desk at the “Les Mondes Hors Pistes” festival.

We made some new improvements in our solar musical instruments, added more control to modify the sound, and started to explore its physical design, which redefines the interaction. One box was designed with the sliding cover for solar panel which modify the sound. The other design separates the solar panel from the speaker box, this allows a stable location of speaker and a playful jumping movement of the panel in the light. Video’s coming soon.

Finally, the Photo-phobics see the light. These are autonomous units, each one has a piezo connected to a little solar panel. When this creature meet the sun light it “screams” like a maniac. It is possible to manipulate the frequency by changing the amount of light on its panel or “turn it off” by covering it.
Done with JB during the last dorkbot in Paris, which was a hand-on workshop.

Will be going to Washington (DC) to participate in the workshop of The Creativity & Cognition Conference. I’ll be presenting a short paper, and maybe doing something creative :]