wednesday, may 19, 2004
design, evolution, things.
little necessary/unnecessary things i keep in the front pocket of my backpack:
- old, battered nokia cellphone with the faceplate i painted.
- cornflower-blue mechanical pencil, same kind as the one i had in eighth grade that everyone loved.
- analog point-and-shoot camera with “bright sun & flash” film. i took this one to idyllwild camp.
- standard-issue ti-83+ calculator that used to have “DONT PANIC” written on it in black stickers. now it just has gummy smudges.
- black gelly roll pen. since sixth grade, no other pen is nearly as good.
- glasses, for long-distance. the little plastic ear-piece coverings are pretty.
- mister kyle’s 15gb ipod, containing 1259 songs and 66 text files.
- $11 sony earphones.
each one has its own protective casing and its own specific function(s). they all evoke emotions and memories.
i am two-thirds of the way through the evolution of useful things, by henry petroski. i love it, especially the parts about flatware and zippers. before i began to read it, i imagined it would be like the design of everyday things, by donald norman, which i read recently. but it takes a different approach: instead of being concept-based, teut is example-based.
teut is more accessible (makes for better dinner-time conversation), but it seems less applicable to computery/webby stuff. the main design-follows-failures idea is neat, and i like the implicit & explicit inventing advice, but i find the book to be mostly entertainment of the very best kind.
in this context, some links. the illustrated catalog of acme products is lots of fun — silly, prototype-like inventions for imagined needs…they rarely get revised when they inevitably fail, though. hack this (please) makes inventing seem more like web design than print design. ethics and planned obsolescense is interesting: more issues to consider and design for. the language of auto emblems is about how car brands are inventions that get revised when they fail in different ways. i could go on and on with this, but i have to sleep sometime.
after all, we’re taking the government-mandated standards tests at school this week, so i’m supposed to rest up and get a good breakfast and all that. in the reading/language test i took this morning, one of the excerpts was from i, robot, by isaac asimov:
“Look at you,” he said finally. “I say this in no spirit of contempt, but look at you! The material you are made of is soft and flabby, lacking endurance and strength, depending for energy upon the inefficient oxidation of organic material - like that.” He pointed a disapproving finger at what remained of Donovan’s sandwich. “Periodically you pass into a coma and the least variation in temperature, air pressure, humidity, or radiation intensity impairs your efficiency. You are makeshift.
“I, on the other hand, am a finished product. I absorb electrical energy directly and utilize it with an almost one hundred percent efficiency. I am composed of strong metal, am continuously conscious, and can stand extremes of environment easily. These are facts which, with the self-evident proposition that no being can create another being superior to itself, smashes your silly hypothesis to nothing.”
yep, improving on the failures of the last design, yet again. like brittabot. ;)
comments (7)
I can no longer pretend that I understand or feel any less of a man that I used to be. Have you seen yourself lately? You are not makeshift, you have made the shift. You are no longer here but are still in the "now". I wish you luck getting back.
– the collective failure of all mankind on 5/20/2004 09:08:47
I thought my friend was original when i saw he had "Don't panic" written on his TI.
– Vulcar Zorki on 5/24/2004 11:36:53
i'm close, i have 1211 songs and i have yet to import two iggy and the stooges cds
– lzliizsisterrrxicyy on 5/30/2004 13:00:21
hahaha i have 1264 now.
– britta on 5/31/2004 00:16:31
oh yeah, well, i bet some of those are kyle's, huh? huh?
– lzliizsisterrrxicyy on 5/31/2004 14:12:33
nope! all mine!
– britta on 5/31/2004 14:40:50
jussstt waitt, just wait and you'll be eating my dust
– lzliizsisterrrxicyy on 6/1/2004 22:32:18
