Future of Print

A really lovely, well presented look at the future of print and the experience of reading on both books and e-books.
watch.

Daniel Danger

 

I happened across these amazing illutrations by Daniel Danger.
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nice print

I don't know much else about this other than it's fantastic to look at as the web text is in German.

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Lost for Words

I came across this great article online today. In our english language there are so many little moments, shared things between people that we have no words for. We can go on to articulate the interaction or describe the emotional value of it. But this is a collection of ten words from various languages that translate these feelings in a moment.

Mamihlapinatapei (Yagan, an indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego): The wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who desire to initiate something, but are both reluctant to start. 

Oh yes, this is an exquisite word, compressing a thrilling and scary relationship moment. It’s that delicious, cusp-y moment of imminent seduction. Neither of you has mustered the courage to make a move, yet. Hands haven’t been placed on knees; you’ve not kissed. But you’ve both conveyed enough to know that it will happen soon… very soon.

Yuanfen (Chinese): A relationship by fate or destiny. This is a complex concept. It draws on principles of predetermination in Chinese culture, which dictate relationships, encounters and affinities, mostly among lovers and friends.

From what I glean, in common usage yuanfen means the "binding force" that links two people together in any relationship. 

But interestingly, “fate” isn’t the same thing as “destiny.” Even if lovers are fated to find each other they may not end up together. The proverb, “have fate without destiny,” describes couples who meet, but who don’t stay together, for whatever reason. It’s interesting, to distinguish in love between the fated and the destined. Romantic comedies, of course, confound the two.

Cafuné (Brazilian Portuguese): The act of tenderly running your fingers through someone's hair.

Retrouvailles (French):  The happiness of meeting again after a long time. 

This is such a basic concept, and so familiar to the growing ranks of commuter relationships, or to a relationship of lovers, who see each other only periodically for intense bursts of pleasure. I’m surprised we don’t have any equivalent word for this subset of relationship bliss. It’s a handy one for modern life.

Ilunga (Bantu): A person who is willing to forgive abuse the first time; tolerate it the second time, but never a third time.

Apparently, in 2004, this word won the award as the world’s most difficult to translate. Although at first, I thought it did have a clear phrase equivalent in English: It’s the “three strikes and you’re out” policy. But ilunga conveys a subtler concept, because the feelings are different with each “strike.” The word elegantly conveys the progression toward intolerance, and the different shades of emotion that we feel at each stop along the way.

Ilunga captures what I’ve described as the shade of gray complexity in marriages—Not abusive marriages, but marriages that involve infidelity, for example.  We’ve got tolerance, within reason, and we’ve got gradations of tolerance, and for different reasons. And then, we have our limit. The English language to describe this state of limits and tolerance flattens out the complexity into black and white, or binary code. You put up with it, or you don’t.  You “stick it out,” or not.

Ilunga restores the gray scale, where many of us at least occasionally find ourselves in relationships, trying to love imperfect people who’ve failed us and whom we ourselves have failed.

La Douleur Exquise (French): The heart-wrenching pain of wanting someone you can’t have.

When I came across this word I thought of “unrequited” love. It’s not quite the same, though. “Unrequited love” describes a relationship state, but not a state of mind. Unrequited love encompasses the lover who isn’t reciprocating, as well as the lover who desires. La douleur exquise gets at the emotional heartache, specifically, of being the one whose love is unreciprocated.

Koi No Yokan (Japanese): The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall into love. 

This is different than “love at first sight,” since it implies that you might have a sense of imminent love, somewhere down the road, without yet feeling it. The term captures the intimation of inevitable love in the future, rather than the instant attraction implied by love at first sight.

Ya’aburnee (Arabic): “You bury me.” It’s a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person, because of how difficult it would be to live without them.

The online dictionary that lists this word calls it “morbid and beautiful.” It’s the “How Could I Live Without You?” slickly insincere cliché of dating, polished into a more earnest, poetic term.  

Forelsket: (Norwegian):  The euphoria you experience when you’re first falling in love.

This is a wonderful term for that blissful state, when all your senses are acute for the beloved, the pins and needles thrill of the novelty. There’s a phrase in English for this, but it’s clunky. It’s “New Relationship Energy,” or NRE.

  

Saudade (Portuguese): The feeling of longing for someone that you love and is lost. Another linguist describes it as a "vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist."

It’s interesting that saudade accommodates in one word the haunting desire for a lost love, or for an imaginary, impossible, never-to-be-experienced love. Whether the object has been lost or will never exist, it feels the same to the seeker, and leaves her in the same place:  She has a desire with no future. Saudade doesn’t distinguish between a ghost, and a fantasy. Nor do our broken hearts, much of the time.

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Our Class Publication

Our 4th year Product Design and 5th Year Masters students self published a newspaper for our Degree Show, which sadly finishes today whilst we're all graduating. You can see that work here and follow on twitter @PD2012GSA. Anyway have a look at our publication.

you can see my own Degree Show publications of my 3 projects Social Circuits, New Harvest Day and Stay in Touch are available online now too.

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Lovely Graduation Gift

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Old Photos

I'm pretty excited to have gotten a nice old Nikon FE today and start shooting some film over the next few weeks with graduation and departing friends looming. It'll be nice to have the physical prints of those things. It's been a long time since I enjoyed going out (trying) to take some nice photo's.

I was looking through photo's from last summer which is sadly one of the last times I took non project based photos. Particularly like the one of the 3 big onions taken in Bute. I had never been to a flower show before, and I loved every minute of it. 

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The Irony of Rhetoric

There are certain people that I love having on my Facebook feed, that update constantly with abbreviations, smiley faces and recently someone actually spelled out hash tag. But this thread is entirely brilliant. Why are the people you love the most boring people you have on social media sites and the people you don't know or dislike the most interesting to keep? I love the original post and the oblivious way in which she's answered her own question.

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Stay In Touch - Final School Project

Pursuing an interest from First Impressions of Sex, the project below. My concluding project for my 4th year concentrated on a similar objectification of touch. This time concentrating on the emotional requirements of an individual user, and making these objects into meaningful artefacts to that one person.

I presented this project through one real person, Jess, and looked at how she thought touch and emotion were linked. This was through absence of long distance friendships and a long distance relationship with her boyfriend. The importance of touch was really explicit to her as everyday natural touches, as well as touch of support, comfort and appreciation for example had been extracted from her life. Through this I hoped to give her objects that she could form her own relationships with, like friends or boyfriends, at first getting to know the objects, then understanding them, then finally trusting and sharing with them.

 The series consists of 8 ambiguous, neutrally coloured objects void of any specific visual associations, each with a very specific set of characteristics which the owner will assign to specific emotion needs, outlets or inputs. There are 8 objects to coincide with the 8 emotionals humans can have of joy, fear, sadness, anger, surprise, disgust, anticipation and trust.

Jess held strong accociations with certain materials, forms, textures etc during close research with her, and I kept this in the back of my mind when developing the objects with her.

The final 8 pieces in the series are designed exclusively to fit into the context of a narrative that is a true story for Jess, often something she will experience everyday. This could be from dressing up to feel glamorous for a "date" over Skype with her boyfriend, missing holding his hand in the street or feeling guilty about not phoning her friends when she has to much work to do. In this way she then uses the object to facilitate a particular emotion through touching her objects. In some cases she felt they replicated a certain touch, some were a good outlet for say anger, and some changed her emotion such as cheering her up.

emotion - surprise (sudden good feeling)

scenario - getting glamorous for a 'date'

object - satin pillow with wool stuffing, silk tassle

experience - sensual and fulfilling, keeps the feeling of glamour up. keeps esteem

emotion - trust

scenario - missing holding hands

object - silicone sphere with small bumps

experience - satisfied and comforted, feels in sync

emotion - fear (anxiety/stress)

sceanrio - missing a call due to work

object - leather coated sponge with small bumps

experience - calmed and soothed, mind taken off of it.

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First Impressions of Sex

When experiencing sex, issues of hygiene should rarely be at the forefront of our minds (or bodies). But when an outside object is entering the body, there are issues of hygiene. Due to sexual arousal, excitement, anticipation and on the other hand love, trust and relationships, we'd be prepared to forego hygiene and not think about it as an invasion of our body. Being aware of this allows the opportunity for tangible design to celebrate this knowledge within sexual experiences, rituals and routines. From speaking to people in reserach, about past sexual experience and what people found memorable and important about a good sexual experience, only the surrounding elements of the penetrative intercourse were spoken about.

First Impressions of Sex is a series of objects, simulative of a sexual experience. The experience of sex is broken down into it's surrounding elements, excluding the act of a physical penetration of the body. Sexual excitement is heightened by watching one another through a partial barrier which the objects are passed between. By watching one another use specific objects on themselves, you can learn about one anothers body, or rediscover.

The overall experience of sex is now changed into a more even series of events. Foreplay, intercourse, and post climax are the three main elements of sexual experience, with the most time or importance being held on the penetrative act of intercourse. The experience is now changed into the gentle phase, the aggresive phase and the comfort phase, which objectify interactions within each element of the sexual experience. In inability to touch one another forces focus on the explicit meaning of each object.

The middle phase of aggresion is about leaving impressions on the body, lasting physical reminders of that stage, giving importance to the lack of penetration, but the impression of a physical touch.

The Foreplay Objects

a massage tool, wooden silicon coated balls simulate the feeling of the ball of the human hand. The handle is polished smooth with beeswax so it is pleasant to hold.

a hair tugging tool, also made from polished beeswax wood, the latex coated fingers run through hair, sticking and lightly grabbing at it.

a stroke tool which has cold metallic balls which spread out over the skin, gently tingling.

The Aggresion Objects

a grab tool, the curvature of the solid copper brace forces a hard pressure on the skin, with a sudden cold sensation, which gradually warms to the body.

a biting tool, also made from cold sudden copper metal, clamps down onto the skin, leaving sharp marks indented into the skin.

a scratch tool leaves hard, lasting marks down the skin. The handle is left unfinished so it is rough to the touch to symbolise it's use.

The Comfort Objects

a breathing tool simulates a partners heavy breath after breaking, post sex.

a rub tool, a soft satin cushion to simulate a partners palm running over the skin

a hug tool, a bean filled soft lycra cushion which wraps around the body like a partners arms. The palms are made from skin like leather which warm to touch.

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