Every vase eventually breaks. The Do Break cracks but does not shatter when it hits the floor. Not only can the vase still be used but it also gains in beauty as the cracks multiply to form a unique pattern. From now on, any lover's quarrel is an improvement.
Shock Proof is a collection of existing vases upon which Tjep. has applied the Do Break principle. When broken the vases don't fall apart and remain watertight because of a special rubber coating that is applied to the inside. The cracks form a new superimposed decorative pattern, witness to dramatic events to which the vases may be subjected: anything from a lovers quarrel to earthquakes.
Cymatics is the study of wave phenomena. It is typically associated with the physical patterns produced through the interaction of sound waves in a medium.The term cymatics was coined by the Swiss scientist Hans Jenny, it is derived from the Greek "kyma" ("κύμα") meaning "wave", and "ta kymatica" ("τα κυματικά") meaning "matters pertaining to waves."
Cymatics was explored by Jenny in his book by that title in 1967. Inspired by systems theory, the work of Ernst Chladni, and his medical practice, Jenny began an investigation of periodic phenomena but especially the visual display of sound. He used standing waves, piezoelectric amplifiers, and other methods and materials.
A simple experiment demonstrating the visualisation of cymatics can be done by sprinkling sand on a metal plate and vibrating the plate, for example by drawing a violin bow along the edge, the sand will then form itself into standing wave patterns such as simple concentric circles.One of Jenny's more complex experiments include a spherical vibrating water droplet containing fine particles
The TOPO table consists of a corian surface (standard in kitchen countertops) interrupted by plastic inserts that have been molded over rocks, creating irregular miniature landscapes in your furniture. The inserts can be placed either face up or down, so that they form little hills or valleys that can be filled with soil and plants.
The TOPO table is completely customizable, allowing the owner to choose how much tabletop real estate goes towards the decorative, and how much towards functionality. As a work desk, it seems ideal to have just one or two TOPO bits on the edges, but in a kitchen, it might be great to fill the entire thing with herbs or wheatgrass.
[+ image 01] Space recipe 'Spirulina Gnocchis' [+ image 02] Space recipe 'Martian bread and green tomato jam'
'Martian bread and green tomato jam', 'Spirulina gnocchis' and 'Potato and tomato mille-feuilles' are three delicious recipes that two French companies have created for ESA and future space explorers to Mars and other planets.
The challenge for the chefs was to offer astronauts well-flavoured food, made with only a few ingredients that could be grown on Mars. The result was 11 tasty recipes that could be used on future ESA long-duration space missions. ADF – Alain Ducasse Formation and GEM are the two French companies that produced the recipes, and their mutual experience in creating new products and ‘haute cuisine’ have led to excellent results.
Cosmic Rock is a composite material that consists of salt and epoxy resin. It can be cast or poured, enabling the creation of both simple and complex forms. Cosmic Rock is semi-transparent, the amount of light that passes through is controlled by the depth of the material. Three prototypes have been developed using the material, two are lighting products that contain LEDs, which are cast inside the material, the other is a panel. The material defuses the light brilliantly and gives off a beautiful warm glow; the lights have a ring of light around them, which is reminiscent of a planet, moon or star.
Design: Jonathan Krawczuk. University: Central St Martins College of Art & Design
The Inner Life of a Cell, an eight-minute animation created in NewTek LightWave 3D and Adobe After Effects for Harvard biology students, won’t draw the kind of box office crowds that more ferocious˜and furrier˜digital creations did last Christmas. But it will share a place along side them in SIGGRAPH's Electronic Theatre show, which will run for three days during the 33rd annual exhibition and conference in Boston next month. Created by XVIVO, a scientific animation company near Hartford, CT, the animation illustrates unseen molecular mechanisms and the ones they trigger, specifically how white blood cells sense and respond to their surroundings and external stimuli.
This new web site is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in the anatomy of central European woods, and, given that the genera included in this site occur elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, it will be useful outside of central Europe. The home page of the site states: "This Web-based identification key is a completely revised (text, key) and updated (more and new photographs and new anatomic items) version of the book by Schweingruber F.H., 1990: Microscopic Wood Anatomy; Structural variability of stems and twigs in recent and subfossil woods from Central Europe. 3rd edition 1990. Birmensdorf, Eidgen–ssische Forschungsanstalt WSL."
As you would expect, given the original publication, the images are excellent. The navigation of the site fits the definition of user-friendly. There are pages "Macroscopic characteristics" and "Microscopic characteristics" that provide an introduction to terminology, with an illustrated glossary and comments on the diagnostic value of different characteristics.
Thanks to Schoch,W.,Heller,I.,Schweingruber,F.H.,Kienast,F.,2004:
A bowl is filled with water. By taking hold of it by the handles, it becomes literally moved by the rhythm of your heart. The water starts pulsating with your heartbeat. The heartbeat is stored and the water will 'beat' with this rhythm until the pulsation slowly abates. At the end the water is calm and discharged again, unless the bowl is touched by a new person to whom whose heartbeat it would set itself to. It then beats with another's heart.
Truly amazing project from Monika Hoinkis, graduated from Udk Berlin - Digital Media Class 2005. For the moment she lives and works in Berlin and Sydney.
This sculptural and highly functional spice grinder brings beauty and elegance to the user’s kitchen. The "full contact" nature of the pestle as it mates seamlessly with the mortar improves grinding. And, the porcelain pestle is shaped to nestle comfortably in the palm of your hand, begging the user to interact with the design. The softness of the forms is juxtaposed to the extreme hardness of the fired porcelain, one of the hardest and most durable industrialized materials. The grinder can be found in high-end design stores worldwide, further attesting to its appeal.
Billions and billions of bacterial landscape architects pruning -- no less in environments poisoned with antibiotics -- other bacterial landscape architects, dead or alive, to form dazzling arabesque parterres. The self-organizing embroidery of organisms in constant Darwinian mode.
All these beautifull images come from the laboratory of Prof. Eshel Ben-Jacob of the Tel-Aviv University as part of a collaboration with Prof. Herbert Levine of UCSD’s National Science Foundation Frontier Center for Theoretical Biological Physics.
Spectacular flower-like nanostructures grown in a laboratory in China can detect alcohol and might also be useful as catalysts.
The "nanoflowers" were made from zinc oxide by Yujin Chen and colleagues at Harbin Engineering University. Conventional ethanol sensors are made from the same material and work by detecting the change in electrical resistance when a wad of zinc oxide powder or a layer of the material is exposed to ethanol vapour.
But these conventional sensors look set to be replaced by a new generation of detectors. "The sensor materials will probably be replaced with tailored nanostructures since they appear to give a higher sensitivity," explains Edman Tsang, who researches new nanomaterials at the University of Reading in the UK.
Zinc oxide sensors need to be heated to temperatures of up to300°C before they become sensitive to ethanol. Chen's nanoflowers become sensitive at just 140°C.
"New-territories" the practice of François Roche and Stéphanie Lavaux, based in Paris, explores organic architecture.
“Making with…” is their way of describing their research into a critical experience of architecture through a mutation of contextual parameters. The images refer to the "I've heard about" project where scripting is used to generate these beautiful organic rapid prototyping forms.
Amazing work! Another interesting food for design boundary clash : scripts vs recipes! In fact...what is the difference these days?
Phase diagram of chocolate and vanilla. How much vanilla will chocolate take? Guesses? Can you use the Lever Rule? (Source: Kenneth A. Jackson at the University of Arizona. Courtesy of NASA)
This Invention represents a conical, self-supporting and stackable Unit made from transparent, thermo-formable polycarbonate (same as water dispensers) outfitted with a screw cap spout at the tip and an inward circular collecting trough at the base. Technically speaking it is a solar still.
The salty / brackish Water evaporates by way of solar irradiation and the condensation from that Water appears in the form of droplets on the inner wall of the cone. These droplets trickle down the inner wall into a circular trough at the inner base of the cone. By unscrewing the cap at the tip of the cone and turning the cone upside down, one can empty the potable Water gathered in the trough directly into a drinking device. Based on this concept, the cone does indeed apply innovative solutions to a problem, which has been a curse to mankind for millennia: turning salt water into potable water in an uncomplicated, cheap and swift manner.
The WATERCONE® is a long lasting UV resistant Poly Carbonate product and can be used up to 5 years daily. The material is non-toxic, non-flammable and 100% recyclable. The black pan for the saltwater is already made out of 100% recycled PC. Even when the WATERCONE® becomes old and tarnished, it can still be used to collect rain water, as a roof panel or container for other goods. Another environmental impact is the fact that solar energy is used instead of gas, oil or electricity to desalinate seawater. In many countries, poor people cook the dirty water by burning the last remaining wood and therefore they promote the growth of deserts worldwide. The WATERCONE® could be used in these regions as well.
A plaster cast of a large Pogonomyrmex badius -the Florida harvester ant - nest. This nest consisted of 135 chambers and 12 meters of vertical shafts. The top-heavy distribution of chamber area and spacing is typical for the species, as are the helical shafts and the decrease of chamber size with depth (Research Department of Biological Scienc - Florida State University Walter R. Tschinkel, photo by Charles Badland).
A screen of water displays images by controlling drops of water falling down. Density creates light/dark shades that create the image… An installation by Julius Popp
"The „Spatium Gelatum” (frozen space) project is a scientific work combining art and architecture. The project aims at creating a future habitat and a biological space.Within the project, anthropological research is being conducted into a vision of edible world, known from the mediaeval Land of Milk and Honey, children’s tales and the XIX-century French cuisine tradition known as piece montée.
The spatial forms of the future habitat will be physically created in liquids as isopycnic systems, with polymers as the building material.An isopycnic system is a physical phenomenon which describes the behaviour of bodies of the same density. The isopycnic state is an ideal state, but it can be achieved by changing pressure and temperature in order to regulate the volume, and thus the density of liquids.In an ideal isopycnic phase, when a drop of one liquid flows, or more precisely, floats in another liquid, both these liquids are in a state of weightlessness.
This technology of „floating liquids” makes a practical use of the phenomenon of weightlessness in earth conditions, making it possible to create new forms impossible in the conditions of gravity." Zbigniew Oksiuta
The most interesting project ever seen on the furniture fair in Cologne. Ironicle enough not in one of the 2 'ideal-house' exhibitions.
1st Ave Machine is a CG animation/postproduction house in NYC, doing some very slick projects mixing (semi)generative 3d and real world footage to blur the line between "what we perceive as real and impossible". Mutated botanics, weird worm-like creatures, glossy urchins, near perfect light matching, shaky cam, added film grain - the works. It's a model citizen of Uncanny Valley. A very inspiring one, I think...
Dining at "Hertog Jan" (belgian MG restaurant) 30 august 2006. Overview of some dishes. The chef knows what he is doing as he combines the best ingredients with some insights in MG and very nice dressings of the plate
4 different desserts were made last sunday. 2 new recipes: 'Pearl of Crême brulée' and 'Panna cotta with gelle of sweet white wine'. 2 recipes inspired by Sam Mason the pastry chef of WD-50: 'Carrot-Lime ravioli, coconut tapioca, cumin' and 'Raisin puree, ice-cream of brown ice, raisin paper'
Recipes are posted on Flickr. The 2 new desserts are made with ingredients of Sosa (for Belgium contact Cnudde nv); gellan and gelatine vegetale. Especially the gelatine vegetale is very nice, it gives the possibilities like alginates without the use of CaCl2. You only have the freeze the filling. The membrane is solidified by putting the ice in the hot liquid.
[+ more] website of Sam Mason with some recipes and very nice pictures of his desserts
Food for design wants to be an open source for design, food and science cross-over. We are not interested in creating hypes, but in long term co-operations, where everyone benefits. Promoting quality and collective creativity are the things that count... So please take a seat and have a bite! Best view [res: 1024 x 768] x [browser: firefox]
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_m[eat]ing 003
17.03.2007::MATERIALS ::
Food for design was invited by the Meat & Fresh expo and will install a creative food laboratory at the rambla during the fair,
where people can find inspiration towards form and taste.
[+ more]
_m[eat]ing 002
18.11.2006::MATERIALS ::
A feast of surfaces, textures, colors and other sensorial elements, using a large palette of food materials.
The objective is to inspire new uses for food materials and provoke new applications within a design context.
[+ more]
_seminar
20.09.2006::MG SEMINAR IN BELGIUM ::
This seminar [ 20 november 2006 ] is organised by the innovation and knowledge centre of food for every one who is interested in food science, technology and cooking processes. This can be chefs, scientists, recipe developers, foodies,...
The guest speakers tell and demonstrate how food science and technology can inspire gastronomy...
[+ english][+ dutch]
_manifesto 001
03.02.2006::FOOD for design::
The first aim of this project is to explore and understand the physicochemical properties of materials / ingredients and apply this under-standing when designing.
_manifesto 002
28.01.2006::food for DESIGN::
A different way of thinking : abandoning the role of "creator" and "descending" to the role of a participant playing within the rules of an experimental process.
All experiments come into being as a result of self-formation processes.
_manifesto 001
22.01.2006::food FOR design::
In exploring the materials the main focus lays on the food as in exploring the structure the primary focus lays on the process.
The goal of this cross-fertilisation project is to add more senses / experience to design, it is a way of sustainable, random, natural thinking to in-spire others, giving food for the future.
