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    Big Head Mode
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    For a Halloween mask Eric Testroete decided to make a papercraft version of his own head as a 3D vector model. Inspired by the ‘big head mode’ easter egg often seen in videogames he used 3D Studio Max, Photoshop, Mudbox and Pepakura to create something that does something really bizarre. I love it.

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    He’s posted full technical details on his site for those that are interested.

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    It's Nice That
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    I recently discovered the fantastic It’s Nice That website and almost instantly decided to buy their magazine. Shortly after I paid for it I received an email from them explaining that due to the post strike there might be a problem getting it out to me on time and that they were really sorry but they’d do what they could.

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    I noticed that the address in the footer of the email was on Rivington Street which is just round the corner from where I work so I replied to their email saying I could pop round and pick it up if that was ok with them.

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    I got a reply that afternoon saying of course it’d be ok and that they’d be there for about lunchtime the next day.

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    So at lunchtime the other day I nipped out, went to their studio and picked up my copy of It’s Nice That 2. How nice is that? It may not seem like much but suddenly my relationship with them is personal. It doesn’t take much does it? It’s a shame they’d run out of issue 1 because I’d have bought it there and then.

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    I love it. I really do. Everything about it is excellent, from the stock it’s printed on to the type and layout to the content itself. I really can’t recommend it enough. Especially as they seem like really nice people.

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    http://www.itsnicethat.com/

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    Congratulations to Bus Tops!
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    A huge well done to Alfie Dennen for winning the London part of the Artists Taking The Lead project with his Bus-Tops concept.

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    Bus Tops is a fantastic idea with masses of potential and I wish him all the best with it. I can’t wait to see it in action.

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    I want to get involved!

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    http://bus-tops.com/

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    Magic Mouse - First Impressions
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    Catherine brought home an Apple Magic Mouse for me to try and I have to say on first impressions I don’t really like it very much.

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    Firstly it doesn’t feel right in my hand. It just doesn’t feel like I’m holding on to it properly and the hardness of its edges means that to hold it comfortably my thumb is actually under the mouse and dragging slightly across my mouse mat.

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    Secondly, it’s clearly been designed to track on smooth surfaces. It’s excellent on my desk but I use a fabric pad with a gel wrist rest and it loses it’s glide a little because the rails it slides on aren’t glossy like the Mighty Mouse.

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    Third, and most importantly it’s slower than a Mighty Mouse (now relegated to being called simply Apple Mouse). Not by much, but for someone that has their tracking speed set to maximum it’s noticeable which combined with the added weight of the Magic Mouse and the reduced glide all conspire to give me this feeling like I’m trying to run through mud.

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    This is before I’ve tried any of the nifty multitouch features and discovered that unfortunately there’s more let-downs there too. There’s no pinch zoom or rotate (which admittedly makes sense now I use it because you’d never be able to keep it straight), there’s no option for a two finger vertical swipe and the two finger sideways swipe only “navigates” which means allowing you to flip through photos in iPhoto as the video demonstration in the preference panel shows you.

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    Multi touch is cool, the Magic is undoubtedly cool looking, amazingly well manufactured (You’d hope so for £60) and it’s definitely impressive enough to guarantee it flies off the shelves but unfortunately it feels like Apple have put that above it being a good mouse for people that use them all day - every day.

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    I love multitouch, I love the trackpad on my MacBook Pro and I was really looking forward to some of the features I’ve grown so used to being available via a mouse when I’m using my machine at home but I’m left feeling a little let down by the Magic Mouse.

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    I’m going to persevere and use it for a while and see if I grow to like it but I have a feeling I’m not going to.

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    Damn.

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    Augmented Reality for Crowds
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    Before you start on me I know it’s more stuff about augmented reality. This time it’s from a slightly different angle so please bear with me.

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    Augmented reality could be used as part of digital signage or billboards to create playfully interactive advertising that actually draws crowds.

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    Imagine that. Ads that people actually come to play with.

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    See that guy at the beginning holding up his phone? He’s most likely to be taking photos or videos of that billboard to share with his friends.

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    That’s massive, right?

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    Seeing this is a little frustrating because I was discussing similar stuff at my last job almost a year ago when the opportunity to design a big LED billboard at Picadilly Circus came up. Unfortunately that project never saw the light of day but I know we’ll be seeing a lot more things like this in the future.

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    So much potential.

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    Digital Ghosts
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    Continuing from my post about supernatural being the new futuristic I’d like to put this out there.

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    We’re developing ways for physical objects and locations to have data spaces. People can tag data they create with geographic locations so that it can be found by navigating both the physical and digital realms. For example when I’m in a particular place I can read Brightkite comments left by other users about that place or places nearby. I can see photos, videos and tweets. I can see traces of their life left by their actions. I can follow these and find their friends and other elements of their life.

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    The Wikipedia entry for ghost says:

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    A ghost has been defined as the disembodied spirit or soul of a deceased person, although in popular usage the term refers only to the apparition of such a person. Often described as immaterial and partly transparent, ghosts are reported to haunt particular locations or people that they were associated with in life or at time of death.

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    The data we leave attached to physical locations has no way of telling whether we’re alive or dead. In theory it remains there forever.

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    Are we creating our own digital ghosts?

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    Supernatural is the New Futuristic
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    I’ve been thinking about the future a lot, specifically the technologically utopian/dystopian future commonly associated with science fiction.

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    I’ve had a problem with it for some time because the future just doesn’t feel futuristic any more.

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    Music is a good starting point. I remember when techno was like music from the year 3000 and invoked undiluted visions of the future. Techno now feels more retro than anything else. A memory of a naive future we didn’t get.

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    I’ve been trying to think of any new music that could be deemed “futuristic” and all I can think of is the ultra minimal digital music on Raster Noton. Even that sounds “current” at the best of times and “Cold War” at others.

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    Modernism was supposed to be the future. We should be living in buildings like the Nagakin Capsule Tower by now.

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    I’ve said it to quite a few people and I really do believe the future was a lot cooler in the 70s and 80s. You can’t escape into the future anymore - because we’re living in it.

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    We’ve got readily available long distance transport, instantaneous mobile communication and the ability to seamlessly link to data networks spanning the globe from anywhere. Things have never been so good and they’re looking to get far better with the advent of the new mobile revolution.

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    It’s worth watching this appearance by Louis CK on the Conan O’Brian show

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    What he’s saying is funny because its true. It’s close to being magic, which brings me to Arthur C Clarke’s three laws.

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    1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
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    2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
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    3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
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    Magic.

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    In our pursuit of making things easy to understand, easy to operate, useful and natural we’ve really been creating the supernatural, which is incredibly interesting to me. I’ve been saying that the traditional scientific approach to interaction design leaves the things we create lacking a certain something. That something is true emotional engagement and any attempt to turn that into a science seems to fall short. When something is supernatural it can’t be totally explained by science. It’s that something else. The essence, the spark. Genius. Magic.

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    Supernatural is incredibly popular at the moment. Whilst science fiction narrows in scope the paranormal widens. I include Super Heroes in this bracket. We’ve got TV shows like Heroes, True Blood and the rise of music like the Ghost Box label, Hauntology as an entire genre and the omnipresent dub. The word dub is arguably a shortened form of the word “duppy” which means ghost in Jamaican Patois.

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    Which brings me back to ubiquitous computing. When we live in the age of “internet of things” and navigate the networked urban spaces forecast by Adam Greenfield and others the technology we have and use will probably be indistinguishable from magic.

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    Does that mean we should look to studies of the paranormal, the supernatural, religion and the occult to find the things that man has been trying to create and the powers that we’ve been trying to develop for inspiration for our technological advances?

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    After all, using some kind of object that gives us power to complete tasks that would otherwise be impossible is very close to pulling out a magic wand or casting a spell isn’t it?

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    Near field communication using RFID (the technology that makes Oyster cards work) is enabling new digital objects like Skaal and Mir:ror to be very close to being indistinguishable from magic. This video by Timo Arnall from Nearfield and Jack Schulze from Berg London explores the magical properties of RFID in such a beautiful way you could say it’s like watching something supernatural.

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    This “internet of things” is about creating objects with online and offline locations simultaneously. We’re creating a world of two planes of existence - the physical and the digital. They’re really beginning to overlap and it feels familiar doesn’t it?

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    So if we’re heading toward an ecologically sound but high tech future maybe it should be closer to Swords and Sorcery than Star Trek. I’m joking but you know what I mean.

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    I’ve never liked Star Trek anyway.

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