August 9, 2017

Interactive shawls feature Tourette’s swearing

Filed under: Design,Fashion by Orangemaster @ 12:47 pm

Shawl

For her graduation project at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, Corlieske Visser has made shawls with interactive prints featuring audio patterns of her father’s bouts of swearing caused by his Tourette’s.

To create the shawls, Visser sat down with her father in a recording studio for two and a half hours. The sound waves of the recordings were transformed into images and eventually abstract prints (Dutch), which were then linked to the Dutch augmented reality app Layar. You can scan the prints using Layar and hear what Visser’s father had to say. The shawls are for sale, and 15% of the profits go to the Dutch Gilles de la Tourette Foundation.

Names after French physician Gilles de la Tourette who coined the syndrome, Tourette’s is often made fun of and not taken seriously. Part of Visser’s goal with her shawls is to draw attention to some of the positive aspects of Tourette’s. Visser explains that swearing puts people off and because of this, people with Tourette’s like her father are seen as crazy or anti-social. However, Visser’s father is also very good at imitating sounds, which shows a positive side of the syndrome.

(Link: creators.vice.com, Image: corlieske.nl)

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June 19, 2017

Dutch device collects water in the desert

Filed under: Design,Science,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 11:43 pm

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Dutch company SunGlacier has built a device that collects water in hot and dry environments, such as here, in a desert in Mali where the company did some tests recently. SunGlacier’s Desert Twins harvester relies on condensation, as they explain, like the drops of water that appear on a soft drink can taken out of the fridge on a hot summer day. “The harvester comprises two separate devices – an energy unit, which draws and stores power from solar panels, and the water maker, which uses this energy to cool down a metal plate.”

Although the device was tested successfully in the Netherlands, the extreme environment of the Sahara Desert caused units to overheat and stop working, as well as water to evaporate within minutes of the harvester being opened. After a few days, they succeeded in cooling the ambient air inside the box so that condensation could take place and something other than steam was possible.

Find out more by watching the video

(Links: dezeen.com, sunglacier.nl)

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June 15, 2017

Dutch money designer Ootje Oxenaar dies at 87

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 7:18 pm
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The designer of the famous colourful Dutch guilders Ootje Oxenaar died today aged 87 in his hometown of Manomet, Massachusets.

It can easily be said that Oxenaar contributed to making Dutch design famous around the world, with the Dutch banknotes he designed between 1966 and 1985. In 2009 Oxenaar exhibited at the Museum for Communication, The Hague.

Here’s a video to find out more about the beautiful banknotes Oxenaar designed voiced over by him in English.

(Link: nu.nl)

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May 7, 2017

3D-printed clay vases inspired by fashion

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 8:17 pm

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A graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2015, Dutch designer Olivier van Herpt is producing 3D-printed clay vases for fashion brand COS.

Seen from a distance, the surface of the clay appears smooth, but a closer look reveals tiny ridges created by the 3D-printing process.

Van Herpt has been exploring functional 3D-printed ceramics since 2012, and started developing his own 3D printers in 2014 after becoming frustrated with the limitations of existing desktop printers. After two years of experimenting and researching, he created an extruder that could process hard clay.

The vases will be shown in COS’s store in London this May with images of van Herpt’s process. COS also plans to give away the vases by way of a social media competition, inviting followers on instagram to share images of their favourite ceramics.

(Link: dezeen.com, Photo: Other 3D vases by Olivier van Herpt)

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March 15, 2017

Tilburg to welcome royal couple with handkerchiefs

Filed under: Design,General,History by Orangemaster @ 10:34 am

[Photo of children wearing inflatable crowns]

Instead of environmentally unfriendly plastic trinkets, the city of Tilburg will have the honour of welcoming the royal couple this year on King’s Day waving handkerchiefs, if the Textile Museum gets its way.

On 27 April King Willem Alexander and Queen Máxima will visit Tilburg on King’s Day, which is also Wim-Lex’s 50th birthday. The idea is to wave at them using specially designed orange handkerchiefs, echoing the city’s former textile manufacturing glory.

People will be given free embroidered handkerchiefs instead of crap like the environmentally unfriendly plastic crowns seen above. Sure it’s good publicity for the Textile Museum, but then crap like those crowns are sponsored by lottery companies who prey on vulnerable people. And if you visit the museum, they’ll embroider a golden crown on it for you and you can even use them until 11 June to get into the museum for free.

(Link: omroepbrabant.nl)

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October 27, 2016

Dutch company designs world’s fastest submersible

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 11:31 pm

Submarine

Dutch company Ortega has designed the MK.1C, a three-seater electric submarine for divers, and claim it is the fastest of its kind in the world. It was also designed without a cover, as the submersible’s target market is marine biologists, underwater archaeologists and special forces who need to bail quickly, albeit underwater.

Powered by two high-power, electric motors and built for both over and under water activity, fully equipped with a trimming tank, on-board breathing apparatus and HUD navigation system, each vessel can also have magnetometers, sonar, FLIR, extra air supply or an extended cargo hold of up to 250 litres; all on-board equipment supports dive depths of up to 95 metres

Four giant batteries power the vessel, a brand called ‘Hancell’ made by Ortega exclusively for their submersible, which are carefully monitored and charged when needed. And yes, it’s all very Thunderball.

(Link: www.dezeen.com, Photo: screenshot Ortega)

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October 14, 2016

Diffuser alerts Internet uses to data leaks

Filed under: Design,Gadgets by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am
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Graphic artists Leanne Wijnsma and filmmaker Froukje Tan have created a product called ‘The Smell of Data’, a ‘grenade-shaped scent diffuser’ designed to alert Internet users of data leaks from their smartphones, tablets and computers. After all my recent reading on data security by Edward Snowden and Jacob Appelbaum (did you know he’s studying in Eindhoven?), you’d think a diffuser like that would be on almost constantly. Since most people don’t experience the consequences of a data leak, they don’t really care until something goes terribly wrong and by then it’s too late, a bit like carbon monoxide.

Wijnsma and Tan researched the human response to gas leaks, inspired by a 1937 explosion in Texas caused by an unnoticed gas leak. The incident prompted the government to artificially add an odorant to odourless gases (tert-Butylthiol, which smells like rotten eggs), making them more easily detectable. Carbon monoxide, also know as the ‘silent killer’, is a byproduct of combustion by stoves or heating not working properly in a home and is odourless, which makes you feel grateful for the smell of rotten eggs keeping you safe.

Launched in September 2016 at the Science Museum in London, The Smell of Data is meant to give people the same reaction as smelling a gas leak, hoping that people will finally take it seriously. Watch the video:

(Link: www.dezeen.com, Photo of grenade by macspite, some rights reserved)

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October 5, 2016

Top with tech corrects the wearer’s posture

Filed under: Design,Fashion,Technology by Orangemaster @ 9:20 pm

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Dutch designer Pauline van Dongen, who designed the full solar jacket for Wadden Sea walkers and a few other items, has now introduced the FysioPal undershirt, designed to correct bad upper-body posture by alerting the wearer when they are slouching, which helps correct their posture.

The top, which contains sensors that send information to a smartphone, measures the position of the neck, shoulders and back. The measurements are then sent to an app, which visualises the data and assesses the wearer’s overall posture. If it it detects slouching, the top will softly vibrate, alerting the wearer to change their posture.

It’s the modern-day version of having your parents tell you to stop slouching, but way cooler.

(Link: www.dezeen.com, Photo by paulinevandongen.nl)

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September 19, 2016

Cotton candy ring is weird and unique

Filed under: Design,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 7:58 pm

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Back in 2011 designer Martine Poot from Vlaardingen of Studio Martijntje Cornelia started producing rings made from real cotton candy, which have been shaped by the environment.

“Changing to the wearer’s daily lives, the accessory reacts to sunlight or water, enabling it to uniquely change its form and color. Hand-made, each ring is unique and the transparent base emphasizes the pop of colour.” The rings are made from candy floss (aka cotton candy) and resin.

Poot also sells a cotton candy side table that “will adapt to your interior”.

(Links: www.designboom.com, Martijntje Cornelia)

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August 5, 2016

A walking table down the windy polder

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 1:33 pm

WalkingTable

It’s been around for a while, but it’s still pretty cool if you haven’t seen it: a walking table made by Wouter Scheublin. It does need to be pushed and occasionally pulled, but the end result as shown in the screenshot of the video gives me that Dutch holiday feeling.

The walking table is reminiscent of the better known and autonomous ‘Strandbeest’ (‘Beach Animal’) by Theo Jansen in case you’ve missed it.

Find out more about Scheublin’s more recent designs and collaborations here.

(Link: laughingsquid.com, screenshot of the video)

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