Samanunga

Scientific findings can be visually appealing. Probably you are familiar with the beauty of for example fractals. But what about design with nano-technology to create hairy nails. Tissue engineering brings beautifully grown steaks, or leather coats without spilling a drop of blood. Design for debate brings dolls forward with which we can explain modern practice in human fertilization like IVF. TED just released Paola Antonelli with her introduction into the state of the art in design by science of december 2007: “Design and the elastic mind”.

Watch the video at ted.com

How ‘s that?

People are at their most creative late at night with 10.04pm the most likely time for a eureka moment, research has shown. Brainwaves are least likely to strike in the afternoon, according to a survey that suggests office workers have little chance of solving problems after lunch. The least creative time in the day is 4.33pm, with 92 per cent of people admitting to feeling uninspired in the afternoon.

Read the full article in the daily telegraph.

2 recommended events this week on design and children:

Fun and Games Conference (www.fng2008.org)
20-22 October 2008
University of Technology, Eindhoven

Cinekid Festival (www.cinekid.nl)
The International film, television and new media festival for children and young people
Especially the New Media Lab in the “Westergasfabriek” is recommended!
11-26 October 2008
Westergasfabriek Amsterdam
and at local Cinema’s

Designing interfaces for the art of music. Sound generation has become independent of form (acoustics being taken care of digitally). What should a musical instrument look like? WIRED presents eight examples. Take a look at the BEAMZ, the Boing Boing or the Gypsi MIDI.

On a cold, windy and rainy evening, with 267 people breathing fire at once, the record attempt was successfully broken. Now we have to wait for the Guinness book of records to acknowledge.

My sis, and a good friend of mine watched it all and took some pictures and shot a movie of the event.

20081015_vuurspuw_record

Several media picked up on it as well (updated):

a short movie with nice slow-motion scenes on Edtv
NOS
Elsevier
Telegraaf
Kidsweek
nu.nl
20081016_vuurspuwverslag metro 16 okt 2008 (pdf)
Hart van Nederland
omroep brabant

Now for something completely different: I am going to break the record in Fire-Breathing!

Fire-breathing (or more Dutch alike: fire-spitting) is in the Guinness book of records by the largest number of people that perform fire-breathing simultaneously. Wednesday October 15 at 1800h, I will take part in a record attempt, to perform fire-breathing with >250 people. The event will take place at the university campus in Eindhoven.
(more…)