Tag Archives: Royal College of Art

This Kinetic Sculpture Provides an Elegant Metaphorical Reflection on Environmental Impact through Dots

Posted on by

Our contemporary lifestyles have undeniably left a negative mark on the environment. Despite the ongoing discussions and awareness campaigns, it seems that these efforts have failed to significantly influence the lifestyle choices of the masses. “The Dots,” an interactive installation by Jack Lee, serves as a metaphorical representation, showcasing the undeniable impact of human activities on the environment and its related issues. Through the fusion of kinetic art and technology, this captivating artwork offers a thought-provoking visual narrative that urges viewers to reflect upon their responsibility towards the environment.

Designer: JACK LEE

At the heart of “The Dots” installation are meticulously arranged polarised panels, cleverly designed to create mesmerizing visual effects through physical manipulation. By employing servo motors and sensors, the transparency of these panels dynamically adapts to the proximity of the viewer, revealing a captivating visual story. Jack Lee’s creation exemplifies the essence of his “Matters” project series, catalyzing contemplation and encouraging viewers to consider their impact on the environment.

Global environmental issues often appear too vast, abstract, and disconnected from individuals’ daily lives. While the public is generally aware of their existence, it is challenging to establish a personal connection with these issues. However, the power to shape the Earth’s environment, whether positively or negatively, lies within the hands of each individual.

The polarising film used in “The Dots” plays a pivotal role in creating its visual effects. This film is applied to both the surface of the panels and the viewer’s face shield, creating a unified polarised environment. Polarisation is a property of light that describes the direction in which its waves vibrate. The film is specially designed to filter and manipulate the polarisation of light passing through it.

As the panels rotate, the relative angle between the polarised film on the panels and the viewer’s face shield changes. This change in angle alters the transmission of light through the panels, affecting their transparency. When the polarization angles align, the panels become more transparent, allowing more light to pass through. Conversely, when the polarisation angles are misaligned, the panels appear darker and less transparent.

This dynamic interaction between the viewer’s perspective and the polarised panels creates captivating visual transformations, enhancing the immersive experience and reinforcing the connection between the viewer and the artwork.

The installation consists of seven precisely arranged circular panels, forming an intriguing hexagonal grid. Guided by servo motors controlled by an Arduino board integrated with an Ultrasonic distance sensor, each panel gracefully comes to life. The panels’ surfaces are coated with a delicate layer of polarised film, similar to the material used in a specially designed face shield that the audience wears.

As the panels elegantly rotate, a mesmerizing metamorphosis unfolds. The transparency of each panel dynamically shifts, influenced by the relative angle between the viewer’s glasses and the panels themselves. This captivating interplay between movement and perception creates a visual symphony, where the degree of rotation echoes the distance between the audience and the installation.

“The Dots” installation serves as a significant initiative toward environmental awareness, but there is room for further development. Currently, viewers require additional equipment like the viewer’s glasses to fully experience the installation. While this adds an extra effort that may deter some individuals, it is crucial to consider inclusivity and accessibility. Finding ways to make the experience more easily accessible can ensure a broader reach and engage even the “lazy” population who might otherwise prioritize ease over environmental concerns.

Looking into the future, “The Dots” holds immense potential for engaging and inspiring audiences in various settings. Beyond its current artistic context, the concept and technology employed in this work can be extended to broader applications.

In public spaces, such as museums or interactive exhibitions, “The Dots” can serve as an immersive experience that encourages public engagement and dialogue. By inviting viewers to reflect on their individual responsibility for the environment, the installation prompts discussions and actions toward a more sustainable future.

Moreover, the technology and techniques used in “The Dots” can inspire innovations in architectural design and urban planning. By integrating similar interactive elements into buildings and public spaces, it becomes possible to create dynamic environments that respond to human presence and encourage eco-friendly behaviors.

Overall, the future application of “The Dots” extends beyond its current art form, presenting opportunities for environmental education, public engagement, and sustainable design solutions. By harnessing the power of interactive technology art, this installation has the potential to contribute to a more conscious and environmentally responsible society. It reminds us that our individual actions, no matter how small, can make a difference in shaping a better future for our planet.

The post This Kinetic Sculpture Provides an Elegant Metaphorical Reflection on Environmental Impact through Dots first appeared on Yanko Design.

This clever scratch-card sticker helps people remember to take their medicines everyday

Posted on by

If I were entirely honest, there isn’t one thing that I can truly say I’ve successfully done every day. I usually brush every day but if you held me at gunpoint and asked me if I’ve ever missed a day, chances are that I probably have. And while missing a day in your brushing schedule isn’t positively life-threatening, missing your daily medicines can be. FabriSol is an adhesive sticker designed to help HIV+ patients take their daily medicines without fail.

Forgetfulness is one of the major reasons HIV+ patients do not adhere to their treatment. It’s difficult to remember to take medication daily, especially when a condition requires lifelong treatment. FabriSol, developed by Ricky Stoch – a student at the Royal College of Art, is an adhesive sticker that goes right on top of the packaging for antiretroviral medicines (ARVs). The sticker uses a series of 28 metallic scratch-patches to help patients keep a daily track of their medicine intake for 4 weeks. When patients take their pills, they scratch off the day’s metallic coating. This action reveals a tick indicating adherence and provides positive reinforcement.

The FabriSol fits on both bottles as well as on pill-boxes, and comes in a pack of multiple stickers that can go on new bottles/packaging after the old ones run out. Apart from allowing patients to remember to take their crucial medicines, the FabriSol even provides a historical record of any days that you potentially miss. While the sticker was initially developed for HIV+ patients, it can easily be modified and used to treat tuberculosis, hypertension, diabetes, depression, and many more chronic conditions that require steady, daily medication.

Designer: Ricky Stoch

Edible food packaging made from seaweed has the potential to offset carbon emissions entirely!

Posted on by

I don’t even know where to begin with the problem of plastic pollution – it is a heavy one and in literal terms, the amount of plastic on this planet is almost the same as the weight of the entire human population. Let that sink in. Single-use plastic makes for more than 50% of the plastic waste problem and if we continue at the rate we are going right now, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. According to the UN Environment, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute around the world, while up to 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year (read more here). In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once and then thrown away – this is a serious problem and Wenwen Fan of the Royal College of Arts is using her design abilities to do her bit in providing a solution.

Seaweed is touted as green gold by scientists who are exploring its uses as a sustainable alternative for single-use plastic. What makes it interesting is that it can be edible and has high nutritional value too! It is already a staple in Asian diets and also in skincare routines, so it was time to push the boundaries and turn these into vegan wrappers. Made from seaweed and vegetable extracts, these low-cal wrappers can be used as edible packaging for snacks and dissolvable pouches that add extra nutritional value to your food like vitamins, minerals as well as polysaccharides from that support your gut health. The seaweed extract is then dehydrated and the prototypes are examined in different temperature settings as well as tested for waterproof properties. Turtles eat seaweed and they live to be 100 so why not!?

“As a multidisciplinary experience designer, I am passionate about designing a cohesive, integrated set of experiences for behavior change. From embedding AR into an immersive Alzheimer’s simulation experience to creating sustainable edible packaging from seaweed, I believe a good experience design should be context-driven, behaviorally informed, and culturally relevant,” says Fan. The wrappers can customize for different flavors and nutritions for a more personalized product combination on Seaweed U which will be an online platform dedicated to the product. It is an ingenious way of packaging food while also being a source of soluble fiber – I see this design as a win-win with the only hurdle being the scale of mass production should a big brand adopt this packaging design. Seaweed U encourages a more convenient, playful, and pleasurable diet solution as well as reducing plastic pollution from the food industry.

There are three suggested scenarios in using these seaweed wrappers: Trick or Treat, The Lazy Pouch, and Super Chef. Trick or Treat is a healthy snack made from fruity-taste seaweed skins. Through combining a more familiar food palate like nuts and berries with the nutritional skins, it enables people to enjoy seaweed through daily snacking without being held back by the green and slimy texture. The Lazy Pouch is a single-serve, dissolvable pouch with different types of seaweed like wakame, dulse, and kelp, etc. that offers a convenient and quality meal supplement for those living a fast-paced lifestyle. Super Chef offers a creative DIY food experience in the kitchen where people can play with this versatile material in combination with ordinary ingredients to make unique dishes like transparent onigiris, ice cream raviolis, and colorful spring rolls.

We all know eating a more plant-based diet has a direct impact on climate change and seaweed can be of great help. According to scientists, building seaweed farming networks on just 9% of the world’s ocean could offset carbon emission entirely – that can buy us more time to focus on the larger plastic problem. Seaweed U aims to help people feel comfortable with different superfoods that add immense benefits to their health as well as the health of our planet.

Designer: Wenwen Fan

This 3D printed sustainable clay range is an indigenous storage solution that reduces food waste!

Posted on by

All over the world, we face the challenge of waste generation and management. Most people think that plastic is the biggest culprit but you would be surprised to know that food waste the largest waste contributor worldwide. To put it into context, food is responsible for 44% while plastic is responsible for 12% – that is a problem we need to fix and designer Lea Randebrock is taking a step in the right direction with her Clay Pantry collection.

About 1/4th of the food waste, which is generated in industrialized countries goes back to the actions of consumers and the busy lifestyles of western countries in combination with a lack of knowledge. Old-timey solutions like root-cellars made it possible to store produce throughout winter but now we have cheap food that is quick to cook and always available which has been taken for granted. People are not only detached from their environment but also from the food they consume and Clay Pantry wants to change that approach through its organic design. It provides a suitable space for fruits and vegetables which make up for the highest waste count. Inspired by traditional storing methods, this collection was created to be used within our modern lifestyle settings – the best of both worlds. The furniture-container collection includes the Root Stool, Fruit Shelf, Tempered Box, and Watering Jug which are all crafted around the behavior and actions of watering plants. “By watering the objects like plants, the focus goes effortlessly to the objects and the content,” describes Randebrock who has been a student of furniture design and is inspired by indigenous materials.

Clay has been used since ancient times as a storage solution for food and drinks, having grown up in India it is a big part of the culture and in fact, water stored in clay pots is always cooler (and sweeter!). The cooling effect is due to the porosity of earthenware which has natural cooling properties when soaked with water. Clay Pantry optimizes this property to give you a range of storage containers for small, urban homes. The Root Stool provides dry and dark storage space and the Tempered Box was created for produce that needs humid and cool conditions. The Fruit Shelf and Water Jug are self-explanatory. Clay Pantry’s modular nature makes it a perfect fit for compact apartments and for those looking for an eco-friendly storage solution for their produce.

“In the situation followed by the challenging spring of 2020, I believe it is more important than ever to include empathy in our society. Any aspects of everyday life are challenged and need to be redesigned and restructured. While this is a challenging time, this is a chance to question the status quo. As a designer, I hope to contribute in a positive way to a Post-Corona society,” says Randebrock, a student of the Royal College of Arts. She has used a traditional food storage method but brought it to life using 3D printing – the best of both worlds is embodied in this collection that serves us and our environment.

Designer: Lea Randebrock

clay pantry

clay pantry 1

clay pantry 2

Meet Flair, the flattest, most lightweight chair ever made…

Posted on by

Clue: It’s less of a chair and more of a really well-designed hammock.

Designed as a means of public seating that could be accessed when needed, discarded when unwanted, and not abused by people trying to sleep on it, the Flair is a polymer-sheet that is part origami, part furniture, and complete creativity. The Flair, a portmanteau of Flat and Chair, is made from a creased polypropylene sheet that supports its ability to have live-hinges. It suspends on a wall thanks to rivets and hooks at the back that allow the Flair to hang onto the wall like a painting. The wall comes with three sets of rivets, one static, and two that allow you to hook the Flair in its seating position, and in its closed position.

Using the Flair is as simple as using a folding chair. Once you get the knack of it, you don’t need to be shown twice. When closed, the Flair sits flat against a wall, practically hidden from view, thanks to its translucency. When opened, each Flair sits precisely one person and adjusts its curvature to, well, to your curvature… just like a hammock. And like most public seating that discourages behavior like sleeping on the benches at night (more accurately known as defensive design), the Flair’s shape allows you only to sit on it (or perhaps stand too, but I wouldn’t recommend that). Besides being one of the lightest chairs I’ve ever seen (and hands down the flattest), cleaning the Flair is as easy as taking a cloth to it and wiping the dust off it with a singular motion!

Designer: Thomas Gossner

Royal College of Art student designs compostable clay vases… out of waste milk

Posted on by

It’s difficult to believe that something like milk could turn into a material that’s as moldable as clay, and as strong as concrete when dried. Tessa Silva-Dawson, a student at the Royal College of Art, developed a way to turn waste milk into a compostable clay-like material by combining it with chalk. Titled Chalk Cheese, the material uses excess skimmed milk created in the production of butter or cream. Rather than throwing this milk away, she mixed it with chalk sourced from a quarry in Hampshire to create a moldable material with the consistency of polymer clay. The series of vases designed using this material are molded from deadstock fabric to give it its unique aesthetic, but Tessa claims the material can easily be molded by hand too, to make other homeware.

Chalk Cheese is a modern reinterpretation of a material previously used in 16th century Britain, where sour, spoilt milk was mixed with limestone to create tough flooring that became as hard as stone after drying. Silva-Dawson’s material possesses more structural integrity, allowing it to be molded by hand or even spun on a potter’s wheel… and unlike fired-terracotta which doesn’t biodegrade, Chalk Cheese can easily be composted or turned into fertilizer after the product serves its purpose!

Designer: Tessa Silva-Dawson

This innovative smartphone case lets you text without even touching the screen

Posted on by

Designed by product engineer Dougie Mann, the TypeCase is a remarkable win for inclusive design! The smartphone case comes with a keyboard built right into its rim and relies on a “chord system” to generate text, where a certain combination of button-pushes results in a letter being typed out on the smartphone screen. This allows you to literally text while holding your phone in one hand, making it easy for special-needs cases as well as for people who often find themselves needing to text with one hand occupied.

The case reintroduces the familiar feeling of tactile feedback while typing, as a gestural keyboard around the rim of the screen works as an input device. The TypeCase comes with four buttons on one side and one on the other, corresponding to the positions of your fingers and thumb when you’re holding the device. The initial learning curve would be memorizing the individual ‘chord’ gestures required to type out certain letters and words, but Mann’s demo shows how easy it is to proceed once you get the hang of it. The case connects to your phone via Bluetooth, while the buttons on its rim are raised for ease-of-use for people with visual or motor impairment. Once the user is familiar with the chord-system, the TypeCase brings back the old and cherished feeling of being able to confidently type out full sentences without even looking at the screen. What’s not there to love?!

Designer: Dougie Mann

This automatic shoe wears itself the moment you step into it!

Posted on by

With two satisfying clicks, the Bas or the Bistable Automatic Shoe wears itself around you. No electronics, no Bluetooth apps, no fancy self-lacing technology, just innovative thinking.

Yvonne Hung, a student at the Royal College of Art in London began her thesis project with the simple idea… what if textiles could move? Early on in the project, the designer had an accident and found her arm and hand in a cast for six weeks, when basic chores like getting dressed and putting on her Doc Martens became nearly impossible. That sparked the very idea of a shoe that could ‘wear itself’. Multiple iterations later, she arrived at textile-based actuators, or textuators, that could respond to the act of placing your shoe inside a sole. The Bas has a framework of passive bistable and compliant actuators, created by combining spring wire and elastic cord using a traditional basket weaving technique. Forces of tension between the two elements allow them to snap into either an open or a closed state, giving the shoe a literal ‘on-off’ mode. As soon as your heel and toe-ball apply pressure to the insole, the Bas comes alive, as the metallic armature inside it springs to life to envelope your foot. A custom-knit fabric woven around the metal framework gives the Bas a comfortable feel, while ultimately covering your feet with a protective fabric layer. To open the shoe, simply pull a loop at the back of the heel and the textuators flip open.

“Bas was created to demonstrate the potential of moving textiles”, said Yvonne to Yanko Design. “n the future, we may have new typologies of products that have multiple states—clothes that dress themselves, rooms that change shape, and furniture that self-assembles—all thanks to mechanical textiles.”

Designer: Yvonne Hung

Human-centric consumer electronics that only work when you surrender your phone!

Posted on by

I applaud the effort, but your smartphone’s Screen Time or Digital Wellbeing feature telling you how much time you stare at your screen isn’t going to help. You’ll feel guilty about being on Instagram 2 hours a day, but awareness doesn’t break addiction. Designer Matteo Bandi has a much better solution… confiscation.

Sidekicks, developed by Bandi during his MA at the Royal College of London, is a series of electronic devices and appliances that literally use your phone as their on/off switch. Designed as a desk lamp for working, a speaker for leisure time, an alarm clock for the end of the day and a projector for watching a movie, Sidekicks literally need you to dock your phone in them to work. Place your phone in the designated area and your gadget powers to life, allowing you to use it. The phone’s screen turns into the product’s interface, allowing you to control it, while limiting your use. By confiscating your phone in order to work, Sidekicks offer a much more ‘cold turkey’ solution to our smartphone addiction problems, punishing us at first, but eventually allowing us to consciously live in the moment… plus using the phone’s screen as a control panel for the product itself? Absolute genius!

Designer: Matteo Bandi

Self-driving catamarans are definitely the future!

Posted on by

hydropace_1

Cas Dahmen’s Hydropace definitely makes a case for the future of luxury travel. The concept hydrofoil-catamaran, smoothly glides on the surface of the water, carrying as many as 20 people in complete style (including two cabin crew members).

The Hydropace was designed to be used in urban coastal areas like the UAE in the year 2030, providing its services in the form of private and public transport for businessmen, tourists, or commuters. The twin-hulled catamaran comes with an electric drive, where an electric motor is powered by Li-ion batteries. Each of the two hulls contains a ducted fan, driven by the integrated electric motors. Compressed air travels out of the fan nozzle through the hull to the rear openings, where it is released into the air. Aside from being a zero-emissions, purely electric vehicle, the Hydropace is also self-driving, with level 5 autonomy, which means it requires no human intervention and does not even need any steering apparatus. This helps free up space at the front, where one would usually have the ship’s helm or steering wheel. The absence of any steering system enables the interiors to be more open and spacious. With a 40 meter long cabin, luxurious seating, and a glass sky-roof, the passengers are given complete panoramic views of the surroundings, with ample natural lighting too. Each seating pod is also equipped with a transparent screen and touch-sensitive control pad, allowing passengers to access in-ship entertainment systems. If that isn’t the future of luxury, I don’t know what is!

Designer: Cas Dahmen

hydropace_2

hydropace_3

hydropace_4

hydropace_5