Twerff's Blog

Use of Art

Thomas van de Werff — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:05:34 +0000

As industrial designer I am bound to needs and wishes of society and the consumer. Artists have for more far more freedom in their choices and designs, because they don’t have to think about these consumers. That also allows them to have more freedom in interaction. An artist doesn’t need to make an object or product with interaction that is intuitive or easy for the user.
I am especially interested in the way artists use estrangement or defamiliarization in interaction and art. Familiar objects which have a surprising unfamiliar interaction, such as Scaredchair, have always inspired me. Feeling unfamiliar with a familiar object creates a surprise effect. It allows fun and playfulness. Artists also use this the other way around: unfamiliar objects with a familiar interaction, like the wooden mirror. Unfamiliar objects combined with an unfamiliar interaction are less interesting to me.

Why is this so? How can I use this defamiliarization in my product designs? When I use unfamiliar interaction in my designs, would they then automatically lose their functionality? When does art become familiar?

Thomas van de Werff — Thu, 13 May 2010 13:24:11 +0000

I created a first setup for my showcase. I am still working on the design, but that I think this is the least important thing now. Next step: filling it with reflections. I better start writing some today..

http://www.twerff.nl/showcase/B22.swf

Choice

Thomas van de Werff — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:13:23 +0000

After the midterm exhibition was almost 2 weeks ago, I am wondering if I made the right choices from that point on. At the midterm I had 2 / 3 concepts to choose from:
1. Mouse: This mouse should give feedback on the use of the mouse to its user. It should light up according to the quantity of use.
2. Pen: This pen counts the meters it has written and shows this on the clip.
3. Pen Tray: This “pen tray” shows a TU/e logo according to the rotation of the pan which is placed on it.

My coach was enthusiastic about the mouse, and I was too. That is why I chose to work on the mouse. After looking to the conclusions of my research I started hesitating. Strong points in a product are interaction, purpose of display and identity. The comment of the client to all concepts was that they lacked to identity of the university. I am wondering if it is easer to create a product from the pen tray which meets these criteria.

STEIM @ Music Hack Day

Thomas van de Werff — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:21:14 +0000

Click to view slideshow.

Interaction Frogger

Thomas van de Werff — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:07:22 +0000

Products with inherent, augmented and functional feedback and feedforward.

Interesting products are:
- The Microsoft Zune looks as if it has a touchwheel, while it actually is a botton (misleading inherent feedforward)
- The Logitech webcam lacks at feedback and feedforward (you could discuss whether the appearance is functional feedforward). It has only a red light when in use (augmented feedback)

For next week I am going to redesign one of these objects in two different ways. The first one with interaction as intuitive as possible, and the second with aesthetically pleasing interaction. I am thinking of the webcam..

The use of Art

Thomas van de Werff — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:51:10 +0000

Write an essay. Subject is interactive art and behavior.

Strawberry hack forever

Thomas van de Werff — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 02:42:17 +0000

Today I spent my whole day working on one of my biggest hobbies: Hacking of music. I went to the Music Hack Day Amsterdam and stay there until Sunday evening.

The weekend started off with presentations of companies like Last.fm, RjDj, EchoNest and 3voor12. I did a workshop with STEIM where I created my own digital cracklebox using an Arduino set. After playing around for a while with different sensors I decided to focus on working with an API to maybe combine these. I really want the free year of subscribtion to Last.fm, so I started using the API of Last.fm. You can click here for the result up till now (it is half past4 in the morning, I’ll present it at 2 tomorrow)

Oh, btw, I got RjDj on my Andriod! Yay for me

Portfolio

Thomas van de Werff — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 13:05:07 +0000

The reason why I haven’t been blogging for a while is that I have been working on my portfolio. With this I hope to find a nice place for my internship next semester. It is not yet finished, but I am pretty proud of the result up till now.

Artificial Intelligence

Thomas van de Werff — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:05:44 +0000

Yesterday I went to a presentation about artificial intelligence. It started of interesting by asking us the question: “What is intelligence?” This question kept me busy for the whole day.. What is intelligence? Are we, humans, intelligent? Is it so that we project our intelligence to the rest of the world? How can a system be intelligent when a human being, the programmer, inserted his rules and knowledge? Is there a difference between smart and intelligent? I’ll stop for now.

This subject really interests me together with other philosophical subjects. I think I found that this is a clear example of the difference between an academic and not-academic education. Speculation and imagination.

I’d like to conclude with some cool examples of AI.

Kick ass

Thomas van de Werff — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:47:27 +0000

I need some spankin..

After a talk with my coach I concluded that I need to be whipped once in a while. Why is it that I am not able to concentrate on the stuff that is important to get my Bachelors diploma? Why do I do only things that I like to do at that moment? And why, get this, why is it so that when I want to be efficient and work on my project or showcase, I don’t know what to do?

I posted this blog to avoid spanking from my coach and from now on I will keep on posting!