I am very happy to work with such nice guys in this office. I have learned really many things from them about not only design skills but also their possitive thouhgts and passionate attitudes for the architecture and design….

24 switch pixel

• GTA IV and NYC

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Marcos and Dimatos, originally uploaded by swerdloff.

I meant to post this awhile back and forgot. Marcos and I ended up at Half King, quite randomly. I checked in to Brightkite and since John [...]

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The brothers grosz, originally uploaded by swerdloff.

Went to Brian Grosz’s birthday barbecue and drinks fest for a few hours, saw the man himself, his whole family, and Ben Fine. Didn’t recognize anyone else so [...]

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Me and Jose, originally uploaded by swerdloff.

Jose and I worked together at DDC Lab ages and ages ago - when they first opened, basically - and I haven’t seen him in years and years. [...]

I was asked to write a short piece on the EM Brace for Rhizome’s new “Tools of the Trade” series, in which artists talk about the technical side of their works.
It’s currently on the Rhizome’s front page, and it’s static location is here.

The following conversation with two girls, one, 24, the other, 36.
24: You look bored.
Me: I’m not, this is just how I look. I don’t smile much. It causes wrinkles.
24: I don’t believe you.
Me: It’s true, it does cause wrinkles.
They laughed.
24: I bet you’re bored because this place is over.
Me: Well, yeah, but it’s outdoors, so [...]

For my first soft circuit, I decided to make a coaster that would light a series of LEDs when a drink is placed upon it.  Sounds simple, right?  Well, it wasn’t.  My biggest obstacle was my horrendously poor sewing ability.

My breadboard circuit was easy enough:

That’s a momentary switch to turn on the LEDs, just as the coaster’s soft switch would be.

Then I made the freeform circuit, which was really just connecting the four LEDs in parallel and hookin ‘em up to power:

(thanks to Seungran Woo for modeling)

Finally, it took time to make the soft switch.  I used a piece of foam rubber in square shape with the center cut out, two patches of conductive fabric , and glued them together:

 It actually worked well, but I did make a mistake by not leaving a tab of fabric to sew my circuit to.

Then I sewed the battery compartment, and that was my biggest point of failure.  I used a small square of conductive fabric as the anode, and sewed a series of stitches to the underside of the coaster.

I had to sew a patch of fabric to the canvas of the coaster to act as one side of the switch, and then I sewed the the conductive fabric to the coaster to form a pocket, which was then connected to the other side of the switch:

This battery compartment ended up just shorting itself out due to my poor sewing ability.  Frayed ends on the inside of the pocket contacted the conductive fabric, shorting the battery continuously.  So, when I sewed one LED to test it out, I found it would not work:

It took me a while to figure out what was happening, so that’s as far as I got.  What did I learn?  Well, sewing is really hard. Keeping conductive threads from touching each other in a two layer circuit is difficult.  You should always have a plan for contact areas to sew to on soft switches.  And battery compartments for coin cell batteries are very hard to make snug.

I was very disappointed in myself, but I guess it was just my first attempt, so I’m hoping to get better.  But it was a very frustrating initial experience. 

For my first soft circuit, I decided to make a coaster that would light a series of LEDs when a drink is placed upon it.  Sounds simple, right?  Well, it wasn’t.  My biggest obstacle was my horrendously poor sewing ability.

My breadboard circuit was easy enough:

That’s a momentary switch to turn on the LEDs, just as the coaster’s soft switch would be.

Then I made the freeform circuit, which was really just connecting the four LEDs in parallel and hookin ‘em up to power:

(thanks to Seungran Woo for modeling)

Finally, it took time to make the soft switch.  I used a piece of foam rubber in square shape with the center cut out, two patches of conductive fabric , and glued them together:

 It actually worked well, but I did make a mistake by not leaving a tab of fabric to sew my circuit to.

Then I sewed the battery compartment, and that was my biggest point of failure.  I used a small square of conductive fabric as the anode, and sewed a series of stitches to the underside of the coaster.

I had to sew a patch of fabric to the canvas of the coaster to act as one side of the switch, and then I sewed the the conductive fabric to the coaster to form a pocket, which was then connected to the other side of the switch:

This battery compartment ended up just shorting itself out due to my poor sewing ability.  Frayed ends on the inside of the pocket contacted the conductive fabric, shorting the battery continuously.  So, when I sewed one LED to test it out, I found it would not work:

It took me a while to figure out what was happening, so that’s as far as I got.  What did I learn?  Well, sewing is really hard. Keeping conductive threads from touching each other in a two layer circuit is difficult.  You should always have a plan for contact areas to sew to on soft switches.  And battery compartments for coin cell batteries are very hard to make snug.

I was very disappointed in myself, but I guess it was just my first attempt, so I’m hoping to get better.  But it was a very frustrating initial experience. 

Veil Solar Shade Harvests Energy And Teaches Pupils About Renewable Energy | Device Daily
It’s good to see that people are starting to pay attention to solar energy. How high do oil prices have to get before serious money gets sunk into these problems?
(tags: Solar)

Free Public WiFi SSID at WLAN Book.com
About that Free Public WiFi…
(tags: [...]

I just finished collaborating with artist Rosa Barba for her web project “Vertiginous Mapping.” The work was commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation and will have its opening tonight…

Jet pack? How about jet boots! See the video after the jump. Amazing.

Jet pack? How about jet boots! See the video after the jump. Amazing.

X-Prizes that, if we don’t have, we should:

Greenhouse gas eater
Alternative energy

What X-Prizes would you like to have? I recently saw one about fuel efficient cars, perhaps this recent oil blight will cause this one to actually be won.

Greg Costikyan has compiled a list of who he believes to be the most influential game designers (across all mediums) over on Play This Thing.
Seems like he did it off the top of his head, and he admits that it’s North America-centric, but it’s already being extended in the comments. There’s one name that should [...]

Pravin finishes programming web project, for the .

layers upon layers. fast, fleeting, transient. messy but not. borrows and builds. light. this is one of the most interesting projects i’ve seen in a while. sometimes when i walk by i am with a friend who happens to be carrying gigantic scissors. (even though my photos kinda suck). the construction site installation made by architect/designers Carolina Cisneros, Carlos J. Gómez de Llarena

delete cookies | via Swerdloff.com

delete cookies | via Swerdloff.com

I just graduated. Here’s my new band
SOURCE OF YELLOW

Emily Short is an interactive fiction (IF) author who has started writing some interesting things about games from a narrative perspective. IF grew out of and away from text adventures, which means that they’ve been grappling interactivity and narrative while everyone else has just been talking about it.
Over on GameSetWatch she has an article about [...]

The May 15th edition of BBC World’s Click program covered the release of the Botanicalls Kit in their News beat. This is the second time the BBC has touted Botanicalls to the English-speaking world of leaf-lovers and hopefully we can keep them all as perennial fans now that they can buy a kit.

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“

…and decides that it’s “the very least we should expect from now on.“