Looking Back

Over the past few weeks, I have learned a bit about design and interested I thought I never had. I have noticed a pattern in my writing. Mechanics and humanity and what goes in to a simple solution to create a simple design. I have touched upon human power in Kenya to the discoveries of the light bulb by inventors. It was very fascinating to see what I ended up researching and writing about. I learned a ton of info on green designs in third world countries and have been incorporating human power in other projects I have currently working on now. There are tons of ways human powered and green designs can be incorporated in most appliances. The mechanics of human power is very simple. In my research, I had discovered that third world countries the CO2 emissions is a less than half of developed ones. This is sad because although we are more developed and we still are doing more damage the atmosphere. There are so many simple steps we can take to contribute to the growing problem.

As designer, I think we should move forward and create a trend and a want of this human powered energy. There is so much natural movement out there that can be adapted to create a power supply for our needs. You walk every day, you talk, you breathe, why can’t these action be captured or used toward energy.

...in progress...

Design

Art or Design?... Is a questioned asked and has sparked numerous debates. In my mind art is more inspiration based one of a kind projects while design maybe inspired by art but is created to solve a problem. A chair for example made by an artist would be this crazy off kilter object that is or is not functional and can not be reproduced easily. But a chair made by a designer has a function and is always made to be reproduced whether it is 5 or 100,000. Although a designer may take inspiration from an artist's work, I would not consider it art. Art is also more sensual and more emotional way of creating things, while designs want to have some sort of a relationship with you. You can have a favorite chair or plate you like to use at dinner. Art in my opinion does not cause me to relate to it but feel an emotion or sensation about it.

But what happens when a Designer creates art? Well in that case it’s an expression, a brief expression or spur of the moment object. Something they just need to get out of their system and just make. Every person in life acts out of character sometimes. And this is what happens to designers. Personally being in the industrial design field, I do miss fine art sometimes. I may not be very good at painting or sculpture but I do get a craving to pick up a brush or clay once in a while. And when I do I do not call anything I create a design, it is art. As a designer I can not really say if an artist has this same impulse or if the just create to create.

Then it brings up the question, which came first Art or Design? Did the first people problem solve for a task or did they draw on the ground in the dirt? There is no way of truly knowing all we have is opinions and feelings, which everyone is entitled to. And many people seem to forget this. I guess this old debate will go on forever and there is no true answer.

A Better World by Design

Two weeks ago a few students from Brown and RISD put together a little conference called A better Word by Design hosted at Brown University. Some speakers of the event represented MIT, Ideo, and Architects for humanity, Better Place, and Harvard to name a few. After learning about the Kick start Water Pump last week, I have decided to focus a bit more on humanitarian design. I didn’t really believe I had an interest in the subject but that changed the more and more I research and read up about it the topic. Between ID history and my appliance studio, I am beginning to discover a little more about my own design goals and aspirations. Human power and helping others seems to be playing a large role in the environment and what I would like to continue on incorporating in my design.

While visiting the conference’s site, I stumbled upon Afrigadget. Afrigadget is a site dedicated to solving problems in Africa by Africans by solving their problems creatively, which is just want I talked about in my previous blog. Most of the founders grew up in Africa and have an interest in human or solar power processes.

There was an entry on their blog which sort of struck me. It is about a man and his cart. This man is a shoe shiner but what was odd about his cart was an old keyboard on top. The keyboard was stripped of all its keys and wires. Why did he have this old keyboard? He had told the member of Afrigadget that the keyboard was perfect lap table. A customer can put his foot on it and it would not slip off his leg and also hold on to the shoe polish. I am amazed at such a simple solution to a problem this man must have had to deal with for a while. How many pairs of pant did he ruin? How many bottles of polish had he dropped before he came up with this solution? Did he see someone else do this or was it his own ingenious solution?

Also I guess in Africa, there is a growing problem with monkeys crossing the street. With the highways in Kenya, monkeys are increasingly getting hit by cars as they cross the road. A group of locals designed a “rope” bridge made of pvc rubber and cable that is attached to a common tree on one side of the highway to another on the other side. One monkey was trained to cross the bridge and like the saying monkey see monkey do the other monkeys followed. There are about 23 bridges now and is used by over 300 species of animals including monkeys, possums, and other climbing animals. The bridge is another good example of people thinking up simple solutions to help out and solve an issue in a creative way. There is no technology needed for these solution just smart design and ideas.

Afrigadget

Super Money Maker

So I was do a bit of research on human powered appliance for my other studio and I came across the Super Money Maker, a water pump. Created by IDEO for KickStart. KickStart is a company dedicated to helping people get out of poverty by creating products to help them start their own businesses. Kickstart also helps managing the groups/businesses of these developing countries. They have produced a few different products for irrigation.

The one I found most interesting was the Super Money Maker. Basically, a water pump. It was produced form materials found and produced in Africa which lowers the price and make the pump readily available to Africans. The pump is human powered. It was based off of a step aerobics machine and made comfortable for bare foot users. The pumps are extremely light weight and can be carried by bike or hand. Every the year it will only rain about 1-2 times and sometimes not at all. During these dry spouts, crop production is low. So the Super Money Maker allows a farm to pump water and sell their crops when crops are scarce and profits are high. Kickstart sells the pump for $97 dollars, which pays itself off after one year of use. A farmer can make $1000 more a year by pumping water during dry spells. These families need this money to support their families, health care and schooling. It is virtually maintenance free and the parts that do need to be replaced are simple and easy to do themselves. After listen to the interview of Martin Fisher, co-founder (link below), he states that they do not give the pumps away for free because the workers would not appreciate them as much. This is a very valid point when you compare it to children who want to buy the latest thingamajig and a parent tells them to save the money themselves. They appreciate it more because all the work, time and saving that goes into getting the reward of purchasing the item. More care is given thereafter as well.

One fact I found on the IDEO site, which was very interesting, ‘more than 50% of KickStart's Moneymaker pumps are managed by women entrepreneurs.’

The Kickstart's Super Money Maker Pump is a great product because all you need is the pump. There is no need for anything else but your land, your pump, and yourself. The profits are beneficial to the family and to the environment as well.

Kickstart also has a smaller version water pump which is just as easy to use. The user just rests his/her hip on the side and sways. This motion is simpler than the Moneymaker and less tiring as well but does not produce as much water. Less water, less profit. This pump is only $37.

KickStart's Super Money Maker

Interview with Martin Fisher, Co-Founder

IDEO help's Kickstart

The Green Head - Kitty Wigs

The Green Head - Kitty Wigs

Maines and Wright

Maines

A vibrator as a medical device? Really. It’s slightly is unnerving to know that there is no know evidence or response from “patients” of this so called medical device created by men and used on hysterical women. I am sure once they realized that women were getting more joy from a machine then a man could possible provided, they banned it from the medical device (public) category. The issue to me stems back to man vs. the machine in my opinion.

In the video Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm, I found it a bit strange when the older women who own an original vibrator said that ads and society made her feel guilty for owning on and that the sexuality of oneself is not a thing to talk about. In my appliance studio DJ Mix it, sex toys and vibrators being appliances, are mention daily. I have to admit, it was a bit uncomfortable and I did find myself a bit uncomfortable with the topic. So I guess I was in a similar situation, but as we kept discussing it. I started to notice that other were either very open to the topic. To think the device was a very public matter, even published on a page in the Sear Roebuck Catalog.

Link to Passion and Power: The Technology of Orgasm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyvistSxek


Wright


The stiletto heel is definitely a product that defines who a woman is, especial nowadays with all the style and brands. It has become an extension of a women body. It is a way to express feeling, moods, power and body. You can always tell how someone feels about themselves who is wearing heals by the way a women stomps her heels and how high the spike is, i.e. strippers in heels.I must admit myself, I do not wear heels very often myself, but when I do, it is very empowering and I feel much more confident walking down the street than I would in sneaker.

Lee Wright brings up a good question.If men can buy objects that make them feel assertive and “big”, then why can’t women? It is very understandable. Men buy sport cars, hummers and SUVs, which are all a type of vehicle that make a man, feel a satisfaction and even a bit more confident. Women buy clothing, accessories and shoes to feel successful. There is no reason for a criticism here, to each their own. A product can definitely define the person you are but I do not yet feel that designers control or designs meaning into a product.

Watching Death

*This post is based on my opinion not research base*

After revisiting my time lines, I decided to take a second look at execution. Past verses present by the means of method and environment. In the images I choose below, I noticed an evolution I had never really thought about. This notion of death went from being public and in humane to a more private setting and a quicker painless way to pass a criminal’s life. In the beginning death penalties, were few and far between as they are now, but with a few big differences.

People were sentenced to death due to murders and betraying the kings or political figures of the time. Some of the early methods included the cucking stool which consisted of a chair attached to a beam which dunks a person in and out of a body of water by a another person pulling on a rope controlling the lever. This then evolved to dragging a person from a wagon by a rope around their neck. This evolved to hanging someone by rope and removing a platform below them. Then there was a process call stoning which was more of a torture to death way. It involved putting large slabs of stone on a person’s torso crushing them to death. These methods were very painful and were not instant by all means. The French in the 1800’s decided to change the inhumane method of death by inventing a contraption that would cut the heads off of a person in open clean swoop by dropping a sharp blade on the back of a criminal’s neck. This device was called the guillotine. From there on out, a trend evolution was formed to create an instant and painless way to kill criminals. From the guillotine, capital punishment used the firing quad the electric chair. Some places have stopped using the firing squad and electric chair due to the clean up. After the chair, people wanted a less painful way of killing prisoners a new method of injected and over loading person systems with a high dose of drugs. This was called lethal injection and became the most popular way to die. Nowadays lethal injection or the gas chamber is the ways to go because of the easy clean up for the prisons and prisoner’s die in a peaceful state usually his/her sleep. Which brings up the question do they really need a painless method? They harmed someone else or committed a crime so harsh that they were sentenced to death. Why should we give them the easiest and most comfortable way of dying? This is very ironic. From documentaries I have seen, criminals on death row are usually ready and willing to die for their punishment and what to go painless. But I really think they should be punished the manner that is relatable to their committed crime. Some countries still practice older methods of killing such as stoning and firing squads. As the method was humanized the procedure also became more private.

Back in the beginning a community would share in the experience of death whether they like to or not. It was a public affair. The town would gather in the center of the village or in the town square and watch a person plead for forgiveness. Trials were not necessarily fair i.e. Salem Witch Trials. These people would be degraded to their last breath of life and everyone was there to witness it. A family would watch a member die in front of everyone. This was not right. Why a person had to spend their last moments looking into the eyes of a sea of strangers instead a few relatives? Even though the committed a crime I still believe that a person should be able to choose who they want to wittiness their death. The electric chair was one of the last methods to have a large audience. The rooms were seat up with about 12 or more seats. These people main job was to witness the death of a criminal. They would have to sign a contract watch the execution. In the beginning the killer could see the witness but as technology developed they used two way mirrors to protect the watchers. As the years went by and the punishments became “easier” the public setting also diminished. The only people who choose to watch the death were close friends family members or relatives. People do not want to see people die in person we just want to know we have justice. Justice which is a whole can of worms I do not want to go into so we will skip it.

After our first id history class, I feel like it is now coming full circle in a matter of speaking. Now we want to preserve the death in share the death. By doing documentaries, by creating a pixilated sarcophagus, people are become interested in death again. Some criminals are somewhat a celebrity due to the media and stories retelling the crimes they committed. This feeling of wanting to understand the criminal mind and try to figure out what is going on in their heads is becoming more familiar due to television, newspapers, and books. People are becoming interested again. And I do believe that if you had a public execution people would show up. I am not sure if that would be because people are now jaded and less sensitive to death or the just do not know how they would react to a live killing. I know I am going a bit off topic with this suggestion but it would be an interesting psychological test. Would we react the same way as our ancestors did or would we just brush it off? I am not very sure how I would react. All and all I think I have posed a few new questions for myself which I would have never really asked myself before I had to revisit the evolution of execution timeline.