I have a small collection of tin-toys. Those type of toys, for me, represent a the starting point of technology-enabled toys. All items in my tiny collection use a power cord to perform a certain movement. It isn’t a direct response to my actions, but it definitely brings some magic element. A hidden engine that makes them walk, run, blow, etc. They are more automata then interactive toys. But the techno-mechanical principle within them draws my attention. I keep thinking about the fun, the play experience, they offered and why they became so popular in their time.
Reading further about atomata (or automatons, plural of automaton) I recalled one of the most beautiful scene that I have ever seen. The “Presépio do Pipiripal” is a huge moving diorama. Inspired by the catholic myth, Raimundo Machado de Azeredo, started to build his small world in 1906 (!), featuring moving puppets made out papier-marche, recreating steps of Jesus’s life and other daily activities. The whole scenario is activated by only one motor and its power is transferred from puppet to puppet by a myriad of hidden threads and wooden wheels. Pipiripal is an automata show still running today under protection of the IPHAN (National Institute of Historic and Artistic Patrimony), Brazil. I live memory in my mind. It isn’t directly toy related, but the experience offered is magical for toddlers and grown-ups.
Presepio do Pipiripau, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
WHY: I am thinking more and more on toys that invite physical movements as a way of interaction. Thinking it over I reminded the Piripipau. A good reference for one who is interested in automata is the cabaret.co.uk website. It features artists, exhibitions and a good blog on toys.
In 1974, almost 100 years after its building was finished, the MoC had its direction dedicated to the subject of childhood. Alongside the Museum’s existing toy collection, the space features collections of children’s costume, books, nursery items, art and furniture. Searching for toys references and history I found their very complete website. There I found, between other things, a Moving Toys section were you can see how old are toys that offers some sort of mechanical reaction. The whole website is worthy to explore. The collections looks great! Quite stimulating. I haven’t been there yet, but it seems that they do a good job in accomplishing their goal:
The V&A Museum of Childhood aims to encourage everyone to explore the themes of childhood past and present and develop an appreciation of creative design through our inspirational collections and programmes.
WHY: Motion in toys isn’t new. Technology can add a new dimention to it, but I like to keep an eye on how early toys already have some responsive behaviour, allowing surprise and discovery. How the child interaction can change its behaviour. If we assume that interaction design is a discipline that concerns about design product responses and behave, the moving toys section gives a good clue about movements that could be used by a chid without asking for cognitive overload (with labels and menus, for instance)
I met Henrinque Monnerat — a Brazilian visionary designer and friend — a year ago. Through some beer-meetings I realize that we share some points regarding design and its potential to change the world (Yes, we are idealists when talking about design). And simple ideas can do the job. Even better, everyone can do it. Should do it. It is the MAKEr’s time. If you feel in the same way, you can start by creating you own Light DiYstrict. He should share it on Instructables as soon as possible.
WHY: I can say that Henrique is also Guided by whim, imagination and curiosity.
Kevin Kelly has a particular way of presenting his complex views on technology matters without being oversimplified. I saw his talk before, via TED. I even have used his talk on “How does technology evolve” when I gave a presentation at ECA/USP (http://www.eca.usp.br/ in Portuguese). His last talk published by TED (The next 5,000 days of the web) was now updated and presented last Friday during the Web 2.0 Summit, San Francisco, CA. He moved from 5,000 days into a forecast of the next 6,500 days of what KK calls “a data base of things”.
WHY: Regarding Tangible Embedded Interactions we will face a great deal of influence from web-enabbled devices and connectivity. A trend that is often overlooked by fellow product designers that tend to limit them selves to the materialization/embodiment of the product. There is a overlap between both talks (TED and Web2.0 summit) but I post the second one as it offers links to other interesting talks on Web2.0 summit 08. Good overview about future of web: as media, as entertainment and as technology.
Tangible.cc will be the URL for my project development. I feel confortable by doing note-taking online, so the wiki sounded as a good idea. Easy to edit and to re-order the content as my knowledge grows.
As this work is a one-man-project, you can’t create a wiki-user as it is usual in other wikis. Colaborations with other designers/researchers will be studied when it cames to the time.
…armed with my childish curiousity and the spurious excuse of ‘product design research,’ I set out to discover what, exactly, these creatures are hiding.
WHY: Although the first Toy Story feturred this behave in a bad boy (Sid Phillips), curious children and adults can have a lot fun discovering new perspectives regarding the toy they have. You never can predict the all the play activities one toy can offer.
This photographer caught my attention. By looking to his work you can see that the images are well planned, carefully built, but it also involves a good exploratory pattern. In his own words:
The artwork I create combines my scientific curiosity with a constructive approach to making pictures.
WHY: Again its another example about the design process I am more and more interested in. A creative research where knowledge and high level of experimentation can (should) came together.
The Inventables guys, Zach Kaplan and Keith Schacht, demo some amazing new materials and how we might use them. Look for squishy magnets, odor-detecting ink, “dry” liquid and a very surprising 10-foot pole.
Great video: you can see it here. The video is originally from 2005 (It is sad that TED took so long to put it online, but at least is there (and TED does a great work sharing this anyway):
WHY: Talking about tinkering, what Keith Schacht & Zach Kaplan show is a condensed research exemplified by some examples of new materials “with unexpected properties”. But for me they also show a mind-set of playing with new materials and objects. Discovering by trying.
