The Economic Computer

43k

The Phillips Hydraulic Computer was an analog computer created in 1949 by Professor Bill Phillips to model the economic processes of the United Kingdom using water and transparent plastic tanks.’ Inspired by this hubris of correlating human behavior to mechanical equations’, Design Interactions student Neil Thomson is currently attempting to create a Phillips machine based on modern economic models continue

Walden Note money – How would money function within a behaviorist society?

114k

Designer Austin Houldsworth imagined a monetary system within the cultural context of Skinner’s utopian novel Walden Two. The payment system would challenge the established monetary function of ‘a store of value’, creating a new method of exchange that encourages people to actively destroy their money during a transaction continue

Chicken warming up nuclear mines and other technocratic fables

40k

These fables show potential of putative simple organisms in the past, present and future. What if invasive species become a weapon? What if the next danger is an engineered physical insect, not a digital one? continue

Manufactured Britishness

51k

Manufactured Britishness is a project derived from the compulsory ‘Life in the UK’ test. The project critically explores the assessment program contrived by Britain in testing for citizenship by proposing a future manifestation of the Life in the UK test. In this future, we see immigrants as an exploitable material, a living currency, compelled to sustain national identity in order to maximise capitalistic agendas. At what point does one ‘become’ British? What are the criteria and who makes the final decision? continue

"Imitation", exploring China copy culture

828k

Zhenhan Hao explored China’s copy culture in an attempt to go beyond the ‘illegal’, ‘vile’ and ‘evil’ epithets that are usually associated with the practice. In China, the artist/designer proposed a new production model for craftspeople in Dafen village and Jingdezhen, ‘the porcelain capital of China’, to imitate and create at the same time. The result is a series of improvised products that sought to inspire the imitators to explore their imagination and creativity continue

Who Owns The Arctic

28k

Sitting somewhere between criminality, deceit and disruption, each scheme seeks to exploit the unique infrastructure, ecology, potential for dispute, and legal ambiguity of the Arctic region to provide devious financial rewards continue

Post Cyberwar Series

39k

Post Cyberwar proposes 3 methods to prepare for the time after a cyberwar: one is an open navigation system that uses seismic activity, the second one uses analogue television broadcasting to provide a wireless communication infrastructure and the last one would use London’s sewerage system to store data continue

Circumventive hybrid organs

59k

With the introduction of bioprinting the possibility of new organs is becoming a reality. The ability to replicate and print cells in complex structures could mean different cells with various functions could be put together in new ways to create new organs that would take millions of years to evolve naturally. Frankenstein-esque hybrid organs could then be put together using cells from different body parts or even different species continue

Neo-Nature (or why we should "Let the Pandas Die")

48k

Michail Vanis’s project suggests that our romantic ideas and ideals regarding nature – a nature that has to be preserved exactly as it is- are holding us back from finding new ways to interact with the world surrounding us. Vanis’ Neo-nature project invites us to reconsider our relationship to nature and adopt a more rational approach to ecological thinking and to conservation continue

Commoditised Warfare

63k

Illustrations of an alternative world where bespoke sports events replace traditional warfare as a means of solving seemingly chronic conflicts. Each sport is designed to reflect the cultural and geopolitical characteristics of the opposing sides, in this case North Korea vs South Korea + Japan + USA, and India vs Pakistan continue

OpenPositioningSystem

49k

OpenPositioningSystem aims to offer an alternative to the dominant global positioning systems or other navigation systems which are controlled by governments, network companies or in the case of GPS by the U.S. military. Developed in the same spirit as OpenStreetMap, OpenPositioningSystem would be open, accessible to anyone and collaboratively run by citizens. continue

Crime Pays

47k

‘Crime Pays’ project is a fictional monetary system set within an alternative present. The project is designed to disrupt the current technological direction of our cashless payment systems by proposing a different system, which demonstrates both the need for accountability and anonymity within our finances continue

The 300 Year Time Bomb

47k

300 Years Time Bomb looks at the relationship between time and technology by presenting a long-lasting timed explosive. In the scenario, a time bomb is set to explode in 300 years time. The bomb’s timer displays the years in seconds making us question what meaning such a large number holds and changing our dramatic relationship with countdown timers continue

HMPark Life, the new panopticon

124k

‘HMPark Life’ is a prison located in Brockwell Park, South London. It questions this drive to turn a prison population into a cheap labour force – one that works not just to provide skills to inmates in the name of ‘rehabilitation’ but forces offenders to be both visibly productive and punished to quench the public’s ever-present blood thirst for justice continue

The One Way Ticket to deep space

53k

It’s hard to believe that the first tourist flight into space might already be planned for next year. But Joseph Popper is probably not very impressed by the prospect because he came up with an idea so bold i doubt even Richard Branson would think twice before funding it. The designer believes that there aren’t many unknown territories for men to explore, really. One of the very few thrilling adventures left to mankind would be to send one person on a voyage into deep space from where they will not return continue

#A.I.L – artists in laboratories, episode 7

48k

This week, Joseph Popper proposes to send one person on a journey into deep space from where they will never return, Neil Usher designed a robot that finds human faces in the clouds, Shing Tat Chung looked at what would happen if traders and estate agents gave free reign to superstition and Tobias Revell talks about the timeline that charts the history of power up to the early 22nd century and how that 24/7 banking ship fits into the picture continue

How to design an Elvis mouse

127k

One of the most curious, amusing and thought-provoking projects of the Design Interactions graduation show this year asks questions that range from ‘What is more important in making us who we are: our genes or the experiences we go through in life?’ to ‘Can a mouse be Elvis?’ and ‘Does buying a pre-owned item gives one the legal right to another individual’s genetic data?’

The project is called ‘All That I Am’ and with it, Koby Barhad suggests that we could create an Elvis mouse using a specially-designed set of training cages and 3 online services continue

#A.I.L – artists in laboratories, episode 6

66k

For this episode, i went to Battersea to interview the new graduates of RCA’s Design Interactions. In order of appearance: Koby Barhad will talk gene sequencing and Elvis Presley, Rapahel Kim is still working with rotifers but this time he designed a farm for them, Ai Hasegawa talks about the next frontier for Japanese love hotels and Angela Bracco (who is from Design Products) is of course answering my questions about If You Can Smell It It Has Mass continue

If You can Smell it, it has Mass

47k

One clinical trial applied the emotional tears of women to the upper lip of men. These men experienced a decrease in testosterone levels without visually witnessing the act of crying. Accepting this as truth concludes that in our everyday lives we are constantly receiving information on an invisible and olfactory basis. Is it possible in the near present future to mass-produce chemosignals that can be used to decrease aggression in humanity? continue

The Arctic’s 24/7 banking ship

65k

In the early 2040’s an ex-Soviet Arktika class icebreaker was recommissioned to act as an experiment in global finance at 88.7 degrees latitude – the heart of the arctic sea. Here it could circumnavigate the world in twenty-four hours, allowing it to stay in constant contact with trading zones throughout the world. The experiment was a phenomenal success… continue