Corona Solar Light
Emi Fujita and Shane Kohatsu’s brand new Corona Solar Light, an outdoor lighting solution that combines a photovoltaic cell, LEDs, and sunflower-esque form to bring a lovely solar-powered glow to your outdoor spaces. The self powered Corona Lamp can be used indoors and out – attached to a wall, staked and “planted” like a flower, or just placed on a tabletop- all without glues or fasteners.
XDesign’s PV Powered Air Filter Lamp
Natalie Jeremijenko in collaboration with Amelia Amon developed this wonderful Air Filter Plant Lamp powered by a PV window awning that uses plants as a lamp diffuser with LED’s calibrated to sustain the growth of plants that cleanse indoor air. The link leads to Natalie’s video explanation!
Wind to Light
Here is an ephemeral expression of wind energy manifested as light.
“an urban installation that illustrates alternative, sustainable ways of harnessing energy by visualising it as an ephemeral cloud of light. a large number of mini wind turbines generate the power to illuminate hundreds of mounted leds, hereby creating firefly-like fields of light. wind is visually interpreted as emergent electronic patterns across the installation.”
Light Wind
From Dutch Design House: Demakersvan comes Light Wind
“An outside lamp drawn from our home surroundings. The gently
sweeping Dutch windmills were actually perfect generators of their
own. With that in mind, we made this lamp. With every breeze it
stores energy, enough to enjoy every summerevening untill
forever. Contemporary vs traditional, art vs functionality.
Shaped by its function the big prop spans over one meter on each
side. It is a self supporting light source that marks the landscape. “
Acting Together
Last night at the Forum on Wind Energy preceding the Building Energy Conference author Bill Mckibben asserted that the debates about our choices in response to the threats to the life of our planet, its people, and every element of the environment that sustains life no longer allow us to consider a choice between technology and the preservation of wilderness. The wilderness that we cherish and imagine preserving will not exist if we do not act and act now on all fronts. No silver bullet – silver buckshot is in order. A little bit of everything – including turbines on the edges of cherished wild spaces – must be pursued with immediacy.
He suggested that to accomplish the movement necessary to galvanize the public will and the resources that might follow is not lacking for information, ideas, and technical solutions. It just lacks the movement itself.
In response he invites us all to participate in a national mobilization on April 14th that you are invited to learn more about at stepitup07.org,
Consider yourself invited.
Treadmill Power
Who hasn’t thought that all that cardio exercise was generating enought energy to light the room. California Fitness is taking a look at doing it!
Dance Power
Using the energy generated by the impact of dancers on a dance floor The Sustainable Dance Club in Rotterdam is generating the power to operate the sound and lights of the club (I’d like to see the numbers of that). I don’t care if its only offsetting a bit of the load – the concept is an irresistable story; the kind of positive and imaginative thinking we all want to believe in.
Botanicalls
Here’s an idea, dubbed Bontanicalls, and its associated technology that generates a worthwhile evaluation of where the edges of “sensing” technologies can abide. The notion is that sensors allow plants to place calls regarding their need for specific care. As they describe it:
“Utilizing moisture sensors – which are attached to the plants – as well as an open-source telephony application called Asterisk, the programmed software triggers Asterisk to call a designated number whenever a plant needs watering. Upon answering the call, the plant owner is treated to an audio file – or the so-called ‘voice of the plant’ – which describes exactly what it needs. Botanicalls opens a new channel of communication between plants and humans, in an effort to promote successful inter-species cohabitation and understanding.”
As some have responded, “This is really upsetting, a technological invasion of an otherwise magical and healthful interaction. here’s my way of knowing when to water the houseplants that do so much for me: i pay attention to them.”
What’s your take?
Form Follows Data
Information Aesthetics – a site mentioned previously has an astounding collection of remarkable projects that are well worth the time you might end up devoting to exploration there. Use the “Explore: by Category” search function to unearth hundreds of astonishing projects – be sure to go to the bottom of the page to dig back in time.
Power Socket Visualization
An information-augmented power socket that makes visible the amount of power being consumed by each mains socket in a direct & immediate way. this visualization is intended to change patterns of power use by creating awareness of how much power individual appliance draws, leading users to re-evaluate how they consume power.
Learn more at sciencearts
Podium Light Wall
OK – this is not about sensing energy so much as sensing motion and evoking it architecturally – Kinecity is one of the emerging practitioners of interactive architecture. Visit the site and experience this project:
“The Podium Light Wall is located on the South and North facades of 7 World Trade Center. As people wander on the pavement below a strip of blue light gracefully follows them. This strip of blue light is 7 floors tall and is visible from Freedom Park. The Podium Wall accentuates the individual, and the patterns that are created as many pass by together. Kinecity designed the interactive element of the design for James Carpenter Design Assoc. who were the responsible for the wall as an art piece.”
Visualizing Social Network Activity
Digg.com is a social networking site (I just learned that these are called flares) that allows people to tag (digg) an online article or post they think is worth sharing and aggregating that interest to highlight news and stories that are capturing the web’s collective imaginations.
The creators created visulization tools as part of the site that they call SWARM and STACK that provide dynamic graphic representations of the networks forming around these stories.
Oh yeah – and how about the amazing We Feel Fine site! A swirling field of colored dots – each a web posting about what is being felt. Rathern incredible. Go get lost there for awhile.
This seems to be a whole new field. Another one that these guys at Stamen Design developed for the SF Exploratorium is called Cabspotting which uses the GPS in San Francisco Yellow Cabs to create these time lapse videos of their traffic – a pulsing circulatory system that reveals patterns – making the intangible tangible!
Situated Technologies
It seems that this idea of “sensing energy” resides within an emergent (and fascinating) field called Situated Technology. I just spent several hours linking off the Participants page of a conference on the topic recently held in NYC.
At the bottom of each participant’s Bio are weblinks to a wide range of fascinating projects, blogs, and altogether fascinating ideas. Check out the link to Anne Galloway’s Touchpedia on her blog PurseLipSquareJaw! Explore.
Its one of those places that lead you to strange destinations. Midway down Columbia School of Architecture’s Kazyz Varnelis blog I found myself at the amazing site Visual Complexity all about the mapping of complex networks and before you know it I’m looking at this extraordinary Fetish Roadmap!
Electroceramescent Lighting
Electroceramescent lighting is the latest breakthrough in solid state lighting technology. It offers thin, durable, and energy efficient lighting with unlimited application potential in versatility for all indirect and backlit designs without generating any heat.
This intriguing technology holds some potential for the kind of visual display that “seeing energy” might benefit from.
Check it out at Firefly Lighting Innovations
Freeset Technologies
Freeset Creative Technologies is an interactive tech company that has developed a pretty amazing technology called “Human Locator”. They have applied this in fascinating projects in public spaces. Visit the website and take a look at their Mimic Wall and especially the Interactive Tables
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