Social Robots

2006-01-17T19:43:00.000Z

Serial Zapper by Eleonore Nalet, Chloé Bousquet, Pierre Luneau and Sophie Henimann

This is a defensive weapon against the threat of TV-set...Put «serial zapper» in front of your ennemy, Take the gun from the case, Walk backwards 20 feet (depends from the distance of your sofa) and shoot the right target to change channel, volume or to turn the TV off.

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

Rupture

2006-01-17T19:35:00.000Z

Rupture by Gwenaëlle Girard

The arguments in a couple makes us say or do things that we regret afterwords. The objects are most of the time the first victime of this angryness. "RUPTURE" is a plastic vase which falls without breaking but makes the sound of broken porcelan. That's why during domestic dispute we can express our anger by throwing the vase and having the satisfaction of hearing the sound of the object broken without regretting our acts when we reconcile.

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

Helping gun

2006-01-17T19:20:00.000Z

Helping gun by Emilie Voirin

"Helping gun" is an autodefensive psychologic object for not being afraid during the night and feel protect. When you catch it, the gun lights up and when you fire off it draws an agressive masculine message. It's possible to record your own message.

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

Symphonie Mécanique

2005-12-16T11:30:00.000Z

Symphonie Mécanique by Camille Roussel and Hratch Arbach

The goal is to give the object a spirit . He is tranformed into an independant object. The random musical notes are played by two electrical motors.The recorder turns and by doing it triggers the other elecrical motor which plays the piano notes randomly.

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

LUBIE KATIUSHKA ! *

2005-12-15T19:27:00.000Z

LUBIE KATIUSHKA ! * by Guillaume Le Guillou

THE KATIUSHKAS are of small Russian dolls very
mischievous, touch in one and they will dance and will sing
one after the other for your biggest pleasure.
Based on a system of culbuto, the dolls by their movements
manipulate a small radio that they possess.

I like Katiushka!

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

Pick Time

2005-12-12T12:49:00.000Z

Pick Time by Ombeline Richemont, Shoko Muraguchi, Anne Lise Vernejoul, Kim Kyoung-a

Pick Time will be quickly indispensable to anim your friends parties. Following your mood and the recipe you choose, you can use this beautiful robot in different kind of way (aperitif, desert...).
With Pick time, everything is very easy. You don't need any more to cook all the afternoon, How to use it?
For the sauce: Put all the ingredients in the salad bowl, press the lemon juice and take the lid off with the pulp.
For the ingredients: Cut all the ingredients in small pieces, fasten the dart on the plate, pick all the ingredients with teeth pick and wedge them with the dart.
Bring the salad bowl with a big smile and let's enjoy!

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

Lighting drops

2005-12-09T13:23:00.000Z

Lighting drops by Anaëlle Madec

When it rains, people is sad and everything looks grey. The lighting drops is an umbrella which changes this sadness into happiness, by changing rain into light. This becomes possible thanks to a humidity sensor resistance which controls the light. So, the more it rains, the more you get light.

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

Please, hold on the line

2005-12-08T12:53:00.000Z

Please, hold on the line by kilian Schindler, Pauline Lequesne and Jéròme Nelet

Are you a fan of waiting loops when you are calling hotlines? Spending a delicious time, listening to throbbing music... for all those enthusiastics, we created this unique model of radio which will remind you on the pleasant moments listening that gorgeous music.

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

Hertzian Dance

2005-12-08T12:43:00.000Z

Hertzian Dance by Marguerite Herlant

The flow of the radio is quite monotonous and empties our mind. With this object, the body has to be active to listen to the radio: the stethoscope capts the vibrations of the chocs you do when you move, these are leaded to a micro that allows the courant to pass. So you can dance nearby, at your own rythm to let the device work according to it. Components: a stethoscope, a sound to light kit sensor, a radio.

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

The candle song

2005-12-08T12:36:00.000Z

The candle song by Romaric

Put a light sensor in front of the candle flame: the light lets operate a turntable. The music accelerates or decelerates according to light intensity. In the darkness, just light on the candle and the music starts. The song will last as far as the candle is burning. Space and time are deeply linked by this process. This is the right moment to share music. When the light is out, it's over.

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris, November 2005

The CONTROL Workshop

2005-12-08T11:32:00.000Z

The CONTROL workshop
By Roger Ibars
ENSAD, Paris (France) November 2005
From Monday the 28th November to Friday 02th December

This workshop was inspired after my previous one (The GIANT workshop, with Sam Buxton) where we set up a online betting system to engage the participants to bet for the success or the fail of their final project, which goal was to build a 10 meter high GIANT. For the CONTROL workshop, I push a bit further the idea of taking CONTROL of the workshop outcomes and I proposed to the students that, at the end of the workshop, they're going to auction their projects on eBay. Beyond the simple idea of just "selling students projects" on eBay there was the goal of brainstorming strategies on how to do that, how somebody might be interested in bidding, how students might use the money of their projects, if any: maybe buy some electronic material for their future projects, maybe send it to a charity, maybe fund another electronics workshop) The possibilities were endless but we had to cancel the "eBay idea" for reasonable college regulations. Instead we did a GREAT exhibition.
Ok, then the CONTROL workshop consisted in coming with an idea for an electronic product, design it and build it in one week. And, at the end of the week, exhibited it. I brought to the workshop three types of low-tech electronic components to "connect" to existing electronic devices: a LIGHT SENSOR, a TILT SWITCH and a (bonus track for two lucky students) a SOUND TO LIGHT kit. I gave one to each and we started to brainstorm!
This workshop was about to create interesting and "auction-able" context and meaning for existing electronic devices. This new re-contextualized devices will, by the end of the workshop, react to the environment through LIGHT, MOVEMENT or SOUND to perform their new features.
23 lovely product/industrial design students (yes, a lot for myself only!) took part in this workshop and I have to say that they worked endless hours and were exited with the workshop right from the beginning! Theirs projects in the coming posts!

Really Special thanks to Anna Bernagozzi, for her endless support in organizing more than everything and kind hosting. Also thanks to Patrick Renaud and Florence Doléac

NB: Nice picture of a light sensor, one of my favourite electronic component.

Back and Posting

2005-12-08T10:46:00.000Z

I'm back and posting the results from the workshop I recently organised at ENSAD in Paris. It is been a long time since my last post, but the purpose of this blog is to post my students/participants works when I finish a workshop, so here they are.... In the coming weeks I will post all the projects. Enjoy!

NB: Picture from the film The professionals. Enjoy its great quotes

self-made objects are going to Madrid

2005-05-23T12:16:00.000+01:00

On 15th of June I'll be in Madrid at ENGAGE Engineering Emotional Design presenting my projects and the self-made objects. It sounds the right place to show my hedonic home appliances (uops! but hedonic are the users...)

About Engage
ENGAGE is bringing together industry, research and design in the field of affective engineering, to create a knowledge community and realise best use of both current and future knowledge.
The ENGAGE consortium consists of 21 project partners from 9 European countries, working together to make sure all the ENGAGE objectives are successfully reached.
ENGAGE is funded by the European 6th Framework Programme

Background
For most companies innovation is costly and the failure rate of new product introductions is high. 40% of new product introductions fail in the marketplace (Hultink, 1997). Although functionality has always been, and will remain, an essential precondition for product satisfaction and market success, various developments point at an increasing importance of product experience as a driving force of product acquisition and use. Today the bottleneck in introducing new successful products quickly to the market has moved from factory floor manufacturing to the product specification, design & evaluation process, although of course world-class manufacturing remains essential.
Besides functional benefit, consumers may be looking for:
-Social benefit: the product's association with social class / status
-Hedonic benefit: to meet a need for enjoyment, fun and pleasure
-Affective benefit: to arouse emotions
-Epistemic benefit: to satisfy curiosity

see you next Friday the 13th

2005-05-13T21:22:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

We hope that the students will remember the workshop long after it has finished: for the chaos, the democracy, working with each other, the challenge, the imagination, the oddness, creating an experience and the adrenalin…
And that design is not just about clever objects but also human experience
I know we won’t forget it!
Au revoir ECAL

Roger et Sam

We made it

2005-05-13T18:11:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

As we began to gently lift… all of the careful planning went out of the window! And the within 30 seconds it was standing! They had done it! The GIANT was standing and gently swaying in the breeze. It looked beautiful and huge against the blue sky with the tiny humans watching on.
The arms moved, fingers gestured, the GIANT stood majestically, then the mood began to change as the GIANT’s fate became clear. It was Friday the 13th and after a whole week of working democracy voted… the GIANT should be brought down to earth with a BANG! The rope attendants began to make the GIANT dance and as the dance became more violent it began to sway and creak, then one arm flew off.. A few seconds more and one final huge sway and the GIANT came crashing down as dramatically as it had risen. Life and death within the hour, creation-destruction-regeneration.
The mood was that of elation and that something very memorable had just been created. (Text by Sam Buxton)

The giant was 8.12 meter high.
the Online betting results said "yes, we can make it"
The giant bet made around 100 Euros profit.
See video "ready to rise" (4MB)
See video "Giant fall down" (9MB)

Weather forecast: rain

2005-05-13T17:57:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

The day of the GIANT. Friday the 13th. what a day to choose!! And a traditional day in the Pagan calendar. Would our GIANT stand up?? This was the big question and a buzz had already spread through the school.
At 2:30 we carried what parts were finished to the local football ground down the road. All the school was invited to see and experience the birth, life [and poss death…] of the GIANT.As a crowd of spectators gathered, the students made the final adjustments, attached the arms, the ropes and assigned themselves a position around the GIANT for the raising ceremony. The drums began to beat… (Text by Sam Buxton)

NB: GIANT legs were brought to the football field.

So...

2005-05-12T15:45:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

At this point some of us felt confident but we really didn’t know. A poster was created to advertise the event on Friday 13th at 3pm, word was spread through the school, betting began…(Text by Sam Buxton)

NB: poster to advertise the event on Friday the 13th.

Sam and the GIANT

2005-05-12T15:29:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

This had to be a good day otherwise the project was heading for disaster… The structure had to take shape quickly and teams worked on different elements, the second leg, the torso, the shoulders, the arms, the animated hands and the head. The event was now taking shape and to counteract the nervousness coming from within and outside of the group, about a potential GIANT disaster, a betting ring was set up for people to put money on whether it would stand up, or come crashing down.(Text by Sam Buxton)

See video (4MB)
NB: Sam Buxton next to the GIANT structure.

7 meter legs!

2005-05-12T15:18:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

Split into groups working on the structure and the event, we went to buy materials at the local Jumbo DIY store. The longest thinnest timber, the lightest sheet materials. We carried it on our shoulders the 1 mile back to the school.
There was a lot of nervousness about the structure, how high could we build it? How could we make it strong enough? Would it collapse? We decided to build one leg and go by our instincts.(Text by Sam Buxton)

NB: picture from the top of the cinema studio at ECAL

Tuesday chaos... yeah!

2005-05-11T14:40:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

Now came the difficult part, to get them working as a group of 20+ to come up with concepts and directions for the GIANT. At this point it was totally open whether the GIANT should have a body form or be an abstract structure around a human form. They started brainstorming ideas in groups of 5 and then extracted the most interesting ideas until we had a set of directions to move forward. Then came the chaos on Tues afternoon as democracy broke down and parallel ideas sprung up from individuals. Late Tues a decision was taken with the remaining students to construct a GIANT structure, as big as we could build, with a body from and create an event that would build up to an experience of the GIANT being raised on Friday.(Text by Sam Buxton)

NB: picture at cinema studio ECAL on Wednesday.

Sketching on the wall

2005-05-10T14:49:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

It was tough to make this happen but we tried to set up conditions in which they would achieve this. On Monday, before introducing the project brief, we asked the students to produce drawings based around a _ scale outline of themselves and draw GIANT elements around their body form on the wall. These could be anything they imagined, structural forms, energy fields etc. The result was a sprawling graffiti of bodies and shapes.
We later introduced the project with stories and images from ancient tales and rituals, the classic film The Wicker Man, pagan rituals, effigies of demon kings, the burning man festival, sculpture by Anthony Gormley, Gullivers travels and greek mythology.
On top of all the Giant references that we brought to the students, we had a real great story!! The last day of the workshop, was Friday the 13th, a day so infamous that became a synonym for ill fortune when King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Templars in chains, charged with blasphemy. Hundreds of Templars suffered excruciating tortures intended to force 'confessions,' and more than a hundred died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake."
A pagan workshop just started towards its festivity on Friday the 13th!
Also, We showed the one day barn building scene from the film Witness to show how they should collaborate….
It felt like we created excitement but also confusion, this was not so bad.(text by Sam Buxton)

NB: Some interesting sketches from monday morning.

The secret

2005-05-09T13:36:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

At this point we had a secret desire to burn the GIANT on the last day, to recreate the sacrifice seen in The Wicker Man. As we discussed this with the school it became clear that this would be difficult to arrange, so we decided to see how the GIANT developed and let the students decide it’s fate towards the end.(Text by Sam Buxton)... Sam, we should have burned it!!!

NB: picture of group sketching on the wall.

The GIANT workshop launch

2005-05-09T12:56:00.000+01:00

The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

Keywords: body, behaviours, growth, presence, impact, scale, volume, frame, armature, pagan, symbolism, effigy.
Main context film reference: The wicker man
Experience design Film reference: Witness (DVD track 09 “Barn-raising”)
Workshop values: beyond teamwork, one group goal.
Challenges: The final GIANT design will be raised and test its structure on the final day of the workshop, Friday the 13th. You will challenge your believes until the last minute.
Briefing: Contained within is the human – the GIANT will have a void for the human body that will complete it’s presence and existence. You are one group, one team, and one cult imagining, designing, engineering, constructing and building a GIANT. Think BIG! We want you to build something bigger than you ever have before. Working together we can create something incredible!

We arrived at ECAL in Lausanne with the word: GIANT
We wanted the students to think ‘BIG’ to think and construct outside of their normal boundaries of subject and scale. We wanted to make a connection in some way to the human form, so that a human connection would complete the GIANT. And we wanted them to all work together towards this ambitious goal. (text by Sam Buxton)

NB: Illustration of a wicker man pagan ritual.

GIANT references: the burning man

2005-05-08T23:57:00.000+01:00

Not the most interesting example in terms of ritual, but... It is burning man!! Every summer somewhere in a california.

The Burning Man Project is an experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance. This unique event has grown from a small group of people gathering spontaneously in 1986 to a current community of over 25,000 people. People travel from all over the world to participate in creating an alternative experience of community, one that invites its ‘citizens’ to express themselves in ways that are often a dramatic departure from their daily lives. While art is the backbone of Burning Man, other tenets include no spectators, no vending, no commercialism and “leave no trace.”

Bone fire!

2005-05-08T19:12:00.000+01:00

Interesting text about the pagan ritual of the wicker man.

The custom of burning the Guy on Guy Fawkes night obviously goes back to the 1605, when Fawkes was identified as the leader of the conspiracy trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament. His effigy has been burnt on the night of November 5th each year since then.
But the idea of the burning of human effigies and the burning of bonfires are much more ancient customs. Bonfires were thought to have purifying effect, they were traditionally lit at Midsummer, which although it would appear to be the most joyful part of the year, was in fact a worrying time for early farmers, concerned over the success of their crops; the fires were lit to ward off any lurking evil spirits. Bones were often incorporated in these fires; hence the name bonfire or bone fire.
The idea of burning or killing a human effigy is common to several pagan rites. One of the most famous is the wicker man. Caesar recorded the Ancient Britons burning sacrifices in woven wooden cages. The name of the wicker man is thought to derive not only from the wicker with which these giant figures were woven, but also from Wicka, the same root as witchcraft and wicked, and applied to pagan forms of worship. These effigies were thought to have had sacrificial offerings contained within the body; these may have been objects of value or animals, they may even have been human sacrifices. The burning of the Wicker Man was an offering to the Gods and also a symbolic killing of the old in order that the new could be born/reborn.

NB: picture from the film "The wicker man" (1973) by Robin Hardy