unknown armature: body socks

For a couple of months now, I’ve been researching and testing some body sock prototypes, as part of a series of prosthetic research initiatives I’ve been calling Unknown Armature. I’ve mentioned body socks before; they’re wearable therapeutic tools for people with sensory processing disorders. You can’t find sensory processing challenges in formal diagnostic catalogs like [...]

because someone’s always said it both earlier and better

I am not a cyborg simply because I wear an artificial limb. I see cyborg more as a subject position than an identity, and believe it is more descriptive of my position vis-à-vis the relationships of production, delivery, and use surrounding my prosthesis than my actual interface with it. In other words, if I am [...]

organs everywhere, and more news

My semester at Harvard GSD is winding down; I’ll be sharing some new work in the coming break. In January I’ll be taking a course at the Adaptive Design Association in New York and interning with Artists in Context here in Cambridge. And I’m looking forward to a residency at UC Irvine next June, part [...]

material interfaces, part ii

First, just quickly: I’m quoted in Monday’s Boston Globe article about the Awesome Foundation. I’ve sung their praises here before, of course. And I’m now through the first section of work in my course on Crafting Material Interfaces at the MIT Media Lab. (Here’s the first post about this class.) We’re documenting our work all [...]

high-low tech

In the spirit of the public amateur, I’m going to document my way through a class I’m taking at the MIT media lab: Crafting Material Interfaces. It’s taught by Leah Buechley, with instruction and time in her lab to investigate materials and methods. The High-Low Tech group brings together digital and analog, futurist and traditional [...]

border town: beyond ramps [curitiba, brazil]

How does a bold, military-appointed, possibly technocratic architect-turned-mayor create a model universal-access transportation system, cheaply and effectively, and use it—along with other initiatives—to turn around the environmental prospects of the entire town? [image] This post is part of Border Town, now exhibiting at the Detroit Design Festival. Border Town took place in Toronto this summer: [...]

monu / nerd nite boston

Here’s the sticker project in the current issue (Editing Urbanism) of MONU, the Magazine on Urbanism, out of Rotterdam. And this coming Monday night I’ll be speaking about the sticker project and my work at Nerd Nite Boston—they’re collaborating with the Awesome Foundation for this month’s lectures. Nerd Nite hosts regular short talks, usually at [...]

the edited city, 2.0

Thanks to the Awesome Foundation, I have a grant to tweak the sticker and do another print run. My first set went quickly! I’m hoping for reflective ink this time—it wasn’t possible with the printer I went with initially, but now I can do some more R&D for maximum visibility. Seriously, why can’t academia function [...]

active sites everywhere

icon adventures

Monday Feb 21: The project’s just been written up in the Boston Globe! How to get stickers: Use the contact form to the right to send me your address; I’ll send you 5 for free while they last. And it’s been sighted in the Chicago suburbs: (If you’re new to Abler, you can read about [...]