Abler. art + adaptive technologies +
re-imagined community

all my geek dreams coming true

I really enjoyed meeting and talking with Christina Agapakis, who wrote about the Moveable Chair work for Scientific American’s Oscillator blog. And more on Christina’s very interesting research and projects at her web site. (image: C. Agapakis)

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 [...]

a “technology of distance”

I’m revisiting Ted Porter’s Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life, probably 10 years after I first read it as his student in the history of science at UCLA. Emphasis throughout is mine: My approach here is to regard numbers, graphs, and formulas first of all as strategies of communication. [...]

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

accessibility redefined

In this article in GOOD magazine, Alexandra Lange argues for the ways cities would benefit from taking parents’ interests seriously: When urban parents, particularly mothers, complain about the public realm, they are often caricatured as whiny and overprotective. Your child was burned by the climbing domes at the new park? Kids are too coddled. You [...]

the public amateur

Claire Pentecost’s idea of the “public amateur”: “…[T]he artist becomes a person who consents to learn in public. This person takes the initiative to question something in the province of another discipline, acquire knowledge through unofficial means, and assume the authority to offer interpretations of that knowledge, especially in regard to decisions that affect our [...]

what’s wrong with “prosthetics porn”? (part II)

Part I of this essay is here. How can technologies demonstrate an outward posture? I mean, how might they extend their forms and also their functions, beyond a single user? Couldn’t they both resolve and reveal, pose more questions than answers? In the first part of this essay, I included examples of adaptive wear and [...]

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 [...]

what’s wrong with “prosthetics porn”? (part I)

When I started Abler, I was excited about all the new prosthetic appendages beginning to make their way through design sites. And I remain so—excited about, intrigued by them. I’ve been collecting these images, sent on by friends and colleagues, and I’ve been glad to see much more attention to both practical and creative re-visioning [...]