Shaping Things (Mediaworks Pamphlets)
Bruce Sterling, Lorraine Wild
In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World
John Thackara
Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next 50 Years
Bruce Sterling
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
Alex Steffen
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
William McDonough, Michael Braungart
Bruce Mau
It's Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living (Paperback)
by Crissy Trask
Links
http://designcanchange.org/
http://www.ambientdevices.com/cat/index.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/energy_meters_uk.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6550361.stm
http://www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/
http://www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/notables.asp
http://enerjar.net/http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/
http://eyebeam.org/engage/engage.php?page=exhibitions
http://ross.gatech.edu/research.php
http://www.tiltool.com/Power_Eco_Pods.htm
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2005/11/erez-kikin-gils.php
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/
http://pm-air.net/dataVis/full.php
http://stamen.com/
http://en.oreilly.com/et2008/public/schedule/detail/1585
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/home
http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/superfund/index.php
http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2008/video-stream/
http://www.designinggesturalinterfaces.com/posts/welcome-to-designing-gestural-interfaces/
Video
Design and the Elastic Mind Interview with MoMA Curator (2008)
Design e2 (2006)
The 11th Hour (2007)
The Human Footprint (2007)
Thesis
Maureen Ton | Master of Professional Studies in Digital Media | Spring 2008
The Evolution of Information and Our Natural Habitat
The mode of tracking and building data is a modern technology often utilized most in times of mass information propagation. Such macro level information can serve as a powerful vehicle for environmental and social changes. However, these changes start on a micro level, one person at a time. Information evolution has consistently shown the advantages of compiling data on a micro level. Utilizing modern technological tools, micro sources of data are much more obtainable and can start on a much smaller scale than ever before. Therefore, macro data benefits by being more reliable and conclusive. Such precision is necessary to invoke important social and environmental improvements. On the other hand, the evolution of the environment has taken a more disintegrative path. Waste, over-consumption, rapid depletion of natural resources, and lack of human-environmental sustainability has created a downward spiral that will require such great changes possible only via micro changes that add up to macro progress. By introducing the power of tracking information on a personal level, the motivation to alleviate our current negative impact on the environment and its resources would become tangible. Positive personal change on a micro level can therefore create positive changes to the natural evolution of the world on a macro level if the information is harnessed and disseminated accurately.
My proposal to illustrate such a process involves tracking personal behavior and choices made on a daily basis. Utilizing current sensor technology, such as the automated paper towel dispensers in public restrooms, it is feasible to track the usage of the most common household activities, many of which need to be altered to a less destructive degree. Such actions, as the amount of time faucets are turned on in one’s home, paired with calculations and averages of how much a little more reduction can have an impact not only financially, but also by the extent of environmental preservation the sparing usage can incur. Another use of sensors can be the weight of trash, rate of accrual, frequency, and possibly the amount of recyclable materials that have been put in the trash, by means of RFID technology already used in supermarkets. Personal profiles can also be compared to the average of all data assessed, and produce calculations on the “group” impact as a whole, with goal-oriented comparative statistics. To organize the tracked data, each sensor would have unique IDs that send the time-based or counter-style data to the online interface via the home’s wireless router. The user interface would then allow the owner to name and categorize each device, such as Bathroom 2 faucet, set under the pre-set category of “Water Usage”, which is then pooled into the parent database holding all the cumulative data of all profiles’ “Water Usage”. Moreover, there would be non-exploitative use of profile data for the purpose of data mapping, such as how many people live in this household, the zip code of where this data is coming from, the ages of the people in the household, and so forth. There would also be the ability to name and organize sensors under personalized or miscellaneous categories for more creative or unforeseen uses, such as the amount one specific household uses solar powered energy and also how much they contribute back into the grid. The online interface, easily accessible to the percentage of the world population with computers and Internet, would allow for global access to one’s account, and also the ability to send and receive information through personal wireless device connectivity. The use of mobile sensors paired with a mobile device interface furthermore represents a portal of tracking when outside the home, driving or commuting, and at work.
In conclusion, these sensor kits available to individual households would allow for better comprehension of the ways individuals can make a difference on both a micro and a macro level. For the purpose of revealing the benefits and human interaction of such a tool, I propose to design the functionality and information architecture of such an online interface. I would also research and design the schematics necessary to produce such sensor devices and how they would communicate and send data to the parent and users’ databases.
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