Design And The Elastic Mind

In the past few decades, individuals have experienced dramatic changes in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space, matter, and individuality. Minds today must be able to synthesize such transformations, whether they are working across several time zones, travelling between satellite maps and nanoscale images, drowning in information, or acting fast in order to preserve some slow downtime. Design and the Elastic Mind focuses on designers ability to grasp momentous advances in technology, science and social mores and convert them into useful objects and systems. The projects included range from nanodevices to vehicles, appliances to interfaces and building facades, pragmatic solutions for everyday use to provocative ideas meant to influence our future choices. Designed by award-winning book designer Irma Boom, this volume also features essays by Paola Antonelli; design critic and historian Hugh Aldersey- Williams; visualization design expert Peter Hall; and nanophysicist Ted Sargent that further explore the promising relationship between design and science.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, Talk to Me thrives on an important late 20th-century cultural development in design: a shift from the centrality of function to that of meaning. From this new perspective, objects contain information that goes well beyond their immediate use or appearance, providing access to complex systems and networks and acting as gateways and interpreters. Whether openly and actively, or in subtle, subliminal ways, things talk to us, and designers write the initial script that lets us develop and improvise the dialogue. Talk to Me focuses on objects that involve direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, communication devices, and projects that establish a practical, emotional or even sensual connection between their users and entities such as cities, companies, governmental institutions, as well as other people. The featured objects range in date from the early 1980s - beginning with the first Graphic User Interface, developed by Xerox Parc in 1981 - with particular attention given to projects from the last five years and to several ones currently in development. Included are a diverse array of examples, from computer and machine interfaces to websites, video games, devices and tools, and installations. Organized thematically, Talk to Me features essays by Paola Antonelli, Jamer Hunt, Alexandra Midel, Kevin Slavin, and Koi Vinh. By introducing design practices that are becoming increasingly crucial to our world, the book presents a highly distilled sample of today's best design production that uses technology in creative and unexpected ways, showing how rich and deep design's influence will be on our future.

The best-selling author of Subliminal and The Drunkard’s Walk teaches you how to tap into the hidden power of your brain. “Elastic is a book that will help you survive the whirlwind.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of When and A Whole New Mind Named to the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards Longlist In this startling and provocative look at how the human mind deals with change, Leonard Mlodinow shows us to unleash the natural abilities we all possess so we can thrive in dynamic and troubled times. Truly original minds capitalize when everyone else struggles. And most of us assume that these abilities are innate, reserved for a select few. But Mlodinow reveals that we all possess them, that we all have encoded in our brains a skill he terms elastic thinking—and he guides us in how to harness it. Drawing on groundbreaking research, Mlodinow outlines how we can learn to let go of comfortable ideas and become accustomed to ambiguity and contradiction; how we can rise above conventional mindsets and reframe the questions we ask; and how we can improve our ability to solve problems and generate new ideas—critical skills for achieving professional and personal success in our quickly morphing world.

One of the most provocative and exciting architects today, Greg Lynn has defined how designers and architects use computers as a medium, operating in an expanded field that fuses cutting-edge technology, contemporary art, and science fiction aesthetics with architectural form. At the epicenter of a debate about the role of digital design and new fabrication methods in architecture and general design culture, his projects skillfully blend high technology and detailed craftsmanship, driven by modeling software from the film and aerospace industries. They range from the Ravioli lounge chair for Vitra to the Embryological House, a pre-fab housing type that takes advantage of new manufacturing technologies to produce customized houses adaptable to local conditions. Included are contributions from theorists, architects, and artists, and futurists such as Sylvia Lavin, Ben van Berkel, and Caroline Bos of UN Studio, J.G. Ballard, and Tom Friedman, among others. Greg Lynn FORM offers a window into Lynn's methods and techniques, theoretical positions, and career trajectory. Rather than a retrospective of Lynn's career, it is thought-provoking and forward-looking.

How to use design as a tool to create not only things but ideas, to speculate about possible futures. Today designers often focus on making technology easy to use, sexy, and consumable. In Speculative Everything, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby propose a kind of design that is used as a tool to create not only things but ideas. For them, design is a means of speculating about how things could be—to imagine possible futures. This is not the usual sort of predicting or forecasting, spotting trends and extrapolating; these kinds of predictions have been proven wrong, again and again. Instead, Dunne and Raby pose “what if” questions that are intended to open debate and discussion about the kind of future people want (and do not want). Speculative Everything offers a tour through an emerging cultural landscape of design ideas, ideals, and approaches. Dunne and Raby cite examples from their own design and teaching and from other projects from fine art, design, architecture, cinema, and photography. They also draw on futurology, political theory, the philosophy of technology, and literary fiction. They show us, for example, ideas for a solar kitchen restaurant; a flypaper robotic clock; a menstruation machine; a cloud-seeding truck; a phantom-limb sensation recorder; and devices for food foraging that use the tools of synthetic biology. Dunne and Raby contend that if we speculate more—about everything—reality will become more malleable. The ideas freed by speculative design increase the odds of achieving desirable futures.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of The Drunkard’s Walk, a startling, eye-opening examination of how the unconscious mind shapes our experience of the world. “Mlodinow plunges into the realm of the unconscious mind accompanied by the latest scientific research ... [with] plenty of his trademark humor.” —Los Angeles Times Over the past two decades of neurological research, it has become increasingly clear that the way we experience the world—our perception, behavior, memory, and social judgment—is largely driven by the mind's subliminal processes and not by the conscious ones, as we have long believed. In Subliminal, Leonard Mlodinow employs his signature concise, accessible explanations of the most obscure scientific subjects to unravel the complexities of the subliminal mind. In the process he shows the many ways it influences how we misperceive our relationships with family, friends, and business associates; how we misunderstand the reasons for our investment decisions; and how we misremember important events—along the way, changing our view of ourselves and the world around us.

Habits That Bend Don't Break Why do so many sincere attempts to build good habits fail? We try our best to be consistent, but some days are better than others. Inevitably, we fail when "life happens," because each day we try to hit the same targets regardless of the situation. How, then, can we make our habits more resilient to the turbulence of life? By making them elastic.Most people associate "elastic" with yoga pants and rubber bands. But the word also means "resilient" - the ability to withstand pressure. Elastic materials are far more durable than rigid and brittle ones, which will shatter under the slightest pressure. The same is true for habits.Traditional habits are unchanging: the same behavior is done at the same time to the same level every day. They work well until the pressures of modern life break their rigid and brittle shell. Elastic habits are fluid: they can change their form and intensity to suit each unique day. They survive busy, tired, bad days. They thrive in better days. If you're tired of the repetitive and exhausting grind to develop good habits, it's time give your habits the refreshing superpower of elasticity. Read Elastic Habits now, and you'll soon discover the life-changing difference of good habits that adapt to your day.

"Born first as an online platform, and then as a series of public debates, 'Design and Violence' organized by Paola Antonelli and Jamer Hunt, examines the ways in which violence manifests in the post-2001 landscape and asks what makes these manifestations unique to their era. Design and Violence' is not a gallery-based exhibition simply translated online. From our earliest conversations, we conceived it as a platform for multiple projects--a series of public debates, a set of academic course materials, a symposium and this book, for instance--with the website as anchor. This book brings together controversial, provocative, and compelling design projects with leading voices from the fields of art and design, science, law, criminal justice, ethics, finance, journalism, and social justice. Each author responds to one object--ranging from an AK-47 to a Euthanasia Rollercoaster, from plastic handcuffs to the Stuxnet digital virus--sparking dialogue, reflection, and debate. These experimental and wide-ranging conversations make Design and Violence an invaluable resource for lively discussions and classroom curricula.

A quirky ode to spirit, identity, and the joy of having (or being) a library card.

A sparkling biography of the poet and artist Edward Lear by the award-winning biographer Jenny Uglow Edward Lear, the renowned English artist, musician, author, and poet, lived a vivid, fascinating life, but confessed, “I hardly enjoy any one thing on earth while it is present.” He was a man in a hurry, “running about on railroads” from London to country estates and boarding steamships to Italy, Corfu, India, and Palestine. He is still loved for his “nonsenses,” from startling, joyous limericks to great love poems like “The Owl and the Pussy Cat” and “The Dong with a Luminous Nose,” and he is famous, too, for his brilliant natural history paintings, landscapes, and travel writing. But although Lear belongs solidly to the age of Darwin and Dickens—he gave Queen Victoria drawing lessons, and his many friends included Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelite painters—his genius for the absurd and his dazzling wordplay make him a very modern spirit. He speaks to us today. Lear was a man of great simplicity and charm—children adored him—yet his humor masked epilepsy, depression, and loneliness. Jenny Uglow’s beautifully illustrated biography, full of the color of the age, brings us his swooping moods, passionate friendships, and restless travels. Above all, Mr. Lear shows how this uniquely gifted man lived all his life on the boundaries of rules and structures, disciplines and desires—an exile of the heart.