An Age-Old Voice

Well, well, well what have we here...two very identical objects. This is no coincidence.

Roman wax tablet        –>          iPad tech gadget

Recently, I got a job as a barista– and until you are one, you respect coffee and it's ability to awaken you. The problem I have now is that I see it, smell it, 200x a day and become desensitized. It no longer has aromatic appeal. The coffee, it just comes out. It's over.

Perhaps the same goes to Smart Phones. Until you have one, you anticipate how life would be wonderfully different. It has taken me a few months, but I am very much desensitized to the former feelings of unbounded possibility. So what is next? Or...what was before?

First telephone: steel diaphragm and electromagnetic receiver creates 

energy from your voice and moves it through a wire.

As decades went on after Alexander Graham Bell spoke over the 'receiver' to Watson in 1876, people have had an itch to transform communication again and again. But the concept of the Smart Phone has been centuries in the making. In, Writing On The Wall by Tom Standage, his research presents a picture of humanity's reliance on social networks and instant communication. Back in ancient Rome, people were being quite social. One prominent Roman, Cicero, went so far as to have his slaves write and send multiple papyrus messages a day to his friends inside Rome. Cicero was obstinate that his friends write him back immediately so he would be up-to-date on the dealings of the Roman Republic. In public spaces Romans posted: Events, debate monologues, public outrages and more. Romans were also producing what could be considered as Youtube comments. A "talking statue" was a statue littered with satirical comments against the Papacy in the 1500's. Thus, the need to have your voice heard in an instant has been a part of society for a long while.

The Romans are a minor example of how long we've been reaching for instant communication. So, when you look at your Smart Phone and tap a social media icon, you are a part of the age-old tradition of setting the stage for your voice to reach the masses. Is there anything more instant? Is there anything more satisfying...

Side note:  Looking further back at ancient nomadic tribes. These groups developed a way to get someones attention–blowing into horn-shaped seashells. Yes, this was the smart-horn.


Read on:
Tom Standage's Writing On The Wall
NY Times Book Review
Talking Statues of Rome

I'll allude to an upcoming post...I just got an iPhone 4S. Yeah it took a while, and I had anxiety over switching to a phone with data charges, higher radiation, hardly a battery life, and instant access to everything I could dream. Over a week, the transformation in my life, unspeakable. I have mobility of today's fast-moving world. Anywhere I stand (within a populous city), I can be in-the-know. No longer do I have to worry about missing an important email, or needing to bring along directions. This technology frees up the stress brought on by our own technology. Perhaps, it was the same back when Alexander Graham Bell talked to Watson on the first phone. What was happening then that prompted the innovation?

 Was there something like it in ancient times?

Mayhaps.

Watching the Wheels

The wheel is somewhat of an unending topic to cover, but I want to explain an evolutionary history in simple terms in order to uncover a millennia long thought-process.

The wheel doesn't look too different today, sure we have rubber, chrome and...wow, it's only resemblance is shape and perhaps that axle functionality. How did THAT happen?

History of the Wheel

I wonder why it took the wheel so long to be invented. We look at it as Primitive Technology; Caveman's work. Though, the wheel is seen earliest in Eurasia and Poland, most hold that it's origin was in Mesopotamia in 3500 BC. This is the Bronze Age, we were already mixing metal alloys, and on top of that we had flutes. The Mesopotamians used the wheel as a pottery wheel. Modes of transportation such as wagons and carts, were another step in the process of evolution through innovations. The wheel's story presents a process of inventing that is both fascinating and applicable today.

If you're a Sumerian builder and need to move heavy stone palettes from one side of a building to the next, you might slip a log under the palette and ease it along, putting a log in front every few feet. That sounds pretty crazy. So you slide it along on the logs with runners, aka a sledge, which is simply two parallel boards underneath. Why would you ever pursue anything more, this works great! Wait...then you notice grooves forming in the logs after much use. It happens to be increasing the distance of your palette before the next log needs to be placed. Ok, you have an idea. You need some chisels for this job and those are hard to come by, but this looks revolutionary (lol). You and your Sumerian Frat buddies get the palette rolling by attaching the log ends to larger cylindrical disks and thus the primitive axle was created, thanks to you! You pursued by paying attention and not relying on the status quo. Best of all, you did it without coffee.

Egyptians invented the spoked wheel in 2000 BC, or did India? Greeks got on board with the Egyptians, after conquering them...and then Romans went crazy with the spoked wheel. Romans wanted not just chariots (for all hobbies), but also carts, covered carriages, freight wagons and passenger coaches. The wheel caught on more effectively in some regions than in others, but there is no question of it's lasting and immeasurable impact all over the globe. The world continues to enhance the wheel and find new uses for a circle spinning 'round: toy tops, hula-hoops, roulette, Ferris wheels, water mills, bikes, records, you name it.

Today's Speciman

The modern post-industrial wheel, to most people, looks like this:

And that black stuff is pretty important. Your six-month wagon train ride would have been much easier if you'd thought about some shock absorption, Joseph. Even just wrapping your spruce sap and beeswax around that spoked wheel might'ev helped. In effect, rubber, invented in the mid-1840's, was the beginning of a great advancement in wheel technology. Faster, quieter and more durable wheels or tires would come from this material. Harvard studies have shown that wheeled transportation and infrastructure drastically improved economies by allowing efficient growth of scale in society. Better performance and innovation is the next step in the game.

-

Modern Wheel Innovations

So we don't have a perpetual motion wheel, ok? So we don't have hovercrafts, ok? But, JOY, someone invented a collapsable wheel. It's a nice idea: a wheelchair with easily collapsible wheels, allowing the handicapped more mobility. A criticism is that the wheels hold 250lbs, which excludes those who use wheelchairs because they're overweight, wouldn't it?
One of the sleeker wheel adaptations of our modern era is the bike tire electric motor seen here. The design appears natural and lightweight. The form, a red circle, doesn't necessarily speak of its function, but it is built into the wheel, meaning it must act as a support to the wheel. It is a motor after all. Instead of being a bulky afterthought; it becomes simply the wheel.

What else is out there? What will we come up with next?

Some Wheely-Doos to Change:
Better looking caster wheels: subtle, natural
Omnidirectional caster wheels that are remote controlled
Caster wheels that work on carpet...maybe we aren't talking wheels anymore
In-line Skate Uprising

References

http://www.livescience.com/18808-invention-wheel.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004203/science/science02.htm

http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jrobinson/files/the_wheel_in_africa_february_2012.pdf

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/22/tech/innovation/reinventing-the-wheel-new-high-tech/

Inspired

This weblog is intended to showcase industrial design as it appeals and inspires my own design. This is to serve as an alternative to ultra-modern, futuristic blogs that have a good place, but have perhaps lost a sense of the past that intrigues and inspires our contemporary outlooks. This isn't a lecture on history, it's just a re-acknowledgement of what came before. I'm acting as if I have something to say, this is true. I graduated from Notre Dame with a B.A. in industrial design and eagerly await the day I can contribute to the profession. While I tirelessly apply, I still need to learn. Join me! If there are people who want to start something industrial design centric please contact me.

Let's begin with a discussion of well-crafted furniture at the dawn of the industrial age: Art's & Crafts.

-Frank Lloyd Wright must have cherished this Morris guy-

Inspired by Art Nouveau, which in it's own right, is astounding craftsmanship and design. It is design that places a room in a cohesive world, like a treehouse places you in the trees and from all sides, you feel surrounded--so too Art Nouveau wraps around you and lives with the dweller. With all it's elegance and seemingly random attributes, it's hard to believe it is designed. It, more or less, simply happened. That is the sort of design we all should strive to create: what we create by our own volition.

-Feeling like a hobbit?-

More modern expressions of industrial design began with BrAun. The German company that set the stage for consumer product design. They enlisted a standard on men's razors that, back then would have been stunningly modern, and today--utterly classic.

-Mmm, what a delicious Bakelite casing-

These images and "revolutions" remain inspirations to my designs today. Maybe we can draw from these a raw internal philosophy: design has to be CRAFTED, NATURAL, SIMPLE, SENSE-PLEASING & ADAPTIVE.

What is crafted?
Old English: Strength & skill; in making things by hand.
The object should be built by humans-for humans, a given. But, craft can bring more to a design. Extra thought and precision put toward an object by a skilled and thoughtful designer will win me more than one produced in millions an hour by a wave of a hand. We have to know where craft meets industry. I think there are improvements to be made here, be it a signature by the final hand that touches it.

What is natural?
Middle English: Status born into; existing in or caused by nature; innate ability; inevitable.
So we can make synthetic fibers, does that mean we should? Yes, in some cases i.e. man-made diamonds (heck yeah I don't mind getting a "cheap" diamond if it was not retrieved from blood-diamond turmoil). Natural abides by a natural law, this object is inevitable, it's mark on the earth is small, but it's human impact is great (and good). I fully hope designers have a desire to build what is useful and resourceful. What is natural, lasts a good long time. Let's design to last.

What is simple?
Latin: Simplus; medicine from one plant; easy to understand and use.
This is straight-forward, but difficult. Oh, simplicity is a hard quality to design. Over thinking is part of the process, but stripping down ought to be too. We must hit all the bases before we can simplify. It's like a teacher understanding all aspects of her subject in order to retell it, simply.

What is sense-pleasing?
AKA- Beautiful. "Ew," is just not acceptable.

What is adaptive?
It's not really news to say that this Western world lives in uncontrollable excess. And so much excess makes me wish my clothes were also my bed sheets and my hamper was also my nightstand. Oh wait...it totally could be like that. We as designers and new-gen GREEN thinkers, have to come up with solutions like these. When the term "functional" or "practical" take over design, we get objects that do their part, but only one part. When we have one object that functions at one task, we have to have so many more to fill-in other tasks. Ex: Smart phones are really good at putting everything in one place. Can we do that as well for more items in our home. Consolidate.

My goal here, is to inspire industrial designers to want to change the status-quo. I envision a world where objects are fewer, last longer and mean more to individuals.

http://www.zjkimbe.com/en/cultured.php?gid=0&nid=64