By John Jones.
Monday, 10. March 2008, 22:10:41
2008, interactive, craft, booth
...
My favorite find this year at SXSW has been the
Brain Machine display at the
Make/
Craft booth.
The contraption consists of a pair of glasses with LEDs that blink in your eyes, together with a set of headphones. The lights and sound supposedly pulse at the same frequency as your brainwaves (or something; I'm not sure about the details). Whatever the case, the net result is that the device puts on a amazing light show inside your head. The maker running the display, which has been packed every time I've gone by it, said that for some people it can generate hallucinations. The first time I visited the booth, one user was exclaiming loudly that she was seeing all sorts of interesting things while wearing the glasses.
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By John Jones.
Saturday, 8. March 2008, 23:56:03
DIY, design, sxsw, craft
...

This
panel discussion featured
Craft Senior Editor Natalie Zee Drieu, Syuzi Pakhchyan of
SparkLab, producer Alison Lewis of
IHeartSwitch, Mouna Andraos of
Electronic Crafts and
Thing-A-Day.com, and designer
Diana Eng. The topic was combining traditional crafts—sewing and knitting, for example—and craft culture with high-tech artifacts and functionality.
Drieu served as moderator and began the discussion by asking the panelists to introduce themselves and show some projects they've been working on. Eng went first, showing a hoodie that monitors its wearer's heartbeat and takes photographs when he or she gets excited and a jacket whose ruffle is based on the Fibonacci sequence. Next, Pakhchyan presented a solar-powered broach and interactive finger puppets with their own personalities: "Blush" blushes and "slightly neurotic" "Tremble" shakes. Lewis had a purse which lights up when you open it and a vase that lights up in response to noise. Finally, Andraos, who claimed she returned to crafting after she "got tired of experiencing technology entirely through a mouse and keyboard," showed off a scarf that was also an mp3 player.
Drieu's first question was: How were you introduced to crafting?
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