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Make: A Portrait in Sand
The SketchBot interface is composed of a series of 21st-century tools, including a digital camera, computer software, and a robot. But it also makes use of a natural material older than mankind itself: sand. The sand is incorporated into a multistep process that results in a portrait that can be wiped away to make way...
Observe: An Inspired and Empowering Hearing Device
How can you make a hearing aid both elegant and functional at the same time? Stuart Karten Design introduced the Zon as a way to combat the stigma that is usually associated with the traditional beige shrimp-shaped hearing aids. Often associated with age, weakness or even disability, many individuals with hearing impairments wait as long...
Survive: A High-Performance Prosthetic
The Flex-Foot Cheetah incorporates untraditional materials to solve a design problem that had vexed the medical field for years: finding a prosthetic solution that allows the user to live a normal, active lifestyle. Van Phillips lost his leg below the knee at the age of 21. Unsatisfied with the prosthetics then available to him, he...
Toolbox: Sleek and Sophisticated Meets Portable All-in-One
Toolboxes come in all shapes and sizes. They offer a resting place for the mechanic’s hand tools and a protective environment for the chef’s knives. Yet such toolboxes serve a select audience. In the 21st-century, the computer is the universal toolbox, used by billions of people across the globe. Early computers, including Bill Moggridge’s influential GRiD Compass...
Measure: Behind Enemy Lines
“Escape and Evasion” maps were given to airmen during World War II to avoid capture behind enemy lines. Such maps were one of many in the military man’s arsenal, but in some respects this navigational tool represents one of the most significant products of war-era ingenuity. This Pacific Ocean “drift map,” scaled at 1:4,000,000, illustrates...
Communicate: Instant Photography Before the Internet
From the archives, an Object of the Day blog post on the Polaroid SX-70,. The 1972 point-and-shoot camera revolutionized instant photography. Now on view in Bob Greenberg Selects.
Work: The 122-year-old Multi-tool
On the outside, little about the 122-year-old Swiss Army knife has changed. But on the inside, the Victorinox@work has been updated with the 21st-century user in mind, performing not only utilitarian cutting tasks but also serving as a USB digital storage device. The diminutive tool, wrapped in its signature red case, redefines work for a...
Damián Ortega on Controller of the Universe
Artist Damián Ortega speaks about his piece, Controller of the Universe, which is on view at Cooper Hewitt as part of our Tools exhibition, opening 12/12/14.
Design for the Other 90% Panel – Martin Fisher
Martin Fisher, co-founder/CEO, KickStart