Chinatown Soup’s Community-Minded Version of Monopoly

NYC-based art and activism collective Chinatown Soup has developed a “Chinatown Edition” of Monopoly, but their version’s winner doesn’t play to control the city by achieving ownership of all valuable properties. Rather, players aim to create a more utopian neighborhood as the game “prizes the player that purposefully develops an area while keeping its residents in mind.” Highlighting the issues surrounding gentrification, this version of the …

Amazon’s Echo Show Hints at the Future of TV

Beyond a screen, microphone and speaker upgrade, Amazon’s new Echo Show (announced last week with a slew of other refined and amped-up products–a microwave included) opens up a new dialogue surrounding the future of TV hardware. It may look like a tablet head-on, but from streaming live TV content (NBC and Hulu) to its preference not to be touched (despite having a touchscreen, the microphones …

Skin-Inspired Robotic Enhancements Animate the Inanimate

Developed by Yale’s Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio for NASA, new robotic skins aim to fit around static options and give them form—and movement. The skins are composed of supple elastic sheets and have sensors and actuators embedded throughout. This is a fascinating development that reflects a tangential robotics market, wherein an enhancement—rather than an independent form—is produced. Further, using more than one skin can lead to increasing complex series …