Remember the feeling the first time walking down a desolate street in a foreign city or waiting on the corner in a new neighborhood to meet a friend? We all constantly judge our surroundings, whether knowingly or subconsciously; our ability to determine our level of safety, advantage or opportunity from our perceived situation is an essential evolutionary tool for survival. While usually these judgements happen …
Whole Foods signage lists veggie origins so why shouldn’t you know where your computer comes from? Like most commonplace products, despite the public’s growing desire to know sources, tracing supply chains isn’t easy to do. Enter the user-driven site Sourcemap, an open-source, interactive database for tracking the origins and impacts of anything from a Macbook to a menu. The upshot of a class taught by …
Being a graduate student at MIT’s Media Lab is generally a solid prerequisite for assuming someone has brains and John Kestner is no exception. His two new projects explore relationships with digital media, attempting to anchor online interactions in the physical world. Kestner’s project Tableau harkens back to when communication and social connections took place in person with a conversation, or high-five. Tableau, which looks …
