Traditional Japanese shoji are sliding doors made of washi paper supported by wood crosspieces. The paper offers privacy and protection from wind but requires the lattice structure for support. For the Takeo Corporation’s Haptic exhibition, Japanese architect and materials researcher Hiroshi Ota set out to rethink the traditional Japanese architectural feature. After researching the Japanese papermaking technique called kami-suki (paper-scooping), Ota hypothesized that it would be possible to make self-supporting paper screens.
Ota formed a stainless-steel screen with a dimensional basket weave–type pattern using a rolling press. He molded two sheets of paper with this screen and attached them together after allowing them to dry. Once paired in this way, the paper sheets formed a truss capable of supporting its own weight and functioning as furniture. Although Japanese washi is typically appreciated for its lightness and delicacy, here Ota has used the paper to create stability and strength in a new sliding door. [Contact:
Hiroshi Ota, Tokyo, Japan.]
Labels: 12, door, paper, screen, ultraperforming
Erwin Hauer Continua is a series of designs for perforated and light-diffusing architectural surfaces. Originally developed in 1950, Continua screens were made of masonry materials painstakingly cast in complex molds. With the advent of current digital fabrication technologies, Continua screens are now easier to fabricate and mass produce, and Erwin Hauer’s sensual, multidimensional shapes may now be realized in a variety of materials.
Developed in cooperation with Enrique Rosado, Continua screens are available in CNC-cut medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and stone, as well as precast concrete and high-strength gypsum cement. Panels may be shop-fabricated up to 4 x 8 feet (1.2 x 2.4 meters), and larger sizes must be assembled on site. [Contact:
EHR Design Associates LLC, New Haven, CT.]
Labels: 12, multidimensional, process, screen
The Bubble Screen is a dot-matrix display that uses air bubbles as pixels. Developed by Eyal Burstein at Beta Tank, this display can show images, text, and patterns and may be used as a low-resolution screen. The project required two years of development during which experts in the fields of automation, pneumatics, and academia were employed to solve a fluid dynamics challenge. The Bubble Screen is intended to reveal alternative methods of information display and consumption and is exemplary of Beta Tank's ongoing ambient information-design project. [Contact:
Beta Tank, London, UK.]
Labels: 11, digital, process, repurposed, screen, water
While touch-sensitive screens commonly work for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.
Developed by Jefferson Han at New York University, Multi-Touch Interaction offers a wide variety of application scenarios and interaction modalities that utilize multi-touch input information. These go far beyond the "poking" actions you get with a typical touch screen, or the gross gesturing found in video-based interactive interfaces.
Multi-Touch Interaction is force-sensitive, and provides unprecedented resolution and scalability, allowing the creation of sophisticated multi-point widgets for applications large enough to accommodate both hands and multiple users. [via New York University; suggested by David Duffus and Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Copenhagen.]
Labels: 10, interaction, interfacial, screen, video
Traditional Japanese shoji are sliding doors made of washi paper supported by wood crosspieces. The paper offers privacy and protection from wind but requires the lattice structure for support. For the Takeo Corporation’s Haptic exhibition, Japanese architect and materials researcher Hiroshi Ota set out to rethink the traditional Japanese architectural feature. After researching the Japanese papermaking technique called kami-suki (paper-scooping), Ota hypothesized that it would be possible to make self-supporting paper screens.
