Tag Archive for 'engineering'

People We Love: Yan Lu

mathew published on October 20, 2010 in art, build, celebrity, technology and zeitgeist. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

It is now day three, and so that means part III in my epic journey leading up to SuperForest’s birthday bash! Today’s post is a fun one. Enjoy!

I am fascinated by relations between objects and human beings, especially when it is implemented with new technology. -Yan Lu

Hello SuperForest!

Today I bring you a very unique person. Yan Lu is Chinese designer/engineer based in London. His designs are extraordinary, clever, fun, and, perhaps most amazing, practical. In some ways he might be the king of DIY, which is something we are a fan of here at SuperForest. The picture above is of a sink that shows the usage of water, and its affects on the little fishies out there. But don’t worry, the fishies aren’t actually loosing water. The picture below shows you just how the whole thing works.

Okay, granted this isn’t the best example of a DIY, but it one of his cooler designs that also has a real learning benefit. “Let us be conscious of the materials we use in our world,” I hear it saying to me.

So, what else does this amazing man have to offer? Well have you ever wondered what to do with your used cardboard box from that package you just received? Well try this:

Or perhaps this:

Both using upcycling! Very, very cool works.

Or how about making your own hanger? (this is one of my favourites, though certainly takes a little bit more skill, and well..machinary)

Not convinced of his genius yet? Well try this: Sun Sharing. What is that? Here is his description:

We envision that by 2020, we will have developed optics capable of relaying natural light across time zones without using electricity.

Imagine: London’s street lamps streaming light from the Californian sun; the Gobi desert illuminating a tunnel in Tokyo; or bathing in the Australian sun during a Norwegian winter. By sharing natural sunlight, we can redistribute our energy needs and usage more equally.

And the new fibre system will also thoroughly change the design of lighting.

Incredible! Absolutely stunning work. The work itself is actually already being recognised, winning the Future Agenda 2020 First Award, which is sponsored by Vodafone!

Yan also plays with the ideas of society, and our own personal awareness of the world around you. Watch the awesome video below, it is very worth it!

This guy is for real, and I am looking forward to see what he creates next. His vision and dream is truly inspiring. Every time I visit his website I get excited for the possibilities he is presenting. So, click here, go visit him, and have fun!

Have a great and happy Wednesday SuperForest,

Mathew

P.S. ONLY TWO MORE DAYS!!! YAY!

This Too… Shall Pass

julius published on March 3, 2010 in art, build, celebrity and technology. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

In 2006 Illinois alternative rock band OK Go surprised and inspired us with their Here It Goes Again-treadmill-video. The music clip, being one of the most often watched  an absolute peak in the internet video era. Only of this morning I watched OK Go’s new video, from their song This Too Shall Pass; it’s equally mind-boggling. (And oh my God, it’s available in 1080p, so play this baby full-screen!)

Personally I thought the video was one big creative outburst. Engineers must have thought about every single part of the machine and all the parts had to be joined, and they must have had tremendous amounts of fun in doing so. To my surprise the actual filming only took two days while 60 people were working on the project. It must have required enormous manpower to reset the track each time.

According to Wired the music video was filmed in sixty takes of which most didn’t last longer then thirty seconds because something went wrong. But when the machine had fully ‘rolled’ it took about an hour in order to reset it(!). Interestingly enough Adam Sadowsky, one of the engineers that designed the project, said that one of the design requirements was that it couldn’t feature any ‘magic’; Sadowsky: “Because we are all engineers, [..] we love magic. We love computers, and servomotors, and fire, and all of that stuff.”

But what did the OK Go bro’s actually ‘dance’ with in their creative music video? It turns out to be nothing less then a Rube Goldberg Machine, or abbreviated: RGM. In common language this would be best described as “an over-engineered machine that performs a simple task in a complex way”. This certainly applies to the thing in the video because there have to be more efficient ways to launch paint in the direction of four innocently-looking guys.

Anyway, the machine got it’s name from the American cartoonist, author and – not surprisingly – engineer and inventor Rube Goldberg. He used to draw cartoons featuring the machines that eventually got his name like the one below.

As an applied physics student who also fancies an interest in the Arts I find Goldberg’s work from the artwork gallery on his website nothing less but flattering. I’ve never seen such a complex – but working – ‘simplified pencil sharpener’.

(And cheers to SuperForester Claire for sending this in!)

RepRap Movie

jackson published on April 8, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Here’s a little viddy of the RepRap in action.


Darwin: Optoswitch bracket timelapse build from eD Sells on Vimeo.

Nicey nice.

Just imagine the possibilities.