Yaybahar: an experimental hypnotic acoustic instrument
"Yaybahar is an electric–free, totally acoustic instrument designed by Gorkem Sen. The vibrations from the strings are transmitted via the coiled springs to the frame drums. These vibrations are turned into sound by the membranes which echo back and forth on the coiled springs. This results in an unique listening experience with an hypnotic surround sound. What you hear in this performance is captured in realtime without any additional effects and with no post audio processing."
(Görkem Şen, 2014)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Letritia Kandle's pioneering 1937 National Grand Letar
"This new instrument, known as the 'Grand Letar,' is the invention of Letritia Kandle shown here playing it. She designed it and had it built specially for her. The instrument as 26 strings and a lighting effect that is very new and novel, being he first instrument to change color while it is played.
The string grouping used on the I 'Grand Letar' which has complete harmony has been studied and developed by Miss Kandle over a period of six years, the development being derived from an eighteen string triple–neck Hawaiian guitar which he also designed and had built for her. Miss Kandle has played coast to coast programs over NBC and has done electrical transcription work for RCA. She also has had her own string ensemble for which she did all the arranging.
Miss Kandle demonstrated this instrument at the recent manufacturers convention in New York City."
(Down Beat, 1937)
"Designs New 24 String Guitar", Down Beat Chicago, October, 1937 [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/–RWXEdfUowkI/UKYBHr–Te2I/AAAAAAAABd0/1lOE20w_nC8/s1600/LetritiaDownBeatArticle.jpg]
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Lucy McRae: body architect and synthetic biologist
"Lucy creates provocative and often grotesquely beautiful imagery that suggests a new breed existing in an alternate world.
Trained as a classical ballerina and architect her work inherently fascinates with the human body. The media call her inventor, friends call her a trailblazer. Either way, she relies on instinct to evolve an extraordinary visual path that is powerful, primal and uniquely Lucy McRae."
(Lucy McRae)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Design Thinking: a methodology that imbues the full spectrum of innovation activities with a human-centred design ethos
"Design thinking is ... a discipline that uses the designer's sensibility and methods to match people's needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity. Like [Thomas] Edison's painstaking innovation process, it often entails a great deal of perspiration. ...
Historically, design has been treated as a downstream step in the development process – the point where designers, who have played no earlier role in the substantive work of innovation, come along and put a beautiful wrapper around the idea. To be sure, this approach has stimulated market growth in many areas by making new products and technologies aesthetically attractive and therefore more desirable to consumers or by enhancing brand perception through smart, evocative advertising and communication strategies. During the latter half of the twentieth century design became an increasingly valuable competitive asset in, for example, the consumer electronics, automotive, and consumer packaged goods industries. But in most others it remained a late–stage add–on.
Now, however, rather than asking designers to make an already developed idea more attractive to consumers, companies are asking them to create ideas that better meet consumers' needs and desires. The former role is tactical, and results in limited value creation; the latter is strategic, and leads to dramatic new forms of value."
(Tim Brown, 2008, Harvard Business Review)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Seymour warns of split in profession
"Seymourpowell co–founder Richard Seymour is warning that an increasing level of specialisation is splitting design into two different professions. He suggests that a polarisation will lead to more generalist solution providers – what he calls 'polymath interpolators' – on the one hand, and specialist executors on the other."
(Design Week, 7 September 2006)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
