Working from principles of differential geometry, physicist Garrett Lisi is developing a new unified theory that purports to explain all the elementary particles, and gravity, in one elegant model. His theory is based on a mathematical shape called E8. With 248 symmetries, E8 is large, complex and beautiful — and Lisi believes the relationships of its symmetries correspond to known particles and forces, including gravity.
His work, explained in his paper “An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything,” and in an ongoing discussion on FQXi, is still on science’s speculative fringe. But some physicists believe he could be pointing the way toward a truly unified theory.
“This is an ‘all or nothing’ kind of theory — meaning it’s going to end up agreeing with and predicting damn near everything, or it’s wrong. At this stage of development, it could go either way.”
We like London, this city-world full of differences, ethnic variety, colors, textures, sounds; within a block distance the environment can change totally. We are perpetually commuting and when we think about architecture, we think of vertical constructions, enclosing horizontal space.
Naturally we have a tendency to look up when we are happy and down when we are sad. We want to bring emphasis on the ground and the sky, amplifying one’s mood. The “sad hat | happy hat” can be worn in two different ways, happy (looking up) or sad (looking down). The reflective surface inside multiplies the perception of either the sky or the ground.
But what happens when you either look only up or down? You bump into stuff! Maybe you need someone to complement your perception: if you are sad you may need someone happy, if you are happy someone sad, to walk together safely.
The object can be experienced in 2 main ways, outside-in and inside-out. The outside-in aspects: the appearance of the hats indicates obviously what mood you are in. This experience critiques our excess of self-awareness in public, how much we care about how others are looking at us. The inside-out aspect provides a thrilling sensorial experience, something different and playful, we might not care how people will look at us, in our own visual and acoustic distorted world.
The “sad hat | happy hat” is a simple playful perception limb that directs and amplifies ones perception and mood, allowing to re-consider how one feels about the city while creating an extreme social relation between the mask user and the others, encouraging the necessary complementary pair relation
“[source] Scattered House is an architectural experiment founded on a truly contemporary notion of space, where issues of ubiquitous connectivity, family diasporas, design-by-occupant, and public control technology come together in an installation assembled from inexpensive electronic toys and gadgets.
We are inviting members of the public to visit the Hungarian Cultural Centre and contribute to elements of the “house” — they can either bring toys and gadgets that will become part of the amalgamated whole or we will also have a selection of items that they can try hacking themselves. Architects and interaction designers Adam Somlai-Fischer and Usman Haque, authors of the online manual “Low Tech Sensors and Actuators” [download 1MB], will be on hand to advise and assist in this process, as well as Bengt Sjölén, artist from Stockholm.
The three day event will be suitable for families and accompanied children, as well as design (or non-design) students who would like to be part of the event. The public will help design and build fragments of the interactive “Scattered House” which will be exhibited internationally later in the year. People will be able to open up toys and gadgets (that they have either brought along or which are provided for them), gain a simple understanding of how they work, and learn how to connect them directly into the installation themselves.
No experience is necessary, though enthusiasm for hacking open toys is welcome!”
It was a brilliant experience, I just regret I don’t have so much footage of the installation at the Hungarian Embassy, but a lot of interview instead, so here is a quite similar experiment the same people did, if you want to see more in detail the hacked electronic components:
Hello, this is the blog where I will post and comment the best things I find from the internet, the pearls. Everything is to be done, categories, rules, so if you feel like posting stuff here too and becoming a contributor/editor, or if you have any suggestion, feel free to comment, post. Thanks.
