My design work varies from the poetic to the pragmatic. With self-initiated projects, I tend to design for the domestic sphere, at the scale of the individual, and often without a lot of technology. My academic projects involve greater ethnographic research and participatory methods and tend toward systems-, service-, and strategic-design. The images below represents the "making" aspect of my design practice, often in collaboration with Stephanie M. Tharp and our studio, materious.
Using WiFi technology to wirelessly pull information from the internet, Forecast’s lighted umbrella handle glows more intensely with the increased chance of precipitation offering a clear and unobtrusive signal to the user. Since all of the technology is in the base, except for a single LED and two contact wires, if the umbrella breaks in high winds, little is lost. Further, no batteries are used in this product, as the stand/base unit plugs into a wall socket.
FORECAST
Weather-forecasting umbrella
Concept prototype
2005
A model for appropriate embedded technology, the Forecast umbrella provides information about the likelihood of rain so users can make a simple, informed decision about whether to take their umbrella with them as they leave home. Designed in 2005 amid initial exuberance of smart products, Forecast operates as a critique of devices like glowing orbs that reflect stock market performance. If technology is going to become more pervasive and be incorporated into everyday objects (which it certainly has since our embodied "forecasting"), then the result should be smart, simple, and seamless.