Merrick Angle is a Freelance illustrator and designer based in France. Check his About page for a list of his clients. Visit his official website to buy his stuff.
The dog’s name was Nipper:
In 1898, three years after Nipper’s death, Francis painted a picture based on a photograph of Nipper listening intently to a wind-up Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph, substituting a disc gramophone for the phonograph. On February 11, 1899, Francis filed an application for copyright of his picture “Dog Looking At and Listening to a Phonograph.” Thinking the Edison-Bell Company might find it useful, he presented it to James E. Hough who, in a move that would eventually result in Edison exiting the record business altogether, promptly said, “Dogs don’t listen to phonographs.” On May 31, 1899, Francis went to the Maiden Lane offices of The Gramophone Company with the intention of borrowing a brass horn to replace the original black horn on the painting. Manager, William Barry Owen suggested that if the artist replaced the entire machine with a Berliner disc gramophone, the Company would buy the painting. A modified form of the painting became the successful trademark of Victor and HMV records, HMV music stores, and RCA. The trademark itself was registered by Berliner on July 10, 1900. (wikipedia)
More info about Nipper over at DesignBoom.
 | Data visualization is a pretty literal term that means, quite simply, the visual representation of quantitative data. In this course we’ll learn common techniques for visualizing data, as well as some strategies for managing information digitally. But first, a brief history. |
This is part of a course belonging to an MFA program in Interaction Design offered by the School of Visual Art (New York). The course intend to
introduce students to the fundamental concepts of data visualization, and provide a structured environment for experimentation with a variety of methods in both digital and physical media. (more)
About Shawn Allen:
Shawn is a partner and design director at Stamen, a San Francisco studio specializing in data visualization and mapping. (more)
Check his official website.
Previously on Skandalon: New York School of Visual Art
“Here’s my new wallpaper at work – something I’ve been working on in OmniGraffle.”
“My name is Mark Goetz, and I am currently a second-year Master student at the University of Michigan’s School of Information. I’m specializing in Human-Computer Interaction, and hope to begin a career in user research and interaction design after I’ve finished.” (more)
Visit his portofolio over at http://markandrewgoetz.com
Previously on Skandalon: PowerPoint, Edward Tufte.
| In the morning I walked to the bank. I went to the automated teller machine to check my balance. I inserted my card, entered my secret code, tapped out my request. The figure on the screen roughly corresponded to my independent estimate, feebly arrived at after long searches through documents, tormented arithmetic. Waves of relief and gratitude flowed over me. The system had blessed my life. I felt its support and approval. The system hardware, the mainframe sitting in a locked room in some distant city. What a pleasing interaction. I sensed something of deep personal value, but not money, not that at all, had been authenticated and confirmed. A deranged person was escorted from the bank by two armed guards. The system was invisible, which made it all the more impressive, all the more disquieting to deal with. But we were in accord, at least for now. The networks, the circuits, the streams, the harmonies. |
White Noise won the National Book Award in 1985. Learn more about it on Wikipedia.
| I’ve been watching with bemused interest as US geeks (apparently 120.000 of them, although I’d take any initial figures with a large grain of salt if I were you) rushed to pre-order their iPads and, deprived of the thrill of actually using it until it arrives, gushed forth on the details of their purchase and reasons thereof as if they were boasting about the pedigree of a puppy that is yet to be weaned and handed to them in a little basket. |
The Tao of Mac is Rui Carmo’s blog:
“I’m someone with a Systems Engineering degree, a decade and a half of overexposure to the Internet, and (horror of horrors to the uninitiated), Marketing experience – as well as social graces that allow me to mediate between geeks and “regular” folk. I’ve pretty much done it all where it comes to the telco world, having been immersed in Wi-Fi, 3G (UMTS) and IP-related stuff at a major GSM operator for several years (ten, actually, going on eleven at the time of this writing).”(more)
| As many others have noted, the release of the iPad might be the cannonball into the consumer device pool the iPhone dipped its toes in. It’s also been referred to as a thing that sits between that iPhone and your laptop. I see it as more of a fork in the road. It’s the thing many people will get INSTEAD of a laptop. The iPad isn’t the future of computing; it’s a replacement for computing. |
Mike founded Mule Design in 2001 along with Erika Hall. Follow him on Tumblr.
First discovered via The Daring Fireball.
“OK, if iPad is innovating meaning even more than it is technology, what meaning might that be? Here’s my best guess:
iPad is tapping into an emerging dynamic of a more interactive, tactile experience with digital technology and information. These interactions make technology less of an interface, and more of an extension of ourselves and our environment.
The tweets above are a couple that show the natural way children engage with technology. Given the iPhone experience, they turn around and want to apply it to other devices. Buttons on devices, our traditional form of interaction, are divorced from the screen. They provide a measure of distance from the digital experience.
Touch, however, represents a new level of intimacy in the digital experience. In technology terms, it’s just an alternative form of interface. Touch, mouse, tab, whatever. But touch is a vital human sense, and a core part of experience. It’s how we interact with others, how we shop, experience textures and so much more.”
About Hutch Carpenter:
“I am the VP of Product for Spigit. Spigit helps companies manage innovation, providing idea management and prediction market software for enterprises. The goal is enable easy capture of ideas by employees, customers and partners, and convert the most promising to innovative initiatives. Spigit recently received a $10 million equity investment from Warburg Pincus.” (more)
“The Reality Checking Device is a poetic information machine that stands in the tradition of the ancient Greek oracle. It confronts people with their own self and their personal anxieties. It helps to identify all those scenarios we really do not need to fear – despite being told the opposite by mass media.
The Reality Checking Device is a made for a society in which anxieties have become a lifestyle choice. This machine is a tangible information graphic that reveals the relationship between public outrage and actual danger in common risk scenarios. With this project I aim to explores the poetic, aesthetic and informative possibilities of personalised networked services that are directly responding to peoples’ hidden needs and desires.” (read more)
Susanna Hertrich is an “interaction designer temporarily based in Tokyo” : “My work centers on how what we believe, fear, think and how we act is altered by the technology around us. My designs aim to discuss the dilemmas of our existence mapped into new technological scenarios. I am particularly interested in exploring the social and psychological subtleties of the ‘mundane’.” (read more)
“This concept video shows Apple’s Knowledge Navigator concept video (made in 1987) by Allan Kay and team. This work builds on Kay’s original Dynabook concept developed at Xerox PARC in the early 1970s.” (The Next Web)
“The Knowledge Navigator is a concept described by former Apple Computer CEO John Sculley in his 1987 book, Odyssey. It describes a device that can access a large networked database of hypertext information, and use software agents to assist searching for information. Apple produced several concept videos showcasing the idea. All of them featured a tablet style computer with numerous advanced capabilities, including an excellent text-to-speech system with no hint of “computerese”, a gesture based interface resembling the multitouch interface later used on the iPhone and an equally powerful speech understanding system, allowing the user to converse with the system via an animated “butler” as the software agent.” (Wikipedia).
