Syzygy Group Blog - Digital Schweinshaxe
The people behind the knuckle
We are creatives of Hi-ReS! and Syzygy. We blog about art, design, fashion, architecture, creative advertisements – everything that inspires us. We also want to give you a look behind the scenes of our everyday work and present some of the "making ofs".
The Car-ppuccino
A team from the BBC1 science TV show 'Bang Goes The Theory' has unveiled a car that runs on coffee.
To prove that just about anything can be turned into car fuel these days, they will drive the Car-puccino 210 miles from London to Manchester using only residual coffee grounds as fuel. Driving between London and Manchester will require over 150 pounds of grinds, plus stops every 30 to 45 miles to refill, as well as frequent breaks to clean the coffee filtering system.
The 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco will be driven from Manchester to London powered only by roasted coffee granules.
56 espressos per mile.
According to the show’s producer, Nick Watson:
“Coffee, like wood or coal, has some carbon content so you can use it as a fuel. The coffee needs to be very dry and in pellets to allow the air to move through the pile of coffee as it burns. The brand doesn’t matter.”
Via Inhabitat
Curious Displays
An interesting proposal for a future display technology by Julia Y. Tsao.
"Curious Displays is a product proposal for a new platform for display technology. Instead of a fixed form factor screen, the display surface is instead broken up into hundreds of ½ inch display blocks. Each block operates independently as a self-contained unit, and has full mobility, allowing movement across any physical surface. The blocks operate independently of one another, but are aware of the position and role relative to the rest of the system. With this awareness, the blocks are able to coordinate with the other blocks to reconfigure their positioning to form larger display surfaces and forms depending on purpose and function. In this way, the blocks become a physical embodiment of digital media, and act as a vehicle for the physical manifestation of what typically exists only in the virtual space of the screen."
Remote Control:
"If we continue this remote-model for the Curious Display system, how would the control interface look? The user would need control of not just the usual channels and volume, but movement, functionality, and behavior, as well. What types of buttons would we have to have for the system? Would there be an array of buttons for different shapes and aspect ratios? For different types of functionality? For different display personalities, even?"
More info here.
Via Rubbishcorp
Ron van der Ende
Dutch artist Ron van der Ende is specialized in wall mounted bas-reliefs constructed from found wood. Wow … they're so amazing.
The original color and texture of the wood is utilized to form a sometimes photorealistic mosaic. The realism is further enhanced by the perspective built into the relief.
Van der Ende uses his method to conjure up dark industrial and space age imagery.
Just for the light of it
Tropicana, yes the orange juice brand, brought light to Inuvik in Canada's Northwest Territories which doesn't see any sun for months at a time. A helium balloon emitting 100,000 lumens was lit above the town.
Yes, it is a commercial ad for an orange juice. But what can I say: just look into the people's eyes of this documentary style commercial … I would be absolutley ecstatic too after not having seen the sun for 1 month, even if this would mean to become a part of an ad campaign. The ad is set to a lovely piece of music by Patrick Watson, The Great Escape.
An interface between brain and computer
The Berlin Brain-Computer Interface aims to improve the detection and decoding of brain signals acquired by electroencephalogram (EEG). The research group is currently presenting a live demonstration of their brain-controlled pinball machine at the CeBit exhibit in Hannover, Germany:
"The project features a user wearing a specially designed cap with eeg technology embedded within it to measure brainwaves. The user first undergoes a training program to calibrate the machine to their brainwaves. 'while the player imagines leftand right hand movements, algorithms decode his brain activity signals in realtime into control signals for the pinball machine'. Once they have mastered the training regime, they are hooked directly to the pinball machine. There, their brainwaves are linked to the left and right paddles so they can play the game without using their hands at all."
Via Designboom
