Reunions

Last month was a great time for reuniting with old friends at the Media Lab's 25th anniversary. I was pleasantly surprised by how productive everyone had been. I received one book from Kevin Brooks, "Storytelling for User Experience" and will read it soon. I also learned that many of the alumni have been busy with their art projects, consulting, and doing cool stuff like traveling, entrepreneurship, and volunteering. In general, I would say that ML alumni have a positive impact on the world by helping people with technology, whether its solving problems for one person, crafting art to inspire people about science, or designing whole infrastructure systems for power outages.

I also got to fly home to see my family and cousins. It was a wonderful reunion, and I was also struck by how productive my family had been. Old faces seemed new, as it had been so very long since I'd seen everyone. I was even happy to hear the noisy traffic outside, or the cats mewling in the middle of the night at home. There were new homes being nested, new jobs being performed, and little kids who have gotten bigger. It was terrific, and our own Hal was happy to meet everyone. So here's to growth and reunion, as we remember how far we've come!

This blog has moved to blogspot

This blog is now located at http://anjchangblog.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://anjchangblog.blogspot.com/rss.xml or http://anjchangblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml.

Here the Nothing by gloobic

Here the Nothing from gloobic on Vimeo.

a beautiful integration of movement, sound, and visual photography juxtaposed atop a semi-aware city. Gloobic is a collaboration by my friend eric gunther (dancer), and jeff lieberman. Visit Gloobic.

Jonah in the Art Asia Pacific

I just heard that Jonah of Coin-Operated took some time off from running Scrapyard challenge workshops all over the world to write a piece for Art Asia Pacific magazine issue #64 and an article in a brazilian magazine about his WiFi Hog(21mb)
I definitely look forward to checking it out on my next foray to Barnes and Nobles.
In his copious spare time, he's been writing iPhone art apps (photo src: coin-operated.com).

Happy birthday to Mrs. G, Roo, Chris, Cliff and Ying

July 4th-5th 2009, originally uploaded by anjchang.

It was great to see you for July 4th. Glad you had a great time! Happy birthday, the fireworks were wonderful this year. This cake, decorated by Mrs. G, was really spectacular. I am looking forward to finishing the rest of this beautiful cake. Also, welcome to America, Ying!

Taking off on my Saucony Grid Ignitions

Thanks to my friend Zahra's expert shoe shopping advice, I recently picked up a $35 pair of new Saucony Grid Ignitions. The effect, my feet are light as air and I literally flew around the bridge loop faster than I have in years. Of course, I had lots of help-- an encouraging running partner and a new running shirt (courtesy of Zahra) and having a regimen of weekly work-outs (dancing with Zahra and tae kwon do with Eric). I did the 2.82 mile loop in 27 minutes--- approximately a 9.5-minute mile. Not too shabby for this ole lady and the first time on these sneaks. The sneaks were a great price, too, got them at the Saucony outlet on Cambridge Street just a 10 minute walk from home. My "dogs" aren't even tired, though they are sweaty! ps. I'm not sponsored by Saucony but I welcome the proposition. :)

Five Ceramic Animal Whistles

Five Ceramic Animal Whistles, originally uploaded by mmancuso2003.

I just ran across Marc's latest whistle creations. The detail on this set is amazing. I really like the soft lines on the whale, and the eyes are just too cute!

Congrats to Wai for his GOLD award at iF || Hoberman's transformable design

 iF - International Forum Design Hannover: Homepage > iF online exhibition > Entry Details: "Sonos". Wai's design is very clean and elegant, and its an exciting honor.

Today, I also got to see Chuck Hoberman talk about transformable design. It was terrific, to think about buildings having animism. I really enjoyed the design language around transformation and building display. The parts that resonated with me most are the emotive aspects of such transformations and the ability of the building to become alive. His aesthetic of simple and clean and manufacturability was another aspect I enjoyed. He showed that with simple units, you can build very compelling structures that were more complex. His favorite piece, which was very delightful, was a spiraling shell. Reminds me of a folding razor I worked on once. It was an inspiring talk and makes you think about the way buildings could have this personality, a relationship with the inhabitants based on it caring for itself. Wonderful talk!

Go Zoz!

Our labmate, Zoz, who graduated from my research group, is featured in last Friday's Tech! Zoz is one of the stars of "Prototype This"-- one of the few shows that actually displays real engineering. Its always exciting to me to see someone soldering or coding-- and to show the real life excitement and frustrations that come with the job. The cool thing about this show is that it does try to expose the pace of engineering, how long it takes to make things and also the way engineers really think. There are always problems, brainstorming and solutions-- which is often glossed over in other shows, such as "Burn Notice." Burn Notice is not so realistic when it comes to engineering-- note, you cannot use a cellphone as a tracker as easily as they say. ( Oh but, I do love Burn Notice -- it is set in Miami! on SoBe!)

Media Lab creates Center for Future Storytelling - MIT News Office

Hollywood is moving East! Media Lab creates Center for Future Storytelling. This is an exciting time for rethinking the idea of storytelling and how people and objects may engage in creating and sharing stories. Another aspect that is interesting is the mutation of story through different people, as a method to promote and distribute academic/intellectual creativity within our society. Plymouth Rock Studios will be there to foster the next generation of movie creation. This story made the New York Times and also the Boston Globe.

Tad Toulis on Ugly Design

My buddy Tad wrote a treatise on Ugly Design. Ugly is a subjective term for the anti-mainstream embodiments of products. However, I aspire to accomplish more than a physical, visceral appearance, and visual reaction to my work. My goal is creative experience design, where ugly could be explored because it elicits something new in our experience of interacting with the product. I propose to answer the activity theorists question "what is the context of the purposeful action", through creating new contexts and new experiences for the user/customer.

Ugly is definitely a valid axis for design. Ugly in the visual sense could possess beauty in the other modalities, tactile and audio. Ugly can be beautiful if it is personalized. Ugly also embraces DIY culture, because the personal creation often possess an anti-professional aesthetic. Thanks to Tad for telling us "Ugly is the new 'cool kid'"

Dan and Joyce's wedding invite

I just got my invitation to Dan & Joyce's
wedding in October in Miami. Looks like its a year of weddings. Jim and I just went to Lindsay and Dan's wedding last weekend in Methuen. The ceremony was followed by a gorgeous reception in Derry. There was a large robot turnout to celebrate the occasion.

Joyce's Girls Night Out

I just returned from a weekend of celebrating Joyce's recent engagement to Dan. We had a terrific dinner in South Beach, first at Tantra and then chilling at a lounge. The weather was perfect, and tropical storm made the weather exciting. The beach was wonderful, as always! It was nice meeting Joyce's friends, and also to hang out with her Dan, and my family as well. Everyone is very excited for the couple. I'm looking forward to the wedding in October.

Happy Birthday Professor!

Happy Birthday to the coolest, most exciting Prof I know. We know what you'll be doing for the next two weeks...Wii!

Octopus by Marc Mancuso

octopus
Originally uploaded by mmancuso2003

Jim and I started our clay class for the summer. It was fantastic to get our hands dirty again. My teacher, Marc, mentioned that he had been creating new whistles. I could not believe this one, it knocked my socks off. It looks like its moving, very seductively and the decoration is gorgeous! I think this one is quite large, so it probably has low melodic notes. I am looking forward to hearing this. WOW!!!!

WhiteWater Rafting on the Dead River

Jim & Rich riding Keegan's boat.
Originally uploaded by Yun & Rich

Whee Har, Jim and Rich riding shotgun down the Dead River. I'm buried in the foam behind Rich. It was category 4 rapids, and the wetsuits were put into heavy use. I think we're ready for category 5! It was a long trip up to Maine, but the weather was good and sunny. Hot diggity dog!

Congratulations MIT Class of 2008!

Here are the stickmen 08 in their regalia. Picture taken by Sharmin K. Don't they look great?

Congrats to people with initials J, D, and L

I'm going to do a lot of celebrating the rest of this year! A hearty congratulations to the 1 L, 2 J's & 3 D's I know who are getting married. Go Dan(s)!!! If you play Mastermind, then I think all the pegs are in the right spot. One on the Miami side, is my beautiful cousin (above).

On the Boston side, a co-Robot. There's gonna be a lot of fancy dressing up when the robots go to town.

Another coworker friend on the West Coast. at Stanford, is finally settling down.

Congratulations All! This post brought to you by the letter D, J and L!

Nearing the end of the semester

This picture was taken after final project presentations of the 2.00b Toy Product Design Class. I'm exhausted, but it was a playful and terrific semester. Ahead of us is now end-of-term essays and wrapping up the year with lots of celebrations. Its a good time to have reunions and just enjoy being here. I'm looking forward to a summer full of building, creativity and intellectual play. (Photo credit to Barry Kudrowitz, the Toy Class Organizer, Instructor and Main Lecturer)

Gongke's Baby Shower

Last weekend, Debbie hosted Gongke's baby shower. There were lovely treats and delicious delicacies. Many gifts were oooh-ed and ahh-ed at, and candy was consumed in copious amounts. Here are the pix of the lovely event. Afterward, Mrs. Shen, Gongke and the brothers (J, R, C), and I went to Penang to celebrate Mothers Day early.