Profile: Installation Robots in Residence with Alexander Reben and Brent Hoff from Submarine Channel on Vimeo.

“So perhaps the real use of this project will be to get some robots out into the world and let people express themselves in an ongoing way.”

1. “What’s On Your Mind? (Pure Energy)” – Information Society
2. “Promises” – The Presets
3. “Love Long Distance” – Gossip
4. “Fiction” – The xx
5. “Under The Milky Way” – The Church
6. “Days” – CREEP
7. “The Haunted Man” – Bat For Lashes
8. “Recover” – Chvrches
9. “Damaged Goods” – Yeasayer
10. “When I Dream” – Ra Ra Riot

Download the entire playlist for a limited time.

Honestly, I don’t think io9 was excited enough about the supercapacitor – found by accident – profiled in this video.  Holy crud, this could change so much so quickly if it all pans out!

There are more interesting concepts over at Wired so check them out.  While not perfect (as pointed out viciously by a few commenters) the intention is noble and the ideas are certainly novel.  It does, though, remind me at least a little of this Portlandia sketch:

Both food for thought and food for rats…

“I think it’s possible to feel angry with the curator for not selecting a particularly excellent example of your oeuvre.” [...] The game asks the question of how value is determined: not so much by the creator as by how the artwork is received by a community’s power brokers and the world at large.

Art Game by Pippin Barr aims to recreate the soul-crushing and challenging experience of creating visual work for the New York art scene.  I think it also speaks to the creator in all of us who has to interface with those that commission our efforts.

(via Hyperallergic)

“Multi-Touch Gestures” by Gabriele Meldaikyte

“Artist Gabriele Meldaikyte’s ‘Multi-Touch Gestures‘ series remakes the actions through which we interact with our smartphones. Meldaikyte turned five actions, flicking, pinching, tapping, swiping, and scrolling, into lo-fi, non-digital devices made of paper, plastic, and wood that mimic those gestures.”

This quote is from a Hyperallergic article talking about a research project called “Curious Rituals” which aims to catalogue the odd things we do with our bodies that have become an everyday part of life with technology.  From the “on the phone aimless amble” to the “iPad photographer” two handed point-and-shoot (one I’m now promoting via Mobile Media Pilot), our odd dances while interacting with devices have become ingrained in the daily experience to the point of becoming overlooked.  ”Curious Rituals” and “Multi-Touch Gestures” aim to tease these behaviors out, look at them from all angles and preserve them for the future.

CurbTXT is a sweet idea. It could turn San Francisco into a wonderland of parking good deeds, helping people avoid fines and giving them the opportunity to move their vehicles before they get towed.

Or, you know, allow you to tell the person who parks so close to your car in the parking lot that you can’t actually open the door to get in (on a 7 degree morning, no less) that they’ve kinda been a dick.  One way or the other, I suppose!

(CNet)

I can’t even fathom being trapped in that presentation hall for this trainwreck.

Well, the world didn’t end and so it seems like reason enough to celebrate with a brand new top albums list for the year that was.  Now, the savvy reader will have noticed that there are actually 13 covers in the list below so that means that a) I didn’t stick to my resolve to stop cutely choosing the same number of albums as the second part of the year – it won’t be fun anymore by 2027 and b) I kept with tradition and sent an extra selection on through.  One item of note with 2012′s choices is that they nearly all sound like they came from the same sonic landscape.  Not even intentional – has my taste started to settle? Ah, at least old age will sound great…

“…in essence, bad design was both the symptom and a contributing cause of apple’s corporate disease. steve’s desire to end the disjoined approach gave birth to a strategic design project that would revolutionize apple’s brand and product lines, change the trajectory of the company’s future, and eventually redefine the way the world thinks about and uses consumer electronics and communication technologies.”

More on designboom…