Vanessa Carpenter, Interaction Designer
Interaction Design can be many things - for me it is about experience, creating experiences for people whether or not technology is involved. This portfolio explores some of the projects I've worked on with a focus on how people experience their worlds. Visit me at my studio's site: GeekPhysical - Explorations in interactive, biometric technology!
Cold Feet - Interactive Wedding Bouquet
The couple (who met creating a critical corset that tightens when the wearer’s heart rate goes up) have decided to take the leap and get married! We of course love biometrics and geekery and thus have decided that our wedding needs to be equally geeky. We’ve been working hard on taking our biometrics project into a new realm, detecting wedding emotions and datalogging the entire day.
Read it all here:
http://geekphysicalbiometrics.blogspot.com/2010/01/project-cold-feet.html
Sparkfun Behind the Scenes with GeekPhysical
Video from our trip to Vegas with Sparkfun. We made a photoshoot featuring the Critical Corset, and had a great time with Sparkfun.
Submarine Ballet
I had the incredible opportunity to be part of the Submarine Ballet, working with my friends and some new artists and dancers. On large illuminated fleets, surreal and dreamy scenes float through the Copenhagen city central water way. A floating symphony orchestra, courageous dancers, explosive fire art, and light installations in the water comprise the Submarine Ballet. The event unfolds in cycles as it travels through the harbor. SUBMARINE BALLET is a raw and poetic work of art, drifting through the busy city night, through traffic and noise, completely separate in a floating world. The vessels appear as supernatural visions in the dark harbor; strangely beautiful post apocalyptic fragments of civilization and lost cultures. The submarines Nautilus and Kraka are build by Danish pioneer Peter Madsen. The art project LIVE ART INSTALLATIONS, also known as Half Machine, is behind SUBMARINE BALLET, staged by by Danish choreographer Pipaluk Supernova in collaboration with the artists. Produced by Copenhagen Dream House for Live Art Installations and ‘Metropolis Biennale’, supported by the Danish Art Council and Copenhagen City & Harbor.
GeekPhysical+Sparkfun+Vegas GeekPhysical went to Vegas with Sparkfun to show off our Critical Corset, a corset that tightens when your heart rate goes up. This ad is currently featured on issue #19 of Make Magazine! Read all about the trip here: http://www.geekphysical.com/2009/06/geekphysical-sparkfun-in-vegas.html and all about the Corset here: http://geekphysicalbiometrics.blogspot.com/2009/07/critical-corset.html
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IXDing a baby highChair
An exploration of a younger target audience, babies and youthful mothers. An in-depth exploration of the needs and desires of both mothers and children at meal times. The Playchair is an interaction design solution - without any computer technology! Created by Vanessa Carpenter / Ben Volpov / Brian Lai. Documentation here: http://www.vanessacarpenter.com/pdfs/Playchair.pdf
Fembot
How does the media portray women? An art exhibit was held in Yaletown, Vancouver, BC in which participants listened to and saw through the eyes of the average female, by using a mannequin, audio and video. A myriad of images in the background of common media images of women, created a chaotic environment in which the womans sense of self was easily lost. Created by: Vanessa Carpenter / Ben Volpov / Angie Yoo / Ada Wu / Jennifer Hui / Heidi Liao
Barcode Beats
Barcode Beats is a system that converts barcodes into music through an interpretation of the numbers on the barcodes. Users have the opportunity to scan multiple items, and create a composition of sounds. Read about it here: http://barcodebeats.hobye.dk/ Created by: Vanessa Carpenter / Daniel Brynolf / Henrik Svarrer / Mads Høbye.
LED Matrix
64 LEDs are soldered together, creating a grid. The programmed microcontroller displays a 64 X 64 photograph, edited for high contrast, black and white, and scrolls and zooms the photo across the 64 leds, each one lighting in turn to create the image. Part of the GeekPhysical empire!
Illutron: Interactive Art http://www.illutron.dk/
Illutron is the art group I belong to in Copenhagen, Denmark. We do large scale interactive art. Our venue is a boat. (Photo by Sonny W). We do really interesting projects that challenge how people interact with each other using technology, humans, lights, sound, fire, water, and anything we can get our hands on.
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Ladies and Mens Room Mixup
How do you approach someone at a night club? In an effort to facilitate contact between people at a night club, we created a need for people to communicate: to clarify a confusing situation. We developed a prototype for a restroom gender sign switcher, which operated both automatically and as a result of human interaction and input. Read more…http://illutron.dk/posts/60 Created by: Vanessa Carpenter / Mads Høbye / Daniel Brynolf / Jonas Eriksson / Nicolas Padfield
GeekPhysical!
This is my other blog! Exploring physical computing, electronics, interaction design, and sensors. GeekPhysical focuses on how people can use physical computing techniques to realize their ideas, and to demonstrate how much there is to learn about the world of geeking. http://www.geekphysical.com/
Hi, I’m Vanessa!
I’m an Interaction Designer, recently graduated with a Masters of Interaction Design from Malmo Hogskola in Sweden and a Bachelors of “Interactive Art and Technology” (read: Interaction Design) from Simon Fraser University in Canada.
Currently, I reside in Copenhagen Denmark, with frequent trips…everywhere… to conferences, art festivals, or exhibits where I get the opportunity to meet people, share ideas, collaborate and do some amazing projects.
I work with Illutron, an interactive arts group based in Copenhagen, Live Art Installations, a performance group in Copenhagen, and run my own art/geek group with my partner, GeekPhysical! We’ve done some really cool stuff and I’d be happy to answer any questions you have!
