Notes from Knut

by Knut Karlsen The resent days has given the world two nice new gizmos to want: The Nikon D90 and the Canon 5D MKII . Both bringing HD video recording to the DSLR market in style. This recent development has made me think of the competition these cameras should give more professional video recording equipment. With a big system of lenses to back up a superb image quality they could be a boon for moviemakers. And Gizmodo just ran an article that touched this topic. I find it really interesting to see that the DSLRs suddenly start to have similar technical functions to high quality movie equipment. But at the same time it is obvious how different they look. The traditions and expectations of a DSLR is as evident in the 5D as they are in a modern camcorder from Sony. This is an example of how two different discourses are expressed in their tangible assets. Photography has been about producing the individual image, and film has captured time in sequences. Since Eadweard Muyb

As a follow-up to the previous entry i found the sudden hype today concerning a LED light bulb that frog design suggests as a revolutionary LED product is a case in point that technology is not a design driver. It's fair enough to sample previous designs in new ones and it is done all the time, but there will not be any revolution in doing that. People will just lift their shoulders and say "OK". I am even a bit surprised the concept came from a design company. Designers should work to challenge how people think, use, design and produce rather than insert new and more efficient technology into existing products. Leave that to the engineers !

lecture by Steinar Killi Outdoor furniture This nieche of furniture has gone from teak and "rattan" to through the ubiquitous white plastic chairs, which has been banned in some cities in Norway, to the popular Polyrotting chairs mimicing the older furniture. They are even handmade by weaving polyethylene around a frame. The paradigm, Steinar argues, is the new material used in the "rattan". The rest is more or less a step bak into older production methods, hand fabrication, and design historism. Drinking Containers From glass to steelcans to alucans to plastic bottles. But has the changes been that sequential? I guess the glassbottle is the predecessor to the plastic bottle. In 2000 a new alu alternative appeared: The Alu bottle. But again, as with the polyrotting, they use a new technology to go back to a more "original" design. The Alu bottle keeps it's intended shape and do not need to compromise as much as the plastic compared to glass. The produ

My first impression of the new Google Chrome web browser is rather good. It is responsive, quick and does not clutter my screen. I especially like how it divides the tabs and tasks into several processes. It's easy to have control on what pages that hogs the power. It will be interesting to see how it behaves during the next few days. You can read more about "Chrome" in the "Google book about Chrome" .