I have been kicking the idea of a one-person car that can lean into corners, as well as stand up, to make it a viable city car.  Here is the current version:  

BK2 Render #2 from Ben Jarrett on Vimeo.   In order to visualise the biokinetic interface I was proposed for my Masters, I simulated the look using the Animation function from within Solidworks + Photoworks.  It's a bad way to animate, in that the model still acts as a Solid, therefor[...]

Today I brought a large ball, with the express intention of using it to create a concrete cast for the base of a tall stool with a bicycle seat.  With a history of having back pain, and having used a sit/stand desk for some years, I have a nascent theory about the need for 'micro-inflections' in[...]

Entitled 'Heteropoetic Mediation - the Emergence of Biokinesis':    

There are some mathematical relationships that I don't quite understand here...but it's pretty nonetheless:

I should have posted this some time ago.  I built a larger 5x5 grid using the same Neodymium magnets that I used in an earlier experiment.  The flux is a lot less strong than when they were close coupled.  This tallies with conversations that I have had with electromagnet engineers around the nature[...]

In an attempt to illustrate the simple idea of pushing interface logic far beyond logical complexity into the area of complex intuition - I made this simple video:   Buttons Pattern Morph from Ben Jarrett on Vimeo.

I had to make a short synopsis as context for the visiting critics to read prior to my 3rd Workshop presentation: Asynchronic events and disproportions caused by the contin­uously changing matrix-worlds of personalized, globalized, user-generated content are relegating form back into the orders o[...]

Here is a still from a Solidworks animation that I am working on to establish whether a 300mm x 300mm tray will be suitable for an end product. Assuming 8mm diameter electromagnets, what does the consequent 30 x 30 'pixel' interface allow us to do? incidentally, the 300mm square in not arbitrary - i[...]

These are the parameters that I am trying to understand and deliver upon.

This device is interesting/

Bridget Riley, the British Op Artist alludes to some of the same forms as I am exploring.....

Professor Petri Toiviainen of the Center of Musical Excellence at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland helped create this amazing animation. To me, it is really incredible how the brain seems to be reacting to individual notes, rather than passages, or clusters, of notes.... "This animation sho[...]

Some interesting work that has some aesthetic commonality to the work that I am doing... "Produced by onformative and chopchop the “unnamed soundsculpture” is a project by Daniel Franke & Cedric Kiefer, building from the simple idea of creating a moving sand sculpture from the recorded mo[...]

Here is a small video wall using the feed from the Interface Design Machine that I installed in the foyer of Unitec Building One in November 2011. The initial response was very good with some 150 participants - validating the Sottsass/Olivetti red colour scheme - but the longevity of the interact[...]

An animation of the wave amplifier, exploring some basic ideas around it's use...

It was while walking along Okinohama beach, in Koichi prefecture on the island of Shikoku in Japan that I first thought about using sand as a medium for communication. Here is a short montage of some of the forms that I saw as I wandered along the beach...thinking/

What. a. time. soak. Bad. RAM. HDDs. Bugs. Wow. Finished. Satisfying.

20 Hz from Semiconductor on Vimeo. Wow. This is very close to what I have (rightly or wrongly) envisioned as the interface....except this is taken from a completely different source: "20 Hz observes a geo-magnetic storm occurring in the Earth's upper atmosphere. Working with data collected[...]

I just found several GB worth of photos after tidying up my external HDDs. Here are some photos of the Ovid amplifier case that I made for my undergraduate project. The individual waves were to be generated from music files selected by the client and sent through an algorithm that would create a [...]

MASTERS BY PROJECT PROPOSAL / _BEN JARRETT TITLE Heteropoetic Mediation – The Emergence of Biokinetic Interfacing INTRODUCTION This project may be seen as an extension of several design themes that I have engaged with over my undergraduate studies, and particularly within my final project. D[...]

After much procrastination, I finally sat down and actually started to write some code, as opposed to skimming the books that I have brought. I was surprised at how intuitive it is at this basic level....here is one of my first sketches in which you move your mouse around to create the graphics and[...]

I have been looking at examples of kinetic sculpture as possible interface precursors - most of these examples have mechanical issues that would render them unfit for my purposes, but it is the magic(!) that interests me...

The great New Zealand pioneer Len Lye exploring some of the possibilities that kinetic abstract movement can facilitate:

I have begun to think that it is impossible to convey intentional meaning from static abstract shape/images without the parietal lobe imprinting a representational overlay on it - this relies on cultural and historical knowledge, and thus is a poor communicator for interfacing consistent meaning if [...]

A short, last minute Solidworks animation for the Graduation Show that I have very belatedly uploaded. It reminds me that I need to re-animate this sequence again, with better colour values and increase the complexity of the movement in the amplifier casing to better express the base ideas of a inte[...]

I made a series of amplifier wave studies out of coreflute - primarily to see how the front corner would integrate together.  

In order to understand the ergonomic realities of the amplifier design I created a set of mock ups using a variety of materials - this led to the rear panel design of the control amplifier being divided into a three distinct parts: analog input/digital input and the central insect section housing th[...]

If you would like to participate in the audio equipment survey that I have designed, please go here.

Untitled from Ben Jarrett on Vimeo.

Here are some of the illustrator files that I have created/

Some of the early conceptual drawings.....

I gave my mid point presentation on Thursday, and seriously misunderestimated (sic) my target resulting in much negative feedback from the tutors - I will post a video when I can - but as ever, they had several good points and my ultimate design in mind, so I must listen to them....:)

A selection of some of the best design that high end audio has to offer, quirky or cool:

I made some quick and dirty cardboard prototypes today, which felt great after so much reseaching.  3D sketching is one of my favorite modes of investigation as it produces results rapidly and shows mass, which tends to elude drawing and 2D media.

This is the original presentation that I gave to my lecturers at the end of last semester.  The presentation was seen as a way for tutors to finally green light the project, or pick up any major problems before we all put the hammer down. The essence of my project is a high quality soundsystem fo[...]