Chris Conte: Biomechanist

Some give their right arm for a piece of Mr. Conte’s work.

Shown above, Black Widow 1; inset, Lethal Injection Attack Droid Prototype; below, Biomechanical Arm.

Artist Christopher Conte has a joint show titled Cyberdine at the Last Rites Gallery, located at 511, West 33rd Street (btw. 10th & 11th Avenues, on the 3rd floor) in New York City. His work is being shown together with the work of Fred Harper.

By day, Mr. Conte makes artificial limbs for amputees. He also considers himself a “hobbyist” in robotic engineering. The Last Rites gallery bills itself as a venue for artists who “explore the darker side of their imagination”. Appropriately, they are a New York exhibitor for the work of world renowned Swiss artist, H.R. Giger (also known for the creature, Alien). Giger and Conte are both represented by Les Barany.

This exhibit of Christopher Conte’s work came to my attention reading the current print edition of WIRED Magazine, issue 16.06. Chris’ work has also been featured in Dark Matter, Boing Boing, beinArt (The Surreal Art Collective), Everyone Forever and Layer Upon Layers.

The current show runs through June 29th

The Last Rites Gallery is open:
Tuesday-Friday: 2:00pm to 9:00pm
Saturday: 1:00pm to 9:00pm
Sunday: 2:00pm to 6:00pm
Monday: Closed

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Have I mentioned, WIRED somehow still manages to be the most consistently great magazine published? When I pick it up, I can barely put it down. Issue 16.06 is particularly great.

Tim Kaiser's gonkulations

Tim Kaiser makes custom audio components, of a sort, crafted with a vintage look. In a deliberate act of over-engineering, Tim crafts elaborate devices, usually musical effects modules, and righteously gonkulated noisemakers. Go to his website to learn more.

Multi Touch Interface release

Enjoy this video of the newly released multi-touch interface by Perceptive Pixel. So Windows Vista isn’t the most significant new operating system release in the past month, after all.

Having experimented some with these next-generation touch screen interfaces, I’d like to point out that using them on a vertical wall mount is not generally very practical. Your arms will quickly become exhausted. An angled table-top implimentation is usually preferred. That said, this was likely done for the purposes of audience presentation. The one shown on the Perceptive Pixel homepage is indeed an inclined table-top version.

I found the above video on the Future Feeder website.

Waiting to Ship

We’ve seen this happen many times- An exceptional product that for whatever reason, never makes it to market. These are three excellent product designs that, as of today, have yet to make it into consumer’s hands.

The Jawbone

Jawbone has now been signed up with Cingular (which will soon simply be AT&T Mobile), to distribute its noise canceling wireless headset. They are taking pre-orders with a ship date that has yet to be announced. It looks like the only one of the three items sure to eventually hit the market. Besides having a gorgeous design, it makes claim to incorporate revolutionary noise canceling technology that allows the user to speak clearly at a conversational volume, and still be heard while calling from a noisy area. I have not demoed one myself, but their website has a well put together demo that sounds pretty convincing.

SHIFT

Though SHIFT looks like a tricycle, it is more like a learning bicycle; designed to help young children make the transition to a two wheeled bicycle- As the speed increases, the two rear wheels pull together, and widen apart again as the rider slows down. The SHIFT was designed by Purdue Industrial Design Assistant Professor Scott S. Shim, and two students, Ryan Lightbody and Matt Grossman. Although it won Taiwan’s International Bicycle Design competition, and earned itself a spot on the cover of TIME magazine, as of yet it has no manufacturer.

RollerToaster

Hot-shot industrial designer Jaren Goh has applied his skills to the age old domestic appliance, the toaster (and garnered himself a red.dot design award for his efforts). While John Q. Public living in a middle American suburban McMansion may not grasp the genius of this design, those of us who live in high density urban environments know that the first place where we lose space is in our tiny city dwelling kitchens. This space saving toaster design is brilliant in its simplicity… not to mention impeccably cool. Nobody has yet been able to answer for me whether it would be safe to wall-mount.