“No matter how you turn them, no matter how they roll tumble, the overall height is always constant. You can rest a book on top and spin it perfectly like a Lazy Susan. What’s the point? There is none. It’s just a neat little curiosity.”
“My uncle worked in the World Trade Center, maintaining the antennae on top of the building. Early in September of 2001 when he was leaving his work, he took a cutting of this plant from the lobby which had fallen to the floor. He wrapped it in a damp cloth, brought it home in his toolbox, and grew a new plant from it. After the tragedy, he had a plant that he took new cuttings from an gave to family members. We now give cuttings from this plant to our friends and family members, to survivors we meet and to anyone affected by the tragedy. There are cuttings of this plant growing all over the world.”
“In August of 1970, Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman had this measuring device manufactured to test the architectural purity of all arches in the capital city of Muscat. This is replica I bought in the airport.”
“I had a dream that I was being sucked into a singularity. Everything that I am, was, and ever will or could be was collapsed into a space the size of quark and turned completely inside out. It wasn’t actually that scary. The next day was my first at IDEO and this was sitting on my desk.”
“My great uncle’s Planimeter was passed down to me a few years ago. It can be used to find the area of an arbitrary polygon by tracing its exterior. I don’t really care about computing the area of things but I like tracing shapes. I find it meditative. The number I get at the end it just some kind of weird payoff.”
“They tell me this if from some kind of internet meme. I haven’t had the internet at my home for a few years now. I make websites for a living, you know? It’s like they say about drug dealers. You shouldn’t get high on your own supply. No more internet at home.”
“In China, there’s a tradition where you find two walnuts that look alike and keep them. You’re supposed to meditate by carefully observing the similarities and differences between the walnuts.”
It lived in the window sill of my apartment. On a sunny stretch it would turn reddish, then back to green. Maybe it’s only pretending to be dead. Maybe it comes back to life at night?
“In Minneapolis, there’s a store that only sells what they call “experimental stationary”. It’s called “Forget Me Nauts”. I bought this while attending a conference there. I like the idea, but it doesn’t fit in my bag comfortably, so I started tearing pages from it to write Thank You notes and things like that.”
A.0.12 (A 3D printed artifact)
“During my pregnancy I would distract myself by designing every facet of my babies needs. This was my idea for a “house stroller”. It would allow me to let them lay down on top so I could change them, or have them sit under neath the cover (cross bar broke off during printing). But also keep anything I need on the bottom. The wheels would allow me to cart it around wherever I needed it in my house.”
A.5.06 (Two branches with green leaves)
I had really hit a creative wall with a project I was working on recently. As I often do, I took a break to walk around my neighborhood. I think better when I’m walking. I ripped these off of a nearby tree. The modularity and the repetitive nature of the leaves gave me an interesting idea that I ended up using in my project. I’ll keep them on my desk until the project is over, as a reminder.
A.4.08 (Figurine of a man with crown on)
Among my closest friends, we have a running joke where we make paper crowns for one another when somebody gets injured. Some of my friends have jokingly done this for emotional injuries too, like breakups. I was in a pretty bad car accident last summer but I only broke my foot. My best friend who teaches in a local art college asked me to pose with my crown, leaning on my crutches for a project he was working on. A few weeks later he presented me with this figuring. The crutches are left out.