An exploration of materials that are potentially conductive. A sketch book of process and notes that indicate the use, screen print possibility, cost, and aesthetic quality of the material plus whether or not it can conduct electricity. An on-going exploration into mixing conductive powders and materials with inks, paints and glues that could be used for paint or be pulled through a screen. Initial material choices was dictated by whether or not I thought it might have some conductive aspects. I essentially started with shiny and metallic inks, paints, and glues in the hope that some of them would possess conductive qualities. The process has helped me have a greater understanding of the electric qualities of materials and also the aspects of experimenting to make new hybrid inks.

I have found that powdered graphite will conduct electricity but is a variable resistor so a concentration of powder in ink at the right amounts is essential to making it work. Also I have been debunked by copper and silver powders mixed with gesso or clear base screenprinting ink.

These experiments drive at the idea that designers understand the world through making so my experiments in making conductive ink have given me an understanding of conductive material and its potential use in media especially print media.

check out thesis website : Marginalia: The Hybrid Textbook

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Marginalia : The Hybrid Textbook from Chris R Becker on Vimeo.

Marginalia : The Hybrid Textbook is a thesis project that examines what happens when tangible print media connects to its digital counterpart through networked pages, writing based input devices, and screen based margin extensions. Unique to the page is its ability to contain extended meaning through design. Tangible print media such as books, textbooks, magazines, periodicals, newspapers, and comics are threatened by screen based technologies because they connect to the vast content on the internet. As screen-based networked technologies like The Kindle, The Nook, or the iPad reinvent the use of and interaction with screen media, The Hybrid Textbook establishes a third form somewhere between the physical page and the screen display, dissolving the separation between physical and digital, and engaging the opportunity for seamless interaction with both. By harnessing the unique affordances of physical and digital, the hybrid textbook establishes a space to engage the cognitive modes of ‘deep attention’ and ‘hyper-attention’ within education.

Marginalia is a prototype and design research project that examines the experience of a textbook with a fold out screen margin extension. A book jacket system that explores the physical interactions with tangible print media as a link to the social interactions of studying, communication, and reflection afforded through networked screen technologies. The prototype connects and layers realtime communication and historical marginalia on top of the physical margin through an extended, networked, stylus/pen compatible, interactive margin space. The shared margin space allows a user to add a digital history onto the physical object, allowing the artifact to become a ‘Consumer Spime.’ The marginalia prototype engages both built and speculative outcomes of a textbook and a screen stimulating the potential of tangible print media coupled with digital media for sharing and leveraging connection and communication.

Google Sketchup models of the exhibition space and layout.

Evolution Drawing and Illustration for the progress of the computer. I believe that the computer and human interaction with these object should become as seamless as a book or a sketching pad and that the use of pen and paper should not have to be abandoned to work with the computer.

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Bizomatic 2000 from Christopher Becker on Vimeo.

front and back

A Business card dispenser game and communication trick. An interactive system where users fill in there information, take a picture and get a business card. However the business card that the machine spits out to the user is not there own it is of another person who has used the system. The back of the card then informs the user to come to a specific location at a specific time to exchange the card they received with its rightful owner. The Bizomatic 2000 is backwards business card where instead of handing out your own information to others, you search out the person on the card.

Bizmatic 2000 business card game
As test in interaction, our team: made up of Chris Lauritzen, Nicole Chan and I set out to try and make an experience that would engage the Art Center Community. We chose the form of a business card as an access point at which to try and get students to meet people in there community through chance.

Bizmatic 2000 required branding to get across the idea, be intriguing and fun to approach. Branding requires a good name and a quickly understood purpose. I designed the logo for the interactive system and game to both be emblematic to its purpose but also illicit at the heart of what we were trying to accomplish which was connections.

Bizmatic 2000 trick and game requested users to show up to the cafeteria at The Art Center College of Design between 1 pm and 1:15 pm. to exchange the card they received with its rightful owner and to receive their own. In total the Bizmatic 2000 gathered and distributed 38 business cards. The out come of the exchange was not as high due to the statistical fact that for the Bizmatic 2000 game to work every user would have to participate. Although we had some no shows areas of forced communication occurred due to our game including early card delivery, emailed notification of delivery, and even delayed delivery of cards. The goal of the Bizmatic 2000 was to force users to engage the Art Center community in a new and different way. The small number card exchanges achieved that new form of communication and stuck up conversations between unrelated students all based around the Bizmatic 2000. Our total number of exchanges was 12 out of 38.

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A quick experiment into trapping users. We (Chris Lauritzen, Nicole Chan, and I) attempted to trap a users photo looking for a funny face. We attached a simple button mechanism over a laptop computer and gave users some simple directions that we were doing a survey of Art Center faces. Upon pushing the button an obnoxious three second doorbell chimed before the picture was taken. The location was placed at the entrance of the building and was left alone for us to observe. In observation we found that more men then woman used the button. Woman tended to do it in groups also where as men made more faces.