We live in a world in which we’re continuously overwhelmed with advertising campaigns that tell us what to desire. We know hundreds of brands and slogans but often not even our direct neighbours. “tune-in” is a concept that replaces TV-ads with user-generated news episodes about the community and its shared garden. A TV programme produced by community members to promote engagement in local life. If our food and energy production has to become more local, so has the news.

In my “tune-in” concept, every community member is a contributor to the local TV show by the use of Smartphones. A nominated group of inspiring people selects and edits the collected footage and turns it into short episodes that are broadcasted instead of commercials during primetime. The episode’s topics can range from waste, gardening, energy, to general local news. Wouldn’t it be exciting to meet the lady you’ve seen on television last night while you visit the shop around the corner?

Moreover, the concept allows school classes and socially disadvantaged people to learn how to use up-to-date digital technology and acquired valuable skills while helping to form the community’s shared identity. At the same time you can catch-up with local life after a day at work. The episodes inform you about the current state of the community’s energy production, waste treatment or what’s ready for harvest in the garden and encourage you to get up from your sofa and discuss the reported issues with your neighbours in person.

The propellers harness the airflow to convert it into electricity, which is stored in two built in batteries. Additional LED-lights provide direct light-feedback when propellers are rotating in order to visualise a sizeable relation between wind intensity and electricity and allow the unseen wind power to be perceived through light. It requires an approx. 2h bicycle-ride at middle (wind) speed to charge the batteries completely (the helmet fulfills its duty also while snowboarding, skiing, sailing, hiking or kite/windsurfing.) You can then use the electricity stored in the helmet to load the batteries of your mobile devices (mobile phones, ipods etc) via two USB interfaces. The helmet can be operated in three different modes: device charging mode, light or airflow mode. I already had the pleasure to have the first “green” phone calls powered only by my bike rides through the city.

I’ve developed the propeller helmet concept within the scope of the Hedonoeko Association. The goal with the helmet is not to launch another „green gadget “. We want to use it as a medium to sensibilise the public for environmental topics and to integrate sustainability topics into the lifestye of young people by creating a positive experience.

In August 09 I’ve initiated and organised the first Carrotmob in Switzerland. A Carrotmob is a form of consumer activism in which businesses compete at how socially and environmentally responsible they can be. Through social media organisers establish a network of consumers which spends money to support whichever business makes the strongest offer. A carrotmob harnesses consumer power to make it possible for the most socially-responsible business practices to also be the most profitable choices. It’s the opposite of a boycott.

40% less electricity, 20% more light

In our event in Basel, Switzerland, the corner shop “Alban Market” agreed to invest 50% of the daily revenue in upgrades that made their store more energy-efficient. In exchange, roughly 400 of Carrotmobbers (=additional customers) showed up and did their grocery shopping. The total turnover of the day was 7′028.- Swiss Francs (about USD 6,500). The resulted capital of CHF 3514.- was invest in new lighting which uses 40% less electricity and provides 20% more light. With the US background that Carrotmob has, this one turned out to be very Swiss: a little less show and entertainment but a Carrotmob that counts in terms of the Swiss Franc.

I’m with Einstein

With over 50 events worldwide, this model can be considered to be proven to work on a small scale. The promoters in the US now strive to grow the network until the same method can be applied to large companies. Although it was fun, an experience worthwhile and a good example of how to bring the virtual into the real, I believe it’s too much effort (for the organisers) for too little impact. Meanwhile, I’m with Einstein and I don’t believe that we can solve our current planetary problems with the thinking that created it. Can a growing economy ever become resilient to unpredictable future changes? Nevertheless, a Carrotmob is better than doing nothing for sure!

(For a full website preview, click on the thumbnail on the left.)

For several years I improved my skills in webdesign in a trial and error sense using various coding languages and plattforms such as wordpress, joomla, flash, css, javascript, html and php. In 2008 I aquired my first customer and implemented the new web appearance of the Swiss job agency Time Job AG in Zürich, Switzerland.

In cooperation with grafic designer Simone Arnold I designed and realised the new website based on Wordpress in combination with flash animations and integrated vacancy notice and application forms. In a later stage I implemented the client’s job-search engine through a custom interface. The backend of the site is one of a classical CMS with an integrated custom picture gallery and news section in order to facilitate any alternations and adjustments to the content and the media by the client without messing up the clearly defined layout.

If you’re thinking of a re-design of your personal or commercial website or blog, feel free to drop me a line. I’m happy to discuss your needs and wishes in an informal talk.

Sunlight is normally the natural enemy of displays that work with some sort of illuminant. Our project SUN-D exploits this inherent weakness and, in keeping with its basic concept, explores potential uses of this free and inexhaustible light source. The project’s objective to use “(sun)light and shade as a medium of expression” carries on a tradition that goes far back into (art) history.

This is how “Plexipixel” Prototype works: sunlight illuminates a series of plexiglass rods; via a mechanical system, it is possible to control whether sections of the pipes are covered with a metallic coin, in other words darkened, or not. As a controlling device, a bar with 50 electromagnets mounted (1 magnet per line) slides horizontally over the matrix. If an individual magnet is activated the coin is moved and covers the pixel, which prevents any light being conducted through the plexiglass and the pixel gets black.

Update: SUN-D is no longer a project, Jonas is now managing it as an awarded startup venture. Read more on the SUN-D website: sun-d.ch

Although the projected 49 pixels dancing on the projection-surface unveiled very unique and expressive aesthetics, we did not further investigate in the improvement of the display, as the more pixel the more power is needed to operate solenoids. Increasing the display resolution would also boost power consumption. But we went on and developed the SUN-D Plexipixel prototype.

Realisation: We mounted an infrared sensor on the ceiling above a trampoline which measures the distance to the jumper‘s head. A script written in the language of the open source physical computing plattform “Arduino” translated the electrical resistance of the sensor to digital values. In Google Earth we captured and converted different zooming into Quicktime movie clips. Processing (open source software for generative art) translated the data from Arduino to actual frame positions in the movie clips.