vanessa harden / concept design + interactive art
  • ARCHIVE / AUTHOR ARCHIVE
  • built by…

    Kevin Hill, Ben Faga and myself have come together to create a new process working with a custom designed beehive that allows us to collaborate with honey bees to create bespoke products. Our first venture using this process will be to create an Edwardian inspired baby crib. We have chosen this artifact as our inaugural [...]

    Posted on Aug 27.10 to Uncategorized   Comments Off   

  • future tents

    Future Tents are the world’s first festival tents that will last three days then biodegrade.  Embedded with local seeds, the tents desintegrate to reveal green spaces. Future Tents is an ongoing project in partnership with Do the Green Thing. The problem: a massive amount of tent waste left in fields at the end of a [...]

    Posted on Jul 29.10 to Uncategorized   Comments Off   

  • whole-body transportation canister

    WalkerGeorgeFilms asked Gammaroot (Dominic Southgate and myself) to design and fabricate a prop for a BBC2 feature documentary, Operation Mincemeat. Based on Ben Macintyre’s Number One bestselling book, Operation Mincemeat, the film tells the true story of the most extraordinary secret operation of WW2. “It involved a plot so bizarre that it could only have [...]

    Posted on Jul 29.10 to Uncategorized   Comments Off   

  • the subversive gardener

    Continuing with my investigation into existing social tribes, this project looks at the Guerrilla Gardening subculture.  The members of this group secretly meet at night to illegally plant flowers, shrubs and vegetables in neglected urban spaces.  Although their actions seem harmless, they are still viewed by the authorities as illegal and prosecutable. This project explores [...]

    Posted on Jun 24.09 to Sustainability   Comments Off   

  • mouse assisted interplay

    Inspired by The Mouse Fanciers, an existing subculture that breeds and shows prize winning rodents, this piece draws on current dating trends existing today such as internet dating or speed dating.  Mouse Assisted Interplay imagines a dating service where individuals meet and interact via their pet mouse, drawing on similar situations that currently exist amongst [...]

    Posted on May 01.09 to Sex, Wearable   Comments Off   

  • voodoo car

    This film explores the superstitions involved in the world of sports. Fans perform various practices and rituals, in order to insure or sway the outcome of an event. This piece observes one such fan. Voodoo Car from vanessa harden on Vimeo.

    Posted on Dec 03.08 to Film   Comments Off   

  • gestural interfaces

    While at Experiencia, I worked on the Gestural Interface project. Swisscom asked Experientia to investigate the applications for gestural interfaces, and to create new concepts around possible future uses for gestures in creating immersive communication. The gestural interfaces project created a benchmark document of current and next generation developments in the area of immersive communication, [...]

    Posted on Oct 16.08 to Gestural   Comments Off   

  • ignition

    Ignition is a short film that observes the interaction between a man and his car. This project provides a starting point with which to begin the exploration into the peculiar fetishised relationship that lies between man and car. How could the intervention of emerging technologies affect the ways he communicates with his vehicle? Ignition from [...]

    Posted on Apr 29.08 to Film, Sex   Comments Off   

  • dynamic street lamps

    The use of nighttime lighting is integral to our everyday life. From lampposts that illuminate the streets, to bicycle lights that indicate a presence, lights serve as a representation of human activity. However little attention is paid to the motives behind the excessive light use fueling our carbon footprint. We have designed a dynamic system [...]

    Posted on Apr 29.08 to Sustainability   Comments Off   

  • skinpaper

    Skinpaper is an ongoing collaboration with Tommaso Lanza that explores the cross section between a living specimen and paper. It can be used for or in a wide range of paper products. As with real paper, the ways in which to maintain and care for it depends ultimately on its use and sentimental value. Skin [...]

    Posted on Mar 19.08 to Nanotechnology   Comments Off   

  • buydrop

    Found alongside an advertisement, Buydrop is a project that enhances the way one sees products. Once introduced into the eye, Buydrop allows the user to easily identify the product in question making it stand out amongst others. Buydrop is a collaborative project with Tommaso Lanza

    Posted on Feb 29.08 to Nanotechnology   Comments Off   

  • intimacy patches

    “Intimacy Patches” are personal devices that monitor various vital signs during sexual activity. A graphical representation of these signals is then displayed on a voyeur’s mobile phone. The patch wearer selects whether to transmit these signals to a particular individual or to the public realm via the Internet. This project can also be used in [...]

    Posted on Feb 25.08 to Jewellery, Sex, Wearable   Comments Off   

  • radio voyeurism

    This is a space that serves to facilitate discreet sexual interactions between user and object. This project brings a private interaction to a public forum, transforming one’s sexual rhythms into a radio frequency that can be transmitted to anyone with a FM radio receiver. This piece is a subtle way of communicating explicit sexual acts [...]

    Posted on Dec 23.07 to Sex   Comments Off   

  • gps chastity belt

    approx. 30cm x 25cm x 15cm kevlar, sterling silver, crystal beads, solenoid, global positioning device, and Number Six circuit board (unique to Chris Csikszentmihályi’s group, Computing Culture — MIT Media Lab) The GPS Chastity Belt is a concept piece that looks at the physical and sexual abuse of women in today’s society. Throughout history, women [...]

    Posted on Nov 03.07 to Jewellery, Protection, Sex, Wearable   Comments Off   

  • digital kaleidoscope

    The digital kaleidoscope was my final project for Neil Gershenfeld’s How to Make (almost) Anything class. It was fabricated using an existing clarinet and integrating an LCD screen at the end of the bell. Every time the keys are played, the image on the screen is modified or squeued like that of a kaleidoscope. Special [...]

    Posted on Dec 15.06 to Uncategorized   Comments Off   

  • tug n’ talk

    Tug n’ Talk is a collaborative piece between Matthew Adcock, Raul-David V. Poblano, Matthew Boch, Drew Harry and myself. It was our final project for Hiroshi Ishii’s Tangible Interfaces class. Tug n’ Talk is a prototype of a tuggable communication device, allowing for long and short distance familiar communication between two individuals using “tugging” as [...]

    Posted on Dec 08.06 to Jewellery, Wearable   Comments Off   

  • ladycoy

    Ladycoy is a collaboration between Leonardo Bonanni and myself. It explores the threshold of male stupidity as well as the persistent sexism endured by women of western society. This experiment adopts an approximation of the female form made from wire, cloth, papier-mache and surveillance equipment. Ladycoy can be found in the alleys and streets of [...]

    Posted on Nov 24.06 to Public Performance, Sex   Comments Off   

  • mosquito project

    The Mosquito Project was a collaborative project created at the XS Labs in Montreal. The piece is an electronic artifact that is fabricated of sterling silver. It reacts to other “bugs” and to peoples’ interactions. Communication with the other bugs is made possible through RF. A fabric substrate was created to allow for recharging, which [...]

    Posted on Sep 03.06 to Jewellery, Wearable   Comments Off   

  • cybersamantha

    Cybersamantha is a body of work that analyzes the life of a cyborg through past experiences and future projections. This project icludes a “manifesta” aswell as three pieces of body ornamentation to represent the different phases of Cybersamantha’s life. These pieces were created using detailed traditional processes of fabrication. Of the three artifacts, two were [...]

    Posted on Jun 13.05 to Jewellery, Public Performance, Sex, Wearable   Comments Off   

  • josephine

    “The vivacious Josephine Baker was flopping her bananas like cow tails in flying time.” Josephine: The Hungry Heart. 135 The Josephine Baker costume was a piece that I created for Northbound Leather’s annual “Peepshow” fetish fashion show. The costume was created using diverse materials and processes Special thanks to Lara McQuay, Helen Kong and Myles [...]

    Posted on Oct 28.04 to Jewellery, Public Performance, Sex, Wearable   Comments Off   

MORE    ←


projects

    • contact
    • cv + bio
    • photostream
    • twitter
    • press
    • links
  • Copyright © 2010 vanessa harden, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
    Powered by WordPress. Modio theme by Upstart Blogger.