PopTech Blog

What if brain size, the yardstick by which intelligence has primarily been measured, actually had little to do with how "smart" one is? What if animals, long thought humans' intellectual inferiors, actually have their own systems for communicating, problem-solving, and navigating their respective worlds -- systems we may only be beginning to understand or even recognize?

In a recently published article in Orion magazine about an octopus named Athena, writer Sy Montgomery posits that octopuses and other creatures are actually much more clever than we give them credit for. Like us, they enjoy solving puzzles, playing with toys, and even have distinct personalities (from aggressive to methodical and even impetuous). The observed intelligence in these cephalods has inspired at least one blog: The Octopus Chronicles. 

Animal communication expert Katy Payne spoke at PopTech 2009 on her work with elephants. Careful observation of captive elephants lead her to realize that they were communicating with each other at sub-sonic levels: below the level at which humans can hear. This breakthrough enabled her to found the Elephant Listening Project, which "seeks to learn about [elephants'] lives and the unique threats they face, and to directly aid in their conservation." Read more...

by Chris DeLuca

British artist Bruce Munro's 'Field of Light' installation was recently exhibited at the Holburne Museum in Bath, England.

The field encircles the building, infusing the exterior space with an expanse of color and light in the dark. The Holburne Installation consists of over 5,000 bulbs planted throughout the grounds of the museum. An intricate network of fiber optic cables connects each acrylic stem crowned by a frosted sphere to the collective sculptural piece.

via DesignBoom

Image: Mark Pickthall

When Jan Chipchase, head of research for frog Design, spoke at PopTech 2011 he described how his team spends weeks on the ground, living with participants around the globe and observing the activities and rules of their daily lives in order to design products, services, and technologies based on their findings. His talk provoked a series of questions from the audience about the ethics and integrity of his work and this past Friday he responded, at length, in an essay on his blog entitled Imperialist Tendencies. He introduces the piece by setting forth the following framework:

I enjoyed going to the recent Pop!Tech conference – the combination of bright minds, warm hearts and the Maine autumn is highly conducive to reflecting on what has been and imagining on what will be next.

During the event, I gave a talk to the audience about my research work, and in the panel session at the end of my talk I took two questions from a member of the audience relating to personal motivations of doing this kind of research and whether anyone has the moral right to extract knowledge from a community for corporate gain. Given the asker’s frustrated-politeness I’ll paraphrase what I (and a bunch of folks that came up to me after the talk) took as the intent of his questions:

• What is it like working for BigCorps pillaging the intellect of people around the world for commercial gain?
• How do you sleep at night as the corporations you work for pump their worthless products into the world?

Short answer is that I sleep just fine*.

Those with a desire to go beyond the 110 character headlines should draw a fresh mug of their favourite brew, find a comfy armchair and read on.

After you watch his PopTech talk, continue reading Chipchase's full response to some tough questions around design methodology, globalization, and social good.

There's always something brewing in the PopTech community. From the world-changing people, projects and ideas in our network, a handful of this week's highlights follows.

• The School of Visual Arts recently announced a $20,000 scholarship for the Design for Social Innovation program provided by our friends at Ecovative Design, founded by 2009 PopTech Fellow Eben Bayer. 

• Jan Chipchase, head of research for frog Design, talked about the process behind his company’s acclaimed work at PopTech 2011. This week Chipchase responds, at length, to challenging questions participants asked at the conference.

• Architect Neri Oxman (PopTech 2009) is the founder of MATERIALECOLOGY, an interdisciplinary design initiative expanding the boundaries of computational form-generation and material engineering. Yesterday, Oxman's recent work creating 3D prints inspired by nature was featured on Mashable. 

• This week 2011 PopTech speaker, author Robert Neuwirth contributed to the Harvard Business Review arguing that the informal economy could help save the American Dream.

If you'd like to receive a stream of these updates (and more) throughout the week in real time, follow us on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, sign up for our newsletter, and subscribe to the PopTech blog.

Image: MIT Media Lab

There was an interesting post on Treehugger earlier this week, highlighting a movement calling itself "Craftivism". The folks involved define themselves as doing "projects to make people think about global injustice, poverty and human rights through the seeds planted by public [craftivism] art."

In 2009, crafter Sarah Corbett started a blog looking to combine her activism and crafting to forge a new way to raise awareness of social issues. That blog eventually became the London-based Craftivist Collective, with members now all over the world helping each other complete projects, providing crafting kits, connecting and running events and installations. In the collective spirit of the craft community, Corbett credits knitter, writer and activist Betsy Greer with originally coining the term craftivism and lending a guiding hand as the movement has gained momentum. 

Projects have ranged from making and handing out hand-stitched handkerchiefs with the message "Don't blow it" to local politicians, to hacking Barbie dolls to promote awareness for maternal health issues. 

Read more...