Greg Orrom Swan @gregorromswan - Tumblr Blog

Steel structure work in progress towards my final masters project discussing the transmutation of humans, minerals, and matter. . . @rcaied #workinprogress #steel #minerals #human #rca #kinetic #transmutation #matter #composition (at Royal College of Art)

#human #matter #composition #minerals #steel #transmutation #rca #kinetic #workinprogress

Toast, 2017 Shown at the Open Senses weekend festival in May 2017.

The act of drinking involves multiple senses, from hand-eye coordination, to balance and haptic awareness. These factors often go unnoticed however. Toast aims to turn this autonomous activity into a playful, social interaction that highlights the participant’s body movements in space, which is known as the proprioceptive sense.

With Linh Pham

#interaction design #RCAIED #RCA #IED #Information Experience Design #design #open senses #copper #jesmonite #proprioception #drinking #toast

Pigeon Vision, 2016

Shown at the Animal Computer Interaction (ACI) Conference 2016.

Pigeon Vision is a wearable artefact that offers an understanding as to why pigeons move their heads in such a distinct manner. When pigeons walk they nod their head back and forth, which is known as head-bobbing. This has developed due to the fact that a pigeon cannot see clearly when moving its head. The result is an optokinetic response which occurs in two distinct phases: the thrust phase, in which the head moves, resulting in blurred vision; followed by the hold phase, where the head is held still and retinal vision stabilises, allowing clear sight. The way the pigeon sees is re-created by the binary movement of a frosted flap which blocks the users vision when movement is detected, and retracts allowing the user to see when motionless. Through wearable emulation, we aimed to introduce the pigeon sensorium to a human audience and create a different understanding towards the perception of another living thing.

With Thibaut Evrard and Eleni Papazoglou

Pigeon Head-Bobbing study: https://www.biomotionlab.ca/Text/TrojeFrost00.pdf

#pigeon pigeon vision RCA ACI animal computer interaction sensorium design art interaction design IED information experience design

Phone-Wrecker, 2016

Shown in STATE Festival of Emotions, Berlin, 2016

Devices play an ever increasing part of our digitised lives, so we play with the emotions that come with having these material attachments, by creating expectation and anticipation by threatening a certain outcome. We intervene by putting our phones in potentially precarious positions amongst these destructive machines.

With Linh Pham and Rob Marshall

#IED #design #experience design #Information Experience Design #phone wrecker #interaction design #destruction #RCA #royal college of art

Materials testing with some layered wire mesh tubing.

#design #interaction design #RCA #IED #royal college of art #greg orrom swan

Pareidolia Kurt Schwitters Merz Barn, Lake District, Feb 2017

A face within lichen. I took this over a weekend residency at the late modernist artists Kurt Schwitters barn, titled Merz Barn, in the Lake District, UK.

More info on Schwitters here

Shot with a Rolleicord, on Ektar 100.

#photography #RCA #kurt schwitters #Merz Barn #RAES #Lake District #Ambleside #120 film #analogue #ektar 100 #Rolleicord

Resonate With A City 2-week prototype, 2016

As people walk in cities, they will often subconsciously walk at the pace of the city itself—they resonate with others and fall into a similar walking speed. Some say this is a reflection of economic activity, others to do with the cities population.

This device, when pushed in front of you, tells you that the speed you are walking at, and then which city in the world you are resonating with.

For example, when walking at 1.9mph you resonance with Blantyre, Malawi; whereas at 3.3mph you resonate with London.

Data: http://www.richardwiseman.com/quirkology/pace_home.htm

#walking speed #city #psychogeography #resonate #city walking speed #richard wiseman #design #art #interaction design #RCA #IED #london

A pattern of globules infinitely looping

#video #video art #blob #globule #after effects #3D #loop #abstract #morph #gif #hyperrealism #organic #form #design #graphic design #trap code

Local Wild Seasonal Preserved Food Month—September 2016 From the left: sloe, crab apple, and blackberry jam; dried field mushrooms; roasted sweet chestnuts; dried water mint.

A play with locality and foraging food, I looked at how you can interrogate a specific place by searching for wild food available in that area. Once found, I then preserved what I could as a sort-of play with the fad of seasonal foraged food month. I could gather food for every month and present it as data for locality. Found within 1mile of my parents home in Oxfordshire.

#food #foraging #wild #wild food #locality #jam #sloe #field mushroom #sweet chestnut #water mint #RCA #IED #design #art #Oxfordshire #seasonal #preserved

Mechanised comb prototype. WIP

#design #interaction design #art #comb #wood #mechanics #mechanical #IED #RCA

Pigeon Vision.

3-week Prototype

Shown at the Animal Computer Interaction (ACI) Conference 2016.

Pigeon Vision is a wearable artefact that offers an understanding as to why pigeons move their heads in such a distinct manner.

When pigeons walk they nod their head back and forth, which is known as head-bobbing. This has developed due to the fact that a pigeon cannot see clearly when moving its head. The result is an optokinetic response which occurs in two distinct phases: the thrust phase, in which the head moves, resulting in blurred vision; followed by the hold phase, where the head is held still and retinal vision stabilises, allowing clear sight.

The way the pigeon sees is re-created by the binary movement of a frosted flap which blocks the users vision when movement is detected, and retracts allowing the user to see when motionless.

Through wearable emulation, we aimed to introduce the pigeon sensorium to a human audience and create a different understanding towards the perception of another living thing.

Pigeon Head-Bobbing study: https://www.biomotionlab.ca/Text/TrojeFrost00.pdf