Design with Intent | External Control

‘Smart meters’: some thoughts from a design point of view

By Dan Lockton ⋅ June 18, 2009 ⋅ 9 comments

Here’s my (rather verbose) response to the three most design-related questions in DECC’s smart meter consultation that I mentioned earlier today. Please do get involved in the discussion that Jamie Young’s started on the Design & Behaviour group and on his blog at the RSA.
Q12 Do you agree with the Government’s position that a [...]

Another charging opportunity?

By Dan Lockton ⋅ July 23, 2007 ⋅ 13 comments

Last month, an Apple patent application was published describing a method of “Protecting electronic devices from extended unauthorized use” – effectively a ‘charging rights management’ system.
New Scientist and OhGizmo have stories explaining the system; while the stated intention is to make stolen devices less useful/valuable (by preventing a thief charging them with unauthorised chargers), [...]

A couple of stories from the Consumerist

By Dan Lockton ⋅ December 14, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

“Is Sylvester Stallone Taking Over Your TV?” – anecdotal suggestion that some digital video recorders may be attempting to ‘push’ certain movie franchises in the run-up to release by recording (unrequested) previous titles in a series, or with the same actors.
Well, this is totally impossible to confirm, but we just got a complaint from a [...]

Shaping behaviour: Part 1

By Dan Lockton ⋅ November 9, 2006 ⋅ 16 comments

A couple of months ago I posted about the ’shaping behaviour’ research of RED, part of the UK Design Council. At the time I noted in passing a classification of design approaches for shaping behaviour, mentioned by RED’s Chris Vanstone: “stick*, carrot or speedometer.” It’s worth looking further at this classification and how it relates [...]

Sniffing out censorship

By Dan Lockton ⋅ November 1, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

Image from News Sniffer
News Sniffer’s Revisionista monitors alterations to published news stories from a variety of sources by comparing RSS feeds, sometimes revealing subsequently redacted information or changes of opinion (e.g. note the removed phrase in the first paragraph of this story about Cuba). While many of the changes are simply re-wordings for clarity or [...]

Disaffordances and engineering obedience

By Dan Lockton ⋅ October 22, 2006 ⋅ 6 comments

Image based on Don Norman’s famous teapot, and the Obey Giant face
Last month I asked, in response to some criticism, whether there was a better term than ‘architectures of control’ for the loose category of stuff discussed on this site. The response was great – thanks to all who got in touch or commented.
James [...]

BBC: Surveillance drones in Merseyside

By Dan Lockton ⋅ October 17, 2006 ⋅ 5 comments

From the BBC: ‘Police play down spy planes idea’:
“Merseyside Police’s new anti-social behaviour (ASB) task force is exploring a number of technology-driven ideas.
But while the use of surveillance drones is among them, they would be a “long way off”, police said.
…
“The idea of the drone is a long way off, but it is about exploring [...]

Countercontrol: blind pilots

By Dan Lockton ⋅ September 28, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

In a recent post, I discussed a Spiked article by Josie Appleton which included the following quote:
“Police in Weston-super-Mare have been shining bright halogen lights from helicopters on to youths gathered in parks and other public places. The light temporarily blinds them, and is intended to ‘move them on’, in the words of one [...]

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

By Dan Lockton ⋅ September 7, 2006 ⋅ 7 comments

An image from Hendricus Loos’s 2001 US patent, ‘Remote Magnetic Manipulation of Nervous Systems’
In my review of Adam Greenfield’s Everyware a couple of months ago, I mentioned – briefly – the work of Hendricus Loos, whose series of patents cover subjects including “Manipulation of nervous systems by electric fields”, “Subliminal acoustic manipulation of nervous systems”, [...]

Some links: miscellaneous, pertinent to architectures of control

By Dan Lockton ⋅ September 1, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

Ulises Mejias on ‘Confinement, Education and the Control Society’ – fascinating commentary on Deleuze’s societies of control and how the instant communication and ‘life-long learning’ potential (and, I guess, everyware) of the internet age may facilitate control and repression:
“This is the paradox of social media that has been bothering me lately: an ‘empowering’ media that [...]

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