Static! Designing for Energy Awareness

Static! Designing for Energy Awareness is the first comprehensive book about the ground-breaking research project by the Interactive Institute (2004-5). Static! has been featured in major exhibitions and research publications around the world, has resulted in a number of of spin-off initiatives, the Static! Power-Aware Cord and the Static! Flower Lamp have received major international awards. The research project stimulated a growing research area in energy, design, and IT in Sweden and abroad. The book features original texts by research leaders and previously unpublished images of the conceptual designs.

 From the back cover

In Static!, familiar furnishings and products have been reinterpreted to materialize electricity, to make it more visible and tangible for people in everyday life. Investigating design (theory, methods, and demonstrators) for communicating energy consumption, the resulting series of conceptual design examples express the poetics – and politics – of everyday electricity consumption. This book presents the Static! design examples and perspectives on issues in (sustainable) design today. Grounded in passion and humor, as well as rigor and research, the book asks designers and consumers – that is, all of us – to rethink the form, and future, of electricity in the world around us.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Strategic frames Christina Öhman and Sara Backlund
Research frames Johan Redström
Current issues in sustainable design and research Johan Redström
Perspective on Critical practice Ramia Mazé
Perspective on People in design Sara Ilstedt Hjelm
Design Examples The Element, Appearing-Pattern Wallpaper, Energy Curtain, Erratic Appliances, Power-Aware Cord, Disappearing-Pattern Tiles, Flower Lamp, Free Energy, Flow, Perspective on Static! at home Sara Routarinne
Concluding Remarks, Project participants, Bibliographic references

Mazé, Ramia (ed.) Static! Designing for Energy Awareness. Stockholm: Arvinius Förlag, 2010. ISBN 978-91-85689-34-7

The book is commissioned by the Interactive Institute, the Nordic Culture Fund and the Swedish Energy Agency. The book is designed by Christian Altmann and Oskar Holmquist, with photographys by Carl Dahlsted.

It is available for purchase at www.arvinius.se and several online bookstores (soon available at www.amazon.com). Members of the press may contact Arvinius Förlag for review copies.

Read the press release (in Swedish) Ny bok från Interactive Institute: "Static! Designing for Energy Awareness"