Milan-based product designer and art director Chiara Andreatti takes note of art and architecture when she travels, often snapping photos or making sketches that she can refer to when she begins her creative process. Yet it is the work of Carlo Scarpa that provides continual inspiration for Andreatti no matter where she happens to be in the world. She feels an intrinsic connection to the Venetian visionary, who for many years lived in her hometown of Asolo, Italy. The architects renowned attention to craftsmanship and research is similar to her own approach, embodied in one particular piece thats an ideal blend of form and materials. The Doge table is one of Scarpas first exercises in transferring architectural detail into design, Andreatti says. Its sculptural structure makes it unique, with various dimensions that can be adapted to every need.Chiara AndreattiAndreattis schedule is always full, with a range of projects on tap for her eponymous studio, from art direction to designing objects for the home. She not only looks at interiors, but also the lush outdoors to spark her imagination. Her color studies, for example, are often linked to nature, like the endless varieties of flowers in an English garden.Andreatti brings many influences together in artful ways, always seeking out the unexpected to apply to each new endeavor. I am attracted to the union of diversity, and mixing two different ways of working, such as artisanal and industrial, she adds.Today, Chiara Andreatti joins us for Friday Five!1. Exotic travelsTravel to pure and pristine environments is full of stimulation and inspiration. Everything from the vegetation to the typical workings of these places can direct my personal research.2. Tapestries by Ettore SottsassIve always had a huge passion for tapestries and carpets, and my attention was recently drawn to a tapestry made by Ettore Sottsass. It was presented at a solo show of his work at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan. Merging into the plot and the interactions of colors allows you to immerse yourself in abstract and eclectic worlds.3. SicilyDuring my travels in Sicily, I was fascinated by the beautiful panorama of protected natural areas, with rare geological sites and uncontaminated landscapes. There are still wild horses among fields of golden spikes and abandoned medieval villages.4. Palazzo AbatellisPalazzo Abatellis in Palermo was completed at the end of the fifteenth century, and had profound changes over the years. Carlo Scarpa was entrusted with the employment of musealisation in 1953. The project contains several characteristic themes of Scarpas work: volumes, glimpses, stratagems, perspective solutions, with the interplay of light and shadow and colors. They all define a true poetic based on the accumulation of signs on the multiplication of formal suggestions.5. Ancient JapanA trip away from tourist routes tells about the Japanese rural cultures of the early 800s, between typical workings, ancient homes, and unspoiled landscapes.Works by Chiara Andreatti:Ancas designed for Pretziada \ Ancas is a sideboard inspired by the traditional Sardinian chest, one of the oldest furniture on the island. Made of solid chestnut wood and assembled completely by hand in Mandiss workshop, Ancas is a substantial sculptural reinterpretation of an important piece of Sardinian history. It retains some traditional mechanisms, such as the lid that lifts on the top section and the inclusion of intaglio wood carving and the massive, block-like center. \\\ Photo: Studio BulboOmamori designed for PaolaC \ Inspired by Japanese lucky bags, the Omamori collection consists of three vases of different heights and proportions made in two versions: matt and glossy ceramic with warm nuances. A mix of contrasting materials linked by the same shapes and lines. \\\ Photo: Sara MagniTama designed for Radici \ Tama, a textile flooring made with the Wilton technique with 100% New Zealand wool with the Cut&Loop technique. \\\ Photo: Francesca FerrariElodie armchair designed for Potocco \ The Elodie lounge chair retrieves the essential visible structure of the homonymous two-seater sofa. Large cushions, made with materials suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, rest on a flat metal blade that runs all around the cushions supporting it. The peculiarity of this model lies in the seats upholstery, which thanks to particular supports, detaches itself from the structure appearing suspended. Elodie has a structure in anthracite, white or Aval embossed painted metal tube. The padding is in fire-retardant polyurethane foam. \\\ Photo: Giulio GhirardiPhotography by Chiara Andreatti unless otherwise noted.

Clicking repeatedly and getting no feedback is now the sign of our times. How can we design digital and social systems that avoid dead-end rage and enable new and unexpected affordances foraction?You struggle through an online form It takes forever. You finally make it to the submitbutton.Click once, nothing happens.Click again, still nothing.Click a few moretimesWhether on your phone, your mouse or your keyboard, you may have already rage clicked a few times today. It all happened so fast, and a second later you forgot about it. But rage you did, and rightfully so.Rage clicks are not click-baits, they are not deliberately designed to enrage you. In most cases they represent rare points of momentary friction within otherwise highly controlled interaction flows. These hiccups often happen due to a technical lag or a gap between the users anticipation and the systemsdesign.The term rage click is used by behavior analytics tools, like Full Story, HotJar and Clarity. These tools provide recorded interaction sessions that can show where users rage clicked, so any momentary discomfort can be addressed, restoring the consistent and predictable flow.Filtering for rage clicks from user session recorded on FullStoryIt seems our attention spans have shrunk to the few milliseconds that are enough to trigger a second, a third, a fourth click It is tempting to lament this digital impatience, how we demand everything served to us immediately with a click of a button. It is all true, but it is not the full story. If we dig underneath these momentary hiccups, we may discover not only how controlled and disempowering these systems have become, but also some opportunities to redesign our agency within both digital and socialsystems.Stuck in a blackboxClicking countless buttons every day has become a natural part of our lives. But theres really nothing natural aboutit.In 1966 psychologist James J. Gibson suggested the term affordance as the space of possibility between an animal and its environment. For example, a rabbit in an environment with soft soil has an affordance to dig a hole. If the rabbit is too young, too old, too tired, or too sick, that affordance would likely change. If we pave the soil with cement, that affordance will change aswell.psychologists James J. Gibson and Don Norman (by PaoloSacchi)In 1988 Don Norman introduced the term affordance to the design of other, less natural worlds, and his version of affordance theory has become a core component of the design terminology. However, 25 years later, Norman confessed: affordances have created much confusion in the world of design. Affordances define what actions are possible. Signifiers specify how people discover those possibilities.Rage clicking is what happens when the signifier is no longer attached to the affordance. You clicked the right signifier, expected a response, but received nothing, the feedback never came, and the affordance is nowhere to be found Maybe the button was clicked, maybe it wasnt Maybe that form was submitted, maybe it wasnt How would youknow?You have become that rabbit, but you are now stuck in a box. You can no longer smell the ground or feel it in your paws, let alone dig yourself out. The lever you pulled did not dispense food, and it did not open the box. The ground underneath you is gone. Stuck within the cold black box, this irresponsive interface layer remains your last signifier to reality. You pull the lever again and again in rage anddespair.Though short and fleeting, the rage click is at best Kafkaesque and at worst a locked-in syndromeyoure aware of your reality but have lost the ability to affect it. This is you microdosing on purehorror.The growing gap between our capacity for action (affordance) and how we perceive it (signifier) is evident in both digital systems and in social ones. In 2011, Occupy Wall Street protesters set up camp outside the iconic center of global trade. However, they chose not to enter, realizing that stepping inside would do nothingas the affordance for change isnt really there. A decade later, Trump supporters forcibly entered the Capitol building, embodying the age-old trope of masses storming a citadel of power. They acted based on what they perceived as a signifier for political affordance, as if breaching this symbolic barrier would solidify their political influence. Looking back, we may say that more than anything, January 6 was a rage click. And similarly, after the October 7th Hamas attack and the following Israeli onslaught on Gaza, both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests around the world may be passionately righteous, yet mostly futile rage clickssymbolic actions driven by perceived signifiers of influence but lacking clear paths towards tangiblechange.more than anything, January 6 was a rageclickUnboxingLosing the only connection between our perception of the system and our ability to change it, leaves us powerless. However, addressing these disparities may unveil new avenues for action. For example, when hackers manipulate a system to perform a function beyond its intended design, they discover a new previously un-signified affordance foraction.Less than a year after Occupy Wall Street protestors packed up their last tents, some of them found a new affordance for actionone that had never been clearly signified. Debt Collective activists decided to hack the unregulated secondary lending market by taking on the role of debt collectors themselves. They fundraised and bought defaulted loans for Penny on the Dollar, and then simply dissolved them. They identified a real affordance for change within the financial system. Debtors received a festive red box in the mail with a letter that read: You no longer owe the balance of this debt. It is gone, a gift with no strings attached.Strike Debts red box & activists marching under the banner Your Are Not ALoanThe Debt Collective went even further, mobilizing the debtors, previously isolated by their individual debts, to unite and demand system-level change. Other hacks may subvert political systems in more nefarious ways. The controversial practice of Gerrymandering redraws American voting district borders to manipulate national elections beyond the equal vote. It has been referred to as a way for politicians to pick their voters instead of the other wayround.These hacks are not only thinking outside the box, they expose the mechanisms that created the box in the first place. But if the box is designed in this particular way, we can choose to design it otherwise. We must pierce beyond the symbolic barriers and engage more directly with the affordances of thesystem.For decades, digital interfaces have funneled us down lubricated predictable flows, with every affordance packaged into a neatly signified button. But recently the digital landscape has taken a new turn for the weird. Generative text-based models (like ChatGPT) represent new uncharted territories. No button you click will get you exactly what you expected. The affordances of these AI systems are not clearly signified and, at this point, are also not very efficient. Like rabbits, with every textual prompt we have to smell the soil and feel the ground underneath our keyboards. We may not be getting exactly what we had in mind, but were digging new holes and occasionally discover new unexpected affordances.However these new exploratory design-patterns do little to deliver us from our submissive and deterministic relationship with technology. Especially as the costs to our environment, our labor, our culture and our democracies remain buried deep underneath the soft soils of these shiny sweet-talking sandboxes.A true break from predetermined, closed and controlling systems design is gravely needed. It starts by digging beyond the layer of signifiers to a deeper field of affordances. It continues with designing true non-deterministic interaction flows that encourage both individual and collective agency. Both online and off, another world is possible, but we wont get there by repeatedly pushing the samebuttons.Further reading:Gibson, J. J. (1979). The theory of affordances. In The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (pp. 127143). Boston: HoughtonMifflin.Bruineberg, J., & Rietveld, E. (2014). Self-organization, free energy minimization, and optimal grip on a field of affordances. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8,599.Norman, D. A. (1988). The Design of Everyday Things. New York: BasicBooks.Davis, J. L. (2020). How Artifacts Afford: The Power and Politics of Everyday Things. MITPress.Debt Collective, Taylor, A. (2020). Cant Pay, Wont Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition. Haymarket Books.Further viewing:For further exploration of these themes check my talk documentation atRISD:https://medium.com/media/6fab1f63a9fcbc15c9558dee09d1d6b1/hrefJoin my MD24 session with designer and writer mo husseini: Decoupling the pen and theswordRage clicks are microdoses of pure horror was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

You can get a lifetime subscription to AdGuard, with its personal plan on sale for $11 and its family plan on sale for $18.97 right now until September 3. AdGuard works on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows, and you can block out most, if not all, ad types, including banners, pop-ups, and video ads. If you notice any missed ads, you can block them manually, and you have the option to create custom filters that are helpful for parents to restrict access to certain websites. AdGuard also helps users avoid phishing websites and malware attacks, and you can see a list of websites trying to track you.You can get a lifetime subscription to AdGuards personal plan on sale for $11 or family plan on sale for $18.97 (reg. $59.99) until September 3 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.

As we did last Friday and the Friday before that (and shall continue to do until the internet turns itself off), we have rounded up the best deals we spotted this week and put them in one convenient location. These are the tech gadgets we have used, reviewed and recommend that happen to be seeing worthwhile discounts at the moment. This week, a bunch of Apple gear went on sale, some of it new, some of it older, such as the 2024 MacBook Air with the M3 chip for $250 off and the 2021 9th generation iPad for $100 under MSRP. Two of our favorite outdoor pizza ovens, the Frya 12 and the Karu 16, are on sale at Ooni and there's a special Engadget code that'll get you a deal on Roombas at Wellbots. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/save-150-on-our-favorite-ooni-pizza-oven-plus-the-rest-of-this-weeks-best-tech-deals-172730247.html?src=rss

A new open-source AI image generator called Flux has been released by former Midjourney developers.

Cryptocurrencies resumed their rebound from their big sell-off earlier in the week, with bitcoin surpassing $60,000 late Thursday.

Country musics origin story has been heavily influenced by a romanticized notion of authenticity. Today, celebrations of the genres origins tend to focus on one event: recording sessions in late July and early August 1927 in the small Appalachian city of Bristol, located on the Tennessee-Virginia border.The musicians were working-class Southerners, and depictions of the sessions often portray a savvy record company producer discovering talented but unknown performers.However, a recording session three years earlier, on Aug. 13, 1924, has a stronger claim to launching country music as a genre. That session instead featured a classically trained singer living in New York City who had previously recorded opera, pop and jazz.A legendary recording sessionIn the early 1920s, after years of catering to urban middle- and upper-class listenersand with emerging competition from radiorecording companies were seeking new markets. They found potential new audiences in Black people craving performances by Black entertainers, as well as among rural white people yearning to hear music that reflected their own tastes and experiences.After attempting to satisfy these new markets with records made in established Northern studios, recording companies soon determined that it would be easier to discover new talent by recording in the fieldthat is, closer to where the audiences for the new records lived. Many of these commercial location sessionsto differentiate such sessions from noncommercial documentary recording by John and Alan Lomax and other folkloristsoccurred in the South.At a June 1923 location session in Atlanta, OKeh Records producer Ralph Peer recorded two performances by a musician from the north Georgia hills named Fiddlin John Carson. That 78 rpm release quickly sold out its pressing of 500 copies, demonstrating country musics commercial potential.Peer moved on to work for Victor Records and produced the Bristol recording sessions. Among the musicians Peer recorded there were newcomers Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. The so-called Bristol Sessions generated modest sales and didnt outperform other Appalachian sessions of the late 1920s.But when the Great Depression slowed record sales and dimmed the record industrys spirit of experimentation, Rodgerslater nicknamed the Father of Country Musicand the Carters, who became known as the First Family of Country Music, continued to issue new releases. Because of the enduring influence of these two recording artists, scholar Nolan Porterfield dubbed the Bristol Sessions the Big Bang of Country Music in 1988.The city of Bristol has promoted itself as the Birthplace of Country Music. The Bristol story has become the mainstream country music origin story, inspiring the Smithsonian-affiliated Birthplace of Country Music museum.Country boy turned city slickerMore recently, though, that story has been reexamined by several music historians, including Porterfield, who in 2015 retracted the sobriquet he had coined.The Bristol-centered origin story denies earlierbut no less vitalcontributions to the genre by such pioneering recording artists as Carson, Uncle Dave Macon, Riley Puckett, Frank Hutchison and Vernon Dalhart.Indeed, if any artist should be considered as having proved the commercial viability of country music, it is Dalhart. Born Marion Try Slaughter II in Jefferson, Texas, on April 6, 1883, Dalhart grew up singing for family and neighbors in his East Texas hometown. Vernon Dalhart is a pseudonym derived from the names of two Texas towns near where he had worked as a summertime ranch hand during his youth.Dalhart moved to New York City in 1907, hoping to pursue a career as a grand opera vocalist. He had taken vocal lessons at the Dallas Conservatory of Music before leaving Texas, and, once in New York, he continued his music studies with opera instructor Isador Luckstone. For several years, Dalhart toured nationally with light opera productions.After 1916, in part to remain closer to some family members who lived near New York City, Dalhart concentrated on a recording career, making light opera, pop and jazz records in a succession of New York City-area studios, including Edison Records, where he was reportedly one of Thomas Edisons favorite singers.By the early 1920s, Dalhart was struggling for recording opportunities. Never realizing his aspiration to be received as a serious opera singerand no longer touring for light opera showsDalhart had been relying on recording for his primary income. But he had failed to carve out a distinctive sound and personality to set him apart in the pop and jazz worlds.Then, on Aug. 13, 1924, Dalhart stumbled on a new path forward. On that day he recorded two songs for the brand-new, not-yet-named country music market: The Wreck of the Old 97 and The Prisoners Song. Victor released the two songs on a 78 rpm disc. Country musics first big hitVirginia musician Henry Whitter had recorded The Wreck of the Old 97 under a different title a few months earlier, to little fanfare. Thinking he could improve upon Whitters recording, Dalhart covered this Appalachian ballad about a 1903 train wreck, and while he misinterpreted some of Whitters lyrics, Dalhart introduced this now well-known narrative song to countless people beyond the mountains.The Prisoners Song was the real revelation of this session. It was the perfect template for country musics enduring tradition of songs evoking love and unrequited love. Claiming that the song was composed by his cousin Guy Massey, Dalhart received a share of publishing royalties. The song ultimately brought Dalhart fame and a modicum of wealth.In an era before records were played on radio, this release became country musics first major hit, selling an estimated 7 million copies (the first recording and subsequent versions combined) from 1924 to 1934 and an additional million copies as sheet music. Both of Dalharts breakthrough recordings on Victor are enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame.By the time of the Bristol Sessions, Dalhart had already recorded hundreds of country songs for dozens of companies, and a number of Dalharts records had become widely popular, including The Death of Floyd Collins, a 1925 song about an explorer who had perished in a Kentucky cave; the 1927 smash hit Lindbergh (The Eagle of the U.S.A.); and The Runaway Train, a song beloved in the U.K. In the shadow of BristolWhile he was responsible for an estimated 3,000 commercial releases and was country musics bestselling recording artist of the 1920s, Dalhart has been marginalized. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1981, but today he has few champions despite the fact that many leading country music stars, including Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, have covered songs from Dalharts vast repertoire.Neglect of Dalhart is likely the result of the impression that he, an opera singer with formal musical training, lacked the authenticity to be considered a country musician, despite his deep Texas roots. Dalhart recorded for many labels under many pseudonyms, and his massive discography defies easy characterization.The only biography of Dalhart to date, published in 2004 and written by Dalhart devotee Jack Palmer, was an earnest effort to establish the singer as the first star of country music, but that book quickly fell out of print.To acknowledge the centennial of Dalharts emergence as a seminal figure in country music, Rivermont Records plans to release a box set in November 2024 featuring 100 of the singers key recordings from throughout his career. I believe it will be just and overdue commemoration.Ted Olson is a professor of Appalachian studies and bluegrass, old-time and roots music studies at East Tennessee State University.This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Large windows create the feeling of sitting in a tree canopy at La Cime, a timber-clad holiday cabin that Canadian studio Naturehumaine has created in woodland in Lanaudire, Qubec.La Cime, or The Top, is described by Naturehumaine as a one-bedroom "micro chalet", with its sloping roof and wooden-plank cladding taking cues from traditional wooden huts.It also features large windows and a terrace to provide guests with a close relationship to its sloped forest site, within which it is elevated 3.6 metres (12 feet) above ground on steel stilts to allow the flow of rainwater beneath it.La Cime is a holiday cabin in Canada by Naturehumaine"Wishing to create a unique sensory experience for visitors, the design of the building was determined by the beauty of the views of the surroundings," explained Naturehumaine."The felt experience is also magnified by the floating effect provided by the location of the home, at the edge of the steep slope of the land," it added.A stepped stone patio and steel staircase lead up into La Cime's terrace areas - one of which is covered to provide shelter during bad weather, and the other open to the elements with a hot tub and sun loungers.It is elevated on stiltson a sloped woodland siteSlatted wooden screens at the front of the cabin provide a semi-outdoor route connecting these terraces to the more domestic spaces, offering a glimpse out to the trees.A smaller, more enclosed volume to the east contains La Cime's single bedroom on the lower level, with the bed itself positioned alongside a large window.Read: Naturehumaine splits Quebec ski cottage La Brche in twoThe living and kitchen area sits on the upper level of this smaller volume to create the feeling of being immersed in the tree canopies, while a rope-hammock seating area has been created above the staircase."Despite the plurality of places and spatial experiences confined in a small space, a climate of tranquility and simplicity emerges from the whole," said the studio. "It is this simplicity that leaves plenty of room for relaxation and the treetops," it added.Large windows create the feeling of sitting in a tree canopyFor the external cladding of La Cime, Naturehumaine used planks of pre-aged western pine to blend in with the surrounding tree trunks.Inside, white-pine panelling has been used to finish the walls and ceilings, while plywood built-in furniture is contrasted by polished concrete floors.It is described by Naturehumaine as a "micro chalet"Naturehumaine was founded in Montreal in 2004 by Stephane Rasselet and Marc-Andr Plasse.It has completed a variety of residential projects in Canada, including a 1930s-style brick housing block in Montreal and a timber-clad cottage near Quebec's Orford ski resort.The photography is by Raphal Thibodeau.The post Naturehumaine perches stilted "micro chalet" within Canadian woodland appeared first on Dezeen.

The options for premium true wireless earbuds have gotten more interesting since the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro debuted with the stem design. Now, users have more reasons to rejoice as Google Buds Pro 2 is just around the corner, according to reliable leaks. The new ANC earbuds for the Pixel ecosystem are slated to make an appearance at the Made by Google event on August 13. The Pixel 9 series smartphones will be released at this event, and we have our calendars marked already.According to numerous leaks and rumors, the buds will have wings for a secure grip, and unlike the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro that have adapted the stem design (very similar to the AirPods) this time, the Googles audio accessory will continue with the stemless aesthetic of the current generation. As it goes in the gadget rumor mill, the Buds Pro 2 display unit has been received at a Reddit users store.Designer: GoogleUser [nothighandmighty] has not been shy about sharing the picture of the display model of the upcoming earbuds. For the most part, the new buds will be a lowkey upgrade to the previous version with incremental improvements that help them stay at par with heavyweights like Sony WF-1000XM5, Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II and Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2. The Buds Pro 2 will be smaller than the current generation Pro model which makes them comfortable and compatible with small ears. Also, the wingtip is slightly larger for a more secure fit and will be color-matched with the chosen option. According to a leak by Dylan Roussel, the earbuds will come in peppy color options including Raspberry, Mojito, Porcelain and Haze.The case will be smaller as well which makes them easier to carry around in a pocket. [nothighandmighty] notes that there is a small speaker mesh at the bottom, most probably to beam sound for the Find My Device feature just in case you happen to lose them a lot.The post Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 make first appearance as a display unit ahead of official launch first appeared on Yanko Design.

You know what they say: Three's a crowd, but 54,000 is a dead game, somehow.If I was in a club with 54,000 people, I'd say that's pretty bumpin'.