Wearable Airbag Systems

Prone Gyres by Mowry Baden

In this floor hugging work Prone Gyres an arm supports a low platform in the shape of a truncated massage table. Operating a bit like a motorized lazy Susan, it allows a viewer to lie prone and use his or her own weight to propel the body through minor whorls of motorized gyres – an experience kindred to a ride on a lily pad engineered for a human being.

by Mowry Baden

SEVEN MYSTERIES OF GRAVITY

It's the force we all know about and think we understand. It keeps our feet firmly on the ground and our world circling the sun.

Yet look a little closer, and the certainties start to float away, revealing gravity as the most puzzling and least understood of the four fundamental forces of nature.

New Scientist

Astronaut Falling as a Cat

A trampolinist in a space suit imitating the falling movements of a cat, to find out how astronauts can move in space.

Professor Thomas R. Kane demonstrating a formula which explains how a cat's movements can be imitated by astronauts in space.




A cat being dropped upside down to demonstrate how a cat's movements while falling can be imitated by astronauts in space.

A gymnast rotating body by moving his arms in the "Jones Motion," during a test to see how astronauts can move in space with cat-like ease.

Falling in Style

Robotic Falling

Now soccerbots in Chile are learning to fall in a controlled way, reducing damage to themselves and their environment, letting them recover quickly and get on with the game- they can even fall over deliberately to save a shot on goal, for example.

Noel Sharkey, professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield in the UK, points out that giving a large robot the ability to fall over gracefully could greatly extend the role of humanoid robots outside soccer, including cybersuits and robot legs that assist walking in elderly and disabled people. "At present if someone tripped in a cybersuit they would fall heavily and sustain injuries," he says. Improving the technology could make a fall less harmful for anyone wearing a such a suit. "What we need now is a good method for getting up gracefully."

New Scientist

Tate recreates 1971 art sensation

Revival of infamous Bodyspacemotionthings exhibition allows Tate audience to crawl, clamber, balance and slide.

In 1971 The Guardian’s reporter noted: 'Some of the 1,500 visitors became so intoxicated by [the] opportunities that they went around 'jumping and screaming' to quote the exhibitions keeper, Mr Michael Compton. They went berserk on the giant see-saws, and they loosened the boards on other exhibits by trampling on them. ... 'It was just a case of exceptionally exuberant or energetic participation,' Mr Compton said tolerantly'

Guardian