The Age of Automation: An interview with Murrill Oakes of OneButton

April 25, 2018

Murrill Oakes is a prolific creative technologist and industrial designer currently developing modern home AV systems at OneButton, a technology design firm founded by a physicist and an artist, Matt Emmi and Michael Izatt. OneButton innovates new user interactions with automated home and commercial interior technologies.

Clever Tech Digest sat down with Oakes to discuss the new human-tech paradigm, and how to mindfully design the integration of our physical and emotional existence with the new digital world. Oakes explains the nuance of emotionally intelligent design, and its importance in the dawning age of automation, connection, and the "Internet of Things."

Activate your body with active apparel! NadiX integrates haptic technology to help Yogis improve their practice.

Good Vibrations: Wearable X Revolutionizes Yoga with Haptic Technology

April 16, 2018

Nadi X is activated yoga apparel that was designed with embedded electronics. Using vibrational feedback, the pants guide the wearer with the touch of a yoga instructor. “We believe technology should empower the human experience, not overtake it,” says Ben Moir, co-founder and CTO of Wearable X. “With Nadi X, the sleek design allows technology to seamlessly integrate with the tights, allowing the beauty and design to take center stage.”

Clever Tech Digest sat down with Olivia Burca, a garment engineer for Wearable X, to discuss the company’s take on wearable tech.

Middle School Students Play With Multiplanes

Animating Education to Inspire the Next Generation: An Interview with Laura Bellmont, Founder of The Little Animation Studio

April 9, 2018

As automation and robotics replace human labor, our education systems have to adapt. Collaborative and creative skills actually create more robust job security in this rapidly changing global economy. Instead of the ability to memorize and regurgitate information, lasting professional value derives from the capacity to generate new ideas and quickly adapt to new tools, personalities, and paradigms.

Clever Tech Digest sat down with Laura Bellmont, founder of The Little Animation School, to discuss the importance or art, play, and technology in children’s education. Her company brings professional filmmaking software and equipment to after school programs all over Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York. Making awesome animations may be students’ primary objective, but the school’s pedagogy focuses on using the filmmaking process as a vessel to study topics ranging from history, to biology, or even to space.

Read on to learn about Bellmont’s unique programming and her take on the next generation of education.

Isis Shiffer, Industrial Designer

3D Printers, and Laser Cutters, and CAD. OH MY! An Interview with Isis Shiffer of Spitfire Industry

April 4, 2018

Industrial design encompasses almost every product you touch, from the car you drive to the phone you use to the chair you are sitting in right now. If urban design defines the zoning of buildings and architecture shapes how those buildings look and function, then industrial design creates the objects that fill all of those spaces. Industrial Design inherently touches our economy and personal lives.

Clever Tech Digest sat down with Isis Shiffer, a young and acclaimed industrial designer who started her own design consultancy before the age of 30, to discuss how new, rapid prototyping and computer aided design tools are changing the way products are developed, manufactured, and distributed. Shiffer shares her point of view on the state of the industry.

Materials Matter: The Sustainability of Vegan vs Up-cycled Leather? An Interview with the founder of Crystalyn Kae Accessories

April 2, 2018

All of the products we consume make an impact on the environment. We cannot fight the nature of consumption and our exponentially growing population. How, where, and with what materials things are made determine just how much of an impact a product's lifecycle can create.

Clever Tech Digest sat down to chat with Crystalyn Brennan, a pioneer in both vegan leather and zero waste up-cycled leather accessories. Her company, Crystalyn Kae Accessories fights to reduce the huge amount of material waste in the fashion industry by keeping scrap materials and used products out of landfills. Brennan explains in detail mindful ways to keep our planet clean without sacrificing style.

Angie Lee: Chief Product Officer at Celmatix

Empowering Women with Big Data: An Interview with Angie Lee of Celmatix

March 28, 2018

Celmatix is a women’s health company that uses genomics and big data to empower women to make more informed decisions about their reproductive health. Clever Tech had the opportunity to talk with Angie Lee, the Chief Product Officer at Celmatix. This groundbreaking company is changing our understanding of women’s health. During our interview, Lee spoke about the harmful disparity between women’s and men’s health and how technology and big data can bridge that gap. Angie is bringing humanity and technology together to empower women.

Read on to learn more about how big data is changing the world of medicine.

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Sustainable and Socially Conscious Jewelry: An Interview with Dana Bronfman

February 20, 2018

Interview by Mikhal Weiner

Dana Bronfman makes jewelry that tells many stories - of the maker, the wearer, and an evolving, increasingly tech-influenced industry. “When I started [designing jewelry] I didn’t know anyone who had done this,” she says, “That’s part of the reason I didn’t go into it right away, I didn’t feel it was a realistic possibility.”

Coming from a socially conscious family, Bronfman travelled, working for various non-profits, but always found herself drawn to the jewelry of places she was visiting. “There are so many people, making these things that tell a story about culture. It’s a form of self expression.” This is more than adornment - the human connections that these artefacts represent fascinate her.