This article was taken from the October 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Lina Patsiou wanted to tell stories that design objects. "In general, I work with narratives, and I'm trying to take my design in that direction," the 26-year-old says. "I tried to build that in the most literal way, by taking a story -- text-based input -- and making a design out of it." Her first prototype was some software that turned keyboard inputs into colour and 3D features. "It was quite sculptural, but you couldn't instantly see an object." So she came up with a paint sprayer. "People can choose the object they want to put inside, write whatever they want, and then just walk out with it." Each letter on the keyboard is linked to a corresponding colour and spatial co-ordinate; an air compressor, moderated by 26 solenoid valves, sprays the paint when a key is pressed.
The first words Patsiou entered were the project's name, Chromatography Sprayer. Patsiou, who studied engineering for five years in Greece before enrolling at the Royal College of Art, demoed the sprayer at her graduate show. "I saw many people writing their names, or their lover's. People also tried 'love' and 'hate'." She's planning a larger, human-scale machine. "I am searching for a new place in design, where form and finish follow meaning and content."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
