The one used at mmott.com:

A version with straight lines:

A circles version:

And a version with triangles.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

mmott.com

Clearly this process did require quite some tinkering. The site contains a fair amount of javascript to, for example, power animations, employ ajax loading, and load flash objects. To be able to activate all these scripts, even on content loaded through ajax we relied heavily on the live events in jQuery, to bind handlers to future event and to be able to intercept links and load the content using AJAX.

The site is build on the Wordpress platform. While Wordpress is both powerful and flexible, we ran into its limits on several occasions. The standard implementation of next and previous post, which I used to navigate through the posts in given categories, does not work when posts are categorized under multiple categories. And for small visual aids like the counter in the portfolio that displays the number of the post out of the total number of posts within that particular category, we expanded on the code by SJRM on http://wordpress.org/support/topic/245629. With these and a couple of other tweaks we got the site up and running, showcasing not only our work but the possibilities of jQuery, AJAX and Wordpress alike.

In my paper I explore the concept of boundary in systems engineering methodology.
A boundary, as common as it may sound, is an odd thing. In a space/time understanding boundaries are located between spaces or between times. Strict philosophically they can be understood as being neither part of the space or the time it delineates, nor of their respective environments. Yet they do not occupy space or time themselves. They are therefore only defined by what is not part of them, the ‘bounded’ space and its environment. Boundary is also used in a more metaphorical sense in everyday language. When referring to setting boundaries in interpersonal relations, or to the boundaries of our personal space, we do not allude to spatially located boundaries. Even though we could envision people literally coming into our personal space by coming close to us, our personal space is malleable. Depending on who is coming close to us and in what circumstances, our personal space changes. These kinds of boundaries are not defined by time and space alone, they rely heavily on relations between subjects and between subjects and objects.

In my paper I try to untangle the use of boundary in systems engineering to get a better grip on the concept of system as used in the theory. With a better understanding of the concept of system I try to find out whether systems engineering methodology conceptually fits complex contemporary systems, like intercontinental electric power systems or public transportation systems. Despite being build for important parts by engineers, I argue that some of the problems encountered in the (mal)functioning of these systems can be traced back to the conceptual understanding of system and boundary as reflected in systems engineering methodologies.

Armed with the book ‘BONBON’ by Kees Raat from Unlimited Deliciuous in Amsterdam, I set out to melt, mix shape and solidify again a couple of kilos of exquisite chocolate. The most important succes factor in making bonbons is, according to Raat, good quality chocolate. Second is temperature. And third the ingredients that give each chocolate its unique flavor, the flavors of the ganache.

While I managed the first and the last very well, and the second to a reasonable extent, I found out that there was another crucial aspect to making bonbons that he did not mention in his book, or rather a side effect. Although originally it went quite unnoticed, upon proudly showing the end result of my work to my partner, she noticed that apart from covering the ganache in chocolate, I also manage to cover both myself and the rest of the kitchen.

A kitchen that is easy to clean, or with enough space to line up every tool you need on the counter, and a good shower come in handy too.

Nevertheless the bonbons were simply delicious and well received.

Designing this ‘origami’ bag proved an interesting and challenging task.

The first step was to figure out how to make the cut and fold the piece of fabric. To that extent I cut a piece of paper in the same relative dimensions and starting folding and unfolding till I settled on the above pattern. Unlike paper, however, fabric is more supple. Reproducing the nice sharp folds of the small piece of paper proved an arduous task. The second step, therefore, involved an enormous amount of small and sharp pins. A period during which I would have invented the thimble if it did not exist already. The third step involved the machine not being able to easily reach all small corners that are in need of being stitched together.

And on top of that, above folding pattern was created after I finished the bag, since I was not sure if the pattern would translate well from paper to fabric. Creating the bag, therefore, involved a large amount of trial and error. In that sense no different from creating a website or any other design, except for the pins.

I made two cuts in the fabric, to be able to make a belt to sling the bag over your shoulder. The belt is not adjustable, but turned out the right size, the advantage of tailor made objects. The fabric was printed on one side only, slightly complicating the folding pattern, but with a satisfactory final result nevertheless.

The final product shows the complexity of the design, without giving in to functionality and without becoming overbearing.

Red beet curry with basmati rice & green salad with green pepper paste marinated croutons

Once a week we visit the farmers market to get our groceries. It is a moment we look forward to because we can refill our allmost empty fridge with delicious fresh produce. This recipe was made on the last day of the week. I wanted to make a risotto, but I was out of parmigiano. So I made a curry, with my last red beets, my last bit of lettuce, my last cilantro, my last spring onion.. It turned out well, the sweet red colour of the beets, combined with the shining aromatic white of the basmati and the fresh spring green of the lettuce made it even look a little italian.

the rice

Boil water and add basmati rice for 4 persons. I found it worthwhile to search for a real good basmati rice, there is quite a difference between different brands.

the curry

4/5 young red beets, skin and dice them, fry an onion, red chilipepper and 2 garlic, all diced, in a hot wok-pan with a little olive oil. Add a teaspoon of ground cumin and half a teaspoon of curcuma and fry for a minute more.

Add beets, fry for a little while, then add water. Bring to boil and cook till almost done, best cover it and let it simmer for a bit. If the beets are almost done add 100gr santen and tamari, lime-juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with the rice and garnish with cilantro, spring-onion and slices tomato.

the salad

Mix some old diced bread with green pepper paste and olive oil. Heat more oil in a frying pan and fry the bread till golden. Mix different kinds of lettuce in a bowl, with some herbs like chives or parsley and dress with lemonjuice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve with the croutons.

Enjoy!

This time the reason to pull out the red cabbage we bought two weeks earlier came from my partner. An overwhelming urge to eat red cabbage soup triggered me to cut up and prepare the cabbage. When cooking cabbage I try to combine tastes to a combination of flavours where the cabbage is only one in a complex taste, for obvious reasons. Not only was red cabbage mandatory in the soup, but it had to be combined with dill. I then dove into my fridge to dig up other vegetables lazing around for sometimes even longer times, which I knew could be used to improve the soup. A couple of potatoes, a kohl-rabi, some onions, garlic and a more recently acquired bulb of fennel seemed promising enough to make the red cabbage soup into something beyond mere red cabbage soup. And it worked out well, the numerous vegetables, combined with a goat cheese/creme fraiche mixture and a dash of anisette, turned the soup in a delicatesse, both pleasing for the eye and the tongue.

The soup came into being using ingredients in the quantities available to me at that time, which are, if I recall correctly:

• 1 red cabbage, sliced
• 3/4 kohl-rabi, diced
• 2 onions, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 potatoes, washed and sliced

All this slightly fried in butter, then covered with vegetable stock, cooked till done and pureed. Then I added:

• lemon zest and juice from 1 lemon
• about 75 grams fresh goat cheese
• 125 ml creme fraiche
• 50 ml anisette (pernod/ricard)
• pepper and salt

I served the soup with

• thiny sliced fennel and
• fresh dill

And the next day the soup was even more intense in taste in color.

Maarten (mmott.com)

Launching mmott.com version 1, a jQuery inspired site.
The different sections, about, contact, clients and portfolio are pulled from different sources. In part from the gingerus RSS feed, which facilitates as a makeshift content management system and gives us the possibility to experiment with RSS as a simple CMS. We used SimplePie, a RSS and Atom feed parser, to distill the necessary information out of the feeds. The site itself uses jQuery to combine the different elements of the site into one dynamically generated interactive page.