Tag Archives: design

Trolley Works

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Trolley Works

Trolley Works

Ismail Farouk’s Trolley Works is a multi-disciplinary art project, which seeks to regulate trolley-pushing activity in downtown Johannesburg. The project was initiated as part of the Sylt Quelle Cultural Award for Southern Africa 2008. The first phase of the Trolleyworks project began in December 2008, and was proposed to run until May 2009. You can read about the project in this chapter of the African Cities Reader ‘Planning for Chaos – Urban Regeneration and the Struggle to Formalise Trolley-Pushing Activity in Downtown Johannesburg‘ (2010).

Ergonomic massage tool

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Ergonomic massage tool

Ergonomic massage tool

Ergonomic massage tool held

Ergonomic massage tool held

I designed this ergonomic tool while I was an art student in 1996, as part of an exploration into shapes that are formed by or respond to natural forces. This tool is based on the principle that you should keep your wrist in as straight a line as possible, rather than flexing it to the side as you do with conventional tool grips, like a screwdriver for example. A friend at the time was studying physiotherapy, and I made this tool for her to use for precision massaging of bulky sportsmen. This is a recast replica.

– Ralph Borland, 2014

Rapex anti-rape device

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Rapex

Rapex

The Rapex (later called the Rape-aXe) is a prototype anti-rape device invented by South African medical technician Sonette Ehlers. Ehlers proposed to distribute 30,000 of the devices in South Africa during the 2010 World Cup and hoped to make them available for sale after a “trial period”, but there no indication that the product has ever been released to vendors, according to Snopes.