Radical Atoms consists of a group of physical computing project done at MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Groupk, headed by Hiroshi Ishii. This is a graphic representing the meaning of Radical Atoms in the landscape of human-technology interactions.

Source — https://tangible.media.mit.edu/

There are several projects that fall under radical atoms, but I will focus on a specific physical computing technology: the “2.5D” linear actuator array. Here is what it looks like in action.

Source — https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/materiable/

The basic context of how it works is that there is a grid of pistons underneath the table—one for each “atom.” Each one is equipped with pressure sensors that are able to rapidly sense when any of them are pressed, and by how much. Once they are pressed, the adjacent/ surrounding atoms move with them, as if they represented some sort of unified material.

Source — https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/materiable/

This technology is not solving any apparent technology. Rather, it is introducing a new medium for thinking, creating, and behaving. There is an idea introduced by J. C. R. Licklider called Man-Computer Symbiosis, which portrays a world in which machines allow humans to focus on more human things, while we ask machines to take care of work more suited for technology. I think this platform behaves in a similar way, having many interactions that allow for humans to focus on more creative and, frankly, human problems.

Source — https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/materiable/

Source — https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/physical-telepresence/

Having been designed by MIT’s Media Lab, the performance is extremely seamless and convincing. With that level of craft, we can focus on what the platform can actually do for us, not how it works.

I’ve heard once that design is about creating tools within which lie certain frameworks for creating wonderful things and ideas. To create an open system through which people can discover themselves at a greater capacity. I think this is such a system, and I hope to be a designer that can create things in this realm one day.

Source — https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/transform/