Subject: Viridian Note 00043: the Viridian Electrical Meter Key concepts: imaginary products, electrical meters Attention Conservation Notice: It's another whimsical "product" that doesn't yet exist, but might end up in a Viridian catalog someday. Entries in the Viridian "Fungal Typography" Contest: http://members.aol.com/stjude/ http://www.saunalahti.fi/~jtlin/viridian/ http://www.wenet.net/~scoville/Viridian/viridiantext.html http://www.erols.com/ljaurbach/ http://www.empathy.com/viridian/ http://www.spaceways.de/Viridian/Viridiantype.html http://www.stewarts.org/users/stewarts/viridian.html http://way.nu/greens/typography.html http://abe.burmeister.com/viridian2dot1.html http://rampages.onramp.net/~jzero/viridian/ http://www.msys.net/reid/main.html This contest embraces decay on January 31, 01999. For contest instructions see Note 00027. "The Viridian Electrical Meter" Concept: SeJ@aol.com^^^^** (Stefan Jones) Ad copy: bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling) "One of the most offensive artifacts of the twentieth century is the standard household energy meter. This ugly gizmo clings like a barnacle to the outside of your home, readable only by functionaries. Clumsily painted in battleship gray, this network spy device features creepy, illegible little clock-dials, under an ungainly glass dome. Look a bit closer, and this user- hostile interface deliberately insults you, with a hateful anti-theft warning, and a foul little lockbox. "This crass device is designed to leave you in stellar ignorance of your own energy usage. It publicly brands you as a helpless peon, a technically-illiterate source of cash for remote, uncaring utility lords. "But today, thanks to the Viridian Electrical Meter, the tables are turned. The Viridian Meter is not some utility spy device, but a user-owned art object! Based on the popular "plasma globe," this interactive meter/installation will grace any 21st-century living room. The attractively sizzling "Magic Sphere" perches on a beautiful, visionary plant-stand, inspired by noted designers Hector Guimard and Albert Paley! "The Viridian Meter is pre-set with the standard demographic energy consumption of your biome and climatic area. Network brownouts and spikes produce visible, spitting anomolies, quickly warning you to protect your valuable household gizmos from the incompetent vagaries of the local utility. When your home's energy use grows excessive, the plasma-globe arcs up with a warning red crackle. Best of all, feeding energy from your home into the grid causes the Viridian Meter to reverse its polarity, displaying its internal aurora in a cool, lovely green! Guests in your home will soon see that your solar panels (and/or fuel cells and windmills) free our planet from the nasty burdens of fossil-fuel. When your child comes home from school, all long-faced about environmental decline and horrific weather anomalies, your conscience will be certifiably clear! 'See our Meter, honey? Look! It runs green!'" Stefan Jones (SeJ@aol.com^^^^**) Bruce Sterling (bruces@well.com)