#HTE

Experimental Objects by Design Firm CW&T

Brooklyn-based designers Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy are both grads of both MIT Media Lab and NYU’s ITP. It’s no wonder, then, that their firm CW&T makes a lot of weird, fun, experimental and functional objects.

The duo, who are also a couple, own one TV. To shuttle it back and forth from living room to bedroom, they built this TV Barrow:

“The 700c road bike wheel is attached to a bicycle fork. The rest of the parts are machined aluminum connections that fit around standard 1? aluminum tubes. Each component is secured with set screws so the legs are collapsible and the tilt of the screen is adjustable.”

The one pictured is built for a 32" – 42" screen, but they’ve built and sold custom versions to handle 50" screens.

Their Face Normal project consists of a head-mounted fluorescent light fixture:

“AIGA asked us to design and build a piece to light up their runway for their Bright Lights awards ceremony. We thought it was a perfect opportunity challenge ourselves to build a wearable battery powered fluorescent light. So this is what we came up with. Two T-12 fluorescent lights float in front of our faces like an extrusion of our eyes.”

“3D printed parts grip onto the T-12 fluorescent lights. Four aluminum tubes extend from the lights and are secured to our custom leather headgear. In the back, we have 2 ballasts, 2 hefty battery-inverter units that convert DC to AC power, and a bag of metal BBs to counterbalance the weight of the lights.”

The Penny Python is a minimal, adjustable-length bicycle that was made for no practical reason at all:

“This is an experimental lovechild of a python-style recumbent bike and a penny farthing bike. No gears, no chain, and a weird riding position. Custom machined components are built around 1 inch aluminum tubing.”

“The dual pivot in the middle provides the steering mechanism and a hinge to adjust the frame’s angle. The distance of the front and rear wheels are also adjustable.”

Another unusual bike-based creation is their Penny Pelican Cargo Bike, built around a Pelican case:

“The name comes from Penny as in penny farthing and Pelican as in Pelican-Hardigg military medical case. This style cargo bike (which is the only one that we know to exist) has pedals attached to a freewheel hub, so there are no gears and no chain. This allows the cargo area to span the entire space between the two wheels.”

“The front hub is a 1000W motor giving this thing a top speed of 23mph with a full load (80lb+). Since the "gear ratio” is high (because of the direct pedal drive), top speed without the motor is 4mph (not very fast). The motor does most of the work on this bike when riding at normal - fast speeds.“

There’s plenty more to see here.