environment vs interaction

Is using technology always the easy and short way in making something? and even if it were easier and quicker does that mean that it is the best way to design to engage people in learning about and through their environment? what is" the" environment anyway if their are so many different types of it. I don't want to limit my design to an audience, I don't want it's nature to limit. Is everything just a race to saving time and energy, but perhaps in the end it's just about money, you have it or don't, but money is time after all. If you have an iPhone then you have a portable map and you never get lost, if you have an unlimited oyster you don't walk anymore but you take the bus even just to go around the corner, if you have a credit card you just shop online and you save time, if you a flashy camera you don't look anymore through your eyes but through a lens, if the weather forcast tells you it is going to rain than you take your umbrella and nobody gets wett anymore. Poeple listen to their ipod, chat on their phone, read, but to people actually still engage in their environment? Isn't this race for technology just ruining the environment as a network of people that used to engage? 

So why I am designing something that puts priorities in the wrong place? 

Anecdote

I must say that it is nice that Italians are not only known for pasta, pizza and swearing :) I have kind of an obsession for understanding the root of words, this might be because that was the only way that I actually started to enjoy and succeed in latin. Arduo means strenous, arduous, something severe, a better word could not be choosen, and adding -ino at the end of a word means small, so -one means big, I wonder whether it is because the technology of arduino is tiring but it is phisically small. Perfect match. Italians do have a knack for finding the perfect word for everything. But in reality the name was given after the local bar in Ivrea, North of Italy, "Bar di Re Arduino", where Massimo Banzi and David Cuartielles enjoyed their daily espressos.

a big question mark

I think that everything is about questioning, why is that I feel as though everything is becoming more limited to a certain audience? why is that technology is making design only accessible to those who are technologically equipped? without a smart phone I feel out of space, but is that the way it is supposed to be? I didn't feel that way before coming to London, then why is it that I am put in the condition where without it I am lost? What has happend to things that were easy and accessible, that people actually enjoyed? has the world just become one big social network and the old fashioned things such as writing a letter are just passè? Children do not know how to write a post card anymore, is that normal? why isn't pen and paper enough anymore? is a kindle even comperable to the beauty of a book?
are we designing as progression or regression?

everyday a personalized message

If we think of how many people are born on our same day it makes us conscious that an horoscope is hardly personal. But the one thing that can make a person an individual is the way he/she dresses or the choices involved when getting dressed. I imagine people getting dressed in the morning depending on their mood, that could have been influenced by the morning weather when opening the curtains. I would like have a moment in the day where a phrase, a picture, a word, is just for me, that is calculated for who i am that day.
Take the picture, ARDUINO calculateS the overall colour percentage, associates to weather conditions in your location and gives you your daily horoscope :)
How to tell ARDUINO what to do!@/miwohfw,irufh,jkncuyrujn.2*&^(O?????????????????????

Realizations

I do realize how many variables there are when deciding what to wear?
-personal style
-activity of the day
-mood
-weather
-circumstances
and I realize the amount of times I have said "I don't know what to wear!!!!!" I used to think how cool it would be if there were a machine that took into consideration all these elements and decided (for me) what to wear! Putting together the plot and the basic information for a video has been illuminating because, although I didn't understand why that should be before the actual testing of the arduino, it has expanded my idea. It was like writing a lab report before having done the experiment, but in this case it il like drawing out a "dream" thinking of how it could be achieved and then actually doing it! It has opened a new horizon to this project.....

Colours, sun and rain.

I was wondering to what extent does the way we dress depend on weather conditions, or to be more precise, do the colours we wear depend on it. In the morning do we look outside the window and consider what to wear? or do we decide by the weather forecast? or are some of us brave to actually go outside in their pijamas and feel it for themselves? In Germany I know for a fact that a lot of people are dependent on the thermometer places at the window. In Italy they are seasonal, all winter the same amount of clothes regardless to the temperatures! But I have noticed that in London there is no seasonal wardrobe, more like layering clothes. So do we wake up in the morning and get dressed in colours according to the amount of sun during the day? do we wear bright colours to light up the day, or do we wear dark colours to blend in with the sky? Revolving around this concept there is the idea that people are directly effected by weather conditions, for example, if it rains (which happens often enough) one does go to work in bike. So if it is gloomy and gray I won't wear my flower patterned skirt, or perhaps I will so I will put a positive twist to the day. Some people put their clothes out the night before, some people dress the same everyday, some people don't change at all. Some people just follow the fashion. So is their a correlation between weather and colours we wear? I will start investigating.