affordances, bmw drivers, tragedy of the commons

From: Bill Barowy (wbarowy@mail.lesley.edu)
Date: Fri Jan 21 2000 - 16:44:56 PST


The original ad by bmw appearing in south african airlines magazine had this bottom line: "which means that BMW drivers don't even have to breathe the same air as everyone else" also displays a smog laden urban highway setting -- bmw'ers will send their exhaust to the same air as every one else.

What originally appeared through the 'Adbuster' organization can not seem to be found on the internet today -- nor any english description of the features on a bmw site -- but in french you will find:

Le recyclage automatique de l'air (AUC) empêche les substances nocives en suspension dans l'air de pénétrer dans l'habitacle.

 Le système identifie les polluants tels que le monoxyde de carbone, les oxydes d'azote ou l'éthanol et ferme temporairement l'entrée d'air frais dans l'habitacle
 en cas de concentrations trop élevées de ces gaz.

http://www.bmw.fr/evenements/technologie/auc/auc.htm

i.e. the air recycling sytem stops nasty airborn substances from penetrating the vehicle.. the system identifies pollutants, temporarily closes off the vents and recycles the interior air.

How's that for an affordance?

Bill Barowy, Associate Professor
Lesley College, 29 Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-2790
Phone: 617-349-8168 / Fax: 617-349-8169
http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/wbarowy/Barowy.html
_______________________
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself
 and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Feb 01 2000 - 01:02:41 PST