Acme Systems is the result of a project based on the American animated cartoon Wile E. Coyote & The Road Runner and linked with the Master Thesis Le Coyotisme: Wile E. Coyote, personnage de cartoon, genius et designer de l'echec. 
This cartoon, started in 1949, the coyote try to catch a bird by using a lot of gizmos provided by a company named Acme Corporation.

The result of all of his attempts is always the same, fail!

The statement here is: If the coyote still wants to catch the bird in 2018, what kind of technologies could he uses in the era of Amazon, Internet, Social Media and Donald Trump?

Failure is a central point of this project, The coyote use tons of Acme’s gizmos and never success, but he keeps going because of the show of course and because he believes in technologies. He’s persuaded that the next new gizmo will be the right one to finally get the bird and Acme Corporation will always be here to provide him. He gonna use it for 30 seconds, fail, throws it away and then order a new one. It’s not very different from what people do everyday and our Acme, Amazon and some other will be here to provide us.

As we live in an era of entertainment, using the cartoon and its aesthetics as a filter to design objects questioning current themes such as the notion of truth and social media, seems to be a relevant approach.

This distancing by fiction makes it possible to highlight some present-day problematics through short and entertaining storytelling, where the search for a balance between the references of the cartoon and those of our time is permanent.

Three different gizmos have been developed, each based on a typical cartoon situation like falling off the cliff and connecting with a technological or salient point of our time.

The choice of real references had to be carefully done to match the cartoon spirit, which is always about overstatement. Then, these references were passed through the Coyote Cartoon filter to keep the link with the very recognizable cartoon identity.
In addition, this Pop aesthetic applied to today’s objects or references creates a distance to emphasize the excess and absurdity of these technologies or situations from the real world.


Published on : https://www.hesge.ch/head/formations-recherche/master-en-espace-et-communication https://www.hesge.ch/head/en/project/acme-systemstm-jean-marc-cnockaert     
https://maspaceandcommunication.com/#/jeanmarc-cnockaert/


HEAD-Genève
Master Design Space & Communication
Diploma Project 2018

Tutor Project : Malak Mebkhout

Specifications of each gizmo:

Acme Wall-Builder Genius Kit (The yellow helmet)

Initial Cartoon situation: Mr. Coyote likes to use the gadgets inspired by Superheroes because he believes that using them will give him magical power. 

The today’s technologies or references: An American antihero that wears the right clothes to have power but even does more, he calls himself a genius! Just like our dear Mr. Coyote! 

The solution: As make an Acme Trump outfit for Wile E. Coyote is no useful to help him to catch the bird. Create a kit based on one of the most iconic Trump whim, the wall between the American and Mexican border is a more suitable idea. So, with this gizmo you can build big walls in the desert to trying to stop the bird. But security first! That’s why Acme Systems provide a great safety helmet to do this job!


Failure: Actually, walls never stopped anyone, even a bird that does not fly.
Specifications
Material: fiberglass, epoxy resin, acrylic paint
Overall dimension: 480 x 210 x 170 mm
Weight: 1.7kg



Acme iGotit Selfie Stick (The blue wing)

Initial Cartoon situation: Each time the Coyote run after the bird. 

The technologies or references of today: The Selfie Stick and in a larger perspective social media like Facebook or Instagram. Then the notion of truth about these media. 

The solution: Design a selfie stick in the shape of a Road Runner bird wing to give the illusion that you have finally caught it. With this gadget, just put your smartphone on it, choose the right angle and the right background, take the right attitude and take a selfie! Then share it on your favorite social media with a catchy hashtag like #igotit or whatever you want. That’s not the truth? Well, who cares about the facts about these media? Everyone will share Coyote’s selfie just to say «look, he finally caught it!» 

Failure: As the purpose of this gadget is not really to catch the bird, there is no physical failure, the only one may be ethical, but it depends on you. 

Specifications 
Material: polystyrene, epoxy resin, acrylic paint, steel 
Overall dimension: 650 x 100 x 120 mm
 Weight: 1.5kg


Acme Deus Ex Machina Button (The red button) 

Initial Cartoon situation: Every time the Coyote falls off the cliff, and its way of ordering new gadgets through the Acme catalog. Today’s technologies or references: Amazon creates the Acme Dash button, a button designed to quickly order a specific regular product like shampoo or toothpaste. In the same idea to get something faster, delivery of the drone. 

The solution: Keep the idea of the Amazon command button and transfer it to a recurring Wile E. Coyote need, even better if it’s urgently needed. So, with Acme Deus Ex Machina Button, you just have to press it while you fall from the cliff to get a parachute thanks to a lightning drone delivery; just before hitting the ground! 

Failure: Actually, when you fall off cliffs you normally panic, more than when you miss shampoo at least. And when you panic you are likely to press the button too many times… And it will not be useful to have 10 parachutes falling over your head.
Sometimes perfect is the enemy of good! 

Specifications 
Material: Amazon Dash Button body, Vinyl 
Overall dimension: 59 x 24 x 15 mm 
Weight: 0,1 kg


Typeface : abcdinamo
Pictures : Michel Giesbrecht / HEAD-Genève, Jean-Marc Cnockaert


Le Coyotisme : Wile E. Coyote, personnage de cartoon, genius et designer de l’échec is the master‘s thesis I wrote under the direction of Alexandra Midal. 

This is a research dedicated to Wile E. Coyote, cartoon character of Bip-Bip & Coyote (Wile E. Coyote & The Road Runner in V.O). It has only one goal, to catch a bird named Beep-Beep. 

Throughout the episodes, it is understood that the number of design plans or gadgets provided by ACME Corporation, which he uses in quantity. In any case, the result is always the same, the failure.

By an analysis of Various attempts of the coyote, it is possible to determine what are the influences that intervene in a way of conceiving solutions to reach his but. 

His essays reflect a faith in a saving technical progress, a contemporary vision of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
This study made it possible to understand the role of failure in the practice of the coyote designer and to emit why not hypothesis of a concept called Le Coyotisme.
HEAD-Genève
Master Design Space & Communication
Master Thesis 2018

Tutor Thesis : Alexandra Midal

Presenting in June 2018 at Abécédarium : Au-delà des objets : une histoire parallèle du design du film. B pour pour Bip-Bip.
Musée des Arts Décoratif, Paris.


Master Thesis PDF on demand (in French) 
Published on : http://masterthesis-maspaceandcommunication.com http://abecedarium.co/slideshow/ (soon)

Robotic 3D Calligraphy is a workshop led by Thibault Brevet in November 2017 at ECAL with the Master Typography departement.

This workshop was about coding and programming in order to experiment with the possibilities of 3D lettering. For a week we coded the movements of an ABB IRB2400 through an interface 
develop by Thibault Brevet, to produce lettering thank to the hot wire that cut in the polystyrene.

The challenge here was to play with the technical constraints of the machine, such as the positioning of X and Y data, the depth of cut, angle or speed, fo the final obtain a particular typographi character design.

The pretext used for the creation of these letters was that of a general strike against robotic technology inspired by the strikes organized by the American typographers in the 1920s against the
new machines that threatened their jobs.
HEAD-Genève / ECAL
Master Design Space & Communication

One Week workshop with Thibault Brevet

Material: Foam cutter, polystyrene, custom software to run the robot.


EYES_ON_HEAD is a mapping project realized during the Workshop 
Back to Black by Swiss designer Camille Scherrer.

During a week dedicated to the experimentation of the mapping with as support the buildings of the school. In pairs, Julia Guglielmetti and me had the idea to use these two large windows as eyes and at the same time to get the mapping out of the walls of the school to communicate with the street (the boulevard James Fazy leads to the train station Cornavin, it is a continuous axis of passage).

Also we liked the idea of having it interact with people, as if they were followed by the building. Building that by dint of watching the street starts to „bug“ synthesized by a page 404 not found, a blue screen (the famous blue screen of death of Window revisited) and some glicht effects...
HEAD-Genève
One week workshop with Camille Scherrer

Material: Adobe Premiere, beamer, paper 

EYES_ON_HEAD from JM CNOCKAERT on Vimeo.

Pinecone Story is the result of a workshop conducted with Matali Crasset and David Louveau for the introductory part in ceramics.
The Workshop that began with a Yoga session followed by a tea ceremony and that ended weeks later with the construction of a hut at the end of the Loire valley in a former farm redesign by Matali.

The theme of this workshop was the ritual, hence the tea ceremony... The idea was to create a new one inspired by the ancient rituals of Asia. To create something that once placed in a natural environment would become an experience, which would awaken in us a feeling that came from far back in time.

Pinecone Story is a story, here it is:

„Pine nuts opens a world of discussion, exchange. Gathering this simple source of food symbolizes the meaning of sharing, not just for food, but for time spent together, everyone‘s stories and respect for the land. As a way of saying thank you for the past, the present and the future. „

The object that synthesizes this story is a table with a ceramic tray placed over a brazier. The tray is perforated with holes of different sizes so that we can put pine apples. The embers of the brazier releases heat all around this table and allows the opening of the pine cones. The opening time is like an hourglass that marks a duration. This time is given so that people can talk to each other and exchange.

We worked together on this project, Shiwa Tseng and myself.

HEAD-Genève
Master Design Space & Communication

Workshop with Matali Crasset

Material: Ceramic, Metal, Wood

PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICTURE / Geneva, Switzerland