An image of a wearable computer designed by Lisa Krohn displayed on a mannequin
PHOTO: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Science & Tech

Foresight

By Pippa Jack / January–March 2025
January 16th, 2025

Before “wearables” were a thing—before they were even a glimmer in Google Glass’s lenses—Lisa Krohn ’85 designed a pliable wrist computer (1988) and, in 1993—an era of boxy beige desktops with 4 MB of RAM—the striking Cyberdesk. Based on speculative tech, it included a retinal display, neural port, and a necklace-like keyboard. The Society for the History of Technology’s 2023 meeting invited Krohn—an art/architecture Brown/RISD grad who now practices and teaches design in California—to discuss how she would update the design with curators from the  likes of Cooper Hewitt and  Smithsonian Design Museum (both have Cyberdesk prototypes  in their collections). Cyberdesk 2.0 looks like a sleek pair of wraparound aviators but can monitor brainwaves, hydration, and stress levels.

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January–March 2025