Architecture Discussion Rich+Hen

Rich and I had a discussion about architecture today after class:

Although Ross really liked the intearactive video with rocks we want to add to/modify it significantly. It needs to be more suggestive of what could actually be achieved. For example, how could this shelter us from the sun as it traverses the sky or move to block the prevailing wind?

An idea chucked around was something like big plywood sheets which could be positioned for stop frame video. Interesting to also consider what Ross said about 'pod-like' architecture, and how our group was rejecting that as the definite future.

With the growing architecture Rich is looking at finding a partly built/destroyed buiding and using it to create a video which includes computer generated models which adapt and grow depending on the state of the building. A person could walk into the building or area to become the catalyst for growth. Other buildings could also be involved in improving the space in relation to the current residents and the newcomers. The style of growth would be similar to the wall destruction animation in the last presentation.

We also looked at nets and how they could modify to fulfill different needs, (like a box net unfolding out to become a sun shelter on a hot day while letting in fresh air) but a net moving seems harder to understand/justify than the claytronics/particles theme.

Rich feel free to mod this post.
+Anyone comment!

dynamic movement

here is a quick vid I put together showing the dynamic movement I was interested in using the hairbrush piece...particularly the second half of the vid speaks of this movement. sorry its a little hard to see...going for the 'subtle' effect...lol

Shape memory alloy

A shape memory alloy (SMA, smart metal, memory metal, memory alloy, muscle wire, smart alloy) is an alloy that "remembers" its original, cold-forged shape, and which returns to that shape after being deformed by applying heat. This material is a lightweight, solid-state alternative to conventional actuators such as hydraulic, pneumatic, and motor-based systems. Shape memory alloys have applications in industries including medical and aerospace.

Self Healing material

The self-healing coating uses chitosan which is derived from chitin, the main component of the exoskeleton of crustaceans (lobsters, crabs, shrimps etc). The chitosan is chemically incorporated into traditional polymer materials, such as the ones used in the outer coatings to protect the paint on cars. When a scratch occurs on the outer coating, the chemical structure is damaged and the chitosan responds to the UV component of sunlight. Chemical chains are then formed with other materials in the coating, eventually filling the scratch. This process can take less than an hour and may eventually lead the “scratch free car” or other products in the future.

The self-healing paint

Biswajit Ghosh and Marek W. Urban from the School of Polymers and High Performance at The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, advise that their new material will have a lot of practical applications and could coat anything that can be scratched including electronics, aircraft, cars etc. The self-healing coatings could minimize upkeep and repair on a variety of products, saving consumers money and reducing waste.

For the boffins amongst us, Ghosh and Urban report that the compound network consists of an oxetane-substituted chitosan precursor incorporated into a two-component polyurethane. Upon mechanical damage of the network, four-member oxetane rings open to create two reactive ends. When exposed to ultraviolet light, chitosan chain scission occurs, which forms crosslinks with the reactive oxetane ends, thus repairing the network. Now you know!

This repair process is not moisture-sensitive, meaning it should work in all climates. And making the new coating won’t break the bank, according to Urban “It’s very economical,” he said. “You can get chitosan for almost nothing.” I wish the lobster or crab came at a similar price!

One limitation is that the mending reactions don’t seem to work a second time, so each part of the coating can repair itself only once. But Urban doesn’t see this as much of a drawback in the real world. “Even if you try to hit the same spot, within a couple of microns, statistically the chances of it happening are very small,” he said.

Other self healing compounds

The new compound is not the first man-made self-healing material. In 2001, researchers at the University of Illinois embedded tiny liquid-filled capsules in a polymer coating. When the coating forms a crack, the capsules rupture spilling healing agents into the damaged area, repairing it.

In December 2005 we reported the world’s first clear paint that repairs scratches on painted car surfaces, Nissan “Scratch Guard” . "Scratch Guard" contained a newly developed high elastic resin that helps prevent scratches from affecting the inner layers of a car’s painted surface. Repair took anything from one day to a week and Nissan has been offering this self-healing paint as an option on its X-Trail SUV since 2005. This product appears similar to the Chitosan containing compound, but achieves its results in a slightly different manner.

Very interesting visual research

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES USHERED IN A NEW ERA IN HUMAN HISTORY. NANOTECHNOLOGY, THE SCIENCE OF THE INFINITESIMAL, PROMISES TO HAVE AN EVEN GREATER IMPACT. THE NANOTECH REVOLUTION MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR HUMANS TO MANIPULATE MOLECULAR STRUCTURES AND INDIVIDUAL ATOMS ON A NANOMETRIC SCALE — THAT IS, TO WITHIN A MILLIONTH OF A MILLIMETRE. INSPIRED BY SUCH TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES, EPIDERM EXPLORES THAT WHICH IS NORMALLY IMPERCEPTIBLE. IT IS A NANO-OPTICAL SIMULATION THAT BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLD. THE PERFORMANCE EXPLORES A UNIVERSE THAT EXPANDS INWARD, APPROACHING EXTREMES OF REDUCTION AND COMPLEXITY THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO FATHOM.

SKOLTZ_KOLGEN CHOSE TO INTERPRET THE DYNAMIC OF AN INFINITELY SMALL WORLD IN AN IDIOSYNCRATIC WAY. THEIR PIECE PROPOSES AN ARTISTIC APPROACH THAT IS BOTH MACROVISUAL AND SENSORIAL IN NATURE. ITS STARTING POINT IS A VIRTUAL WORLD-FICTION THAT GENTLY DRAWS THE SPECTATOR IN. STARTING AT THE SURFACE OF THE SKIN, EPIDERM DELVES INWARD TO TAKE THE AUDIENCE ON A JOURNEY TOWARDS THE INFINITELY SMALL: FAMILIAR THINGS SUCH AS HAIR AND PORES GIVE WAY TO CELLS, WHICH IN TURN FADE TO REVEAL A FOREIGN LANDSCAPE OF ATOMS. THE NANOWORLD IS A SYSTEM COMPOSED OF MICROPARTICLES THAT INTERACT WITH EACH ANOTHER ON A SCALE WHERE ALL KNOWN REFERENCE POINTS CEASE TO BE RELEVANT.

EPIDERM'S VISUAL NANOPARTICLES ARE INTIMATELY LINKED TO A SOUNDSCAPE OF AUDIO SAMPLES THAT STIMULATE THEIR MOVEMENT AND ORIENT THEIR TRAJECTORIES, ESTABLISHING A SORT OF NARRATIVE. THE GENERATION OF SOUNDS WAS ALSO DIRECTLY INSPIRED BY NANOTECHNOLOGY. THE EPIDERM DIGITAL SOUNDSCAPE WAS CREATED THROUGH A PROCESS KNOWN AS GRANULAR SYNTHESIS, WHICH ENTAILS USING THE SMALLEST POSSIBLE UNIT OF SOUND, KNOWN AS A GRAIN — THE EQUIVALENT OF ONE SECOND DIVIDED BY 44,100. THE ORDER OF THE GRAINS WAS THEN REDISTRIBUTED AND REORGANIZED IN ORDER TO LINK SOUND UNITS TO THE VISUAL NANOPARTICLES.

THE EPIDERM PERFORMANCE CREATES AN IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENT AND IS A VEHICLE FOR SKOLTZ_KOLGEN'S EXPERIMENTATIONS IN THE CORRELATION BETWEEN IMAGE AND SOUND. THE PIECE ALSO QUESTIONS THE WAY AUDIENCES HAVE TRADITIONAL RELATED TO THIS SORT OF PERFORMANCE: SPECTATORS ARE INVITED TO LIE ON THEIR BACKS, HEADS RESTING ON CUSHIONS, FROM WHERE THEY CAN CONTEMPLATE THE GIANT CIRCULAR SCREEN HANGING FROM THE CEILING. SPECTATORS' HORIZONTAL POSITION AND THE 5.1 SURROUND SOUND PROVIDE OPTIMAL CONDITIONS FOR THE PERCEPTION OF BOTH SOUND AND IMAGE, ACCENTUATING THE FORCE OF ATTRACTION AND REPULSION AMONG ATOMS AND IMMERSING USERS DEEP WITHIN THE NANOWORLD. IN THIS WORLD OF THE INFINITELY SMALL, IF A HUMAN STOOD ONE NANOMETRE TALL, A RED BLOOD CELL WOULD APPEAR TO BE 1,759 STORIES HIGH.


It is so interesting how they visually explored the scientific research in a way in which we would here in design school. Makes me think that we can connect our scientific research even closer to our design now that i have seen this clip.

images of melcular reaction i forgot to uplaod a while ago

building / growing

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modifiers/Animation/Build

scroll down a bit to view the "build" feature in blender - a really nice way we will be looking at to show growth of objects and architecture.

Experimental videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua47OHFLJV4&feature=related

Thought you would like this lis!

Jonathan Schipper

http://www.oppositionart.com/main3.htm
Thought you guys might wanna check this guy out.

I stumbled across this within the first years' course material and immediately reminded me of the experiments Georgina + Annelise are investigating.

This guy does some crazy stuff with robotics/electronics in relation with time.

This particular experiment was initiated by a dropped cup that he then spent six months creating a mechanism that would replicate the fall + break, then repair.

His theories are well worth a read too.

Viewpath

Hey guys,
At some stage before Wednesday could someone up date the viewpath project - will help with the (individual) marking process.

Thanks

our trace of knowledge continues...end of stage 2

New archigram website

As of roughly 16 hours ago, the Archigram Archival Project is finally online and ready to for browsing, courtesy of the University of Westminster: the archive "makes the work of the seminal architectural group Archigram available free online for public viewing and academic study."

http://archigram.westminster.ac.uk/index.php

this is from BLDGBLOG

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/archigram-archive.html

Fwd: storyboard

Hi guys, heres the rough story board for jase -

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: rich <rich.borrett@paradise.net.nz>
Date: Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 3:17 PM
Subject: storyboard
To: jasebock@gmail.com

Opening clip (t:/presentation stuff / rich vids and images)

1. Will

Memories visualisation

2. Gee and Annelies

- How these memories influence growth and healing (We need the past to grow the future).

- How architecture could grow from the influence of memories

- How communities and environments are affected by memories

3. Henry

-Human interaction with Architecture and environments (2 videos – rock circles) (T:/ presentation stuff / henry architecture interaction)

4. Rich (t:/presentation stuff / rich vids and images)

Chair

Building Morph

Building Destruction

5. Jason

Ink video

7. Lisa

images & short animations

Lisas & jase's video (lisas dad)

Henry's hand video (perhaps put it before lisa?)

More on termite architecture

http://addax.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/

While many architects have attempted to model human-scale dwellings on that of the termite mounds - yet 50 years in the future we are given the opportunity to theorize living in architecture that is not only similar in design, but construction. It is then a logical step, once we percive something being created out of tiny components (lets call them voxels), to consider desctruction and modification of the voxels, simply by moving them around and modifying their composition.

Growth and Healing

These are experiments showing the growth that can come from healing and the way different environments, memories and experiences can change how a possesion or architecture is healed. The plate above is showing how a form can be grown into community settings. One plate affects the form of another plates growth.

Although it wasn't initially our intention, this idea could be taken literally and evolve into a way of growing our posessions with imput from

Memory

The mind can't imagine extremities in size. The microscope and the telescope are means to look into different ends of the spectrum. It is hard to comprehend the expanse of the universe and the space 'in between' an atom.
This 'unknown' is similar to the cell structure surrounding memory.
Memory depends on either side of itself. It is the strength and characteristics of the bonds surrounding which make it what it is. Electric pulses strengthen bonds between nodes of memory as the memory is recalled. The more the memory is recalled the more significance it maintains. Memories can be strengthened by how often they happen, repetitiveness or how passionate the person felt about the experience. Memories also strengthen with contact and social interaction with people as they reminisce about past events.

The universe cycles continuously from creation to recreation. Memory exists in a similar state. The memories you have from your youth will be overlaid and diluted through your life time. Your experiences are enriched on top of the past and the most important memories will continue to float to the top of the pile.
The human mind hasn't experienced existence much older than 100. If the brain was to stay 'alive' for longer the experiences we reflect on would become disfigured and obscured. Would we lose the point of focus and understanding and therefore our identity?

I created this image with a series of overlays in the darkroom. Its quite a long process and the final image is all at once, so the composition of the photograph is fairly random similar to the recollection of memory. I am going to further attempt to creat these images and hopefully I can get them representing the aesthetic of braincells.

The mind has the inability to recall and synthesize the exact instant of time. I have tried to emulate memory through imagery and objects. Objects can stand the test of time and their physical presence can trigger the mind to remember.

I have looked into darkroom photography and the physical presence it holds vs. the digital. I have controlled light and developed the film and prints with my personal influence at every step.
The photos i took of the beach are of the coast to the south of Kaikoura. I took a couple rolls of film and was assisted by an old friend who took pictures with a digital camera. This photo shows a branch creating a welt in solid rock. I was taking photos of different textures and unusual objects found around the rocky beach.

The photograph unveils itself drifting in chemical, it blooms and memory is visible.
I have taken series of photographs containing individuals and objects significant to them, passed down from an older generation. The photos pertain the object as the focal point, the center of the memory. The object is constant through time. I have used depth of field to replicate the blurring of memory and the loss of information over distance. I am playing with different techniques to degrade the prints to show loss of information aswell.
Memories shape the individual. The experience the person has can be positive or negative for their life. Imagine the impact of viral memory implantation. We would need to insure strict measures be withheld to maintain the integrity of the poulation.

Confabulation etc. to come.

To have memory manifest you have to believe it is real.

Nano fibers

I thought this image of nano fibers had a similar structure to the rapid prototype models made earlier in the project.
A fingernail grows a nano meter a second.
Nature has been working at this microscopic level for ever. By studying naturally occuring materials scientists' have extracted and applied these properties to other uses. Some evergreenleaves have the ability to repel water. Scientists developed a technique to 'Bind' a nano layer over everyday objects such as building materials and fabrics. http://thefutureofthings.com/news/6406/water-repellent-fabric.html "Drops of water falling on the fabric form into spherical balls on the surface and fall off without making the fabric wet when as little as a two degree tilt is applied to it. Water is repelled by a layer of silicone nanofilaments coating the surface. The 40 nanometer coating protect the layers of polyester fabric underneath, preventing the water from ever reaching beneath the surface."

Having a layer of water repelling fibers over a structure would provide protection from the elements. The nano cells can easily be removed too relating to our 'life cycle' ideals. Read further here "One of the good things about working with these polymers is that you're able to structure them in many different ways," Epstein said. "Plus, we found that we can coat almost any surface with these fibers."
The fibers have the ability to conduct electricity. Maybe our architecture could be coated with this nano systema and react directly with our nervous system.

Nano fibers pull at water droplets and cause the water to spread out flat across a surface. Researchers found that the attracting surface does the same thing to coiled-up strands of DNA. When they put droplets of water containing DNA on the fibers, the strands uncoiled and hung suspended from the fibers like clotheslines.
Having DNA spread out like this makes it much easier to study and develop the different structures within it.
Read further here

Death and Giving Memories

So I have been looking into death/what happens to the body and the passing of knowledge. Rich and I were discussing it and decided to concentrate on the passing of memories rather than what happens to the physical body. Below is just an idea of what I think we are talking about but I still haven't decided how to visualize it in the presestation. Please give it a read through and tell me what you think.

Once you feel you are reaching the end of your physical life on earth, you have a decision to make. You have memories, knowledge and experience. This is what matters; it’s the most important thing you personally have. It defines your real value, even important heirlooms you hand down are only important due to the memories attached to them.

What memories are you going to give back to the people you are leaving behind? It is important to carefully consider this decision, as it is your real legacy. When you pass on, your memories will be much more significant to your loved ones than your body.

When you know what it is you must keep and what it is that must be shared, you externalize the memories and choose who will be able to receive them. They will be kept safe until the time comes for them to be passed on.

N.B. remember to attach labels to your posts so we know who they're coming from :)

So these are just some photos of what me and Gee have been up to. Though some of these need to be edited a bit they're all basically about showing how object could heal themselves over time. We're now looking at creating a bit of a story line or series to show the impact of the people, community and environment that these objects are in and how this affects the way the objects heal themselves

david attenborough & termites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkzwfHOE6J8

but more importantly -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m7odGafpQU&NR=1

I love the construction method - almost created by voxels (3d pixels) of dirt and moisture and gradually built up. What if humans could create tiny robotic systems to do this? if construction elements were broken down to such a small scale, (rather than large concrete slabs, for example) what could we achieve?

Emotional architecture

Elephants Dream from Blender Foundation on Vimeo.

if you fast forward to 4:00 theres a really nice sequence where you can't tell if the characters' movements are influencing the architecture, or the architecture is influencing the characters movements

Presentation Order

So heres what I jotted down about the presentation...

We would work the video as it is the life of a person

1. Will

- How to recall memory

        - A visualisation of memory

        - Working on a small scale

2. Gee and Annelies

- How these memories influence growth and healing (We need the past to grow the future).

        - How architecture could grow from the influence of memories

        - How communities and environments are affected by memories

3. Henry 

        -Human interaction with Architecture and environments

4. Rich

-How Objects grow and die

- Creation and Destruction

-Working at a large scale

5. Jason

- How the past influences the future

-Medium Scale

6. Henry

-Death

7. Lisa

- The passing of knowledge, experiences and memories through people

Jump in and add or fix your sections if you need!

Submission Two

Hey guys

I will be working in the industrial studio on Friday afternoon (1-6pm).
Am happy to have a chat to you individually + check out the proposed group presentation if you feel you need to discuss anything before Monday.

If you want to talk about anything earlier than Friday then just flick me an email. (macra87@live.com)

Passing away

These images are probably the best ones I took. While death must mean a lot of different things to people depending on religion etc, I got a wide range of feelings from walking through this place.

Some of the images, like the top statue,are quite inspiring and make you think maybe the person did something amazing. The second image with the stone all covered in plants I like also, mainly because of how the plant is softening the reality of death and makes things look a bit brighter. Maybe its like death can mean life for something else.

The broken and cracked tombs and stones just make me realise the temporary nature of man made things and our limited time on earth as well as a limited time of being remembered. I'm sure some people in this cemetery are still visited, but many wouldn't be, due to them being buried hundreds of years ago.

The statue with a man and several woman at his feet is just so epic and possibly pretty sexist. I probably would never reach the status required in life to get a plaque of this stature and even if I did, I wouldn't want it resting on top of me. It looks heavy and hard to clean.

So everyone of course has the right to choose what they want. But after talking with the group today I think it would be inspiring to have a system which naturally yet beautifully uses your physical remains in a way which is beneficial somehow to the environment. Imagine if you were mineraly/materially etc responsible for even a single flower which brightened someones day for a brief moment. That would be awesome.

Embalming

got this off http://www.fdanz.org.nz/

So this basically just describes what is involved with enbalming, in a very 'nice' way. Apparently "Facial features are posed pleasantly and naturally."

Maybe my views would change as I got older but personaly I want to disappear pretty quick after I have died, I don't want to take up space when I'm not even enjoying it. I also don't want people trying to make me "look nice" after I'm dead. I want people to remember how I was, not how I am dead.

I think it would be interesting to look into other ways of giving something back to the earth with our 'used' bodies. Maybe there is some valuable mineral in them etc.

Obviously this is just my personal view but what does everyone else think of the process involved immediately after death? For me, I would just like to be wrapped in a blanket and buried under an rimu tree on the farm

Take into account that embalming is "essential" (legal requirement?)

I think people have to have the option of some kind of embalming.

Embalming

Embalming, an essential service provided by funeral directors, is frequently misunderstood. Many people associate embalming with ancient and primitive cultural practices and have misgivings about its relevance, value and purpose today.

It enables everyone connected with the funeral - family, friends and professionals - to take part in rituals with no unpleasantness or embarrassment and without risk to their health, whatever the cause of death.

Without embalming, nature begins to take its course very soon after death.

Embalming has three main purposes:

• Sanitation - The body becomes safe for handling and viewing when micro-organisms are made harmless.
• Preservation - Embalming allows adequate time for relatives and friends to grieve and say goodbye. It enables the person who has died to be taken home or to a marae. It ensures that there will be no problems of odour or deterioration.
• Presentation - Embalming restores the person's natural appearance, giving mourners a much better memory picture. This brings a sense of relief and comfort and helps peace of mind.

What does embalming involve?

Modern embalming is a careful scientific procedure performed by skilled personnel. Disinfecting and preserving fluids are distributed through the body's arterial system. Preparation also includes washing, dressing, hairdressing and restoration of natural skin colour.

Any thoughts on this would be awesome

two-dimensional oscilloscope responding to the activity of the brain

check out these sweet images!! 'Leibniz has, in many ways, considerably complicated the picture space. Rather than accepting the back surface of the camera as a receiving surface, standing in, so to speak, for the painter's canvas, he has himself stretched a canvas in the space, as a receptor of the images. This screen, moreover, is not the flat picture plane of classical representation; it is from the start ridged and folded, in ways that depict already innate ideas. Locke's tabula rasa, or white sheet of paper, has no place in this box of miracles. Further, this canvas is in no way a passive instrument of the "real"; rather it moves or "oscillates" like a plucked string, according to the nature of the images coming in from outside. These movements in turn create new folds in the surface of the screen, turning it into something like a diaphragm, elastic and mobile, a two-dimensional oscilloscope responding to the activity of the brain.'

So I am particularly interested in the idea of the "passing on of knowledge". How can I communicate the in-between? what i mean by this question is that i want to explore what we experience just before we recieve knowledge. So i decided to use tension as the driver to visually explore the transfer of knowledge and communication over a variety of mediums.

When I was younger I remember spending hours on the grass in brisbane, australia tickling these plants. the appeared as a standard leaf, however when these plants were touched they would close in on themselves. this plant is referred to as "Mimosa pudica (Sensitive Plant) (pudica = shy). it is a creeping herb often grown for its curiosity value: the compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched or shaken, re-opening minutes later. The stem is erect in young plants, but becomes creeping or trailing with age."

I think that the last sentence in that description really ties in with how knowledge may develop. It also speaks of how knowledge is often something that we want kept secret or only pass on to those that we trust. It is not until we gain the trust of the knowledge bearer that they will re-open their leaves and fill us with their knowledge.

age

Here's proof that age really is worth the wait..

Older is Wiser

So reflecting back to the idea of tension combined with the connection to the sensitive plants that would creep and close very subtlely, I wanted to explore tension in a more obvious form. these images speak of this tension, and although we are curious we know that something is about to happen so we are cautious. this is the "IN_BETWEEN" that i'm talking about!

"The Venus Flytrap, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap closes if a different hair is contacted within twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against a waste of energy in trapping objects with no nutritional value."

this is an example of how we can mimick the tension of the plants and I am working on models of my own to communicate this.