Sunday, March 14, 2010

CCC outdoor furniture helps in sustaining the environment




Inspired by nature, designer Alexandre Moronnoz has devised outdoor seating that features an organic design to become one with nature. Called CCC, the sustainable furniture draws its name from Champignon Carbone Capture, the material used to construct the seating. Finished in TX Active Cement, which is a special kind of cement containing a photocatalyzer that expedites the natural oxidation process of pollutants and transforms them into less harmful compounds, the outdoor furniture presents an ergonomic form that also helps in sustaining the environment, other than performing its basic functions.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010





Photos from the 'crystal' experiments, take 2

possible images for relationships

trace
human to human relationships
community

clips

Soap in a microwave. Its a pretty cool motif for growth.


Hour glass in microwave. Time stands still.



Thursday, March 11, 2010

dsfgfsdg

Viewpath Time Management Charts

We need a time management chart with some stuff on it by Monday for
the hand in. Rich and henry are working on it

www.viewpath.net

Sign in:

team100billion@gmail.com


Pw: our usual password

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Here's a quote from the "Radical Evolution" book though not actually the authors quote:

'I decline to accept the end of man...I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul' - William Faulkner, Nobel Prize acceptence speech, 1950

Also one from the author:

'..care about what it means to be human, what it means to have relationships, what it means to live life, to have loves, or tell lies' - Joel Garreau - Radical Evolution, 2004, p4

And another from the book but a different person:

'We are as gods and might as well get good at it' - Stewart Brand, The whole Earth Catalog, 1968

Quotes and pictures

Stole these off a dudes blog. some good quotes, have a look. http://neodawn.blogspot.com/

"Time does not change us. It just unfolds us."
Max Frisch

"An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied."
Arnold Glasow
"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find how you yourself have altered."
Nelson Mandela (1918 - )

"Man's main task is to give birth to himself."
Erich Fromm, US (German-born) psychologist (1900 - 1980)

"The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions."
Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet (1809 - 1892)

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."
Albert Einstein


there are loads more on the blog
-W
heres my summary

Presence

We are in search of our virtual match. This is what they refer to as ‘beings’. There presence is felt in the breeze or through varying temperatures. There energies pass through us and we recognize the similarities and this will determine the connection.


L

'crystals'

Here is a couple of photos of what the 'tree crystals' are up to. Not how they normally form which might be because I used a different type of paper for this lot but interesting none the less..

Quotable quote

"It's important to understand the complexity of the human brain. The
human brain weighs only three pounds but is estimated to have about
100 billion cells. It is hard to get a handle on a number that large
(or connections that small)."

from http://www.tbiguide.com/howbrainworks.html

I like how this statement is scalable to the level of computer
technology we will be discussing in our project - nanotechnology etc

Upload from email

Hi guys,

If you send an email to
team100billion.upload@blogger.com
it will post it immediatly on the blog, as a new post.

r

Experiments




Initially the broken lcd screen reminded me of the sketch Annelies drew of the human cells (you should post this). The way they connect and look as though they are communicating with each other when there environment is disturbed.


But the photo of the patterned broken screen got me thinking about human error and the mistakes we make and how these can be left as a trace for others to relate to in a really beautiful way. And it was just a cool image.

Growth Rings and Enhance

Growth Rings analysis

In this project it is suggested that a Being would ‘grow’ layers of knowledge similar to the growth rings of a tree. The Being would apply inherited knowledge to create experiences, the results of which would in turn build on the knowledge of its ancestors. This process of gaining more knowledge would continue to a point where the Being could no longer sustain itself, the final experience it has converts its life experiences into a shell from which a new Being grows. So I’m guessing that this isn’t a physical shell, but storage of information, ready to be added to. I still don’t quite get why it would have to be renewed by a new Being. Maybe it would be beneficial if the human had more stake in handing on this knowledge? It seems like they have no part in passing on something which is really human knowledge to future generations

Looked at pine tree growth rings on the internet and they have a stronger cell structure near the end of each growth ring. Maybe the Beings growth rings weaker parts (the wrongs paths, failed experiences etc) could disintergrate after the Beings collapses

A humans life is still defined by its age, with which still comes experiences and wisdom. A Beings life is defined by these ‘growth rings’ which define important learning experiences in its life. It can only have these experiences when connected to a human. Sounds a bit like the human is the host and the Being is a parasite. But maybe its a parasite that we need in the future.

Good that humans still have a life span, I think otherwise we would become too static/bored?

‘Rings’ on the Being are unseen by the human eye but a physical mark is left on the spine of a human when it is has an experience with a Being. Apparently a Being can show a human its growth rings and this would give an idea of how the Being would live. I guess seeing as that a human can’t see a Beings rings it would be a virtual/visual experience the Being would give the human if it felt it was earned.

A Being would normally pair with several different humans in its younger years, each pairing would result in a growth ring. Size, width and regularity of rings is all based on the type, size and time span of experience. Most Beings would eventually choose a human for life. Would a human get the choice too?

Enhance analysis

With the help of a Being we can increase our sensory perception in an area. For example in a field of flowers we could have our sense of smell heightened while our other senses decrease.

It is noted that it must be carefully used, to benefit the positive evolution of our experiences.

Depending on which sense is being heightened, some other senses are changed more or less than others.

Sharpening a sense will always blunt at least one other sense.

It is not simply the humans choice as to when a sense is heightened, it comes about through the joint desires of the Being and the human. It also depends on how strong the relationship is. A young human is prevented from a too strong experience by the Being or more specifically ‘Enhance’ . This will allow the Being and the human to experience everything life has to offer (as opposed to certain sensations/experiences)

Once a human grows older and less spritely in body and mind, the intensity and the rate of change of the fluctuations decreases. It begins to focus more on what the human and Being deem most important.

I think this has the makings of a beautiful idea; surely it would create amazing experiences in certain situations as long as this power was not abused. If it was commonplace it would soon fade into normality. Heightened senses don't seem very unlikely either as it is well known in people without certain senses lacking. For example, blind people often have improved hearing abilites.

"Being Human" Breakdown

hay team! so I thought it would be a easier to list the sections and if everyone could post their name next to the part they want to analyse that would be great!

Lisa

Life Cycle -
Presence - Lisa
Interface -
Express - Gee
Growth Rings - Henry?
Enhance -
Heal - Richard
Warmth - Annalies
Shelter - Jason

if you can have this analysed before our meeting tommorrow that would be awesome! see you at 2.30pm level 3 studio
I'll look into the "Heal" part - the symbiotic relationship between the "being" and the biological human.

Rich

Annelies' focus for "Being Human"

So I'm pretty keen to look into the 'clothing' idea of their second skin unless anyone else is super keen. Me and Lisa also talked about looking into Bacteria as a material so I'm hopefully getting some agar plates from the Science department tomorrow and we can start growing! While I was up there I got shown so Lukemia cells as well which had really interesting structural properties which got me wondering about whether 'bad' cells and bacteria could have stronger potential for structures. Because they are clearly strong and often parasitic kinds of cells they will probably provide a better building structure so I'm going to look into what cancer cells/tumors are made out off and what their properties might be.
I also saw some flowers today that kind of related to the idea of growing architecture. They were just a bunch of beautiful flowers growing out of dusty, dry soil and managing to create something out of nothing. They also had at least 3 or 4 flowers growing off each stem which is a really efficient way of growing. I got some photo's of it to show you what I mean :)


Henry's focus from "Being Human"

I'm keen on looking into the mark that the "Being" or artificial part leaves on the human.
Still not exactly sure what is classed as a being in this project but thats where I'm heading, unless someone else is real keen.

Henry

Maslows Heirarchy of Needs

so i kept thinking about how i might like to live in the future.. and I reflected back to a paper I took in first year - business management 101. A particular theory sprung to mind - Maslows' Hiearchy of Needs. Basically Maslow who is a humanist psycologist set up a hiearchy of 5 levels of basic needs. These needs structured in a pyramid format where the base represents physical needs such as food, oxygen and shelter to self actualization located at the top if the pyramid (refer to diagram). Maslow believes that in order to achieve self-actualization one must satisfy the lower needs in order to ascend the pyramid. this is simply food for thought..let me know what you think?
L

Cradle to Cradle, Dust to Dust?

Hi guys,

After studio today I got thinking about the Cradle to Cradle ideology and if we could apply this to our architecture further down the track. For anyone that isn't familiar with this idea, its basically creating things that can be fully reused, upcycled or regrow so that, instead of being thrown away, they continue onto another life. Thinking about our possible nomadic approach to living, I wondered if we could develop architecture that would sense a human presence, grow to form whatever they needed and/or wanted and then, after the person has moved on, fell back into the earth as nutrient for the soil. Thoughts?

welcome

This is the official blog for DLF project 2010, for "100 billion"