Archive for March, 2006
Wed 29th - Friday 31st March 2006
Delft Faculty of Architecture - Map
I’m really looking forward to going to Game Set and Match II held at Delft University of Technology next week. It’s a three-day symposium organized by the Hyperbody Research Group run by Kas Oosterhuis . The symposium discusses current and future transformations of architecture through digital technology. With an impressive line up of participants including Marcos Novak , John Frazer , Bernard Cache , Antonino Saggio , Mark Goulthorpe , Tobi Schneidler , Michael Fox , Adam Somlai-Fischer , Usman Haque , and Ole Bouman . I will no doubt have lots of new material for interactive architecture dot org when I get back.
Full Program of events
March 21st, 2006
Short listed for this years Europrix Top Award in Cross Media Mirror_SPACE was my personal bet to win. It didn’t but I still think it was the best piece in that category, which was also the category my own project Reciprocal Space won a Top Talent Quality Seal Award in. Below are details of the Mirror_SPACE masterminded by Brigitta Zics and created with the support of Jörg Lindenmaier, Jerome Thoma and Matthias Weber.
Video
Mirror_SPACE is a virtual mirror where users can experience their image transformed – not according to the rules of geometric optics, but filtered by a “real time scanning apparatus”. This generates the visitor’s “mirror image” corresponding to the information supplied via its data network.
The mirror provides us with phenomenal images of our appearance according to physical laws. The mirror image is a transformed, cell-shaped manifestation of the users dynamic data. The aesthetical qualities of the objects combine a microcosmic vision of networked existence with a reduced visual component (virus/nano vision). Their virus-like nature represents a structure in which everything is interconnected. Depending on the quality of the relationship, this connectivity is visualised differently. The coloration of the creatures is an expression of their character.
Mirror_SPACE is a system of reflections of a type which involves not only optical appearances but also forces which act on us and which we cannot control affecting our phenomenal image. Visitors are invited to identify with a virtual mirror image that reflects their internal state (through mood analysis) and their external affiliations (through information streams from the internet). This new world formulates a utopian definition of identity.
The person is viewed as a node which is networked with the whole of existence. Effects which can be grasped by our perception are presented in this system as dynamic data and converted into three-dimensional objects. This process also involves the compilation of a virtual image, but the filter is the calculation on the part of the computer, which not only processes our extended characteristics but also data supplied simultaneously from the world
March 20th, 2006
John Bell, director of FXV Design and unit 9 master at London’s Architectural Association, makes hybrid environments at the interface of architecture and digital culture. FXV’s work explores the possibility that architecture is just as much a media event as it is bricks and mortar. Above is an image of FXV’s recent proposal for the RIBA ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ competition which aimed to reduce the dissecting effect of the viaducts that are in abundance around central south london.
FXV also run a blog of their continuing work and have their entire book ‘ workrestandplay ‘ available to view online (although too low-res to read).
Here’s one of the smaller projects that I managed to get some information about from the book. Expect to see more of their interactive architecture once I get hold of a paper copy of the book.
Trampoline
Trampoline tiles as well as pads generate light and/or sound through the variation of pressure and lenght of stay on an individual pad. The frequency of step is transformed into a modulation of current. Thus motion can be translated into sounds or light and speaks of interaction between the intensity of movement and lenght of stay. The ephemerality of a projected duration becomes a reading of the level of interaction between ground and user.
March 17th, 2006
Worldwide Aeros Corporation are co-developing with WATG a flying Hotel and speculate the behemoth cruise liner complete with staterooms, restaurants, shops, etc. will be built by 2010. Testing will begin in 18 months on a smaller test version of the Lighter Than Air Vehicle. The proposed 850-foot-long luxury liner is called Aeroscraft, and although it looks like a blimp and uses some blimp technology, Aeros company spokesman Edward Pevzner is quick to point out, “It’s NOT a blimp.” The Aeroscraft uses lifting gas like an airship, but incorporates dynamic liftoff similar to an airplane and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing like a helicopter.
The Aeros Corporation is one of the world’s leading lighter-than-air (LTA) airship manufacturers. WATG (Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo) are a design consultant for the hospitality, leisure and entertainment industries.
March 16th, 2006
“ As it becomes increasingly difficult to read the signs of our natural environment in urban, built landscapes we use plants in our work as we consider them to be the most sophisticated of sensors and displays. ”
An interesting thought. Last year I posted info about Loop.pH ’s practice and their project digital dawn . Here’s their most recent project BioWall which following their work using electronic membranes and textiles inspired by plants is now exploring working with actual plant matter in the hope of growing spaces with a geometric scaffold.
BioWall is a hand woven three-dimensional structure that can be crafted into lace-like walls of any dimension. Springy fiberglass rods are bowed into rings and woven into several dodecahedra that in turn are joined together. The woven fibres create a balance between the rigidity of sheet material and the flexibility of a textile. The structure is based on the principle of self-similarity enabling it to work from the nano to the macro scale. It can be seen in our natural environment in the formation of bubbles, living cells and water molecules.
thanks to Rachel of Loop.pH for letting me know about their new project. It is currently on show till April 9th as part of an exhibition presenting New British Designers at Droog Design ’s gallery in Amsterdam.
March 15th, 2006
I don’t speak french very well so I won’t attempt to translate what Easyweb say on their site. Instead I recommend you just look at this magical video .
Update - 14th March
Regine from the awesome we make money not art has kindly translated the website text. See Below
“For several years, we are able to create gigantic video projections on any kind of building, mixing real perspectives with projected perspectives, creating thus an animated and very realistic “trompe-l’oeil”. We are able to do much more:
Imagine a shop window in which the mannequin isn’t dressed “statically” anymore (which implies many constraints such as changing the clothes according to the season), but is wearing a tee-shirt and jeans that change colour or patterns, the logos could move and the background of the shop window changes day after day. That’s the new way to look at video projections.
We are also able to create “animated” maquettes for architects showing characters walking, materials that can be modified with a simple “click”…. We give life to objects by applying a “life material” on them.”
March 14th, 2006
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