Open Burble – Update
Here are some images from the first flight of Open Burble by Usman Haque
images taken by Kiat Tan
Add comment September 4th, 2006
Posts filed under 'Inflatable'
Open Burble – Usman Haque
Project Development, visualisation & flight tests
Commissioned for the Singapore Biennale 2006, Open Burble is the most recent public art work of Usman Haque. It is a further development of his earlier well known Sky Ear project where a non-rigid carbon-fibre structure, embedded with one thousand glowing helium balloons, mobile phones, sensor circuits and LEDs responsed to electromagnetic waves creating a floating "cloud" of light that revealed the natural electromagnetism of our environment, and also how our mobile phone calls and text messages delicately affect the new and existing electromagnetic fields.
Sky Ear 2004
Open Burble adopts the technology of Sky Ear but explores a more intuitive way to enable people to engage directly with the tactile experience of flying the cloud. 'Participants will divide into groups in order to assemble about 140 hexagonal "clouds" into a complete Burble, built to such a scale that, when inflated with helium, it will soar upwards like Jack's beanstalk.'
Building a module of Open Burble structure, the final construct will be 10 times as big
Just as the participants are the generators of the Burble's 60m tall form, so too are they the ones to control it. They hold on to it using handles with which they may position the Burble as they like. They may curve in on themselves, or pull it in a straight line – the form is a combination of the crowd's desires and the impact of wind currents varying throughout the height of the Burble. The Burble will move, rustle, tangle, fold in on itself and create turbulence as the wind catches it like a sail. Suddenly, the entire construction will ignite with colour, sparkling in the evening sky.
These images some some night testing of 1/10th of the whole piece.
As people on the ground shake and pump the handle bars of the Burble, they will see their movements echoed as colours through the entire system. They will see their own individual fragments, perhaps even identifying design choices they have made. Their invididual contributions will become an integral part of a spectacular, ephemeral experience many times their size that they have come together to produce.
Concept image
Open Burble will premiere this coming Friday September 1st. at the opening of the Singapore Biennale. I wish I could go but I'm at Ars Electronica so if anyone does get to see it please let me know what you thought of it and send me some images.
Also involved at stages in the project were Rolf Pixley – algorithmist / dynamic chromaticist; Fred Guttfield and Kei Hasegawa – detail designers; & Susan Haque – logistics
The Burble is constructed from:
- Over 1 km of 6.35mm carbon fibre rods
- Over 1 km of Excel D12 high performance sailing rope
- Approx. 1000 latex balloons (24" and 36")
- Approx. 1000 fishing lock-swivel clips
- Approx. 1000 Sky Ear boards by Senseinate/Seth Garlock
3 comments August 30th, 2006
Angels – Constructing Reconfigurable Space
I’ve finally got round to recovering interactive architecture dot org and I’m pleased to be able to get back to blogging by introducing my most recent research into Constructing Interactive Reconfigurable Space. Collaborating with Paul Burres a fellow student of mine at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) we created the ‘Angels‘ Project as a way of investigating more closely some ideas that grew out of a building proposal we put together earlier this year.
The ‘Angels‘ project questions the nature of fixed architecture and looks at the possibilities of an architecture lighter than air capable of sheltering us and even bringing communities together. Acting as either individual agents or flocking together to create large architectural constructs, they inhabit the world around us both within buildings and outdoors creating dynamically responsive architectures in real-time.
Detailed Description of Research PDF
Our current iteration has a simple set of behaviors reacting to human gesture, proximity and conversation, future iterations will investigate learning algorithms so that the Angels can adapt to their environment. In its current form the “Angels” act as individuals but the potential for these to structurally network is a continuing part of our investigation.
Our investigation additionally explored suitable forms of notation to express interaction in space. Initial drawings described the motion paths of the Angels and Inhabitants and were later followed by notation that correlated statistical data. Using the Angels onboard Vision System transmitted wirelessly to a local computer we processed real-time data of conversation space using a piece of software we developed in MaxMSP Jitter that generated formal representations to support our recording and notation of the interactions that occurred. These projections also provided an added form of feedback when projected into the conversation space.
See Website
1 comment July 5th, 2006
Vacuum Packing – Heartbeat – Ishiwata
Artist Makoto Ishiwata newest piece: Vacuum Packing!: Heartbeat , a polyhedron-shaped giant capsule, vacuum packs its inhabitant from all sides in rubber and a rhythmic soundscape. Ishiwata intentions were to create a space for self-reflection and meditation. The heartbeat also encouraging the sense of internal space
βI can feel like an individual in the midst of humanity, through the image of something internal such as a cell, an atom, or a fetus. Keeping in mind the insignificance of humanity, as I shrink ever smaller, it may be possible to confirm my existence in the universe on an electronic level. Or this work may simply serve as a space to meditate. The heartbeat is the very first rhythm humans feel. I believe all music has the heartbeat as its source. The moment that human beings connect to the heartbeat that flows within us, the music that we hear starts to sound right.β
via wmmna
Add comment April 19th, 2006
Muscle – HRG and ONL
One more project from the Hyperbody Research Group . I’ve been in Amsterdam for the weekend and now on my way to Delft for the Game Set Match II conference held by the Hyperbody Research Group and ONL Architects
One of the things that I’ve said before on interactive architecture dot org is that I really respect the way the Hyperbody Research Group and ONL Architects don’t just speculate on interactive kinetic architecture but actually build prototypes based on their ideas. Here’s Muscle NSA which was realized as a working prototype of the concepts Kas Oosterhuis explored in the Trans_PORTs project (2001).
The MUSCLE programmable building is a pressurized soft volume wrapped in a mesh of tensile muscles, which change length, height and width by varying the pressure pumped into the muscle. Visitors of the Architectures Non Standard exhibition play a collective game to explore the different states of the MUSCLE. The public interacts with the MUSCLE by entering the interactivated sensorial space surrounding the prototype. This invisible component of the installation is implemented as a sensor field created by a collection of sensors. The sensors create a set of distinct shapes in space that, although invisible to the human eye, can be monitored and can yield information to the building body. The body senses the activities of the people and interacts with the players in a multimodal way. The public discovers within minutes how the MUSCLE behaves on their actions, and soon after they start finding a goal in the play.
The outcome of this interaction however is unpredictable, since the MUSCLE is programmed to have a will of its own. It is pro-active rather then responsive and obedient. The programmable body is played by its users. A constant play of conjointly effectuating (re)actions, of attraction and repulsion between all players involved. This game truly is a multi-player game. Now true communication is established, where the pro-active parties involved alternately sense, process, and actuate in this constant loop of mutual influence. The players experience this parametric game of architecture as a form of serious fun. The design is the formula, the playing of the game means setting the parameters.
Add comment March 27th, 2006
Luxury Floating Hotel in the Air
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, βIt’s NOT a blimp.β 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.
3 comments March 16th, 2006