Living Architecture Spring 2009 Columbia

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The Level of Engagement:

The prototype registers the level of interest in a certain topic within a community of people. Information about an issue is disseminated in a sequenced scheme. Every part of the story is site specific but is registered elsewhere, as part of the prototype output component. A motion sensor is triggered by people approaching the point of interest. It then activates a lever on the prototype which causes water that is held thinly leveled above to tip over. The tipped water is funneled down a drape of vinyl to another troth which holds a map. This map gets distorted with every added droplet and thereby creates another layer of information, that the piece of information related to it was approached so many times.

All this is the story recounts the trajectory of information. The interface is the prototype itself. If a person triggered a part of it that drenched one map, he will get more information from the graphic of the original map and the new one he helped create. Subsequently, he will be availed to other maps and will search out the next bit of information to give him the back story to that graphic, as well. The system of information and display at the architectural scale buttress each other out to produce a meter of involvement. Kinetic responsive architecture is thereby testing and proving its own effectiveness by relating it to people's sequential sense of curiosity, constantly alternating between graphic and narrative, which are both changing with the very expression of curiosity.

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Scenario

: Reality vs Perception

What if architecture responded to real environment and our perception about it?

In this city, we can find some devises which score the level of current environmental pollution.

How many people recognize those devises?

How many people recognize correctly and easily the degree of pollution with it?

Normally, there is a difference between ‘real’ data of environmental changes and people’s ‘perceptual’ data about it.

How much is this difference? How people feel this difference?

The project started with this imagination that architecture can not only respond the environmental change, but also visualize the difference between the real condition and our environmental perception.

 

Components

Input:

Reality – pachube data

Perception – mobile text messages with twitter

Processing:

Reality - Transferring CO2 data from pachube

Perception - Transferring scored ranges from the text messages with twitter

Output:

Two interfaces for real data and perceptual condition

Horizontal expansion of interfaces according to the changes of data and the score from the mobile text

Volumetric variation of skin based on this expansion

 

Features

Functions:

Text message - positive motivation of people. timeless and most economic way

Skin -  efficient 3 dimensional visualization devise

Interface movement – controlled different frequency through the data

 

Site:

Where - Port Authority Station, Manhattan, New York

How - Hanging - more easier way to maximize the movement and to be recognized by people.

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We were not able to power the wire, but it seems like our wiring is right since it powers the LED following the loop described in the code. We will try wiring the 9V battery in the next iteration and thereby test to see if the USB just didn't provide enough amps to charge the flexinol wire.

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http://blog.makezine.com/archive/arduino/

Research Agenda
The Duo: Chris Gee and Yuval Borochov.

Biomimicry:
The prototype will attempt to replicate a natural process, generally related to water collection and/or distribution, such as a cactus, a pitcher plant, grass, or skin pores.

Amplification:
We would like to achieve a maximum effect through minimal movement and energy. For this reason, the construction will probably take on the structure of a light tensile matrix, continuing local movement throughout it.

Filtering:
The function of the prototype will be to filter a local – preferably natural and naturally occurring – material, through a data feed which will provide instructions for movement (funneling, distribution, shivering). In other words, material will turn into data.

Perpetuation:
The product of this filter will be usable for a new process. There will either be a local continuity to it or a global one. The local product might be some composite material, like fertilized earth or concrete slurry. The global product could be a new feed that records local influences on the original data and sends this data back to the network.

Architectural Intent:
The construction could be an installation that animates an architectural space (atrium) by registering global information in a local, material and kinetic display. Otherwise, it might be a water system for an urban farm, perhaps.


Research Topic


Topic: Our work will be dedicated to developing a construction that consolidates local feed (of material) and global feed (informational data from an external source) into a composite material or data. The intent of the project is to animate the idea of data and its various uses to local observers, while coincidentally generating data that can be made available for a tertiary use.

Focus: The prototypes will show a greater interest in the mechanics of the prototype itself, that is, the output, rather than input or processing. We will be satisfied if we will be able to connect a feed of data from the network (as in Pachube) and/or by means of an SMS message to the prototype for effect.

We will use Flexinol wire in a strategic way to generate a couple of different physical effects, such as shivering, funneling, squeezing and shifting.

Prototype one: Triggered Movement.
Time Limit: One week.
Description: Set the wire on a fixed surface and trigger its movement.

Prototype two: Programmed Movement.
Time Limit: One week.
Description: Connect the movement of the wire to a live feed from Pachube and/or SMS.

Prototype three: First Iteration
Time Limit: Two Weeks
Description: Build small section of the matrix and explore desired movement. Determine which type and gauge Flexinol is necessary and order. Order any other required materials, as well.

Prototype three: Second Iteration
Time Limit: Two Weeks
Description: Integrate Flexinol wiring to achieve the movement abilities of the matrix.

Things that went wrong, and then how it went right:

1. We could not login to the Pachube website. We emailed the sysadmin and they told us that it might be a browser related issue in Explorer. We were in Firefox. Apparently you have to click the "remember me" button the first time, or it loses you forever in the matrix.

2. We could not install the correct libraries onto Yuvals slick new Dell. It kept telling us that it could not move the files over to the folder because they already exist without the option to replace. This was odd because this was the first time we were trying to copy the files over, so really nothing should have been there. We were able to copy over Kevin Wei's library over... but to no avail. It still didn't work. We eventually skirted this issue by installing everything onto my trusty old mac and got the thing up and running right fast.

3. We also had our board set up incorrectly because the image was difficult to see where everything went in. Perhaps a simple circuit diagram may have helped with that. Also, there was a problem (?) with the 100 ohm resistor that we purchased in that it was too bulky. We had to guess which one to get b/c the original tutorial didn't specify the wattage. We corrected this by borrowing some smaller ones from Kevin our savior.

4. Code gone spacey. As in the last project, there was some funny business with the code when we went to cut and paste it from the .pdf. We attempted to correct this by getting the code from a simple text file to avoid any hidden garbage that .pdf or .doc files may contain. This time there were a bunch of spaces and quotes missing to complete the code. Fortunately Processing and Arduino make it easy to locate where the code goes wrong... unforunately if it's not just a simple space or missing quote, it is hard to troubleshoot since neither of us know how to code.

http://www.thelivingnewyork.com/LivingArchitecture/ResearchProposal.pdf

Daniel’s Circles Mirror is an amazing combination of mechanical and digital technologies. By using a radial gradient from black to white, each of the 900 overlapping discs rotates to create the illusion of shades of grey.
Rozin create custom software to convert the digital images captured by a video camera into data which could be used by the motors which rotate the circles.

http://technabob.com/blog/2007/07/09/daniel-rozins-circles-mirror-reflects-distorts-reality/

I guess Phil Beesley's Matrix work is a standard in this course. He uses the shape memory alloy wire to enliven artificial environments, usually made with mylar compositions.

I find these artistic installations to be provocative in their translation of weak and slow movement into a whole environment of movement. The works are arranged in complex matrix structure that is so light that it is able to deliver and often even amplify the original kinesis applied to it. It also suggest a variety of points of input and output.

To improve this project, of which there are many quite identical iterations, I would explore a more functional use of this system of harnessing and distributing movement throughout a matrix. Personally, that is, in relation to my partner and my interests for this class, I am curious to find a hybrid project between Beesley's matrices and his Hungry Soil project.

This installation also defines a matrix of connectivity meant to support an artificial reef system, placed in an urban context. I wonder if we might combine the two systems towards a water collection system.

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The idea that I am interested in is “mass customization.” In the past, the words- “mass” and “customization”-seems contradictory. Now, however, the concept of mass customization is possible due to the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing system to produce custom output. BMW’ GINA project is a very inspiring idea for me. This is because the surface of a concept car is not only flexible and changeable but also it integrates form, material, function and adaptability to environment. The project also shows the possibility of information based customization according to its user. In this context, I found a couple of interesting projects which are done before in this class. The experiment of Jenny and Megan(GSAPP, 2006 spring) is a specific application of a responsible surface which has possibility of being customized by a ‘wrapped’ user. Another project is Mike Archer’s(PRATT, 2008 fall) “Expandable Fabric Tiles.” It seems having more tectonic potentials and can be applied to a broader surface system.

I like this project because it combines tiny technology with a mundane object. It is an umbrella that projects video onto the bottom surface of the canopy connected to the internet to show media and responds to movement and position. Think GPS meets wii meets iphone meets immense fashion statement in the slick rain.

http://www.pileus.net/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1858961024945874645&q=Pileus

A project that has always fascinated me was Spore 1.1 which is a rubber plant, bought from home depot, which through a series of mechanisms, wifi, and a little programming, waters itself accordingly to home depot's stock performance. http://www.swamp.nu/projects/spore1.html
I appreciate that the employs ongoing data from the performance of a corporation (an entity that has nearly the same legal rights as U.S. citizens) and can be seen as a social or politically charged statement. The life or death of a living organism soley based on a free market economy tracked through massive invisible machinations can be paralleled on many levels. And that Home Depot promises to replace a failed organism due to poor stock performance with an exact replacement organism somehow seems too apropos.

I would ideally like to engage in a project that is able to address more global kinds of issues like Spore 1.1 rather than to create a device specifically made just for changing visual affect, yet perhaps reaching a broader function than that reached in the Spore 1.1 project of just being a statement, albeit, still dealing in life and death.

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A project that I found to be very interesting is called “Duality” – it was created for a new development site in Tokyo. It is meant to play with the idea of studying the boundaries between “real” physical ripple effect and “virtual” ripple effect. This project is made up of 6x6 meter LED planes covered with translucent glass that are on the edge of water. As people walk over the panels virtual waves/ripples, calculated in real time, appear on the LED plane. As the virtual waves ripple out to the edge of the LED planes and hit the water they create real actual ripples in the water. I like that this project combines a mapping of human action in both virtual and physical space and that the two feed off of each other. The real physical steps create the virtual ripples, which in turn create the physical ripple.
The Input in this case is the footsteps of the people picked up by load cells. The output is the light, which takes the form of a ripple. I believe there is a secondary input in this case – the light as it hits the edge of the plane triggers something mechanical, which then creates the output of a physical ripple.
I like the chain effects that take place in this project, and I would like to see the chain be carried even further. For instance, to somehow have the physical environment be impacted back again in a way that is going to reengage the human – not just visually, but physically. This would truly bring the cycle full circle.

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