Sci-arc graduate thesis presentations

Sci-arc will be having its graduate thesis presentations this coming weekend from the 15th through the 19th. I'll be down there for the "next fest" convention I announced on the previous post, and I think Danny is going as well. If anyone is interested in going to LA to see the student work and/or convention, let us know.

From the Sci-arc website:
"SCI-Arc's graduate thesis program culminates in a public two-day event in which students present their final projects to critics from all over the world. A celebration of academic achievement, the SCI-Arc thesis weekend is a major forum for the discussion of fresh insights and innovative concepts in architecture. Graduate Thesis projects will be on view throughout the school from September 15–19, 2007."

Wired Next Fest, Convention on the future

Hello all,

this seems like an amazing convention we all must attend... its at the LA convention center and there are going to be exhibits on the future of communication, design, education, entertainment, exploration, health, play, robotics, security, transportation, and more!!! tickets are only $15 for students...

http://www.wirednextfest.com/index.php

check out the website...


if anyone wants to go, let me know... I'll be heading down to LA for the weekend

Future Libraries

As a topic that has been discussed at random but in length.

The role/program of the library: how has it evolved over the years, decades, centuries...? What social role has the library had on the public? How has digital media and technology influenced the advancement or decline of the current social and fundamental roles of the library? Can digital media, technology, and documentation change the program of the "current" library?

Exploring libraries in general: primarily we see a trend and cultural need for the library as a social keystone in local communities but, concurrently we see advancement and the expansion for the use of computers as a "tool" for library users and visitors. Expanding existing areas within libraries and contracting others to make room for the computer and digital age and to accommodate new technologies ( Fx: 20-40yrs ago, libraries made room for a new technology that made its peak in the 70's as a new documentation source, the microfilm). Changing the library program in this sense did not hurt the traditional library role but, in fact, helped to expand the library. Documenting books, articles, and papers on the 'new media' opened physical areas that were normally used for housing books to community areas and shared reading spaces.

Presently computers and digital scanners make it easy to archive, transport, search and find literature and images across the world (Fx: the Internet/world wide web)...how can this technology effect one of the foundational program elements of a library, which is housing and storing books for loan. Would the role of the library change if all the media and literature of the library was housed in the computer?...therefore, making knowledge accessible to everyone across the world...potentially saving thousands upon thousands of natural resources and money that would normally be associated with the making of paper bound books.

If you think about your visits to the library on a more daily-functional activity: breakdown your uses for the library...[is it a place] to pick up books for loan, for social gathering/meeting place, studying , computer access, Internet, escape, printing, resources, community...?

[think about] how digital documentation can open up spaces normally used for 'the stacks'. how digital media can efficiently allow you to do more research in less time (movement through large libraries can be time consuming, not to mention the complex cataloging/numbering system).how digital media and documentation can enhance learning environments with interactive studying and learning programs and spaces within the library.

[other questions] price or value of paper bound books in the future: what will be the role of the home library?: collectors of books and their future investment decisions: the relationship between publishers and writers: piracy of books:

[evolution] currently humans have trouble reading on computer screens for long periods of time (commonly known as eye fatigue)...if children are brought up on reading from computer screens at an early age, primary socialization, instead of books, will their eyes adjust over time?: development of portable digital books (a contemporary ibook if you will this will only help the transition from analog books to digital literature)

meeting....

meeting

Friday
07_06_07

room 05_304

7:37 pm.

we'll be discussing the competition we will be entering and other important orders of business
Architecture and Dissent: The First Festival of Insurgent Architecture

vi ses

For the Scripting Enthusiasts

What's up Crew,

My friend Jon Proto sent me a link to this scripting competition (I think it's a competition) that I think most of you would be interested in. There's a fee of 10 US and the dealine is July 15. 2007. The submission will be presented in an exhibition to aquaint the public of the design possiblities and capabilities of scripting. Here is the link to where you can download the information and submission packet. http://www.fuelcollection.com/SCRIPT/INE/

the game of life

Thinking Machine 4 created by Martin Wattenberg, with Marek Walczak, using Processing, explores the invisible, elusive nature of thought. Play chess against a transparent intelligence, its evolving thought process visible on the board before you.

The artwork is an artificial intelligence program, ready to play chess with the viewer. If the viewer confronts the program, the computer's thought process is sketched on screen as it plays. A map is created from the traces of literally thousands of possible futures as the program tries to decide its best move. Those traces become a key to the invisible lines of force in the game as well as a window into the spirit of a thinking machine.

When it is your (White's) turn to move, the chess board will gently pulse to show the influence of the various pieces. in the left image below, you can see waves over the squares around the king and (very lightly) over the squares where the pawns might capture. When the machine (Black) is thinking, a network of curves is overlaid on the board; see image at right. The curves show potential moves--often several turns in the future--considered by the computer. Orange curves are moves by black; green curves are ones by white. The brighter curves are thought by the program to be better for white.

fully awake emerges from the dust....

we're back in slo! sorry for the very long delay with the postings... but things have been hectic lately arriving back in CA and getting to work on thesis.

I've got new work I want to post, but I need to work on some formatting and hopefully get my book sent out to get published within the next two days... so! for now, here's something interesting I stumbled upon today while reading through my daily link searches...

It's about the use of brain-computer interfaces to create virtual worlds that can be controlled mentally.

"In addition, there is no need for the operator to wear a head-mounted display – they sit inside a room (located at UCL) inside which stereo video footage is projected onto three walls and the floor. A pair of shuttered glasses creates the illusion of 3D to intensify the overall feeling of being inside the simulated reality."

you can find the full article at:
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn12136-virtual-world-sharpens-mindcontrol.html

ALSO! now I wont be the only one posting... so check the bottom of the post for the author's name and give them credit!

there will be a meeting this week... I'll post more info on that later, TBD.

Sci-Arc Lecture: Emergent_Dragonfly

A couple of weeks ago a group of us went out to Sci-Arc to participate in the lecture series. Even though I only made the last 20 minutes (LA Traffic), it was a very interesting conversation between Tim Wiscombe and Eric Owen Moss on the Dragonfly exhibition. I believe the discussion was about how will this type of architecture be used, how can designers make it easy for others to understand, lighting effects, computers as design tools, and the process of the design. For those of you interested in learning more, you can check out www.emergentarchitecture.com, it should be one of the links that Wilson added to the forum. We hope more of you can join us in the next lecture. We find it educational to attend these lectures and then discuss it amongst ourselves. We discussed it over dinner at Roscoes Chicken and Waffles last time so the next would be Pink's Hotdogs, then I have a whole list of our eateries ready to go for future meetings in SoCal.

Næste møde

Our next meeting will be tomorrow, Thursday May 3rd, 2007

We'll split it up into two groups... one open discussion, and one on our thesis projects in progress. Hope to see you all there!

Thursday May 3, 2007
Vestergade 10A-21 (Bo's studio)
6:15pm

Vi ses

Transarchitecture

ie40 image: v4Dyzw

After our recent discussions on technology and society... and many conversations with Nikola, Jon, Meg and Matt today, the work of Marcos Novak came to mind...


here's a brief overview of his ideas:

in Short, we conceive algorithmically (morphogenesis); we model numerically (rapid prototyping); we build robotically (new tectonics); we inhabit interactively (intelligent space); we telecommunicate instantly (pantopicon); we are informed immersively (liquid architectures); we socialize nonlocally (nonlocal public domain); we evert virtuality (transarchitectures). He has also posited a new "Soft Babylon," a theoretical stance which posits that our digitized architectural palette is causing us to create a wired Situationist city, while we struggle with some of the massive paradigm shifts that our era will and must face. Whilst articulating highly fluent theory, he has practiced, producing beautiful ethereal architectures that flux and shimmer as his algorithms run their designed logics. They are, if anything, characterized by their generative complexities, simultaneously fragmented and fluid. Novak surfs on the Tsunami of technology, pushing the cyber envelope of the profession into the next century.
As we all know, definition, disciplines, institutions have become unstable and inadequate, and everywhere there are reevaluations of the structures by which we comprehend the world. These changes are not formless. They are characterized by the aspects of metamorphic change clustered under the prefix "trans":transmutation, transgression, etc. Everywhere present, this kind of change is most evident in the structures of our quest for knowledge. Novak's work is central to many conceptual cyber notions, and often he gets there first. His current work is to do with "eversion," his word for the casting of architecture in the future will be, in the crazy interstitial worlds where substance and absence are blurred.
--excert by Neil Spiller in 10x10

Something to think about... write some comments and share your views on transarchitecture, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, or anything relevant to future digital technology.

vi ses

tusind tak

I just wanted to thank everyone who came to our presentations yesterday for taking the time to listen and give good insight and feedback on our projects. Some of us have been going a little crazy trying to organize all of our material, and it really helps to get a different opinion on it.

We were going to have our next presentation tomorrow, but its a danish holiday and some of us wont be able to be there...

So! let me know whether Wed or Thurs will be better for the next meeting....

I'll post something more substantial later on because I need to get some studio work done now...

Vi ses

Sunday April 29, 2007

The Maya tutorial we had last Thursday was quite a success. Danny and I are currently working on grasping and understanding MEL Scripting and coding. If anyone is interested, check out this website:

http://www.arch.columbia.edu/DDL/cad/A4667/fall99/index.html

look at the commands and make yourself familiar with the syntax. Danny and I will continue where we left off next time, so feel free to join in. I'll post a specific date when we decide on the next session.


THIS SUNDAY:
We will be presenting our thesis work in progress with an emphasis on our second assignment
"Deep Planning"
Come and give us your insight and feedback

Sunday April 29th, 2007
3:00pm
Vestergade 10A-12


Vi ses

simulated reality

So the last discussion ended with some interesting speculations...

Growing up with certain technologies has changed our perception of reality significantly compared to that of the previous generations.

Some current video games digital technology are creating a virtual world which more and more people are incorporating into their daily lives. Public gatherings and even ceremonies such as marriage are occurring online through this new medium. Human social interaction is being drastically transformed by this wave of technology aimed at making life "easier" and creating a faster medium for communication. (check out second life, Millions of us and simulated reality)

There are some very positive aspects to this change. Ideas can be shared with a global audience and knowledge can be spread at a massive level much more rapidly.

When significant emotional experiences occur through a virtual medium, they are just as real to the individual than if they would have occurred through the physical world.

How are our social interactions changing and being redefined by digital technology? I would like to hear your opinions and insight on the topic. post some comments, or if you have a longer response you would like me to post, send me an email at wrodas@calpoly.edu

-and if you're interested in extreme futuristic theories, check out transhumanism and the links at the bottom of that article

first meeting

Thank you all for coming on Tuesday to our first official(informal) meeting. It was a very good turnout and exciting to see some new faces. It was a good beginning in my opinion, but for next time I think we need to break apart into smaller groups to have more participation. But yes! it is very promising... I'm excited to see where this will take us.

Being that there are only 3 weeks left in our wonderful stay in Copenhagen, and that the last week will be crazy with projects, I think we need to allow for there to be two meetings a week, but no obligation to go to both. Some expressed interest in doing this multiple times a week, so the option should be there for those who desire it. We talked about the best days for these meetings and decided on Tuesdays and Thursdays... So! for whoever is interested, I think we should continue this every Tuesday and Thursday after studio. Let me know what you think, but I like having the option there for those who want to talk some more.

We had a rich discussion on Jon's thesis ideas about "sacred space" and I was glad to see a discussion on historical, religious, psychological, and architectural issues related to the topic. It was great to see the conversation evolve and touch upon implications for contemporary society and the future. Good start indeed...

This Thursday (tomorrow) I'll be having a little very informal info session on basic Maya 8.0 digital modeling, rendering, and (if time permits) scripting... We'll be in Bo's studio in 10A-21 at 6pm, so feel free to join in and bring a laptop.

Once again, thank you all for your participation and I hope to be seeing more of you as the semester continues.

Vi ses

p.s. some interesting links I've encountered lately that may interest some of you:
Robo-builder
Turbulent Grid. Dirty Geometry
goats + spider genes
fractal architecture
second life
13 ways of looking at a blackbird
2057

tuesday april 24, 2007

please join us this Tuesday at 6:00pm for our next meeting and discussion. It's open to all who share our ideas and intentions so feel free to invite anyone you feel would benefit regardless of major, discipline, or occupation.

vi ses

accelerated thesis

As most of you are aware... some of us are currently working on our thesis projects as part of an accelerated program at cal poly

We met last Sunday to present our ideas and research to each other in an attempt to clarify our direction and get feedback.



The meeting was very productive and we each had about 45 min to present and discuss our projects with each other the few guests we had in attendance... It would be nice to have a larger group next time listening and providing some input, so we welcome you all to join us. We still havent decided on our next meeting for our thesis discussions, but it will probably happen sometime later this week around Thursday or Friday.



So I would post our topics online, but I want each of us to write out a specific little blurb on our project and direction... so that will come soon

manifesto...

My apologies for not beginning this earlier... but as most of you know, I've been extremely busy lately.

I'll begin by explaining how the group got started and then I'll explain a little bit about our mission, goals and intentions with fully awake.

A few weeks ago, Danny, Ray and I were hanging out at a bar discussing architectural issues (as we usually do at certain points in every conversation) and we were having a good discussion about the future of the world, of cities, and of the profession of architecture. We saw the need to create a group for discussion of issues relevant to our education because we felt that there was very little discussion occurring in our educational institutions (especially at DIS) inside and outside of studios.

We also saw this as an opportunity to create a discussion panel for those of us currently working our thesis project in hopes that it would not only help us get feedback on our projects, but also inspire others who will begin thesis soon.

The name "Fully Awake" comes from the state of mind the students at the legendary Black Mountain College were asked to be at during their educational experience.

"Every moment there seemed alive in a way that few have since. This had to do with being asked to be fully awake, to be at a new threshold of perception, whether in class, in the work program, in our own work, or in the life of the community...it let us perceive how much we, each of us, had meaning in the process of the life of the community. That was our education."
-A.G. (Black Mountain College student, 1943-1946)

Yes, many of us have been disillusioned with architectural education at some point during this year because of the lack of objectivity and creativity in the program at DIS, but there is no benefit to staying that way. We want to create a forum for the discussion of any and all ideas in an attempt to motivate students and spread our thirst for knowledge.

Fully Awake will be a mix of discussion events and thesis presentations open to all who want to engage in intellectual discussions.

Fully Awake will serve as a forum and symposium for students to supplement their education and discuss ideas and knowledge at its essence.

Full Awake will attempt to create "agitation" in architectural discourse, as discussed by Jeffrey Inaba, Mark Wigley, and Ole Bouman in their latest issue of Volume, to encourage in-depth discussions and break from the traditional definition of education we have grown up with.

"The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking."
-M. Heidegger