Reading Response 5: Responsive Architecture

Both texts discussing responsive architecture address how a multitude of artists, designers, and architects are researching and exploiting smart and responsive materials, collaborations with nature (i.e. the Solar Collector discussed by Matt, Susan, and Rob Gorbet), growth structures, and biomimicry as foundations for their work. Naturally, I was drawn to Steve Vogel’s excerpt from the text discussing forms of biomimicry that could and are applied to new architectural designs. I was recently introduced to a book titled Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus that discusses these issues in great length both inside and outside architectural design. I think it is interesting that architects and artists took this long to start actively using natural design in their work and unfortunately, instead adopted the attitude that technology improves upon nature, a trend that I am attempting to dispel from my own work. This text and Benyus’ book offer great insight into engineers and artists pioneering technological breakthroughs by recognizing and replicating nature’s hidden marvels. It is refreshing to find so many inspirational inventors now collaborating with nature and borrowing concepts from biological and ecological systems instead of building on top of them. I find it interesting that these new thought processes are ultimately coming to the forefront due to failed human engineering in the past. I am not trying to say that historically, natural design was completely dismissed, but it wasn’t the first frame of reference in design (specifically in brick and concrete rudimentary structures). These new technologies and designs are teaching us how to live in harmony with nature and its inhabitants that have preexisted human beings by thousands of years, rather than trying to dominate them. Our extremely unnatural technologies will leave the earth unsuitable for life, if not improved upon now by creative innovators starting with us.

Another fascinating read written and illustrated by Peggy Macnamara, an instructor at SAIC. Published by the University of Chicago and inspired by the vast nest collection at the Field Museum. Book cover and example illustrations examining natural architecture below:

joe pankowski; Digital Fabrications

Designing objects digitally has lead to the development of diverse shapes and environments that would have been impossible to even think up without the current design technology. This type of design with the use of repetitive geometry takes the power of the module and gives it character and soul. These objects are developed mathematically but with curved volumes and stretched forms they feel more alive and natural then traditional hand built materials that tend to straight and right angled forms. It makes you see how mathematical the structures of nature are. For example when you cut a nautilus shell in half and see its almost perfect spiral forms. One video that comes to mind when I see these geometric digitally fabricated designs is of a wind powered kinetic sculpture designed by Theo Jansen. They make me think that we as a species will eventually get so good at this fabrication that we will be able to produce exact replicas of nature.

joe pankowksi; responsive architecture

This reading reminded me of a class I took last semester; landscape architecture. The class main infuses was on the move from the "natural" environment being separated from the human built environment to a more integrated system that places our society and urban structures back into nature. Many of the speakers that came to the class spoke of the line between what is thought of as nature and man made structures becoming less absolute. Many of the designers were using overlapping grids to push human activities, infrastructure, and natural traits of a location together. When these designers talked about these landscape designs they would go into great depth in to how these different layers of activity would respond to one another and what were the effects on each other. The materials discussed in this reading I think intersect this way of designing because its opening up nature as something we are a part of and that we can alter and reuse in our structures. I think as a culture we need to think of ourselves as more of responsible beavers that are connected to nature rather than something separate that just spoils nature.

RR5 Digital Fabrication

Digital Fabrication from Lisa Iwamoto, specifically the section entitled Sectioning, inspired me to reflect on my own work. Lisa Iwamoto's focus on digital design and physical fabrication informed this process, since both of these aspects are present in Network as Metaphor: Andyland-Ukraine (2010). I began my project with the phyical process of drawing virtual landscapes, reflecting all the while on that term, virtual. To me "virtual" and "imaginary" are similar at least in terms of representation. Thus the imaginary nature of the landscape has similarities to virtual and fantasy worlds, such as Second Life, or even Tolkien's Middle Earth. Thus when it dawned on me recently that I had always been taught that my heritage stemmed from a place that existed (in the 80's) but also did NOT exist due to the Iron Curtain, I realized that this was a fertile area to explore.

The work is partly defined by an orthagonal projection of the type Iwamoto defines. In my case, this was achieved using satellite technology from our friends at Google, and a typical display of such: a two-dimentional map. This is probably the most common type of orthogonal projection we use in everyday life. Painstakingly I adapted one of my drawings as representative of dots on the map, and a dataset was created of real-life locations (the addresses where various postcards and artistamps were sent).

A second technology that Iwamoto discusses was used in Network as Metaphor: Andyland- Ukraine, namely a laser cutter. However, this was a different part of the process. Using a symbolic form rather than creating different forms, per se, the sue of the laser cutter to create perforations for artistamnps reflects on the changing tools (new media) artists and governments have at their disposal.

Yet a third aspect of Digital Fabrication is present in the work. That of the changing perspective gained through the aggregation of the real and virtual, projected and actual. While the orthogonal-cartographic view was useful, an effort was made to break down this view into different perspectives to personalize and get a glimpse of the contemporary art scene in Ukraine. The thesis questioned the media landscape, and investigated what was essential for artsitic discourse there. Artists' blogs and websites, digital media, mail art and other ephemera were the replacement parts for the original romanticized landscape. [pictured: Blog of Lubomyr Tymkiv, Ukraine]

RR5 Responsive Architecture

To continue in English, press "1".

The conversational aspect of Responsive Architecture / Performing Instruments resonated with my current work. Omar Khan and Philip Beesley are concerned with architecture as conversation in the section entitled Mutual Relations. My thesis work, Network as Metaphor: Andyland-Ukraine (2010) architected an unstructured structure to which respondants were to respond. The resulting conversations and the possibility of capturing those "transitional objects" are on display in the Great Space April 6-10, 2010. And like the transitional objects Philip Beesley suggests, such as dog toys and mobile phones, the postcards and related ephemera are just that - ephemeral remnants and symbols of an even more ephemeral conversation that is past, present and future. They are "threshold" objects that are part of me, the artist, and part the respondants (and now partially physically on display in the gallery). The conversation is the hybrid form.

[pictured: installation of Network as Metaphor: Andyland-Ukraine, with mail art and prints by Lubomyr Tymkiv, Ukraine]

Continuing the theme of geometry and language (as well as architecture) several media forms were explored in creating the work, and language is at also play. Web, email, as well as postal mail were the media geometries used. I do truly believe that media are architected and have specific structures (think network television's primordial one-to many architectural model which has only recently changed). Ukrainian, English and Russian were explored in the work, and English and Ukrainian mostly used. I wasn't really sure of what to expect, but I've found myself inside of a pitched cultural battle with this work along the lines of Russian vs Ukrainain language use in government (civic), schools, media (including web) and other public spaces. Thus language as a media architecture is also relevant here.

reading response five | digital fabrications: architectural and material techniques | jd pirtle

Again, artists, designers and architects incorporating digital techniques with no qualms about the efficacy of doing so. This text provided an interesting and cohesive insight into the advantages of parallel design processes (computer-aided design and fabrication). Projects such as Digital Weave, Mafoombey and (Ply)wood Delaminations show the potential for repetition and recursion combined with cheap and readily-available materials. This is not a new aesthetic, as is mentioned in the text and evident from the work of luminaries like Le Corbusier, but access to digital processes and computer-aided tools has created a fairly democratic (within the very developed world) playing field for artists and designers. This type of work is the very opposite of abstract art, it is concrete art. Particles are formed, repeated, translated and scaled to form clouds that reflect the individual parts, but are greater than their gross sum.

Science already has a legacy of vocabulary to discuss these types of formations, but how can we grasp this aesthetic properly in the world of art? The forms are often beautiful in a way that successful figurative art has been for 1000 years—an accurate sculpture of a figure is pleasing to the eye and mind for its mimicry of shapes with which we are well accustomed (e.g. Michelangelo’s David). Similarly, the Programmed Wall, for example, reflects sinusoidal patterns found in nature, constructed with the same accuracy and consistency as natural formations, and therefore it is pleasing to the eye and mind. These forms and patterns are embedded in our development as a species—we have known them forever and have looked at them, either consciously or unconsciously as a species for all time.

What interests me most about this type of work is what is beautiful about these structures beyond the presence of accuracy and repetition—what is next for this type of work? Architects are naturally thinking of the aesthetic married to structural benefits, but what of artists? What do these forms reflect from the deeps of our minds? Why is geometric repetition in nature beautiful?

reading response five | responsive architecture | jd pirtle

While reading this text, I was continually pleased at how the various designers, architects and artists seamlessly incorporate mathematics and sciences in their work. Lately, I find myself at odds with a coherent definition of art and artists, one which is contemporary enough to encompass the many modern movements of art making, and will accurately describe the ever-changing roles artists embody. What is clear from readings such as these, is that any struggle to codify what art is or what an artist does is not only difficult, but completely useless. What is useful is to be mindful of what role artists have played historically—for example, Slatterly’s example of what art and philosophy can explain or examine that mathematics and science fail to properly describe or understand.

Many of these artists and designers are all working to solve or understand human problems using or replicating nature’s structures, such as Steven Vogel. His section describing biomimetics and trending away from traditional design paradigms in favor of ones that make more sense (like in the natural structures all around us that are the result of billions of years of robust evolution). As I am most interested in fine art and what is happening in fine art in this era, I wonder what types of conversations we should be having to foster this type of attitude in our work—how can we change the very traditional formats of lectures, critiques and curriculum to enable us to best work out how it is we are going to make art? If these scientists, architects and designers are easily picking up new tools and attitudes as they are needed to solve the problem that is in front of them, can we do the same? What rigid structures of the art academy and the art world can be remade to solve the changing subjective problems that modern artists face?

A great example of this is the legacy of participatory installation art. At some point, a simple one-way or two-way interaction that was obvious to the viewer (e.g. a chain of causal events that was initiated by a sensing mechanism and ended with some obvious output within the art piece) was enough to stimulate art audiences. Decades later, shouldn’t we be creating “smart” art? Shouldn’t we be holding this type of art work up to similar standards, as enumerated by Addington when describing smart materials, the criteria of Immediacy, Transience, Self-actuation, Selectivity and Directness?

Phase II

pHloat :: pHase II


Click to View the Following:

VIDEO

PDF Materials & Fabrication Plans

Instructables Construction Plans

pHloat Blog

Joe Pankowski, Final Project Proposal

Joe Pankowski

March 30, 2010

508 EV Graduate Seminar

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I would like to research and write about the artist Fernando Orellana. He was mentioned to me during the second semester reviews and I have looked though his work. I enjoyed the absurdity he finds in the mechanical and the importance in his work for the combined use of old and new medias. He also seems to have an interest in grotesque and disturbing imagery that can be found in his paintings. I am also interested in this imagery, and it's found mainly in my drawings. I may look at how that sensibility is transfered over to his robotic and interactive work. Some of his work has political concepts behind them but I want to concern myself mainly with the aesthetic of his work. This aesthetic is the reason I would like to use him as a central example in this project to better understand a certain art making that I have been interested in ever since I was introduced to Rube Goldberg illustrations. I will also find other examples of this kind of work to compare and contrast the different variations of this "Goldbergian" aesthetic. I believe there is this beauty being found in the process of an action or communication being filtered through a mechanical process that artists like Orellana are tapping into and thats what I want concentrate on. This research will help me as I progress through this program and can be a part the foundation for my thesis.

Geospatial Environmental Algorithm Application and Instrumentation Kit

Here's the new link [link to Geospatial]

Oleksiuk Weblog 2010

Lots of links to click. If you haven't checked out the mail art and artistamp resource server, please do.

Thesis update (writing and new stills) - Julio

New update to the blog (writing next draft and new stills): http://julioobelleiro.com/tb

Julio

New DIY - Origami Seed Starting Kit

DIY Origami Garden “Squash” Starting Kit
Total Cost: $6.45 – $12.00

Materials:
12 - 8” x 6” pieces of newspaper (any free periodical, the Onion would work)
1 - bag of seed starting mix ($3.50)
2 - rectangular Dominick’s salad bar containers (free if you ask nice) or (full of salad $5.99 a lb.)
1 - matching Dominick’s salad bar container lid
1 - 16 oz plastic bottled drink, ($1.20 beverage type of your choice)
1 - Squash seeds ($1.75)

Tools:
- metal skewer for making holes
- pen for marking
- pair of scissors


Make the 12 origami “garbage bins” using the accompanying instructions.
http://en.origami-club.com//newspaper/garbagebin/garbagebin/index.htm

This should take a few minutes each so settle in for a half an hour. Mean while drink the 16 oz beverage and eat your salad.

You should now have 12 bins (slightly diamond shaped), an empty plastic bottle and empty salad container. Rinse the bottle and cap, put aside. Wash and dry salad container before continuing.

Make Drain Tray:
Take one salad bar container and trim the bottom off. You want to be left with a very shallow pan about 3/8 inch deep. Snip the scalloped edge of this piece following the grooves.

Make Label Stakes:
Take the scraps from the container and trim off the edges. Then follow the grooves and trim off 12 pieces of plastic, (2 scallops wide and about 2 inches long).

Make Drain Holes:
Bring the metal skewer, drain tray and the 16 oz bottle close to the stove, turn a burner on and heat up the skewer. (If you don’t have a gas stove light at candle and use the flame from it to heat the skewer.) With the hot skewer poke 8 holes in the flat bottom of the drain tray. On the bottle, about 1½ inch below the cap, within a space the size of a quarter, poke 7-8 holes. Poke another hole 1½ inch down on the opposite side of the bottle. Fill ¾ the way with water and recap. The bottle is now a watering can.

Put the drain tray inside the second salad container bottom side up. It should “float” or bounce back when you press down. The seed bins will weigh it down.

Fill “Garbage Bins” with Dirt:
Prepare starter mix par the directions on the package. Fill your paper bins to a ¼ inch bellow the top.

Start Seeds:
Plant seeds in the bins par directions on the seed packages. Write plant names on your label stakes and put in the seed bins.

Using your watering bottle water your seeds to lightly saturate them. Cover with the salad lid and put in a sunny window or within 2” of a florescent lamp.

Keep moist. Wait…

When seeds germinate remove lid.

Thesis Update

My thesis updates are ongoing at Weblog Andrew Oleksiuk 2010

Geospatial Environment Kit

[Link to Geospatial Environment Kit]

On approaching this task, I felt I had to explore coding and distribution platforms. I looked into Facebook at Sabrina's suggestion and it seemed a little complicated at the outset. I thought it I could to a rapid prototype to leverage distributability on the web without application specific distribution models. I figured it couldn't be to hard to do as a Javascript AJAX (advanced javascript and XML) interface. Looking onto some rapid development environments I figured basic basic compliance with common browsers would not be too hard.

For the text editor I used TextWrangler
I would be building a suite of applications (pages) for the kit.

I wrote the code in some several chunks but I'm unsure of where the conditionals (or what kind) should go. Here's the basic structure:

header
Javascript
Function

body
Javascript
HTML code
I realized in the body I would be using forms and I wanted to make sure I was able to manipulate a second window. This let me to the decision to adopt functions to create a separate window for the result of the survey constituting the result

For questions (user input) , I decided on forms. I was able to get basic text entry to work. But I still want to experiment with radio buttons as per my proposal. Since the basic structure of the process is to ask questions and deliver custom results in the form of a list. So I am translating yes/no logic questions into show/don;t show specific page elements (such as document.write).

The survey questions are:

is there a shower in the bathroom
is there a tub in the bathroom
is there a garbagecan in the bathroom
is there a sink in the bathroom
is there a toilet in the bathroom

so I need the folowing code fragments:

If shower = yes, display "Clean the shower"
If tub = yes, display "Clean the tub"
If garbagecan = yes, display "take out the garbagecan"
If sink = yes, display "Clean the sink"
If toilet = yes, display "Clean the toilet"

to display as the result

I am using one function to create the window.

Do I need to use a second function to process the conditionals? If so, does the order of the functions in the header matter?

Or is there some way to express the conditional text formatting in the body with the forms and then send the whole thing up to the create window function?

The Cocoon—A Traveling Space | Dobers and Strannegård | JD Pirtle

The Cocoon initially strikes me as a relatively uninteresting project, but the discourse about it’s varying functions and implications takes on a fascinating form as this text unfolds. The section about space and time is a bit nebulous--some of the strongest concepts come when they relate these notions to architecture. The very fact that there might be some need for a proxy for disconnection, that we would need a physical object to remove ourselves from the terrors of an information society is very intriguing. I wonder how effective it is at escaping this world? If anything, The Cocoon’s power comes through the fact that it highlights and defines the state of psychosis in developed, technocratic societies. The authors mention how stressed we all are, but are we any more stressed than 100 years ago? We don’t choose to unplug. We like our social networking, our inter-connectedness. The Cocoon shows that people are unable to choose moderation in respect to technology and social interaction anymore than food, alcohol, sex, etc. That is the true power of the piece.


I found myself thinking of various forms of meditation, found on almost every continent. Why is a physical object needed to instigate a meditative state? The Cocoon is evidence that we now require a device, a proxy or an application with which to interface with to achieve what was always possible (think Wizard of Oz). The impact of this piece is truly in its commentary of Western society. Perhaps we can use our technocracy to find a middle ground, a moderation between the stressful space we have created and all other types of space?






Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Assessment and Treatment Using Virtual Reality

Art U Need |Duman, et al | JD Pirtle

When Duman leaves us with the question, “Do we need public art?”, I find myself wondering why this debate is still raging on. Public art, in the form of large, permanent, sculptural objects has been a vital component of the architectural landscape of societies since prehistory. In the wake of Conceptual art and the collision of art with Capitalism, we have just really (in the past 35 years) begun to question the efficacy the practice. As several of the authors describe, public art is used to whitewash social ills, create atmospheres of prosperity and (in regeneration) “sex up the control of the under-classes.” But, so what if it is an advertising tool for the regeneration of urban centers (Gehry in the Harty text)? Why do the authors of these texts see institutional public art as such a failure? Can’t public art serve varying communities in varying ways? What is so wrong with “looking through the eyes of a tourist” or seeing art through the eyes of members of elitist art enclaves?

It is impossible for public art sponsored by the government to appeal to the majority of its citizens. Corporate sponsored public art will always seem disingenuous in a climate where corporations are simultaneously manipulating government and defrauding the citizenry. I applaud efforts to create socially engaging art projects, to democratize the output of these activities and encounter an alternative culture, but why can’t all of these things coexist? Can’t everyone use art as they wish? I believe that governments should be able to use art for propaganda, obfuscation and deception. I believe that corporations should be able to use art to appeal to consumers sense of culture and importance. I believe that quasi-intellectuals (who don’t proof their writing) should be able to use public art as a subject upon which to belabor political and philosophical leanings. Why can’t “art become a political imperative?” Who says? John Waters?

The power of art is owned by no one, it should be checked by no one.







Seattle's Hammering Man with guerilla art ball-and-chain add -on







The horror of Safeco Field's many objects of public art






Not all propaganda/nostalgia-based public art is bad

Art U Need

Prior to living in Chicago, I have never had public art forced upon me on a regular basis. I certainly haven’t traveled the entire Midwest, but Chicago seems to have an overwhelming amount of publically commissioned art floating around and there are many instances where I wonder “why is this here, no one bustling around downtown seems to even notice that it exists, they simply have become tourist attractions.”

“The main challenge for those in charge of public art commissions and opportunities, particularly in regeneration, would appear to demonstrate whether they can do anything more than gesturing by shifting from one dominant type of object-based, large scale sculptural output, to a more directly participator, cheaper, friendly, amicable, unassuming type of work, which ticks both the box that assuages the vociferous art constituency in its demands to align public art output with contemporary practices, as well as the box which make sure that at least the public involved and counted for the record, ‘understands’ the work done and will not complain afterwards."

I agree with a couple points first presented in the text, however feel that these things aren’t necessarily the main challenges of public art. In accordance with Joe Baldwin and the text, works that are rooted in participatory action are imperative for public art to flourish and survive. Even at the lowest level, the “bean” (as most Ohioans call it) / Cloud Gate, thrives on simple public interactions--touching, climbing, taking myspace-esque pictures with your friends on its reflective surface. Does that qualify it as a great public sculpture? I am not the person to pass that judgement, but it sure seems to be more ‘popular’ and memorable than the famous Alexander Calder Flamingo positioned not even a mile away.

I think by creating more participatory, temporary, and amicable works, the public art world becomes more accessible to a wider range of people allowing them to also feel as if they are co-creators (specifically when discussing interaction based installations). As co-creators the passive nature of traditional public sculpture slowly has the potential to become eliminated and invites new potential forms for the work to take with each new visitor.

I think the true challenge is to create works that address and meet a certain “high level” of conceptualization but also have the ability to speak to the ‘common’ person (those with no background or even a necessary interest in the arts) without presenting the work as if it needs to be dumbed down for public acceptance/enjoyment. Another challenge is obviously putting this work where everyone can enjoy it. The text and Joe Pankowski both discussed something that I too feel is a problem in public art: the safety of the content, and more importantly the location of its installation (the disparity of public works in poorer communities). This part of the text seemed particularly interesting because it made me think about the fact that we exist in a time where we have such a huge influx of artists who are all about creating works that create social awareness, change, promote interactivity, there are still few artists and institutions willing to produce funds to create works where they are needed for community unification, education, and enjoyment.

Cocoon

Before even getting into the thick of this essay I couldn’t help but thinking of these chairs that I saw at IKEA the last time that I was at their store near Cincinnati.



I remember tons of screaming kids curling up in them and ripping the shade down so their parents couldn’t find them, and I thought, “where can I find the adult version?” It also reminded me of a 1 day class challenge to create a wearable out of wood scraps in 4 hours, and I decided to (poorly) create a cocoon / beehive shaped pine “hood” to hide most of my skin to attempt to erase my race in an effort to avoid a question I am asked at least every three weeks (mostly by African American children) ---“are you mixed?”

I think that this text was really interesting as is this project, and the cocoon’s form has obviously been borrowed for many utilitarian and other artistic practices. The portion of the text that spoke to me the most was on pages 827-828

“Speaking of space as a social, physical, mental, and cultural implies the introduction of relationships. Spaces are mediators of relationships, they are incorporate action, and Lefebvre argues that the conceptualization of space implies the construction of a tool for analyzing society. Space, says, Lefebvre, is not a thing but a number of relations between objects, artifacts, and living entities. Hence space is relational, concerns the physical and is produced through human interaction with humans and/or non humans (Latour, 1997).”

I think this is the most valuable way to look at space, is not s a locale, but as a relational grouping. By viewing space this way within artistic practice we can expand our conceptual implications. Thinking about space in terms of relations can and should influence the space(s) in which we see our own work existing.

The Cocoon is a piece that broke the mold of the traditional views of space. "You carry your space of calm and quite in a bag, to be used when you need it." In a way I think we all have something that we consider our Cocoon; the space underneath a blanket, with our head covered by a hooded jacket, or finding solitude in the comfort of an ikea chair.

Cocoon - Response

The discussion about abstract spaces, physical spaces, mental spaces, social spaces and the inter-relationships is very refreshing. Through the cocoon, people experience a unique space that is passively tailor-made for them based on their acquired taste of existence in such spaces. I just got off the phone with my mother who has traveled to all the continents except South America and Antarctica. I thought she would be the perfect example for me to relate to the transportation / transformation concept that the paper delves deep into. The need for her to disconnect/connect herself from/to culturally, geographically, economically, aesthetically different social spaces has been growing since she was a child when she was deprived of it due to a joint-family based micro-economy in her house and other factors like her father not being able to support that need due to various other micro-nuclear strands of relationships within her family.

But, once she became independent and established herself, she could feed that need. Now, she could transport and transform herself into various different people. Experience the same breath of fresh air in a geographically and culturally alien space has a totally different feel to it. The cocoon here which was supposed to shut out outside influence from the social space as you inhabit or experience it and still managed to travel and transform its intended purpose by having a life of its own. She just got back from a tour to another country where she was supposed to wear a veil in public to go around.

I could not stop from comparing it to the cocoon. She had the time of her life in this place where she says the civilization is so unspoilt and so very less exploited that even through all the restrictions she had a peaceful and mind numbingly rollicking experience there. She rates it the first among all the countries she's traveled and Switzerland comes next close to second place.

Having said that butterflies come out of cocoons. And the cocoon is one of the avatars of the butterfly when it is young. Even though it is invisible to the naked eye I see cocoons around everyone and everything in this world. Enough of my rambling now. Overall I think the design spoke to me in various physical, social, metaphysical and cultural levels.

A Hindu Woman from 100 years ago in her cocoon!



I can't see her.. can you?