The Brain Observatory is currently slicing a brain into very thin slices and preserving the slices between glass slides. Similar to transect recording in the landscape, could be an interesting recording mechanism with playback or navigation along and through the sections. The ability to dive into a space (brain) and move forward/backward and then laterally is fascinating.
Jeffrey Huang, professor of mine from the GSD, has an interesting talk at the LIFT Asia ‘08 conference. I find it most interesting that Jef is always searching for interactive methods which change our social interactions within the urban fabric. The projects he showcases use specific analog/digital relationships that contest a users spatial perceptions.
An interesting presentation to watch especially in relation to our focus on environmental phenomena.
Developing a mediating language through abstraction creates an approach that addresses simultaneous issues in enviro-tech interfaces for sensing, responsiveness, automation, and interactivity. This language exists in the liminal realm between dry {technology} and wet {biology} attempting to embrace a moist medium (roy ascott). Abstraction addresses simultaneous modes of complexity that exist in both dry and wet regions, each medium is infinitely complex and relies on a specificity that is unique to itself.
There have been discussions, within the Lab, about language to talk between machines, environment, and people. This comes in multiple forms, from a design standpoint to a logical interface between chaotically complex components. This lends itself to the development of methods of abstraction, taking infinitely complex organism and finding threads to abstract information meaningfully.
Urban environments provide a broad spectrum of opportunities to conceptualize the role of screens or projections as methods to sculpt or define spatial relationships. Outside:In proposes to use the concept of urban screens to highlight the relationship between vertical levels within the city fabric. The relationship between underground spaces such as metros and infrastructure corridors and the above ground surfaces is often tenuous. Access between each space is often through single points; stairways, escalators, or elevators and therefore disconnected both perceptually and physically. Outside:In creates a new relationship between separate urban strate through the urban landscape above and a projected landscape below.
The project questions the typical relationship between urbanity and landscape. The proposal exaggerates the object quality of the urban landscape by placing vegetation within a display case and monitoring it through video surveillance. The exhibitB
An interesting installtion entitled Cloud by the design firm Troika, commissioned for the British Airways terminal at Heathrow Airport, London. The surface of sculpture uses ‘flip-dots’ that are individual addressable by proprietary software. More info about the software can be found at Pixel Sumo.
A lot of thought has been circulating regarding scale and resolution in regards to perception, sensing, and visualization. Allowing an objects scale to be manipulated and projected re-contextualizes the object…
The issue comes up that the projection itself can create the re-contextualization but developing a framework that keeps the object relevant and the space fragmented is interesting.
The Sensing the Landscape class in the fall semester produced such great amounts of thought regarding what elements are unique in sensored landscape spaces. There are fundamental pieces that are necessary to explore further in regards to scale, perception, and emergence.
Video compositing technology put to use for a pragmatic in dash monitor system. Interesting re-appropriation of realtime information/data.
Several new projects underway that are extensions of work from sensing the landscape and representation workflows.
Looking at digital representation it is interesting to note the expression of the design drawings as product of their medium. There are a few things to really express within this framework … image/design context, cut and paste collage, and workflow. This directly influences our perception of designed space (or sadly negates it) through issues of scale, embodiment, and form.
Sensing requires something much easier and fun … a mini project/prototype. coming soon…
