Digital Blur

Digital Blur Launch

Digital Blur: Creative Practice at the Boundaries of Architecture, Design and Art
ISBN: 978 1 907471 01 8

THR_33 (project)

THR_33 (Tea House for Robots) is comprised of a responsive architectural environment and a group of robotically-enhanced domestic appliances. Imagine if your radio could tune into any frequency that had ever been broadcast. What would we hear? Imagine if your toaster could remember how you liked your toast, or your entire family’s preference. What if your kitchen mixer could prepare ingredients based on downloadable techniques and recipes – where you just choose the recipe/technique, add the ingredients and it does the rest? What if household appliances in the future instead of plugging in to wall outlets recharged at solar powered light wells and required time to play in order to learn. THR_33 imagines all this and proposes that as our appliances become smart we will change the way we live and come to think of them. Perhaps we would cherish these products more than the throwaway gadgets we currently create. In our speculative future, appliances have evolved to become part of the family. THR_33 questions how we will relate to these autonomous and responsive environments and appliances. THR_33 mixes the sophistication of contemporary smart and super phones, with the design aesthetic of iconic industrial products to produce appliances we want to live with. The home will also be transformed. Domestic space will also change to regulate temperature, lighting and produce and store all its inhabitants’ energy needs. These power stations can form a dual purpose – providing power and providing space for the robots and their owners to interact and play.

The 'Tea House' Structure
Conforming to the traditional dimensions of a Japanese Tea House of 9’ x 9’ x 6', the space provides a series of interactions between user and space, space and robots.

The Robots
TST_003, RDO_002, and MXR_011 all have unique traits, behaviors and interactions. The interactions move between user and object, object and space. TST_003 is a toaster. RDO_002 is a radio and MXR_011 is a stand mixer. They all have been reconceived as sense-enabled robots with speculative features.

TST_003
Fastest of all sense-enabled toasters
New and improved user-recognition settings

Have toast how you want it, wherever you want it.  The TST_003 can rove the kitchen and navigate your home with ease. Save time with user-recognition settings.  Store your preferences by bread variety and desired brownness to ensure perfection every time. TST_003 can fully recharge itself* and perform routine upgrades** too! It’s the perfect appliance for contemporary living. 


*Requires solar-powered recharging station. Supplied separately.
** Requires interweb connection.

Functioning prototype of TST_003

RDO_002
Most extensive dynamic tunable capabilities from both in-orbit and deep space sources.
Don’t buy any other all-in-one media device

Personal Deep Listening Device able to tune in any homo sapiens-derived broadcast frequency in the known universe. RDO_002 intuitively selects media to suit or enhance your mood and puts together a completely immersive experience. RDO_002 with superior media programming from our extensive digital rights managed library*. RDO_002 moves between standard, mood enhanced or fully autonomous mode. And with a simple request you can set it to genre spinner - mixing across media. RDO_002 can fully recharge itself** and perform routine upgrades*** too! It’s the perfect media device.

* Requires lifetime subscription.
**Requires solar-powered recharging station. Supplied separately.
*** Requires interweb connection.

MXR_011
The best kitchen aide you’ll ever have
Automatic and Autonomous – true multi-tasking and sensing in one appliance

MXR_011 modern features makes cooking a real joy. Saves time by handling all your food prep needs. It slices, grinds, chops, and juices with included attachments. More powerful mixing makes batters easy. Mix finder dial gives you multiple speeds with the press of a button. It’s mobile for recharging* and can perform routine upgrades** too! It’s the perfect culinary integration device.

*Requires solar-powered recharging station. Supplied separately.
** Requires interweb connection.

Functioning prototype of MXR_011

THR_33 is a collaboration between rootoftwo (Cézanne Charles and John Marshall) and PLY Architecture (Craig Borum and Karl Daubmann).

Undisciplinarity (essay in book)

The book that resulted from the 'inter_multi_trans_actions: emerging trends in post-disciplinary creative practice' symposium at Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland on Thursday 26 June, 2008 is nearing publication.

The book 'Digital Blur: Creative Practice at the Boundaries of Architecture, Design and Art' edited by Paul Rodgers and Michael Smyth will now be published by Libri Publishing following Middlesex University’s decision to close Middlesex University Press.

According to Amazon the book is due on 31 March, 2010.

The book contains an essay by Julian Bleecker and myself that is preambled thus:

Marshall and Bleecker, in their essay, propose the term “undisciplinary” for the type of work prevalent in this book. That is, creative practice which straddles ground and relationships between art, architecture, design and technology and where different idioms of distinct and disciplinary practices can be brought together. This is clearly evident in the processes and projects of the practitioners’ work here. Marshall and Bleecker view these kinds of projects and experiences as beyond disciplinary practice resulting in a multitude of disciplines “engaging in a pile-up, a knot of jumbled ideas and perspectives.” To Marshall and Bleecker, “undisciplinarity is as much a way of doing work as it is a departure from ways of doing work.” They claim it is a way of working and an approach to creating and circulating culture that can go its own way, without worrying about working outside of what histories-of-disciplines say is “proper” work. In other words, it is “undisciplined”. In this culture of practice, they continue, one cannot be wrong, nor have practice elders tell you how to do what you want to do and this is a good thing because it means new knowledge is created all at once rather than incremental contributions made to a body of existing knowledge. These new ways of working make necessary new practices, new unexpected processes and projects come to be, almost by definition. This is important because we need more playful and habitable worlds that the old forms of knowledge production are ill-equipped to produce. For Marshall and Bleecker, it is an epistemological shift that offers new ways of fixing the problems the old disciplinary and extra-disciplinary practices created in the first place. The creative practitioners contained within the pages of this book clearly meet the “undisciplinary” criteria suggested by Marshall and Bleecker in that they certainly do not need to be told how or what to do; they do not adhere to conventional disciplinary boundaries nor do they pay heed to procedural steps and rules. However, they know what’s good, and what’s bad and they instinctively know what the boundaries are and where the limits of the disciplines lie.

SmartSurfaces 1.0 Complete

The University of Michigan SmartSurfaces course is now complete. It was a collaborative, project-based learning experience in which undergraduate artists, designers, architects and engineers came together to build physical systems and structural surfaces that have the capability to adapt to information and environmental conditions.

The course was broken into two phases: an introductory / skill building phase, and the final project. For the first part of the course, participants focused on problem and constraint definition, structured brainstorming and skill building. Final teams were assigned in week six and the rest of the semester involved the production of the fully realized, funded projects shown below. Both phases focused on multidisciplinary, collaborative teams to carry out the assignments and projects. An important aspect of this course was the manner in which useful cross-fertilization emerged in the application of different disciplinary methodologies in response to concrete problems in practice.

Course participants had the opportunity to gain experience with using diverse tools and processes. Where possible, learning made use of practical problem solving through experimentation. All participants were challenged beyond their usual intellectual and disciplinary boundaries and had to negotiate and manage differences between the cultures of three university units (Art & Design, Architecture and Materials Science Engineering).

Each team was required to design, build, program and test a ‘heliotropic smartsurface’ that made use of:
• Solar energy harvesting
• Microcontroller programming (with Arduino) and circuit building
• Parametric modeling (with Digital Project)
• Digital fabrication

The teams had to consider and negotiate what makes a surface smart, and why we would be interested in a smart surface that follows the Sun. They had to engage a methodology of defining explicit relationships, complex behaviors, and unforeseen responses in a context of distributed authorship.

This is what they came up with:



The Shy Solar Array: An Adaptive Solar Array That Responds To Weather
Arrays of solar cells are vulnerable to their surroundings, do not maximize the sunlight-collecting surface area, and are unattractive. Inspired by the Mimosa Pudica plant and its tendency to shy away from external stimuli, our shy solar array was created. Our solar array protects itself from damaging elements such as snow or rain by flipping away from them. This will allow the solar array to be implemented in less than ideal weather locations, such as Michigan. Our solar array also maximizes the sun collecting surface area through its unique shape. The form of the array lends itself to a more efficient use of surface area by avoiding shadowing when the cell is rotated towards the sun. Also, the array stands out as a more desirable object that can serve as a stand-alone artifact as well as a useful solar array. Outside of the gallery this solar array would be implemented onto the rooftop of Michigan Engineering buildings as an alternative energy source. To further maximize the collected energy, the solar array should contain solar cells that are specially shaped to the design.

Team Fabric + Super J
Alyssa Ackerman – School of Art and Design
Johanna Brand – Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Yuming Jiang – Material Science and Engineering
Chris Johnson – Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Mat Schwartz - School of Art and Design
Michelle Svetkoff - Material Science and Engineering



The iWall Modular Light-Filtration System
The wall you see here is a modular, scalable, self-adjusting multi-aperture window, designed to optimize light flow into a room by manipulating the position of rotating wood panels. You could call it an 'automatic venetian blind', as that is the gist of the purpose. The system consists of 30 individual modules, with one panel per module, which allow a variable amount of light to pass through. The structural elements are built modularly, but circuitry elements - such as wiring - are set up in a non-modular fashion. Individual module apertures open and close in reaction to the intensity of the light that passes through the wall as detected by light-dependent resistors (LDRs), seen on the projection side, holding a relatively constant light level on the ‘interior’ of the wall at all times - this gives 'heliotropic' and 'smart' characteristics to the wall - 'surface', fitting it into the premise of the SmartSurfaces course. The actual actuation is by a grid of servos powered externally and controlled through inputs from an Arduino Mega and the LDRs. The materials used in the assembly of the individual modules were 3/16" cast acrylic cut by laser and 3/16" 6061 aluminum sheet cut by water jet.

Team iWall
Westley Josiah Burger - Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Peter Hall - School of Art and Design
Brieana MacDonald - Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Michael Mathieu - Material Science and Engineering
Taylor McKenzie-Veal - School of Art and Design
Neil Poulin - Material Science and Engineering



Simon
Simon is a heliotropic, feel-good machine. He interacts with a user through motion and LED color mixing and enters a default solar-tracking mode when not in use. Face recognition technology, a simple joint system, and a flexible LED array make possible a wide range of movement and interaction while photovoltaic panels provide the power. By fusing emotional connections with the user, we hope to transform the concept of sustainability from a condition of sacrifice to that of pleasure.

Team Softcore
Rachel Boswell - School of Art and Designn
Eric Harman - School of Art and Design
Marc Maxey - Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Lindsey May - Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Damien Stonick - Material Science and Engineering
Zilin Wang - Material Science and Engineering



Exposure
Rather than using solar cells to convert sunlight into electrical energy, we are concerned with using the power of the sun in a more direct way. Exposure is a biological, heliotropic lighting system powered by photosynthesis. Living inside the piece are several Dinoflagellates, Pyrocystis fusiformis, aka bioluminescent algae. The bioluminescence of the organisms are set to a biological clock quite similar to our sleep cycle. During 12 hours of daylight Pyrocystis use the available light to photosynthesize, producing their own food and oxygen. At sunset the cells produce the chemicals that cause the luminescent reaction. If agitated during their 12-hour dark cycle, the algae give off a glowing blue light. In Exposure we have harvested several bioluminescent algae organisms, and embedded them into an architectural array. Within the array, varying panel heights correspond to the density of algae organisms contained in each unit. Infrared sensors located below the panels detect human presence, and trigger a motor. Attached to the motors, a cam makes contact with the panels creating enough motion to agitate the algae and expose their bioluminescent glow.

Team Slime
Ivan Adelson - Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Aidan Feldman - Computer Science Engineering & Department of Dance
Isaac Krauss - School of Art and Design
Laura Ligeski - Material Science and Engineering
Allison Sturm - School of Art and Design
David Theisz - Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

The course will be offered again in Fall 2010.

Smartsurfaces

University of Michigan's Smartsurfaces course offers a collaborative, project-based learning experience in which artists, designers, architects and engineers come together to build physical systems and structural surfaces that have the capability to adapt to information and environmental conditions.

The course will operate as a multidisciplinary, hands-on think-tank where participants will pool their knowledge and skill sets to work together to produce environmentally sound and socially responsible projects. Public exhibition of these funded projects will provide an opportunity for participants to present their work to a wider audience and to review their achievements.

Projects will make use of the resources available to all participating university units, such as:

parametric modeling
digital fabrication
networked sensors
microcontroller programming
energy harvesting

The course begins September 11, 2009.

Cloud Gate (sculpture)

The award for best large-scale, permanent, public sculpture goes to... Anish Kapoor.

BioLogic (exhibition)

Siggraph 2009 - BioLogic Jurors

Marcia Tanner - independent curator and writer based in Berkeley and former director of San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art

Sabrina Raaf - artist working in experimental sculptural media and Asst. Prof. in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Suzanne Anker - artist and theorist, co-author of The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age, and Chair of Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts in NYC

Cezanne Charles - artist, curator, Creative Industries Director for ArtServe Michigan, and former Executive Director of New Media Scotland

Sascha Pohflepp - artist, designer, contributing writer for we-make-money-not-art, and member of Design Interactions at RCA, London

John Marshall - artist, designer, curator, and Asst. Prof. in the School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan

BioLogic: A Natural History of Digital Life

Smartsurfaces (course)

"In order to prepare for a life of productive endeavor in the 21st century, undergraduates at the University of Michigan must learn problem solving across disciplines and launch inquiries in uncharted territories of knowledge and practice. They must examine the assumptions that inhere in a disciplinary perspective and integrate material outside of patterns they are taught. They must locate issues within larger frameworks of thought, negotiate multiple perspectives, and develop habits of critical questioning and creative problem solving. In addition, they must learn how to find their way through disconnected bodies of information and perspectives and create their own path to a coherent education. We believe that the major problems of our time, from the environment to poverty, from human rights to terrorism, from religious movements to health issues, cannot be studied effectively within any single discipline; all involve integrative, cross-disciplinary thinking."

Smartsurfaces - a multidisciplinary, hands-on think-tank

Karl Daubmann ARCH 409
John Marshall ARTDES 300
Max Shtein MSE 489, 490, 493

University of Michigan
Fall 2009
3 Credits
Fridays, 11am-5pm
Design Lab 1, Duderstadt Center

Smartsurfaces offers a collaborative, project-based learning experience in which artists, designers, architects and engineers come together to build physical systems and structural surfaces that have the capability to adapt to information and environmental conditions.

The course will operate as a multidisciplinary, hands-on think-tank where participants will pool their knowledge and skill sets to work together to produce environmentally sound and socially responsible projects. Public exhibition of these funded projects will provide an opportunity for participants to present their work to a wider audience and to review their achievements.

Projects will make use of the resources available to all participating university units, such as:

• parametric modeling
• digital fabrication
• networked sensors
• micro-controller programming
• energy harvesting using solar cells and nanostructured materials

The course is a collaborative endeavor led by three professors who will advise and contribute to all team projects. Teams will make use of visiting lecturers, specialists, site visits and relevant stakeholder organizations.

We have been awarded a grant from the Multidisciplinary Learning and Team Teaching (MLTT) Initiative to support this new undergraduate, multidisciplinary, team-taught course.

inter_multi_trans_actions preview (book)

inter_multi_trans_actions

Creative Practice at the Boundaries of Architecture, Design and Art

Edited by Paul Rodgers and Michael Smyth

[EDIT - the book is now called 'Digital Blur: Stories from the Edge of Creative Design Practice'.]

This book brings together ten of the world’s leading practitioners and thinkers from the fields of art, architecture and design who all share a common desire to exploit the latest computing technologies in their creative practice. The book reveals, for the first time, the working processes of these major practitioners’ work that breaks down traditional creative disciplinary boundaries. inter_multi_trans_actions provides a rich picture, both visually and textually, of the following ten leaders in the field – Jason Bruges Studio, Lucy Bullivant, Greyworld, HeHe, Crispin Jones, the Owl Project, the Pooch (BigDog Interactive), Bengt Sjolen, Troika, and Moritz Waldemeyer.

This book aims to inspire and inform any reader with an interest in design, architecture, art and/or technology and provides essential reading for any practitioner, researcher, educator, and/or other stakeholders involved in the creative arts and industries. The book provides a detailed insight into the techniques of these ten significant creative individuals and how they exploit the latest computing technologies in their work and the impact this will have for creative practice in the future.

• paperback
• ISBN: 978 1 904750 69 7
• 264pp
• 264 x 196mm
• £24.95
• Publication date: September 2009

• Middlesex University Press

PBB Book (finally) Published

The 'Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders' publication (ISBN 978-0-652-355-2) is now available. You can buy a printed copy (for $18.95 US) or download it (full resolution, no cover, 80 MB) for free.

'Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders' was made possible through funding and support from Arts Council England, Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design (MIRIAD) and Lancaster City Council. 'Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders' was presented by Fast-uk in partnership with folly as part of the f.city festival of digital culture in 2006. The publication is supported by MIRIAD.

[N.B. If you were involved in the show I will be getting copies to you in the near future. If your contact details have changed please get in touch and let me know].

Chain Reaction (event)

rootoftwo will be participating in the 3rd international gathering of the Upgrade! International in Skopje, Macedonia, between 11 - 14 September, 2008. Upgrade! is an international, emerging network of autonomous nodes united by art, technology, and a commitment to bridging cultural divides. This 4 day festival was initiated by Upgrade! Belgrade, Upgrade! Berlin - Public Art Lab, Upgrade! Sofia - InterSpace, Upgrade! Istanbul - NOMAD and Upgrade! Skopje - Line Initiative and movement.

The Chain Reaction program will include: an exhibition, live audio/visual performances, lectures, discussions and presentations, a screening program and workshops.

Algorithms and Scripting for Visual Art (event)

I have been invited to attend the workshop 'Algorithms and Scripting for Visual Art' at La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA on May 29 & 30, 2008. This is the first in a series of workshops sponsored by the National Science Foundation CPATH Program: Revitalizing Computer Science through the Science of Digital Media. This workshop will examine how algorithms and computer programming are used in the generation of visual art, graphic design, and creatively imagined architectural spaces. The participants will discuss how to direct curriculum and pedagogy in introductory computer science courses toward both traditional computer science majors and students interested in digital art or web-based graphic design. I'm particularly keen because Marc Fornes will be there. Marc is the founder of THEVERYMANY a design studio and collaborative research forum engaging the field of architecture via encoded and explicit processes. Marc is also a curator of scriptedbypurpose.

Digital Media 1.0 (exhibition)

rootoftwo exhibits 12@30° as part of a v1b3 (video in the built environment) program. Shown during Digital Media at La Nau in Valencia, Spain 17 April - 18 May, 2008, this video program investigates the theme of "navigation and habitation of spaces". The program will be projected on the side of a building during the exhibition.

Experiential Extensions (event)

Experiential Extensions - February 13 - 27, 2008.

Duderstadt Center,

University of Michigan,

2281 Bonisteel Boulevard,

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2094

Edward S. Johnston's MFA thesis exhibition presents digital animations, photographs, and 3D printed objects that explore the path from his apartment to the School of Art & Design in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ed has taken regions from photographs taken on the route to campus and used these profiles to create 3D forms and animations where the relative cross-sections (taken from the photos) are placed along a path relative to their distance from each other on the journey.

More images of Ed's show here.

UofM Faculty Exhibition (event)

The University of Michigan School of Art & Design faculty exhibition opens this evening:

Exhibition Opening Reception: February 1st 6:00 - 9:00pm
Exhibition runs February 1st - 22nd, 2008
Work•Ann Arbor, 306 S. State St.
Slusser Gallery, 2000 Bonisteel Blvd. 1st floor

Web (rootof) 2.0

I put together a transitional update site for rootoftwo using the online app 'weebly' (sort of a blogging approach to web design). We'll still have to overhaul our .com site at some point but this should do for the time being. There is some previously unseen stuff on there, too.

The Fundamentals of Digital Art (book)

I just received a copy of Richard Colson's book 'The Fundamentals of Digital Art' that is to be published on 27 November, 2007 (I got a copy because I contributed some photos).

My first impression of the book is that it is an informative and visual overview of key practitioners and critical issues in the field. This is what the publisher has to say:

"The book provides an overview of digital art and offers careful explanations of physical computing, using data sources, programming, networks for artists and experimental practices in digital art. The text is accompanied by extensive illustrations, ranging from work by recognised practitioners in the field to current student work from undergraduate programmes. It also includes practical clear workshop diagrams designed to help students develop the confidence to work with the approaches covered in the book themselves."

The book is broken into the following sections:

• Introduction
• The history and development of digital art
• Live art: using response
• Data into art
• Creative priorities for coding
• Art and networks
• Digital hybrids
• Postscript (including a list of resources and links)

It seems well worth a look and I look forward to reading it in depth.