Fire On Site (project)

The Fire project has been moved on site and will be lifted into place later today.

Fire (project)

I have been working with Karl Daubmann and Werner Dahm on a project for Arts On Earth. Four teams from across the University of Michigan units located on North Campus (College of Engineering; the School of Music, Theatre & Dance; School of Art and Design; and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning) have been working on projects based on the 4 elements. We are the 'Fire' team. Opening Night is Wednesday, November 5, (5.00 – 11.00 pm), at the Duderstadt Center on UM's North Campus. This is apt because this date is Guy Fawkes Night (Bonfire Night) that marks the failure of the plot in 1605 to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London, England. Here is our blurb:

"Fire is unique among the four elements in that it is not necessary for life. It is often associated with progress and technology as most modern conveniences, materials, and processes are in some way tied back to fire. Indeed it could be argued that our use of fire and the subsequent technologies that result from this are the defining characteristics of our species. Fire is also unique among the elements because of its perceived volatility, often considered chaotic and uncontrollable in nature. Beyond its dynamic behavior, it exudes a wide range of phenomenal qualities including color, sound, heat, direction, and texture. All of which are predictable based on the laws of thermodynamics.

Our group began by asking how to design fire, rethinking or repositioning its characteristics and attempting to use its broad range without ever having to strike a match. The resulting installation is not one of demonstration or direct teaching but instead tries to use the characteristics of fire to extend the way we might consider technology and experience.

In response, we have developed ‘Fire’, a cluster of digitally fabricated, augmented objects that together form a complex system capable of responding to people, digital information, and the physical environment in which it is situated. The structure is to be located in the approach to the University of Michigan's Duderstadt Center, home of the Digital Media Commons. This will create a signature piece that will mark the entrance to this state-of-the-art facility.

Taking our cue from analysis methodologies for complex boundary conditions our proposal is composed of autonomous cells that are able to act alone or together. Some cells are able to trigger others and once the system begins, it is not predetermined how or where it will end. Directionality and sequence are used to bias the system without controlling it completely. The units that make up 'Fire' are produced using associative geometrical modeling and parametric design and are lasercut from aluminum. Each unit will contain digital processing from microcontrollers and sensors that will operate light and sound. Currently our attempt is to power the installation through photovoltaic panels, capturing thermodynamic energy from the sun as an added layer of autonomy for the system."

Ira Greenberg

At the the CPATH workshop I also met Ira Greenberg - a practitioner with a background as eclectic as my own. Ira gave a fascinating presentation. He talked about a moment that happened after he had been using computers for a while when he became bothered by not knowing what was going on 'under the hood' - this resonated strongly with me. Ira also made a distinction between 'digital immigrants' and 'digital immersives' (aka Digitial Natives, Gen Y, Millenials, Next Generation of Workers). This is something that is becoming all too apparent to me. In a breakout session at the workshop I brought up the fact that it seems that the education industry is in the same position as the music, news and broadcasting industries - in that they are in the process of being remediated and generation-gapped (and for the most part don't seem to know it yet). The discussion was swiftly shepherded back to the quandary facing Computer Science (that I would argue is just a subset of my overarching point). Another interesting point made by Ira was that in art and design education the only failure is a lack of engagement.

Check out Ira's book: 'Processing:Creative Coding and Computational Art'.

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.

Design Connexity (event)

The Eighth International Conference of the European Academy of Design will take place at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, 1st, 2nd & 3rd April 2009.

Conference themes are:

Design Connexity
As the trend towards globalisation continues there is a growing connectedness between all our actions and a growing interdependence between the social, economic and the environmental. This increasing connectedness raises new moral and ethical issues and challenges. This concept has been termed ‘connexity’ (Mulgan, 1998) and provides the title for the conference and the backdrop for the themes of the EAD 08 Conference, which seeks to explore the implications of these trends for design research and practice.

Design Interconnections, Intersections and Convergence
This theme is concerned with the growing inter-connectedness of design, the interaction between design and other disciplines and the convergence between disciplines. Are design schools becoming the new business schools? Are new design professionals emerging that challenge the existing notions of what designers do? This theme invites papers that consider the impact of inter-connections between disciplines, the professions, and the implications for design education and professional practice.

Design Empathy
Products and environments need to satisfy functional as well as supra-functional needs (including the social, cultural, emotional, aspirational and spiritual). The data that can shape and guide decision-making can be visceral and ephemeral. More compassionate design approaches are necessary to ensure empathy and shared understandings are developed, and are particularly sensitive to how individuals communicate. We live in a verbo-centric culture, yet we experience the world visually. This theme invites papers that address issues, strategies and theories that consider empathic design.

Design Thinking
Design thinking is concerned with bringing about improvements in the human condition. This contrasts with critical thinking, which is concerned with the analysis and the breaking down of existing ideas. Design thinking is a creative process based around the building up of ideas. Design thinking does not seek to evaluate, as there can be no simply right or wrong answers. All ideas are welcome, since these have the potential to provide creative solutions. Design thinking offers strategies which can be applied to everyday situations. This theme invites papers that provide insights into the ways in which design thinking can be applied to address the critical issues facing contemporary society.

Service Design
Service design is concerned with both the tangible and intangible. It may be concerned with human interactions within systems, environments, communication and social interactions between people and organizations. It requires designers to question existing assumptions, undertake close observation of environments, provide diagnostic assessments and envisage new solutions. It has been applied in areas such as information services, health and education. This theme invites papers that provide insights into the application of service design that offer new solutions to tangible problems.

Design Boundaries
In a post-modern digital age we can witness attempts to combine art and technology crossing the boundaries in what was originally described by C.P. Snow (1959) as the ‘two cultures’. Snow’s fundamentally convergent position sought to expose the cultural divisions between art/humanities and science/technology. New design courses are being developed that embrace the concept of transdisciplinarity, moving beyond traditional subject boundaries. This theme invites papers that explore the boundaries between disciplines and professional practices, for example between design and architecture, design and craft or design and fine art.

Responsible Design
Designers are often cited as being major contributors to the ever-growing problem of waste as landfill sites fill up with discarded products that were designed without any consideration for recycling or reuse. Responsible designing makes it imperative that new products are designed with ‘cradle to cradle’ vision. This theme invites papers that explore the issue of responsible design, developing new strategies and insights into how this may be achieved.

Anti-Design
The Ad Busters web site states that: “We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century”. Is this the beginning of anti-design, a reaction against our material culture? This theme invites papers that challenge our notion of the role of design in the 21st century.

inter_multi_trans_actions (event)

On Thursday 26 June, 2008 there will be a one-day symposium that I helped organize at Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland. The symposium is titled:

inter_multi_trans_actions
emerging trends in post-disciplinary creative practice

This one day symposium will bring together a number of leading practitioners from the fields of art, architecture and design who each share a common desire to exploit the latest computing technologies in their creative practice. The invited speakers will reveal their cutting edge work that blurs the traditional boundaries of the creative disciplines.

Emerging trends in post-disciplinary creative practice highlight the interplay of conventional boundaries. Speakers:

Moritz Waldemeyer
is at the forefront of mechatronics, a combination of mechanics and electronics, that helps create innovative design ideas for concept cars, smart weapons and washing machines. Over the past few years, Waldemeyer has worked with the likes of Zaha Hadid, Ron Arad and Hussein Chalayan who have all availed themselves of his expert technical know how.

HeHe
Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen, the HeHe duo explore the territory that is the common ground for designers and artists. They have developed a concept of Cultural Reverse Engineering, that raises political, economical and sociological questions: to study a device or a software in order to modify its initial function is a way of re-appropriating the technology, in a world where most of us have no idea of the way everyday objects actually work nor how their cultural position has changed over time. The workshops they organize to “teach basic of DIY technologies, to students, artists and designers”, can be seen as a concrete application of that concept. HeHe is clearly related to the Lo-Fi philosophy (and it happens to be the title of one of their works), with its playful, yet serious, issues.

Usman Haque
has created responsive environments, interactive installations, digital interface devices and mass-participation performances. His skills include the design of both physical spaces and the software and systems that bring them to life. He has been an invited researcher at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy, artist-in-residence at the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, Japan and has also worked in USA, UK and Malaysia. As well as directing the work of Haque Design + Research he was until 2005 a teacher in the Interactive Architecture Workshop at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London.

the POOCH
explore non-navigational spaces and interfacelessness. They use less technology, not useless technology and they like extreme prototyping. thePOOCH also prefer to build rather than blog. thePOOCH is a young company with a wealth of experience in computer programming for mobile applications, interactive art installations, advertising and live events. thePOOCH’s team of programmers has 40+ years combined experience in software engineering, user interface design, computer networking and hardware development. thePOOCH work one-on-one with clients and end-users to design, develop and build interactive installations that are tailored for specific target audiences.

TROIKA
is a multi-disciplinary art and design practice founded in 2003 by Conny Freyer, Eva Rucki and Sebastien Noel, who met while studying at the Royal College of Art. Our backgrounds in graphic, product design and communication allow us to engage in work that is at the intersection of the three disciplines, thinking of design as communication art. We develop a variety of self-initiated and commissioned projects that are both engaging and demanding to the user, from printed matter to product design and custom installations. Our approach focuses on the contamination between the arts and design disciplines and is born out of the same love for simplicity, playfulness, and an essential desire for provocation.

Greyworld
In 1993 Andrew Shoben founded Greyworld in Paris. Greyworld’s goal is to create works that articulate public spaces, allowing some form of self-expression in areas of the city that people see every day but normally exclude and ignore.

Jason Bruges Studio
is a Shoreditch based studio producing a diverse range of work that includes interactive light sculptures, interactive environments, events and screen-based installations. We explore the use of interactivity with the public and environment through the use of highly imaginative technologies. Jason Bruges Studio specialises in 'interactive light environments', from installations on the streets ofNew York to London's South Bank.

The Owl Project
make sculpture, music and sound art, notably the Log1K, Sound Lathe, Sound Chair and iLog. Drawing on influences such as woodworking, hobby style electronics and open source software to create music-making machines, they take a craft-based approach to designing their own interfaces and objects. The result is a distinctive range of musical and sculptural instruments that critique human interaction with computer interfaces and our increasing appetite for new and often disposable technologies.

Lucy Bullivant
is an architectural curator, critic and author. Lucy has worked internationally with leading museums, galleries, cultural institutions, publishers and corporate bodies since 1987. Her latest book, Responsive Environments: Architecture, Art and Design (V&A Contemporary, 2006), explores the hybrid discipline of interactive architecture and design. She regularly contributes to Domus, The Plan, a+u, Volume, Architectural Record and Indesign, some of the world's most authoritative international architectural magazines.

Thursday 26 June, 2008
Faculty of Engineering, Computing, and Creative Industries
Napier University
Merchiston Campus
10 Colinton Road
Edinburgh EH10 5DT

Places are limited and cost £20.00 each (which will include a publication of the speakers’ essays published after the event).

Creativity (event)

The final Product Scotland workshop (supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Methods Network programme) was held at The Lighthouse (Scotland's Centre for Architecture and Design) on 17th December. The subject for this workshop was 'Creativity'. The day started with a presentation from Craig Whittet and Alex Milton about various understandings of and approaches to creativity. There followed some exercises for those attending in hastily assembled groups that tried to show that less-structured, nonlinear approaches to problem solving were more creative. However, given that most of the groups immediately tried to subvert the system as presented, it was actualy hard to tell which approach was more or less creative (it was all very wacky). The organizers had addressed this aspect of the workshop with the subtitle/caveat 'Preaching to the Converted'.

The organizers of the other 3 workshops were then invited to provide a brief review of the outcomes of these for the benefit of those that had not attended them. We were then introduced to the brief for the day's main activity. This consisted of working in groups to produce a 'pitch' for a project, product or service that was to be developed in response to the overarching workshop themes of 'Future Body, Future Food and Future City'. We were encouraged to begin discussing ideas over lunch and informed that representatives of the funding body Nesta would be attending our presentations.

The pitches ended up being quite diverse and involved everything from slide presentations, paper prototypes of interactive web-based applications, systems models and mocked-up business plans. Each group had 5 minutes to pitch. As in the other workshops the most striking thing about the results was the breadth and scope of what can be achieved in a ridiculously short amount of time by disparate individuals that embrace the spirit of the event with a sense of adaptability.

A Product Scotland DVD has been produced, a book is in the works and eventually more documentation of the 4 events will go up on the Product Scotland website. There are also discussions occurring to make subsequent funding bids for more money to conduct more events in the future. If you want to know more contact Paul Rodgers on 0131 455 2313 or at p.rodgers@napier.ac.uk

de-form (event)

Thursday 6th December was the third Product Scotland workshop (supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Methods Network programme). The subject for this workshop was: scanning, sampling and rapid prototyping. It was introduced and led by Jon Pengelly and was held at Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen. Again the themes explored were: Future Body, Future Food and Future City with an emphasis on the use of computer-based technologies to transition between the digital and the physical and vice versa. The workshop explored how these technologies are impacting on the traditional role of the product designer. Participants were asked to bring to the workshop an object that they had a personal emotional attachment to, or something associated with food on the move, personal space or urban escapism. The workshop went something like this:

10.30 – 11.00 Arrival and coffee
11.0 - 11.30 Jon Pengelly: overview - themes & format for the day
11.30 – 11.45 Geoffrey Mann: scanning moths & clouds
11.45 – 1.00 Body scanning
1.00 – 1.45 Lunch
1.45 - 2.00 John Marshall: 21st Century transformations in manufacturing
2.00 - 3.45 Group working: generating and manipulating data from digital scans, printing work from body scanning, object scans etc.
3.45 – 4.00 Coffee
4.00 – 5.30 Finishing up and bringing together thoughts related to theme
6.00 – 8.00 Reception at Peacock Visual Arts

This workshop was slightly different than the previous two (see below). There was certainly more of an emphasis on computing. However, there was the same focus on the 'hands-on' that has carried through all the workshops. Various strategies were explored to make digital objects physical and physical objects digital. These ranged from the 'misuse' of ultra high tech 3D scanners (e.g. moving around in a body scanner - it crashed) to 'rapid prototyping' that can be done on your kitchen table and 3D object scanning without a scanner. The slides from my presentation are below and some useful links can be found here.

| View | Upload your own

The next workshop will be about 'Creativity' and will be held at The Lighthouse in Glasgow on 17th December, 2007.

Generator.x 2.0: Beyond the screen (call)

Generator.x in collaboration with Club Transmediale and [DAM] are looking for 15 artists, designers and architects who have an existing practice based on generative systems and custom software, and who are interested in investigating physical formats through digital fabrication. The workshop will be practical in nature, and will produce a selection of works that will be included in the exhibition at [DAM]. Participants will have access to an on-site laser cutter, and an introduction to this technology will be part of the workshop.

The deadline for application is December 21, 2007, accepted participants will be notified at the beginning of January 2008.

LINK

Digital Product Design (event)

On Friday 23rd November was the second Product Scotland workshop (supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Methods Network programme). The subject for this workshop was the emerging field of digital product design. It was introduced and led by Jon Rogers and was held at the Visual Research Centre (VRC) at University of Dundee. Following on from the previous workshop, the themes explored were: Future Body, Future Food and Future City. These were explored through augmenting a found or bought object acquired by doing a rapid "city-sample". Basically we all went out and got something and brought it back to the VRC where we spent the afternoon enhancing these objects by embedding a piece of electroluminescent (EL) material into them. Afterwards there was a reception at Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) to look at the objects and talk about the day's activities. There was an emphasis on not being intimidated by the technology (in this case it really couldn't have been simpler) and having fun with it. Which we did. Like the previous workshop, the surprising thing was how much can be done in a short period.

The next workshop will be at Gray's School of Art on 6th December, 2007.

Research Methods for Design (event)

Yesterday was the first Product Scotland workshop (supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Methods Network programme). The subject for this workshop was the use of ethnography as a research method in design. The schedule and brief were as follows:

Emerging Research Methods for Product Design Workshop
Thursday 8 November, 2007

10:30 – Arrive Napier University, Merchiston Campus and have tea or coffee

11:00 – Meet and Greet – introduce the day’s activities

11:30 – Introductions (between people)

12:00 – Kick off Project

Future Body, Future Food, Future City

What will the future body, food and city look like? How have the things we carry on our body changed during the last decade? What do we regularly carry to and from work? Will our body have to adapt to the pressures of the future?

How have our food consumption patterns changed? How do deal with the transaction of food for cash? What kinds of conversations do we have about food? Do we really enjoy eating or is it a task that we just do to survive?

Are cities of today prepared for tomorrow? How do we exploit the physical man made structures of the city? How do we alter or adapt the purpose or context of things in the city to meet our end needs, wants and desires?

Please remember, that it may be the little things (minutiae) that will reap the real insights into the future body, food or city. Someone once said “The Devil is in the detail”, so perhaps you should focus on the little things and leave the grand phenomena to someone else.

12:30 – Research – explore – investigate - observe

13:30 – Return to studio – Food served - analyse & interpret data collected

14:00 – Analyse & interpret data collected

14:30 – Start presentation

15:00 – Prepare work for presentation

16:00 – Pin up work

16:30 – Reflection and discussion of the day’s activities

17:00 – End of the day’s activities

Move exhibition and materials to Edinburgh College of Art (eca)

18:00 – ‘Open Evening’ opens

19:30 – ‘Open Evening’ closes

There were about 30 participants in the workshop from very diverse backgrounds. After a brief introduction we were all sent out into the city armed with digital cameras to explore aspects of 'user-artefact interaction' and to listen to and observe people doing everyday things. Then it was back to the studio to compile our findings as montages of images and texts. Karen Magazine was indicated as an example of what we were aiming for. One of the reasons we created Product Scotland was to create a network through using our design skills rather than talking about it - as at a typical conference. This was certainly the case. Each participant produced a book within a few hours and we gathered at Edinburgh College of Art to look at these and round off the day with a drink. I think everyone's expectations for these books were surpassed. There are some outstanding individual efforts and collectively they offer up insights about familiar activities. Eventually some of these will appear on the Product Scotland website.

The next workshop will be held at University of Dundee on 23 November 2007.