a2o installation by Jonathan Grinham was developed as a full-scale prototype designed within Michael Fox’s classification of dynamic kinetic structure. These systems are understood to be singular systems able to actively influence localized climates within a building system. In the case of a2o, the design was based on the narrative of a sun-shading interface.

The design focuses on the capacity for realization. Therefore, a plug and play nodal design was adopted. A nodal design allowed a2o to have a small profile in elevation as well as a singular physical connection to the system’s framework. The use of a nodal system also shifted the understanding of a2o from an architecture that required a host building to an architectural product that was an expandable piece/part system. The team envisioned a bottom up design for the physical construction within a top down computational logic. Each unit contains dedicated sensors (infrared range finder and photocell) and dedicated actuators (linear actuator, RGB LED, and piezo buzzer). Sensory data collected by each individual unit is relayed to a master controller – in this case an Arduino microprocessor – which controls a pixel of five units. The master controller would then describe an action for the individual units to perform in direct relationship to the sensory data it collected. If the master controller recognizes a specific set of data – in this case no data – it could then describe a preset task for all of the units within its pixel to perform, producing a top down response. This logic structure, described as cellular automaton, allows for the piece/part system to be expanded infinitely as each pixel within the system becomes a unit within the subsequent pixel.

To understand a2o fully we present a narrative//

A field of extended a2o units is arrayed across a building’s southern curtain wall, the morning sun peers around the adjacent building and each unit slowly compresses, blossoming proportionally to the amount of light it senses. The result is an emergent texture driven by the light and shadows of the surrounding environment. As the day continues, the units compress to a fully open state nesting within one another to produce an opaque surface, fully shading the space within. The building occupants arrive and the façade takes on a new aesthetic – the building becomes a living poché. As the users circulate through the space, their silhouettes are impressed upon the field as fenestrations moving through the facade. The individual units extend out from their contracted state when their localized distance sensor perceives users in the space. The result is an isolated view for the users. As the sun falls, the units return to an extended state, having completed their daily task, but their work is not finished. At night a2o once again seeks out its human counterparts. In this case, however, when a user is present, a2o compresses and illuminates, providing the user with light and privacy. a2o also has a logic of its own. As the day slows a2o recognizes that nightly activities decrease, and it feels bored. In this situation, if a2o has not sensed users in the space for a given period of time, it is capable of displaying a topographic image across its surface, providing a range of information or possibly replaying the more exciting events of the day.

Resonant Chamber developed by RVTR is an interior envelope system that deploys the principles of rigid origami to transform the acoustic environment through dynamic spatial, material and electro-acoustic technologies. Our aim is to develop a soundsphere able to adjust its properties in response to changing sonic conditions, altering the sound of a space during performance and creating an instrument at the scale of architecture, flexible enough that it might be capable of being played.

The project is developed through three streams of iterative research and development in both computational testing and full-scale prototype installation: Dynamic Surface Geometries; Performative Material Systems; and Variable Actuation and Response. Resonant Chamber is funded through the 2011 Research through Making Grant, U-M Office of the Vice President for Research, 2011 Small Projects Grant, U-M Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Research Creation Grant.

Patterned by Nature was created by
Plebian Design – plebiandesign.com
Hypersonic Design & Engineering - hypersoniced.com
Patten Studio – pattenstudio.com
Sosolimited – sosolimited.com

Processing es un lenguaje de programación de código abierto para personas que desean crear imágenes, animaciones e interacciones. Inicialmente desarrollado para servir como un cuaderno de bocetos de software y para enseñar los fundamentos de programación dentro de un contexto de procesamiento visual, también se ha convertido en una herramienta para generar trabajo profesional.

En la actualidad estudiantes, artistas, diseñadores, investigadores y aficionados utilizan Processing para el aprendizaje, desarrollo de prototipos y la producción.

La finalidad del workshop es que el alumno reconozca la interfaz y lenguaje de processing,interpretando y comprendiendo códigos a un nivel de introducción a la herramienta para generar gráficos en tiempo real.

/////Ciudad de México

Imparte: Eduardo Jiménez
Cupo: 10 personas
Requerimientos : Computadora personal con Processing instalado -> www.processing.org
Fechas: Mayo 5 y 12.
Costo: $1800
Horarios: 10 AM a 5PM + break para comida
Dirección : Instalaciones de Cocolab- Hotpixel www.hotpixel.mx
Lago Texcoco 112-D Colonia Anahuac ,Delegación Miguel Hidalgo.

Inscripciones y +info en: workshops@hotpixel.mx

//////Monterrey

Imparte: Josué Ibáñez
Eduardo Jiménez
Requerimientos : Computadora personal con Processing instalado www.processing.org
Fechas: 4 al 8 de Junio.
Horarios: 9 AM a 6PM
Lugar : Centro de Estudios de Estudios Superiores de Diseño de Monterrey ( CEDIM )
+Info en:
http://www.cedim.edu.mx/cursos/

rAndom International explores the relationship between the animate and inanimate; the natural and artificial.Their experimental installations encourage a distinctly physical interaction between an object and its viewer, often by means of light and kinaesthesia.

Wayne McGregor CBE is a multi award-winning British choreographer, renowned for his physically testing choreography and ground-breaking collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science. He is the Artistic Director of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, Resident Company at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London and Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet (appointed 2006). In January 2011, McGregor was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).

Max Richter is a German-born, British composer, trained in composition and piano at Edinburgh University, at the Royal Academy of Music, and with Luciano Berio in Florence. Max’s recent work continues to stretch the notions of what Classicalmusic is. ‘24 Postcards In Full Colour’, released in August 2008, is an experimental work made up of 24 composed ringtones. Max works widely in film music, installation and the theatre, most recently on INFRA, made with Wayne MacGregor and Julian Opie for The Royal Ballet, London. Max was named 2008
European Composer Of The Year for his score to Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir, for which he was also nominated for the Prix France Musique.

MADE
MADE is a creative platform for artists from various fields, located in the heart of Berlin.
It can be a gallery, a workspace, a studio, a stage, a laboratory, or a performance space – but most of all, it is a
venue for interdisciplinary projects that invites artists to step out of their artistic routines. The goal of MADE is to enable a new kind of creative work by bringing together different artistic fields and offering a workspace and an inspiring biotope that allows new things to happen.

Saturday, April 28: Premiere performance, invitation only.
Sunday, April 29: Three further performances will take place at 12pm, 3pm and 5pm, open to the public.
RSVP by April 23rd at futureself@made-blog.com. Capacity is limited.
The ‘Future Self’ exhibition at MADE will be open to the public:
Duration: May 3, 2012 – June 2, 2012
Days: Thursday – Saturday
Time: 2pm – 7pm
MADE
Alexanderstrasse 7, 10178 Berlin
info@made-blog.com
Web: www.made-blog.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MADE.SPACE
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MADE_Blog

Torstrasse 68
10119 Berlin
+49. 30 25 76 28 75
julia.winkels@boldberlin.com

With this noisy chemistry lab, the gamer will create his own jelly with water and a few grams of agar agar powder. After added different color, the mix is then pour in the molds. 10 min later, the jelly shape can then be placed on the game board,and by touching the shape, the gamer will activate different sounds.

Technically, the game board is a capacitive sensor, and the variations of the shape and their salt concentration, the distance and the strength of the finger contact are detected and transform into an audio signal.
This object aims to demonstrate that electronic can have a new aesthetic, and be envisaged as a malleable material, which has to be manipulated and experimented.

Author: Raphaël pluvinage pluvinage.eu
& Marianne Cauvard (mariannecauvard.fr)
at L’Ensci Les ateliers (ensci.com)

Project done in the semester course of François Azambourg and Clémentine Chambon
Thanks to Roland Cahen for his help (especially sorting out with Max/Msp)

Interactive Model Description
A network of infrared proximity sensors has been integrated into the four sides of the physical model. These sensors record the distance of gallery visitors to its edges. Information from these sensors is used to actuate the white feather-like “fog harvesting robots” and control the brightness of embedded LEDS. This model is an example of what Future Cities Labs call “live models”. Live models use the interaction of people to explore and simulate the potential effects of environmental forces such as fog, wind and sunlight.
Model Materials: Cast and thermoformed acrylic, custom printed circuit boards, Arduino based microcontrollers, infrared sensors, shape memory alloy motors (Courtesy of Miga Motor Company).

“The aim in Magic and Storytelling was to find a magical and engaging way to enhance a live performance with interactive graphics. The live component could be anything from a lecture to a performance. The augmentation layer is not pre-rendered. It is generated by a data flow system in real time and in reaction to the live elements. I think that this type of magic can help us to map out what that part of the future might feel like, where 3D projection and gestural sensing are intelligent and ubiquitous. The collaboration with onformative and checksum5 created the perfect synergies to explore my vision. vvvv proofed to be the ideal tool to develop this graphics and computational intensive app. Magic and illusion are a good sandbox for creativity. Adding the element of illusion to an existing technology allows us to create things that are otherwise not possible. An illusion takes a technology beyond its natural boundaries. Magic is a unique tool for pre-visualization.

By that I mean the illusion created is so convincing that the experience is almost indistinguishable from the reality. In time the advances in technology will turn the illusion into reality. But for now the illusion gives us a very good idea of what that technology might accomplish. Looking to the very near future, when every laptop or device has a 3D sensor built into it, imagine the entertainment and educational possibilities of a system like this, designed for face-to-face communication. Psychology and cognition, chemical and engineering, design and computer. These are all disciplines that are employed in magic. They are the tools of illusion but they are not liberally interfaced with other fields of research and that strikes me as a shame. For me the most progress is going to be made by embracing current and future technologies in the best way possible, by sharing and collaborating, and inventing new and seeminly impossible things.”