digital prosthetic

[digitalprosthetic]

013 - Architecture

Operations

paradox

obscure and clear

annotate

art and science

threshold

poche

permanence

ephemeral

Apricot

Parasite

Aesthetic Coherence

Radical Architecture

Chaos

balance

[digitalprosthetic]

012 - Robotics

Stretched blown up balloons thru the mockup model of the threshold of Marvin Hall entry. Blow up balloons while straddling the two sides of the project wall.

[digitalprosthetic]

011 - Living/Dynamic System

Updated notes for the presentation.

Material that changes with moisture (hydrogels and the example of diapers swelling). Moisture activation and material investigation.

*Hydrogels react to a current zap for release

Option 1: All modeling will be done physically (variety of surfaces to test in machine that I will need to create). This investigative technique will need to begin right away and will deal with physical surface manipulation and direct testing of surfaces. Mathematical surface area for physical models, calculate surface area and use certain material, etc as controls for experiment.

Is this for rain, water storage, fog, etc? Also self shading device?

How big will each of the rods be? (microscopic to brick size)

How much water can they hold? Holding tanks concept.

Can the capsules change shape depending on conditions?

We talked a lot about inspiration and the multiple natural systems I am interested in. Talking through my proposed prototype and the system I am interested in creating, a few of the natural systems quickly shifted to the rear in terms of what the focus of study is. Narrowing down to the Desert Beetle and stalactites will allow me to develop constructive investigation and better ideas for my project in the end. Narrowing thoughts and variables (’We as architects want to open open open, find more more inspiration. That is not a good, sustainable approach.’)

**Material Investigation

*Balloons come to mind

[digitalprosthetic]

010 - Living/Dynamic System

Use of gravity is needed. Fog and/or rain development (also water circulation for cooling and warming)

Water and how it reacts with certain skin and/or environments.

Animal <----------------------------------------> Stalactite

*Create spectrum of different surfaces that react with water (what are the textures?). Categorize how water reacts with these different types. Investigation into water includes plates, droplets, coarseness, and insulation.

System analysis:

Namibian Desert Beetle

Ecuador Hummingbird

Stalactite and Stalagmite

Human-made reference:

Fog nets

Artist Sebastian Errazuriz

Heatherwick Studio (UK Pavilion)

Deliverables:

Hybrid diagrams

Proposal for simulation

20x30 poster

[digitalprosthetic]

009 - Robotics

Meeting notes with Andrew...

Thresholds and Thickness (perceived thickness vs actual thickness)

Study of thickness in architecture (including castles all the way up until the 1950s stick-frame home to super modernity steel and glass)

More time to pass through threshold - drawn out

Today, modern architecture is about how little can we use to achieve the many things that make a building what it is in terms of thickness.

*Andrew talked about a professor he knew that did an entire thesis on corners in the architectural sense, and photographed many corners with surprising difference. Doorways pertains to this project in a more direct application.

Thresholds (as architectural passageway) looking at it as one side vs the other

Binary / Thickness / Subtractive or Additive

Passing through

Reconnecting with reality

What it means to be real

Poche in architecture drawings

Thomas Jefferson Monticello House (poche analysis)

Thick <------------------------------------------> Thin

Materials cost a lot of money as well as labor so thin building is cheaper today BUT threshold is still important to us and here are the reasons why.

PLAN drawings throughout time as survey of thickness and poche.

INCLUDE material and extract plans/representation through building plans and/or diagrams. IDENTIFY eras first.

Images and diagrams in the collection or timeline

*Heavy to light can also describe thick to thin

Possible Physical Projects:

Window insert or Door insert

Push pins with cue-type with Fabric “soft” surface pulled over pinned points (irony with thickness)

Surface texture with pins (Tiling from pins with material stretched over)

Doorways investigation

More Material Options:

Latex rubber

Form Inspiration:

Traveling (including highway travel)

Surfing wave (wave transparency in sunlight)

Blurred highway effect

White cube

“Nature of process” Richard Serra describing NO metaphor or easy imagery

[digitalprosthetic]

Sketch.

[digitalprosthetic]

Modeling Marvin Hall entry space.

[digitalprosthetic]

Marvin Hall entry as possible location for robotics experience.

[digitalprosthetic]

008 - Architecture

Work truck/landscape truck is my exact inspiration. A standard work truck you occasionally see driving around has everything that I would want in a building:

Function in rear

More form in the front

Materiality on both ends of spectrum (wood and metal to plastics, etc)

Straight and structured in rear, curved and formed in front

[digitalprosthetic]

007 - Architecture

Increasing scale = Decreasing Abstraction

So, as the scale gets larger and larger, the level of abstract ideas becomes less and less.

[digitalprosthetic]

006 - Robotics

Installation vs architectural use

Experimental vs practical

Aesthetic vs functionality

Utilitarian

Natural vs enhanced

Form vs function

Duality

Tension and Release

Light vs dark

Yin Yang

spacial vs sculptural

[digitalprosthetic]

005 - Robotics

After speaking with Andrew we discussed some of the things listed below:

Soft forms

Off the shelf vs One of a kind

Operation of determining objects in space (position manipulation)

Kinetic surfaces

*Attempting an additive process as opposed to a subtractive process that is similar to cutting foam and removing pieces (slicing foam away)

It quickly became a discussion about technique, and the options we may have for alternative arm attachments. We determined that carving and cutting has been the focus since setting up the KU Robots, posing the question of what else could be HELD instead of a hot knife or wire.

Surface vs experience (Or surface to experience)

Motion control

[digitalprosthetic]

004 - Architecture

Parameters

[digitalprosthetic]

003 - Robotics

Paint Stroke Analysis:

I DO NOT JUST WANT TO SEE PAINT STROKES ENLARGED

Representation vs typology based on the many painters

Mathematical formulation

Structure and form (Architecture and Art) (The structure would hold the form)

Repeatability 

Modularity

Cutting something that is only capable with a robot

More challenging tool to use, so why/what we are making should be challenging

Material Possibilities:

Clay

Sand

Developing Ideas:

Proof of concept (Keep this in mind)

Physicality of the final form

[digitalprosthetic]

002 - Architecture

I would like to continue my studies on the intersection between the digital and physical world and what it means to create architectural space today. My focus is on a newly defined space that exists by the combination of the two.

We are increasingly living in a world where we split our time in the physical and digital environments. When referring to the physical environment I mean existing and walking the Earth with our own two feet, the ultimate reality. Spotting in the distance a flower in bloom we can step up to it and grasp the petals in our hands, feeling the materiality, weight, and all of the factors that make up the beautiful object. Our senses give definition to each and every physical object, information that we organize and store away in our complex memory. The visual can often be the greatest sense when it comes to familiarity, as well as for discovery. Our eyes are the link between the physical and digital. The digital environment is composed of mostly visual, but also, at times, matched with listening of sounds. We inhabit the digital space through various means but the most popular is via the graphical user interface. Bright screens, as these devices are sometimes referred to as, emit a visual experience. Our memory processes and interprets these images based on our experience in the physical space. Valuing both of these experiences equally, we acknowledge that conducting an action in either domain can be quantifiable and rightfully can be compared against the other.

The amount of time humans experience the physical space versus the digital space is not all that different. If you choose to go for a walk in the park for 20 minutes you are experiencing something physical. But if you decide to watch a YouTube video listing the reasons ducks float on the surface of a pond for those same 20 minutes, you inhabit different space for the same duration of time.

The portal to experience digital space is still largely rooted in physical action. If we want to view a video, jot down a note in an application, or browse the internet, the way to do these things is by physical input.

Digital devices have come a long way in terms of providing mobility and having the mentality of ‘do everything on the go’. With enhanced capability of smaller products, the construction of physical space at an architectural scale becomes more challenging when accomplishing such tasks.

Objectives:

Conduct research with precedents and photography of utility objects in the field

Analysis of photographs and translation to three-dimensional models

Analysis of spacial relationships between physical and digital actions

Create spaces at an architectural scale that enhance and better utilize the physical environment when transfer in and out of physical and digital spaces.

Create architecture using three-dimensional modeling

Iterative design approach with periods of reflection and critique

Varying architectural scales including residential, office, and public spaces

[digitalprosthetic]

001

Welcome to digital prosthetic. This is a place where I hope to hash out ideas about architecture, space, and robotics in the coming weeks and beyond. I would like to post something whenever I find it or make it so this should be updated pretty often. I am combining three independent studies into one large body of work to start. Research and development will be split into three concentrations for school purposes, but my intension is to attack all with one focused mindset and practice.

Space Making with Robotics (SMR)

Architecture: Existing between Digital and Physical Worlds (ADP)

System Development: Learning from Nature (DLN)

I have many interests. My work spans many different scales and media. My focus for this body of work will look at the field of architecture. This is one of the larger scales and is often the most ambitious within the creative fields.