Whoops

The last post was a bit of an overreaction. A massive overreaction. The kind of reaction you get when you put a mentos into a coke bottle. Turns out I had Richard and Karina. And I scared the crap out of them with my research and enthusiasm. I was feeling a little lack-luster after so I took a day and jumped onto evolo and found some random inspiration. 


ChairBedStool
Design & Construction by Thoman Hiemann and Markus Dilger
Creates in the project group ID5, UdK Berlin with Prof. Burkhard Schmitz (no relation) and Katina Sostmann. 

I think, from the evolo page, that it was about "permanent adaption of the surface to the human body." By itself, the object looks like a reincarnated medieval torture device, due to its plastic clusters and elastic rods and geometric patterning and rigid segments and whatnot. BUT IT IS FREAKING AWESOME. It reacts to body movement and alters perceptions (or at least my perceptions) of static or stationary furniture. 

Im not entirely sure why this project is so interesting. Its a bit star-trekky. I want to see it in a long expansive structure. Adult trampoline.

Kinetic Energy Lamp

Designed by Dr. Margot Krasojević, the 3D printed nylon polymer lamp is suspended by a spindle. Its weight and form dictate the momentum as it spins which is affected by minor environmental change eg temp and current, all which change light patterns. Then there are some rather interesting words which talk about technology and physics. What I can decipher is that the light has been influenced by the physics behind ice skaters and spinning tops.

I think they are so interesting due to their convergence over a number of disciplines. To me they could represent energy efficiency, organic structure systems, dance, sea life, new forms of technologies, the combination of physics and design for interiors, art, etc etc. Maybe its ambiguity is what is intriguing to me. Without information on the product and no real conventions to rely on, its hardly a known object. Yep. It could be anything. I like that idea most of all.

Breathing Metal

USC architect Prof. Doris Kim Sung design this "Bloom" installation made of 14,000 pieces of thermobimetal. That is, two thin sheets of metal with different expansion rates laminated together. The metal reacts to temperature with a direct correlation to the sun. I dont find the structure nearly as impressive as the technology itself. Metal that moves. Paradox!

Archilume

Saleem Khattak designed this energy efficient LED lighting, a luminaire that evokes the best qualities of incandescent lights: warmth, comfort and intimacy. Diffusers and cylindrical casing stops the glare from a visible light source. This is a perfect example of subtle complexity pwning overtly complex systems. I WANT ONE. Or a bunch. Put me down for a bunch. They have invert candle like qualities, in LED form.

Photophore

A 3D responsive veil operated by a smart phone. Designed for the Luminale 2012 in Germany, Kollision installation is a 5 story veil of light. People are able to scan those stupid QR codes into their phones and swipe the installation to the side. Jochen Schroder & Katja Winkelmann who planned the project along with Martin Professional (hardware & installation) and Kollision who developed the interaction & programmed the interactive player. They used photoshop software built in C++ and Cinder library to create the real-time 3D responsive wall. A website was built to assist the interaction.

I really like works that invite the audience to participate, engage and direct the result in some way. They provide a realisation of the audiences' affect on design and prove that the works are acknowledged on various levels of understanding. 

Blobs. Blubber. FLUBBER.

Ok. So i went and raided the internet, yes the whole internet, and after being distracted by rather stupid youtube videos I found something more visually similar to the amorphous form growing in my mind (and scrappily on paper....and partially on maya). These next images are happier forms of what I am going for. 


Made in 2009, this is a 45foot wall commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It is part of a series P_Wall (started in 2006). It is "an evolution of the earlier work exploring the self-organisation of material under force." From design studio Matsys, established by Andrew Kudless in 2004.

How its done: plaster. Its a wall of plaster. They used lycra and dowel rods to get this undulating effect. Pretty interesting to listen to the artist.




Greg Lynn is the next guy who does cool stuff with FORM!

Yeah. He has been working on this stuff for years, and you can see why. I think the series started production...could be wrong. Probably wrong. From his site here: http://glform.com/ you can find his expansive array of works. The blobby walls are "an interior product designed for Panelite using a reinvented hollow plastic rotomolded brick that is custom cut by Computer Numerically Controlled robot arm, assembled and heat welded into freestanding walls and enclosures." 

Now you've got that image in your head, add random expansions, bigger orbs, pulsing light and/or vibration. And ignore the plastic. Think bean bags. Bean Bags. That is a better analogy than frogs eggs. Why didn't that occur to me earlier. 

And a last image to imprint into your brain...or heart.

BOOM! A ceramic heart light "Cuore Sacro"  (Sacred Heart) designed by Tania da Cruz (awesome name). Apparently it is inspired by the representation of the heart in Christian iconography.

You can find her site here: taniadacruz. Its a pretty cool site. 

Now, I'm off to do some sketching and computer modelling. Though, honestly, it probably isnt going to go very far tonight.

Happy Good Friday!




Anish Kapoor

Everyone at the moment is going on about Anish Kapoor. Everyone. He's exhibiting at the MCA in Sydney, Circular Quay and for the low low price of $20 you can fall into the rabbit hole and have a squiz into his crazy mind. He's a total bad-ass when it comes to material experimentation and creates weird, abstract, atmospheric sculptures? I question the term sculptures, just because if you see his stuff, it feels more live environment-creation or spatial-manipulation or whatever. 

You can find the link here: anishkapoor

Seriously! Who comes up with this? What kind of thinking creates this? Is Lewis Carroll hanging around? Is his literary nonesense jumping all around the MCA? 

I don't understand this kind of creation, but you don't really need to do you? Its all about experience right? So why the post?

My project has developed, as one should hope, and at the moment its looking more like an installation piece... not really accommodating for student housing. So really im working outside of constraints which is pretty much the wrong thing to do. In the presentations Brad Miller was talking about my client base - which I dont have. I thought about creating one. But i'm not really designing for a client. I have an end user - but im totally disregarding them. Maybe i should adjust the end user? Or should i utilise a client eg an exhibition space coordinator? Brad Miller suggested that i'm fighting against the restraints of projects in previous years. 

Back to the concept - a visual in my mind kinda feels like Anish Kapoors' style. At the moment I'm thinking of pulsing walls and parts of walls that become organic shapes and press in on the space. So I just looked up pictures of tumours and frog eggs to try and give a wee insight into what im going on about. That...well that was the wrong move. Don't do that. Ever. 

I've tried finding pics that would illustrate what im going on about but here is the best I can come up with (mostly because my illustrations are just...shocking. Gonna model it soon in CAD and hopefully that will go better). What im thinking is a combination of:

 + +

Well, maybe not Elmo. That thing is creepy though. And shakes. But mostly is creepy. Probably could have just stuck up picture of a ringing phone. Seriously, dont look up tumours. Or frog eggs.