Computing for Emergent Architecture

The End of Computing for Emergent Architecture

Alasdair Turner — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:22:00 +0000

As you may have noticed, the Computing for Emergent Architecture blog has always been a bit of a one man show. Tom Carden has often been prolific with his posts, but unfortunately he is leaving us for sunnier climes.

We wish him well, but with his leaving it is time to roll up this blog. We will be replacing it with a new roll up of student blogs, so watch this space, but this will be the last post from this feed.

Goodbye, we hope you've enjoyed reading the blog, and hope you'll return to the new page in the future, where we hope to post examples of Processing sketches by the students.

Futuresonic, Manchester, July 20-23 2006

Tom Carden — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 22:38:00 +0000

Manchester's technology and music festival Futuresonic is next week. I'll be taking part in the Social Technologies Summit as part of Urban Play. I'm on a panel with Stanislav Roudavski and Matt Webb entitled Iterative Architecture (Built on an Internet of Things):

SMS and low grade media have swept all before them over recent years, with games consoles a lonely ghetto for high end visualisation, but there are now some signs of integration with a resurgence of interest in shared 3D virtual worlds such as Second life. Coming from this background Tom Carden, Matt Webb and Stanislav Roudavski look at how models of behaviour derived from games, anthropology, sensors and mobile devices can feed back into the experience and iterative design of buildings, real and virtual.

Architectural Pac-Man

Tom Carden — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:03:00 +0000

... → Architectural Pac-Man → Endgame → Urban Konsumterror → ...

(via the visually inspiring garuda.stumbleupon.com)

Electronic Democracy Spaces

doompop — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 20:08:00 +0000

Electronic Democracy Spaces
Maybe an alternative proposal for the use of infromation technology and virtual spaces...

Intelligent Environments IE06

doompop — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 19:47:00 +0000

2nd International Conference on Intelligent Environmnets IE06.
5 - 6 July 2006, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Realtime occupancy display trial at UCL

Tom Carden — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 12:05:00 +0000

An EngD VEIV group project is running a trial today and tomorrow at UCL. Katrin Jonas writes:

We are monitoring the number of people entering and leaving the Bloomsbury café plus observing their distribution within the café area through beam breaking gates and a vision system. Via Bluetooth and wireless network we then send the information to a database. Right in front of the entrance of Gordon’s café we have placed a display, showing the live occupation of the alternative café which is taking the records from the database, again using wireless network. This way we offering information on a remote location at the moment of decision offering information on an alternative choice should the place they are looking at be full.

I'll be visiting tomorrow and will try and post some photos.

Open Day 2006

Alasdair Turner — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 16:51:00 +0000

The MSc Adaptive Architecture & Computation is holding an Open Day on Saturday 24th June and Sunday 25th June 2006 in the Haldane Room in the UCL main quad, just next door to the Bartlett Summer Show.

Elsewhere

Tom Carden — Wed, 24 May 2006 09:19:00 +0000

The Barbican's Future City exhibition seems essential, though Matt Jones would like to see it go further into the 21st century and deal with gaming and avant-garde architecture.

Nintendo has dubbed the Revolution the Wii, given a demo of a drumming game, and terrified parents everywhere. At least Steven Spielberg seems to like it. Meanwhile, Sony has made an augmented reality card game.

I'm still excited about everything I hear about Spore, and so is Robin Williams. That makes three from Tara Teich's E3 coverage; her blog Free Candy For Everyone is worth a read.

Golan Levin's SAP annual report visualisation is gorgeous. Golan joined Marius Watz and Processing.org's Ben Fry and Casey Reas to run a workshop in Barcelona recently; Marius's blog Code & Form covered the details.

On his GeneratorX blog, Marius Watz gives a good overview of theverymany, Marc Fornes' blog on his experiments in computational architecture.

Dan Hill writes at length about many stimulating topics. His recent answer to the question "What can interaction designers learn about adaptability from architecture?" provides food for thought.

Aaron Koblin has usurped Amazon's mechanical turk for the doodling of 10000 left-facing sheep, paying contributors an average of 69 cents per hour. Aaron was also responsible for last year's stunning Flight Patterns visualisation.

Computing for Emergent Architecture contributor and current MSc AAC student Martha has started her own blog at Martharch, available in the sidebar from today.

Sonic Projections

pam1n0 — Tue, 16 May 2006 12:39:00 +0000

Sonic Projections (interactive demo + extra content @ martharch.net/blog) is both a generative structure and an interactive installation. It seeks the creation of a new Dynamic Space: a responsive environment that not only interacts with people when triggered, but also seeks interaction. Scripted with Processing it was the project I have presented in the Transformative City framework (Computing for Emergent Achitecture 2 - MSc Adaptive Architecure and Computation course - Bartlett).

flash presentation
(1Mb)

Resarch

Tom Carden — Thu, 11 May 2006 20:23:00 +0000

Resarch.net is a blog from Brett Steele, Director of the Architecture Association School of Architecture in London. It's much more frequently updated than this blog!

(via Marius Watz's great new workshop blog, Code and Form)

MSc Adaptive Architecture and Computation

Tom Carden — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:10:00 +0000

Computing for Emergent Architecture is the weblog of the MSc Adaptive Architecture and Computation at University College London. If you're interested in the things we talk about here, and the wider range of work outlined on the course site, then you might like to consider applying for the course.

A quick message from our sponsor follows:

The MSc Adaptive Architecture and Computation is the Bartlett's one-year taught MSc in the field of digital design.

The aim of the course is to understand how the combined knowledge of computation, society and space can bring about a revolution in how we approach architecture.

Taught modules examine the background to this trinity, covering generative approaches to process, the effect of interactive media on how we define product, and the role of space in the formation of society. In particular, emphasis is placed on how computation can improve the design and experience of architecture, rather than simply be a mechanical tool for its representation.

Throughout the course, studio time is dedicated to scripting skills within a series of workshops especially for novice programmers. During these sessions, students are taught the Processing computing language. Processing was developed at MIT and the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in order to give designers an easy introduction to powerful programming concepts, and, through the MSc AAC, UCL was among the first institutions in the UK to teach the language.

Through their dissertation projects, students are encouraged to take part in live research projects with the Bartlett's VR Centre, one of the world’s leading architecture research centres, and part of the Bartlett's Space Group, flagged as the highest 5* level of international research in the UK’s Research Assessment Exercise.

By the end of the course, it is hoped that students will have experienced university research at the highest level, gained useful practical knowledge in programming skills transferable to arts and architecture, and formed a rounded understanding of digital design.

The course is intended for graduates and professionals from a range of creative backgrounds, including architects and urban planners as well as interior and graphic designers and artists.

Guest lecturers during the 2005-2006 year included Hugh Whitehead, Usman Haque, Tom Carden and Mark Burry. Internal lecturers include Bill Hillier, Alan Penn, Sean Hanna, Ava Fatah gen. Schieck and course director Alasdair Turner.

There was also a one week Microstation Generative Components Workshop, led by Robert Aish, Director of Research at Bentley Systems, as well as a one week Digital Space Workshop run by Ava Fatah gen. Schieck.

Dust and Scratches

Tom Carden — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:51:00 +0000

Thanks to its cut-up ipod shuffle inspired music, Islands of Consciousness is a candidate for the most compelling serendipitous Flickr image remix ever. Like the best art, it's ever so slightly disturbing, but I can't look away.

The unseen video couldn't more accurately reflect the world outside my window if it tried. (Compare the grey and sombre visuals it made for me with Marius Watz's photos of his recent London trip.)

Schulze and Webb are playing with spatial metaphors and embodied interaction for presentations. Counterpoint is worth a look if you're investigating this area. Will someone nail the Spatial Method and find their way into the Presentation Zen hall of fame?

You Are Here tracks and visualises people moving through a museum. Michael Hansmeyer's Algorithms in Architecture has a wealth of imagery and well-documented research.

Ueda and Kaido On Creating Cult Classics tells the story of the creation of Shadow of the Colossus and Ico, its critically acclaimed and much neglected predecessor. Google Video provides extra depth with the Ico development trailer. Google Video also allows Will Wright's one hour Spore talk to resurface; my excited comments from last year are here. A technical tutorial for a Real-time Procedural Universe.

Soundtoys has relaunched with a Web2.006 compliant API. UVA blew us away at the V&A (Jason Bruges was my other pick. Crystal Punks in London, 22nd March. Take the hyperbole and joyous abuse of language with a pinch of salt and join us for interesting discussions, presentations and hacking.

Eyebeam has a finger on the pulse. Detouch unpicks the painstaking work of fashion-shoot photoshopping (cf. Clayton Cubitt's behind the scenes for Metropop Denim). OGLE: The OpenGL Extractor could provide a useful shortcut from algorithm to blue-print, without the need to deal with file formats yourself.

A 1970 Scientific American article on Conway's Life is full of wonder without needless reverence. A 1964 New Scientist article ponders "How The Computer Can Help The Designer". Shiralee Saul has an article on Computers and the Development of Interactivity.

Alec Rivers' Physical is a physics engine which allows objects to bend, break and tear. Ricard Marxer's Caligraft has typographical style and substance. KrazyDad has a Processing sketchbook.

Stamen make "beautiful things that build themselves". Cabspotting traces taxi movements through San Francisco (cf. OpenStreetMap's visualisation and animation of courier movements through London).

The tour de force that is Dumpster (Whitney/Tate) now comes with context and documentation that was unfortunately lacking on launch.

An inexpensive video panorama system. Notes on the denial of perspective 1, or: how to hide a battle ship. Fugi, a discussion forum with a spatial layout. Mechanical embodiment for a slime mould robot. Devil Dust Bunnies on the Milan Metro makes the most of all that hanging around.

Lifted from my last few weeks of del.icio.us links. With apologies to Things Magazine for the borrowed format, and thanks for the recent links.

Real-time Ego-centric Isochronic Maps?

Tom Carden — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:03:00 +0000

At yesterday evening's dorkbotlondon, Dave Chatting briefly presented his isochronic maps of driving times from Ipswich to UK coastal towns. Dave noted that river mouths open wider due to bridges being in-land, a nice result of his concentration on the coastline in order to accurately morph the whole island.

Dave's observation that travel time maps are dependent on time of day set me thinking about a real-time version of this kind of map. In Ipswich, if you miss the train, London edges further away and gradually contracts towards you as the next train departure time approaches. If you miss the last train to London, it will take you 6 hours to get there instead of 1 hour.

In London's real-time isochronic travel map, I imagine that destinations would overwhelmingly beat to the pulse of the tube: a 3 minute rhythm, you either have it or you don't. South London would shift in and out to the 10 minute beat of the overground network. In the small hours central london would relax momentarily, erratically phasing with the best attempts of the night bus services, whilst London's commuter belt would be repelled, only to be sucked in once more with the first trains of the day.

Waiting

Tom Carden — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:43:00 +0000

Usman Haque points me at the Waiting project from 2002 by Frances Crowe and Josephine Pletts. I'm taken with this temporal topography investigation, which illustrates the differences in perceived vs actual distances of travel in London, and in particular the comparison between perceptions at different times of day.

The follow-up narrative sketches, Timescapes, describe integrating adaptive temporal maps into spaces for waiting:

I make a detour to the halo
which marks the location of
a waiting portal. I stand on
the temporal map as close to
the Highbury mark as I can.
The play of light from the
halo above describes the
temporal topography of
London.

I'm interested in the possibility of a walkable interface for my own temporal tube maps, and also the issue of how travel time and waiting times are intrinsically linked, which ties in neatly with thoughts on Dave Chatting's Ipswich maps too.

Computer Programming as an Art

Tom Carden — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 16:13:00 +0000

"It seems to me that if the authors I studied were writing today, they would agree with the following characterization: Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer; and if we don't fully understand something, it is an art to deal with it. Since the notion of an algorithm or a computer program provides us with an extremely useful test for the depth of our knowledge about any given subject, the process of going from an art to a science means that we learn how to automate something."

From Donald Knuth's 1974 ACM Turing Award Lecture, Computer Programming as an Art. More recommended reading at Babar K Zafar's Classic Texts in Computer Science.