Design

Has anyone noticed the unfortunate trend of computer design where blobish, parametric perforated forms are becoming ubiquitous? The designs below have been presented recently by offices of varying quality, and taken together, they appear strikingly droll. While I am sure that some approaches and sites are well suited to such architecture, I am hard pressed to believe that so many qualify. The renderings are hoping to convince of quality, but instead, it reveals to me the lack of imagination currently gripping the biggest projects in the world. Offices are empowered by the computer in a way that was never before possible, but have not managed, in my opinion, to fully come to grips with this tool. Even Zaha, who is often at the front of quality computer designing, succumbs to some moments of ridiculous. Something new needs to happen.





 

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Via Jargon

Personal comment:

I agree. This has become boring and in the most cases (but not all) meaningful.

Personas [media.mit.edu] uses sophisticated natural language processing algorithms to create a detailed, visual data portrait of one's aggregated online identity.

Personas explores the web for information and attempts to characterize the person: to fit them to a predetermined set of categories that an algorithmic process created from a massive corpus of data. The computational process is visualized as a DNA-like, colorful strip with each stage of the analysis, finally resulting in the presentation of a seemingly authoritative personal profile.

Be sure to type in your own name in the online interface: is Personas able to analyze and represent your online identity in a sufficient way?

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Via Information aethetics

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Pas très intéressant comme visualisation, mais le projet à l'air intéressant.

The SIGGRAPH 2009 conference this year is trying out a new exhibition theme in the form of the "information aesthetics showcase". In the interview with infosthetics posted a while ago, the showcase curator Victoria Szabo revealed how this came about: the conference jury saw a lot of amazing information-driven work that did not fit the specific theme of the show, or demonstrate any one sufficiently new technical element to make it fit something like the Emerging Technologies venue either, although the works were worthwhile to be seen at the conference. Hence, the information aesthetics showcase was born, as "a place to show that fascinating work that talked back to the data, engaged it, transformed your understanding".

The new theme consists of 2 panel sessions, an art exhibition (description coming soon) and the keynote talk by Steven Nuebes.

Unfortunately, I missed the morning panel. Monday morning 8.30am proved to be to early for recuperating from a +20 hours flight and a -15 hours jet lag, registering on site and finding the correct location. However, the panelists lineup was impressive: Moritz Stefaner explained the Eigenfactor project, Norah Zuniga Shaw and Maria Palazzi showed Synchronous Objects, and Evan Tice presented Greenlite Dartmouth. Feedback from people who actually attended seemed to be unanimously positive, with a general consensus, from people independent from each other, that the Synchronous Objects project, which was the product of an elaborate three year long collaboration with choreographer William Forsythe, showed an unexpected depth and richness that it definitely requires a revisit for any information aesthetics fan. Moritz Stefaner shared his design process, including sketches of paths not taken and very intriguing "outtakes" resulting from coding errors. Unfortunately, Lorie Loeb, director of the Greenlite Dartmouth project, was not able to be there. Her collaborator, recent graduate Evan Tice, explained how the emotional resonance of the plight of a polar bear, can influence people's awareness of their use of energy.

The afternoon panel had some issues of its own. A continuous bad audio feed made some audience members cringe and even leave. The panel members' presentations (of which I myself was part) did barely touch each other, and might have made the topic seem overly broad and complex.

Michael Kelly, aesthetics expert and professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, described the issues involved in interpreting aesthetics in several relevant fields. He defined aesthetics as the "critical thinking about the norms (standards) of our cognitive and affective experiences in art, culture and nature" but also "in the interactivity that connects humans and computers", which always more apt than talking about just beauty and subjectivity. The use of sensible aesthetics in data visualization is required as data is non-sensuous in 2 ways: data processing can remain inaccessible to our senses (e.g. invisible) and data needs not generate or have any sensuous forms (besides code). Secondly, to be experienced or to generate experiences, and become intelligible, data has to take on some sort of sensuous form. This is the true challenge for visualization: finding the most suitable and enjoyable metaphor for essential non-visual insights.

Victoria Vesna explained the process behind her latest project The Katrina Project: NO-LA. NO-LA involves collaborators from art, design, behavioral science, journalism, and community outreach. A database-driven, activist web site explores the psychological and social effects of the storm and its aftermath through interviews with, and works by various artists in New Orleans and Los Angeles. It is also based on material and information about the Katrina disaster retrieved by undergraduate students, which was then designed into infographical posters. The website aims to become a database of works by moviemakers, photographers, and others in the creative community that work around the topic of Katrina.

Paul Fishwick, editor of the book Aesthetic Computing, discussed this very topic from the viewpoint of teaching a creative computer science course. Computing, seen as mathematical structures such as data and structure (e.g. sequence, branching, iteration, encapsulation), can be seen as possessing aesthetic qualities. Here, aesthetic is more about input/output and about structure, as software can have a wide audience. Software is as much about experience and interaction as about analysis and performance.

The fourth speaker was yours truly, showing the wide spectrum of information aesthetic works, a model that suggest 3 criteria for information aesthetics, and potential useful usages for data visualization applications in the future.

The last speaker, Kenneth Huff, showed his intriguing works of computational art, of which the image above is only a small example. In search of truly random data without repetition, he discovered the beauty of real data, here in the form of prime numbers. His works are not really data representations, but use abstract data as a sort of genetic material or raw material foundation for further algorithmic and visual treatment. Inspired by the random, yet structured beauty and minute details of nature (flora, fauna and mineral), multitudes of objects often are included in works, frequently similar in form, yet always unique in their details.

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Via Information aesthetics

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Une série de liens et de noms en relation avec l'"Information/data design". Dans le cadre d'une exposition lors de Siggraph 2009. Avec un projet développé par le chorégraphe William Forsythe (un des meilleurs chorégraphe contemporain, labellé toutefois "néo-classique").

Calvin Harris performs his latest single, Ready For The Weekend, on a giant human synthesizer made of, er, pretty ladies...

Take 15 bikini-clad lovelies, paint them in special ink and put them in a dance studio with special conductive pads on the floor and, hey presto, you have the Humanthesizer.

To promote Calvin Harris's new single, Sony Music creatives Phil Clandillon and Steve Milbourne (who you may remember were responsible for the AC/DC ASCII Excel video last year) decided to use Bare Conductive, a technology developed by RCA Industrial Design and Engineering masters students Bibi Nelson, Becky Pilditch, Isabel Lizardi and Matt Johnson. Bare Conductive is "skin-safe, conductive ink". When painted on the skin, it allows a current to be passed through the body without causing an electric shock.

"We saw the technology on a blog initially, and then invited the RCA guys in to demo it to us," says Clandillon. "We asked if they would be up for doing a project together, and then it was a matter of waiting for the right artist / idea to come along."

The Humanthesizer consists of 34 pads on the floor which have been painted with the conductive ink and connected to a computer via some custom electronics created by the RCA's Matt Johnson. The performers stand on the pads, and touch each other on the hands or body to complete a circuit and trigger a sound.

Harris, his hands painted with the ink, played the main keyboard line and effects by interacting with a row of eight girls. The rhythmic portions of the track were played by seven dancers performing a carefully choreographed routine.

Clandillon explains how it all works in this video

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Via CreativeReview 

Architect: Pieta-Linda Auttila
Location: Valkosaari island in Southern Harbour of Helsinki, Finland
Building owner: UPM Kymmene
Construction: 30 to 40 m² / 150 m³
Structure: Wood
Coating: Native woods, Glass
Concept and Communication: Trust Creative Society
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: UPM

“By bending the block I forced the slats into a new form that contrasts with the original arrangement. That which is solid turns partly transparent, that which is strictly geometrical, organic,”

Pieta-Linda Auttila, architect

WISA Wooden Design Hotel is an architectural gem of wood situated in the maritime heart of Helsinki, capital of Finland. Around it lie the city and 200 years of architectural history.

The work was designed by interior architect Pieta-Linda Auttila. She hopes to spark interest in wood and highlight its role in building and interior design.

The WISA Wooden Design Hotel is an outstanding example of wood’s versatility. Here, wood works both as a load-bearing structure and decor in walls, ceilings and floors. The building is a composition of Finnish pine, spruce and birch, and a testimonial to their special characteristics.

When you view the building from a distance, your eye is first caught by the atrium courtyard in the centre; it separates the living quarters at both ends.

The atrium’s shape flatters the liveliness of wood; technically it is the most challenging part of the design.

The long curved pine boards half-covering the patio form a trellis that titillates the imagination. Thanks to the trellis, the courtyard comes alive in a dizzying and enchanting way.

The trellis protects against the wind and filters the long rays of the Nordic sun into the courtyard. The charming interplay of light and shade can be observed throughout the day, as the bright morning light gradually turns into the red glow of the Northern midnight sun.

The striking wood architecture makes its way to the interior, giving Finnish pine another chance to show what it’s made of. But not alone. The pine floor is complemented by the light ethereal beauty of Nordic birch. The walls and the ceiling are panelled with beautiful and durable birch plywood.

This is how Pieta-Linda Auttila describes the idea she realised with the WISA Wooden Design Hotel: “In the beginning was the roaring sea. Powerful waves lifted from the depths a wooden block, already darkened by sea water, and threw it against a rock. The force of the blow broke the wood in the middle.”

The curved part, slashed into strips in the middle, forms a trellis and shelters the courtyard of the hotel. As for the unbroken ends, they are the living quarters.

The dark exterior and light interior of the WISA Wooden Design Hotel likewise represent a broken block of wood.

When the dark surface of the block is cracked, the original lightness of the wood is exposed.

The floor-to-ceiling windows at both ends of the hotel provide plenty of light to the interior. The views complement each other. The bedroom faces the sea and the morning sun. Past the courtyard, at the other end of the space, the view from the lounging area gives onto the city and the evening sun. During the day you can observe a swarming crowd and bustling commercial centre. After the late sunset the nocturnal city’s own lights come on.

The WISA Wooden Design Hotel is based on the winning proposal of the WISA 24h Wooden Design Workshop competition organised by UPM, one of the leading forest products companies in the world.

The building can provide overnight accommodation for a few people, but it is not designed for general hotel use.

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Via Archinect

Personal comment:

Pas d'intérêt direct pour le concept ou l'approche architecturale développée par ce projet. Par contre une légère curiosité pour sa forme. Lue "de travers", celle-ci pourrait commencer à exprimer des déformations, des tensions, des pressions ou dépressions, des interférences entre systèmes de références tout en conservant une unité et une continuité (à la différence donc de la majorité des esthétiques post-modernes ou déconstructives qui vont vers l'épuisement des systèmes de références --en général passés--, vers l'esthétique du collage, du composite ou du fragment, etc.). A nouveau une sorte de "paysage" à habiter en quelque sorte, idéalement "vierge" de récits.