Installation and interface with web site

1. Flash application requests list of seed (search) tags from Hackablecurator.org.uk web site

   • Web site queries database and returns tags as XML data

1. Flash application queries Flickr via Flashr object for 9 photos that match the search criteria (Flickr website returns XML data)

1. Flash application sends subset of Flickr XML data to Hackablecurator.org.uk web site

1. Hackablecurator.org.uk uses the tags associated with each of the 9 photos to choose a photo

* For each photo, each tag is compared to the tag score list in the database; if the tags exists in that database, it's score is returned and summed with the other tags for that photo. In this way the photo with the highest score is chosen. If equal, it is random.

1. Hackablecurator.org.uk passes the numeric id of the chosen image back to the Flash app.

1. Additionally, at this point, the Hackablecurator.org.uk web site adds the chosen photo to it's favourites, and leaves a comment on the chosen photo detailing the web site address and how to remove it from the system

1. The Flash app then ‘chooses’ the photo, by sending the position number to the arduino to move the robotic arm.

1. When the robotic arm has finished it‘s movement, the arduino sends a message back to the flash app which then sends the images which haven’t been chosen off screen and enlarges the chosen image.

1. the system then increments the starting point for the search list and begins again

SMS System

1. The SMS system is a function of the Hackablecurator.org.uk web site and an interface with Aql.com

1. Aql.com provide an sms number and keyword for the project

1. When Aql receive a message to the sms number where the first word matches the keyword, it sends a ‘POST’ query to the Hackablecurator.org.uk web site

1. This POST query is logged to the database and processed. In this instance, the sms should include a photo id number and the word ‘like’ OR ‘dislike’

1. The photo id is queried against the database and the list of its tags is returned. For each of those tags a point is added or subtracted in the tag score database table, thus influencing the photo choosing algorithm.

Web site functionality

1. The website displays the list of the most recent photos the project has chosen

1. The website is able to act as a basic content management system, with the facility to create, edit, and delete new content pages and maintain a gallery (including uploading and automatic resizing of images)

Credits

1. Flash application build - Owen Bennett

1. … to a design by - Andy Bennett

1. Hackablecurator.org.uk website inc SMS integration - Andy Bennett

1. Interfacing flash application with Arduino - Martha Patricia Nino

HackableCurator Critique PDF

Why shipping containers? What is their relevance to my practice?

In that I don't have a pre-existing practice, I am using shipping containers as jumping off point to explore the question of what I am interested in; they are not really the subject of the work, but more a foundation to begin to frame my exploration of my own practice as it begins to emerge.

In essence, what I am doing is taking areas of general interest and using them to create a brief for my work. For example in the context of Histories and Futures, the shipping container as a subject creates for me, 4 areas of (continuing) research and critical analysis; Speed (nature?), Hidden (purpose?), Network (process?) and Object (method?). The application for this piece, and the accompanying documentation predominantly explored the first aspect of this - Speed; it modelled the process of shipping goods by container ship, but for digital documents, to expose the relationship between our perception of the ‘digital era’ and the physical reality of 90+% of the goods we consume being shipped slowly by container and ship.

How is this translated into work for Invisible Architecture?

In creating the map I brought together, under the banner of the shipping container, several areas of interest. For example:

• hacking, collage, juxtaposition, interplay of context

• artisan - the refined use and manipulation of (unusual?) materials

• The cyclical process of physical into digital

• the qualities of the ‘ready-made’ etched by time and space

• intervention

• the juxtaposition of the physical, emotional with modernism

The map was designed to work in several ways; firstly as a loose narrative. The A0 piece can be read left to right, top to bottom as a description of some of the ideas that I am framing as my practice foundation. Secondly, the map was designed as to be cut up - so that the individual container can be made up as objects; this is in order to allow the ideas associated with each one to be recombined by their juxtaposition with each other. Finally, it acts as a plan, a blueprint; to define the final (at this stage) piece.

So where is it going from here?

From here, I am going to use the map as the blueprint to create the submitted piece. It will pick up the concept of artisan, by creating 31 objects, in the form of scaled down shipping containers, in hardwood and brass. Each is a class instance (along the lines of object oriented programming), in that each has data inside it which can be queried. They are designed to be moved around or stacked on a board, which reads their position on that board. Their positions directly influence the web site which is connected to the system altering the navigation through the site and therefore the story that it creates through that navigation.

What about the presentation of the map

As I wasn't able to present the work at the last group session, I thought that perhaps the best way to present it would be to create an online video and slideshow that would present the work, but also serve as documentation

Kinetic Sculptures by Conrad Shawcross

London based artist Conrad Shawcross creates these fantastic kinetic sculptures that draw inspiration from philosophy and scientific theories.

Shown above is 'Loop System Quintet' (2005):

“Each of the five oak machines in Loop System Quintet - connected by a single drive-shaft - draws a different ‘knot’ of light in space, predetermined by the ratio of the cogs that drive it. These ratios are directly related to formal theories of musical harmony (Harmonics). The resulting light patterns, perceived by the viewer only as the machines rotate, can therefore be regarded as visual transcriptions of musical chords….The circles of energy produced by the lights also relate to string theory, a complex scientific theory stating that matter is comprised of vibrating ‘strings’ of energy rather than single, isolated particles”

Watch video

Created in 2004, 'Light Perpeptual I' (2004) must have been a precursor to the work above.

“Displayed in a darkened gallery, the device works as a giant drawing machine, blasting it‘s luminous patterns through the wire grid onto the walls, leaving the viewer seeing spots, like from staring into the sun. Conrad Shawcross isn’t making paintings on canvas, but rather through mechanical invention, he's imprinting his image directly into the eye”

Further reading & sources above:

In the studio: Conrad Shawcross (Telegraph, 2005)

Conrad Shawcross, sculptor (Guardian, 2006)

Portrait of the artist as a young boffin (Observer, 2005)

BBC Feature

The exhibition 'No Such Thing As One' brings together a body of work that explores ideas concerning time and the essence of matter. On display at the Victoria Miro gallery, east London, until 18th November.

You may also want to visit the Kinetica Museum in Spitalfields to see more moving sculpture artworks.

(Via Pixelsumo.)

Invisible Architecture Site Study PDF

2 areas

1. Practical exploration

1. Concept Mapping / Research

---

Practical exploration

• application development using cocoa and objective-c

  • eg: virtual bcf2000 midi controller

• processing and java

  • serial to midi applet

• arduino and wiring

---

Concept Mapping

• shipping containers

* commercial and political                        
  * unit of capitalism


  * allan sekula : fish story




* architectural


* iconic


* physical


* sculptural


* allegorical

  * 20ton packet (wired essay)


  * networking packets




* money
  * view as currency

• tents

* transforming and defining physical space


* parallels with compression / expansion ; computer archives


* real time manipulation of physical space

• materials

* canvas

  * ... creation of curved planes just by use of tension




* steam

  * eg: [Jeremy Deller's 'Steam Powered Internet Machine'](http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1817636,00.html)


* wood

  * ... natural quality


* all of materials research is juxtaposed with digital media

• common strands

* movement


* physical space defining idea space (and visa versa)


* physical embodiment of digit process and systems


* feedback - physical into digital into physical etc.

zero yen house


Consider a row of homeless peoples' houses built on an urban street in Japan. If we look at these houses from an architectural perspective, we can discover many of the capabilities and elements in their architecture. These houses are built on a shoestring budget by diverting and recycling the rubbish thrown away on the street. In this respect, these houses are built out of the resourcefulness of human nature, not by purchasing power. I call them “Zero Yen Houses.”

At the present day, one may say that self-constructed houses do not exist in the dwelling area of the city. Almost all houses are commodities to be bought and sold. Moreover, from an ecological point of view, once a typical house is constructed its use does not change with time yet its building materials transform into garbage for the landfill. Under these condition as such, “Zero Yen House” gives some indication of the possibilities of future architecture. “Zero Yen House” is constructed with the materials mostly collected from the street. In other words, it gives a different perspective on discarded items thrown away as surplus materials of urban living. In addition, relative to the fact that current home-purchases generally cost millions of dollars, “Zero Yen House” costs just a few hundred dollars at most. The importance is that they are made by one's own hand. This does not mean the dwelling is simply a box to live in. Instead, the dwelling is built as an extension of one%u2019s own body. Therefore, the house shapes are each respectively different. No universal prototype exists for these houses, and this differentiation from typical architecture is important. In the nature of things, I think that each dwelling is different spontaneously.

“Solar Zero Yen House” is a dwelling I found built by an elderly man living along the Sumida River bank. Its construction inspired me as an architect to think about energy use for our future. A small solar panel, about the size of one mat, is installed in the roof of the dwelling, so energy is completely provided for. This demonstrates the possibilities for new architecture and new types of construction.

Zero Yen House is a primal (archetype) urban architecture, which is different from vernacular settlement construction we see around the world, and is it different from modern and contemporary architecture designed by architects.

kyohei sakaguchi

www.0yenhouse.com

Somehow related … not sure … we'll see!

From: Living Wall

Please take time to look at the excellent Living Wall piece via Interactive Architecture dot Org. I am specifically reposting just this image because it expresses something that I am interested in … I just haven't totally worked out what that something is yet!

(Via Interactive Architecture dot Org.)