Project 2a: Animation with Electric Image

Using Electric Image, I attempted different techniques for animating each short clip.  I began with black vertical planes, modeled in Rhino, to hide parts of the model, and rendered with a black background.  I also tried rendering in wireframe to suggest the object's form.  For the first few iterations, I solely moved the camera.  Then I tested rotating, scaling, and moving the three components of the model.  By changing the color of the light, I was able to change the components reflection.  I've always admired the Hitchcock Zoom, a film technique emphasizing depth.  I moved the camera forward and objects past it to create this effect (somewhat unsuccessfully.)  

Hensel, Spiller, & Burry

Hensel’s Vigorous Environments is centered on the mobile relationship through space. He sees animation as a tool to understand the space-time continuum and its relationship to design.  Similarly, design relies heavily on time influencing the environment.  He suggests that modeling and other mediums allow for an iterative design process, which strengthens the overall concept.  “Current technology can provide the ubiquitous enabling infrastructure that can facilitate real-time exchange between subject and milieu, and yield a generative immersive field of material and ambient effects.” 

This idea reminded me of a performance company, Diavolo, who uses movable structures as an integral part of their performances.  Their concept of ‘architecture in motion’ relates to time impacting design.  In this case, I see animation enhancing the project and its concept, if ustilzing effectively.  Here, motion is a fundamental  element of the work and depicting it through a time-based medium is essential. 

Neil Spiller argues that animations can hinder a project, as they are impersonal and used incorrectly.   Spiller states that architects are too eager to use animation software, which leads to a neglecting of a ‘rigorous approach to architectural space.’  I thought his analogy of books and film lent itself perfectly to this discussion.  How often times do we say that a film created from a novel was better than the original text? Almost never.  In the same capacity, film making software should be used sparsely or very carefully in architecture.  Far too often do we see student animate models, when perspective graphics would serve equally as well if not better. 

Burry argues that animation should break the boundaries of traditional filmmaking and question architectural and spatial perception.  He cautions its use by reminding reader of animation’s intended use for the film industry.  Users should not rely on the software to generate design, but use it as a medium to convey.

Project 2a

Not sure if I am pursuing the drawing correctly, any ideas?

Grosz + Rocker Readings

The introduction of Project II relates to Grosz’s idea of space-time continuum.  The capture of movement or spatial types over a course of time is the pursuit of this exercise.  The discussion of past and present as a continuation of time clarifies this concept.  Grosz argues that the present instantaneously becomes the past, so immediate that we cannot differentiate with time.   The past-present relationship renders one infinite phenomenon that in this project we are attempting to separate.   Grosz explains that the relationship and coexistence between the present and past is crucial for the functioning of each other.  

By capturing still motions of a video of movement, we are “throwing oneself into the past, to seek events where they took place-in time, in the past; to experience any other space is to throw oneself into spatiality, to become spatialized with all of space.”   Representing the past through still frame photos or drawings with help us understand the past action in one cohesive graphic. 

Grosz relates this concept to spatial types;  “Space is understood, according to Deleuze, as a multiplicity that brings together the key characteristics of externality, simultaneity, contiguity or juxtaposition, differences of degree, and quantitative differentiations.”   

Rocker discusses digital media coupled with human design.  He explains, “Versioning manages complex co-authorial information systems, merging the design's projection with its production.”  It is the co-authorship of the human with the machine that drives this design process; the person operates the computer as a form of medium.  Some programs mentioned in the article include CATIA, Maya, and Rhino.  I see these programs as a means to an end, or part of a method to reach an end goal or design.  There fore, versioning is a non-linear process as the engineer and the program work simultaneously. 

1b + 1c

Research question: Now having in mind the objective for project 1c, I am asking at what point will a surface become "unmodelable" ie. cannot be made a solid object.  

I began by reexamining my chosen surface for 1b matrical analysis.  By splitting the original object, I was able to focus on a sliver of the curve rather than the entire plane.  

This view shows a portion of the martical analysis revisited.  

I then alined the deformed objects behind one another to see the change in each piece at once. 

Then following images are of different rows and manipulations.   

As some of these curved become more complex, I am careful to chose which ones I will make solids to 3D print.  The answer to the research question: When a surface begins to fold over itself, it becomes very difficult to create a solid figure.    

 Finally, I chose a few surface pieces to create printable solids.  I began by copying and pasting the cruves and creating surface out on the voids between them.  I found it easier to loft the edges of the curves.   I also tired extruding surface curves.  Below are the surface pieces I hope to print.

Versioning and Inchoate

SHoP’s Versioning solidified a few concepts I was questioning for the matrical analysis.   The discussion of versioning begins with a traditional idea of how the term implies replicating an original that can be traced and measured through evolution of one specific source.  In this case, versioning relies on a design agenda and is centered on detailed actions.    The example of the highway system better explains this thought.   It is explained that there is no one basis highway; rather there are various components of highways that are sued to construct a road better for its context.  It is not relied on one prototype, which is unimportant to versioning. 

Side note:I found it fascinating that Brunelleschi used a method of versioning for his Duomo.  Based on the loading pattern, there is not one master brick for the project,   

representation :modelling :: modelling : versioning

This linear expression is in essence our projects for the first half of the semester. 

I really enjoyed reading about the take on versioning in terms of the ‘façade’. The way we see facades has dramatically changed over centuries.  Today we see facades as skins of building.  This stems from not only aesthetic implications, but also structural.  The model of the load bearing Renaissance façade is compared to the invention of the steel frame in which the plan does not have to correlate with the elevation.  This allowed for more design freedom.  Lastlty, the readers are presented with Dieste’s skins and the abstractions behind the geometry. 

Dieste's church in Uruguay 

In Angelil’s Inchoate, we see a method of versioning explained and analyzed in the case of architectural education.   With technology ever changing, the teaching behind this field must adapt quickly.  I find it difficult to work with professors who are resistant to the changing world, whether in concept, theory, technology, etc.

Ali Rahim + Perez-Gomez, ALberto, Pelletier

This week’s reading directly coincides with what I am teaching in my Arch 170 class.  We are covering the topic of representation and re-presentation.  We assigned the students to thoroughly document an object of choice with plans, sections, and elevations.  It was encouraged for students to draw/ photograph/ etc. as many views necessary to recreate the object.  I immediately was asked if using BIM was allowed for this project, (which it is not).   It was fascinating to see how many students, not majoring in architecture, were familiar with 3d computer modeling.   Discouraged when I relayed the news that computers were off limits for this projects, I had a few students argue that it would create the best representation of their chosen object.  (the objective of this assignment is to familiarize student with plan, section, and elevation drawings)  This made me wonder if this traditional method of representation is becoming obsolete? The example of Durand’s Precis des Lecons d’Architectura is presented in “Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge”.   It is juxtaposed with two computer generated images form students of Cornell.   Just as the concept of the Master Mason (which we also covered in 170 this week) has become superseded, is there potential for the traditional plan, section, and elevation to be as well? 

Michael Graves Talks about Drawing + Architecture

The article “Contemporary Techniques in Architecture” also coincidentally corresponded with my studio assignment this week.  We were to fragment a precedent city into components such as water, block type, street corridor, etc and catalog them.  The first image in Rahim’s article literally cataloged a modeled object and broke it down into its pieces.   I found this helpful at a larger scale of a city to further analyze its parts but also at a smaller scale in modeling our chosen objects in 670.  By breaking down the object into different surfaces, it became clearly how the object was created and assembled.  It also created distinctive surfaces to choose from for the matrical analysis. 

     

An interesting comparison to our matrical analysis is the idea of ‘lineage or heritage’ mentioned by Rahim.  Our morphed surfaced appear to evolve and change down a lineage line, altering slightly or drastically from one iteration to the next.  The matrical analysis could be read a sort of family tree, with the family changing with time.