BEHAVIOURAL COMPLEXITY

Design Research Laboratory (AADRL) and the experimental design studio Minimaforms examining a behavior-based agenda that engages experimental forms of material and social interaction. Cybernetic and systemic thinking through seminal forms of prototyping and experimentation will situate the work through continued experiments that have manifested since the early 1950s as maverick machines, architectures and computational practices exploring the generative potential of self-regulating phenomena as proto-architectural environments. Through explicit models of interactions, observable patterns and proto-animalistic agency; the research will discuss the capacity of these systems to evolve, adapt and self-structure through computation.

Pyroclastic Trails
The work shows volcanic rocks rising from the ground that create trails of pixels. The layering of tezontle is generated by a software by modifying the size, speed, trajectory and selection of rocks from a database of photogrammetric 3D scans. Made in November 2019 in collaboration with UNAM’s Instituto de Geografía during a residency for Connecting the Dots, the work is related to research on the impact of mining activities in extinct volcanoes of Sierra de Santa Catarina located south of Mexico City. The video also shows Orbiting Bauxite and 3542 of the Meteors body of works.

LAMP

Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr, originally from Switzerland, surprise the world of photography by capturing movement for the fraction of a second that makes up an explosion.To do this, the two friends used very specific pyrotechnic systems and have even create a custom detonator device, connected and synchronized directly to their camera.

Prehysterical Machine

The Prehysterical Machine has a spherical body and eight arms made of aluminum tubing. It has a sensing system, a motor system and a control system that functions as an autonomous nervous system (entirely reactive). The machine is suspended from the ceiling and its arms are actuated by pneumatic valves and cylinders. Pyroelectric sensors allow the robot to detect the presence of viewers in the nearby environment. It reacts to the viewers according to the amount of stimuli it receives. The perceived emergent behaviors of this machine engender a multiplicity of interpretations based on single dynamic pattern of events.The aim of this project is to induce empathy of the viewer towards a “character” which is nothing more than an articulated metal structure. The strength of the simulacra is emphasized by perverting the perception of the creature, which is neither animal nor human, carried through the inevitable instinct of anthropomorphism and projection of our internal sensations, a reflex triggered by any phenomenon that challenges our senses.
FILE FESTIVAL

build 3D-printed filigree chair
RC4-CurVoxels
Students: Claudia Tanskanen, Zoe Hwee Tan, Xiaolin Yin and Qianyi Li (INT) Panagiota Spyropoulou, Hyein Lee, Pooja Gosavi, Pratiksha Renake ( Mickey Matter) Hyunchul Kwon, Amreen Kaleel and Xiaolin Li ( CurVoxels), Efstratios Georgiou, Palak Jhunjhunwala, Juan Olaya, Yiheng Ye ( VoxaTile)

Empyrean: In ancient cosmologies, the Empyrean Heaven, or simply the Empyrean, was the place in the highest heaven, which was supposed to be occupied by the element of fire (or aether in Aristotle’s natural philosophy). The word derives from the Medieval Latin empyreus, an adaptation of the Ancient Greek empyros (ἔμπυρος), meaning “in or on the fire (pyr)”

Empyreum  (The Divine Comedy, Gustave Doré )

The Empyrean was thus used as a name for the firmament, and in Christian literature for the dwelling-place of God, the blessed, celestial beings so divine they are made of pure light, and the source of light and creation. Notably, at the very end of Dante’s Paradiso, Dante visits God in the Empyrean.

temple galaxia
ekpyrôsis
Arthur Mamou Mani, a prominent Architect based in London and runs Mamou Mani Ltd., had the honour of building the Burning Man Temple for the Burning Man Festival 2018. A temple made from completely eco friendly materials, that stands 30 metres high, 60 metres in width, and that will burn on the last day of the festival with hundreds of thousands standing in silence as it burns.
To achieve this, Arthur needed to raise £500k of Angel investment to bring his temple to life and gift it to the world. This meant for the crowdfunding video we had to take a more emotional approach, targeting the Burning Man community and touching people on a personal level to spiritually show the importance of the temple to one another around it.

The Spanish have a thing for mixing raging parties with patron saints, and Las Fallas comes with the added touch of fire in this celebration of all things pyro. The fiery event has taken place since the city’s pagan days and incorporates a myriad of traditions. One relates to San José – the Saint of Carpenters – who is celebrated on the spring equinox. The local carpenters used the occasion to burn their wooden winter candleholders, called candelabra. That tradition morphed into a good excuse to set stuff on fire. The festival is also a week of puppets as Valencia fills with several hundred strange, intricate and otherwise weird fallas propped up around the city. The wood and papier-mâché effigies are generally critical or humorous portrayals of events and figures. Some are so big they take months to construct, with locals competing with their neighbours in effigy-making matches.