Real-Time Cities: an Introduction to Urban CyberneticsHarvard Design School: SCI 0646900Spring 2014
Student Name SurnameExercise #2: Case Studies in Data Analysis (5 Ways to Make a Story out of Numbers)
DRIVEN ACTUATORS
1 | PETTING ZOO
2 | BUSHFIRE
3 | MEMORY CLOUD
4 | RAIN ROOM
5 | REFLEX
Petting Zoo is the latest work developed by experimental architecture and design studio Minimaforms. The project is speculative life-like robotic environment that raises questions of how future environments could actively enable new forms of communication with the everyday. Artificial intelligent creatures have been designed with the capacity to learn and explore behaviors through interaction with participants. Within this immersive installation interaction with the pets foster human curiosity, play, forging intimate exchanges that are emotive and evolving over time. Beyond technology the project explores new forms of enabled communication between people and their environment.
Project Video: http://minimaforms.com/#item=petting-zoo-frac-2
1 | PETTING ZOO
1 | Sensing the City
1 | Sensing the City
1 | Sensing the City
1 | PETTING ZOO
Which of the 10 possible categories of scenarios the Project belongs to?
X. Ennvironments and smart artifacts with a limited amount of consciousness about their immediate circumstances , adapting to new environmental conditions
Which sensing technology/ types of sensors are deployed to impliment spatial gaze?
camera tracking and data scanning that allows for identifying human presence within contextual scenes
How the performance of the piece/instalation is conditioned?
. Real time camera streams are processed and coupled with blob tracking and optical flow analysis to locate positions and gestural activity of participants. Inactive participation of a performer in the environment can stimulate responses of disinterest and boredom.
1 | PETTING ZOO
Which actuation technology is used to provide for dynamism of the piece?
1. Light emitting agents2. Moving initiating agents
What connectivity technology is used to connect different parts of the informatically driven system at question?
Real-time map identification of performers within a durational sequence.
Is the system operates based on a memory of the past and/or anticipation of the future through recognition of past patterns?
Both
1 | PETTING ZOO
What is the extreme vision of the scenario?
It was conceived as an immersive installation environment, social and synthetic forms of systemic interactions allow the pets to engage and evolve their behaviors over time.
Why is the project significant?
Pets interact and stimulate participation with users through the use of animate behaviors communicated through kinesis, sound and illumination. These behaviors evolve over time through interaction enabling each pet to develop personalities. Pet interactions are stimulated through interaction with human users or between other pets within the population. Intimacy and curiosity are explored as enabling agents that externalize personal experience through forms of direct visual, haptic and aural communication.
What do you identify as a poetic aspect to the logic of operation of the system at question?
The installation exhibits life-like attributes through forms of conversational interaction establishing communication with users that is emotive and sensorial.
1 | PETTING ZOO
What challenges are inherent in deployment of the project or maintaining the integrity or level of operation of the system in the long run?
The sistem might not respond well, participants might get bored and not interact with the installation. New technologies will advance and the installation might seem useless.
What is your evaluation of the design of the physical manifestation of the system in terms of its esthetics?
By looking at the video, the technology and craft seem excellent.
How can the system scale up or down to fit a different context of operation? How can its logic of operation or technology be re-appropriated for the different context?
This is the beginning of artificial pets since it’s a prototype that is also storing information of human behavior patterns with pets.
Bushfire was an experimental installation by Project Blinkenlights that predated and served as a testing field for the Arcade installation. It came to life at July 12th, 2002 to July 14th at the Nation of Gondwana Open Air Festival.The installation was a real-time companion at the party. Driven by the soundtrack of the event (Audio), the compositions of the live acts (MIDI) and specially designed animations as well as some fog machines we turned the nearby wood into a huge "bushfire".
Project Video: http://blinkenlights.net/project/bushfire-frac-2
2 | BUSH FIRE
2 | BUSH FIRE
My mind's been going places without me lately...I'm dancin' to the beat of a big bushfire(The B-52's)
2 | BUSH FIRE
Which of the 10 possible categories of scenarios the Project belongs to?
II, III and IX
Which sensing technology/ types of sensors are deployed to impliment spatial gaze?
The installation itself consisted of 48 flood lights in groups of 3 lamps set up in an interval of 10m at the trees. This resulted in 16 light groups that illuminated the wood in red, orange and yellow (bottom to top). A computer (matrix control unit) controlled the lamps directly at the skirt of the wood. The cables ran from group to group, from tree to tree.
How the performance of the piece/instalation is conditioned?
At the DJ's desk another computer was connected to the output of the mixing console (audio) and the sequencers of the live acts (MIDI). Using a fast fourier transformation (FFT) the audio signal was split in 16 tracks and was transformed in to a greyscale 16x3 matrix in real-time. This image was being sent to the control computer by radio transmission which displayed it in the wood instantaneously. The MIDI signals were transformed to pictures accordingly so that music and the lighting of the wood were synchronized all the time.
2 | BUSH FIRE
Which actuation technology is used to provide for dynamism of the piece?
Agents that allow for manipulation of soundscape, which are agents that are capable of produsing sound and noise in different rhythms, frequencies and volumes
What connectivity technology is used to connect different parts of the informatically driven system at question?
A computer with FFT for audio and the image being sent to the control computer by radio transmission which displayed it in the wood instantaneously.
Is the system operates based on a memory of the past and/or anticipation of the future through recognition of past patterns?
Memory of the past adapted to rithms in real time
2 | BUSH FIRE
What is the extreme vision of the scenario?
A concert while there is a bush fire happening
Why is the project significant?
It was significant because it was an advance of the blinkenlights project and software developed in 2002
What do you identify as a poetic aspect to the logic of operation of the system at question?
The fact of imitating nature’s sublime moments such as a fire, and being able to enjoy it as a part of an event
Memory Cloud is a public participatory environment that has been performed in London's Trafalgar Square in 2008 and outside the Detroit's Institute of Arts in 2011. The project was named one of the top ten international public art projects of 2008 by The Telegraph.
Project Video: http://www.voiceofdetroit.com
3 | MEMORY CLOUD
3 | MEMORY CLOUD
3 | MEMORY CLOUD
Which of the 10 possible categories of scenarios the Project belongs to?
VIII
Which sensing technology/ types of sensors are deployed to impliment spatial gaze?
SMS. Fog installation. Projection. Lights.
How the performance of the piece/instalation is conditioned?
Memory Cloud is based on the ancient practice of smoke signals – one of the oldest forms of visual communication. Fusing ancient and contemporary mediums, Memory Cloud creates a dynamic hybrid space that communicates personal statements as part of an evolving text, animating the built environment through conversation. Interaction is facilitated through mobile phones allowing for an open, personal and accessible medium for collective participation. Through this conversational form of interaction, public space transforms into a dynamic stage of observation and experience
3 | MEMORY CLOUD
Which actuation technology is used to provide for dynamism of the piece?
Signals through fog are sent through fog installation
What connectivity technology is used to connect different parts of the informatically driven system at question?
SMS connects the audience with the piece installators / software.
Is the system operates based on a memory of the past and/or anticipation of the future through recognition of past patterns?
The sistem operates on a present basis, showing the texts in real time. Nevertheless, these collected text messages have been added to the Voice of Detroit archive, becoming part of an evolving diary and a voice that speaks of Detroit's past, Detroit's present and Detroit's future
3 | MEMORY CLOUD
What is the extreme vision of the scenario?
Public participation in a public space. Free speech, sense of community, reutilizing fog to convey messages
Why is the project significant?
It was a public space actuator
What do you identify as a poetic aspect to the logic of operation of the system at question?
It’s a poetic way to share your voice. The participation of the crowd with the installation is immediate, it brings diverse people together, many of which have not been out at night ever
3 | MEMORY CLOUD
What challenges are inherent in deployment of the project or maintaining the integrity or level of operation of the system in the long run?
To allow all SMS to be posted, not curating the content of the piece
What is your evaluation of the design of the physical manifestation of the system in terms of its esthetics?
good
How can the system scale up or down to fit a different context of operation? How can its logic of operation or technology be re-appropriated for the different context?
The SMS function for public voice can be re-apropiated in many ways, as well as the fog idea of creating visuals in a space (like the Bushfire Project)
Random International’’s experimental artworks come alive through audience interaction. Their largest and most ambitious installation yet, Rain Room is a 100 square metre field of falling water for visitors to walk through and experience how it might feel to control the rain. On entering The Curve the visitor hears the sound of water and feels moisture in the air before discovering the thousands of falling droplets that respond to their presence and movement
Project Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkvazIZx-F0
4 | THE RAIN ROOM
4 | THE RAIN ROOM
4 | THE RAIN ROOM
Which of the 10 possible categories of scenarios the Project belongs to?
X
Which sensing technology/ types of sensors are deployed to impliment spatial gaze?
The room is fitted with 3D cameras that sense your location in the room, and automatically turn off the water valves above your head, allowing you to walk through the downpour without getting wet
How the performance of the piece/instalation is conditioned?
By the precision of the sensors
4 | THE RAIN ROOM
Which actuation technology is used to provide for dynamism of the piece?
Sensors detecting presence
What connectivity technology is used to connect different parts of the informatically driven system at question?
Is the system operates based on a memory of the past and/or anticipation of the future through recognition of past patterns?
Anticipation, and future recognition
Water injection Moulder tiles, solenoid Valves, pressure regulators, custom software, 3D Tracking cameras, steel beams, water management system, grated floor
4 | THE RAIN ROOM
What is the extreme vision of the scenario?
That people wont get wet while walking in the rain
Why is the project significant?
It’s the newest project playing with rain and sensors.
What do you identify as a poetic aspect to the logic of operation of the system at question?
The project explores the behaviour of the viewer and viewers: pushing people outside their comfort zones, extracting their base auto-responses and playing with intuition.
4 | RAIN ROOM
What challenges are inherent in deployment of the project or maintaining the integrity or level of operation of the system in the long run?
Precision
What is your evaluation of the design of the physical manifestation of the system in terms of its esthetics?
Excellent
How can the system scale up or down to fit a different context of operation? How can its logic of operation or technology be re-appropriated for the different context?
It culd be done in the oposite, sensors that track people to suply them with water exactly where they need tio. EX: Showers. Also you could use instead of water other elements such as smell.
People walking along Euston Road will encounter an unusually arresting reflection of themselves in a new light installation, Reflex, created by RAndom International. The work inhabits the windows of the Wellcome Trust as though it were a living organism. Reacting to viewers, passers-by and traffic on the Euston Road, Reflex produces mesmerising flows of light, inviting a physical response to the building.
Project Video: http://vimeo.com/23255773
5 | REFLEX
5 | REFLEX
5 | REFLEX
Which of the 10 possible categories of scenarios the Project belongs to?
X
Which sensing technology/ types of sensors are deployed to impliment spatial gaze?
The work is constructed from hundreds of brass rods and thousands of LEDs arranged on small custom chips. Their movement is based on programmes that aim to simulate complex natural phenomenon. Reflex recreates "stigmergy" whereby traces left by random actions stimulate further actions that build on one another, leading to the spontaneous emergence of apparently patterned activity.
The installation's swarming behaviour is based on an algorithm developed to emulate the collective decision making that we see in large groups of creatures such as birds or ants.
How the performance of the piece/instalation is conditioned?
By the precision of the sensors
5 | REFLEX
Which actuation technology is used to provide for dynamism of the piece?
Sensors detecting presence
What connectivity technology is used to connect different parts of the informatically driven system at question?
Water, injection moulded tiles, solenoid valves, pressure regulators, custom software, 3D tracking cameras, steel beams, water management system, grated floor
Is the system operates based on a memory of the past and/or anticipation of the future through recognition of past patterns?
Answer……
5 | REFLEX
What is the extreme vision of the scenario?
Individual illuminations respond collectively to the movements of those passing by, tracking and mirroring their presence in light.The behaviour of the installation emulates the collective decision making processes employed by creatures in the natural world such as flocking birds, shoaling fish and swarming bees. Visually striking, these natural phenomena are essential to the survival of a species.Reflex calls into consideration the collective behaviour we as humans demonstrate each day in order to efficiently exist in contemporary urban settings.
Why is the project significant?
Reflex invited the public to enter into a discourse with the inanimate through light and their own movement, as they went about their daily routine on the other side of the glass.
What do you identify as a poetic aspect to the logic of operation of the system at question?
The project emphasizes the interaction between the animate (audience) and the inanimate (object), bringing the two into a powerful relationship of performance.
5 | REFLEX
What challenges are inherent in deployment of the project or maintaining the integrity or level of operation of the system in the long run?
That the commuters are aware of the installation, understand its poetics
What is your evaluation of the design of the physical manifestation of the system in terms of its esthetics?
Excellent
How can the system scale up or down to fit a different context of operation? How can its logic of operation or technology be re-appropriated for the different context?
It could be more interactive, bigger scale at a public plaza where individuals can actually make statements.
