Category: Section B

Jessica Rosenkrantz is a MIT & Harvard graduate, who studied Architecture and Biology. After graduating, in 2007, she founded a design studio called Nervous System with Jesse Louis-Rosenberg. They work to bring in the fields of science, art and technology together.

In Nervous System, they produce unique and affordable art, jewelry and household appliances based on patterns found in nature.  I admire their Arboreal Pendant Lamp the most because I think it is amazing to portray nature, like light, from the computationally generated nature patterns.

To present their work effectively, they explain their motives clearly and walk through how they created a certain program step by step, so the audience can easily understand. They also reason through every step of why they did what they did; for example, on approximately 18:30 of the video, they explain how they decided their boundaries for their program. In order to present my own work, I should learn to present in a logical, easily-to-follow-along manner.

Her website can be found on: https://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com

Her presentation video can be found on: https://vimeo.com/33369209

Nervous System – Eyeo Festival 2011 from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.

 

 

 

Nicky Case is a game designer who makes games that are designed to explain complex social issues.  His talk was very different from a lot of other speakers’. He started by talking about personal stories. He grew up in an abusive family in Singapore and his family did not react well when he came out as queer. He then used this personal experience to create a game helping others come out.

In his talk, he talked about telling stories and making interactive nonfiction about systems. His most famous work including The Evolution of Trust, Parable of the Polygons and A Better Ballot and Fireflies. I really appreciate The Evolution of Trust, this game really makes the player question their worldview and how trust works. By creating these games, Nicky hopes to change people’s heart and mind and makes people understand the world and each other better.

Eyeo 2014 – Lauren McCarthy from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.

Speech from Lauren McCarthy

The speaker that I would like to discuss about today is Lauren McCarthy. She from New York city (currently based in Los Angelos) and is an artist and programmer. She is esteemed in the sense of programming because she was the person that developed P5js, which is the website that we use in class to learn various part of javascript. Her motto is “I make art that confuses me.” The statement makes me wonder a lot, because it kind of dives into the idea of what the purpose of art is. Is art merely there to look pleasing? Is it to make us think? Is it to invoke feelings?
She considers herself a more of a hacker than a people’s person, meaning that she has more of a ease at dealing with computers than fitting in to the norm, so to speak. Therefore she focuses a lot on in relationship between people and machines/devices in her body of work. A lot of the projects that she makes are related to how can technology make a person, more human?
Some of her artwork include: Happiness hat, anti-daydreaming device, body-contact training suit, and conversacube. These all focus on different aspects of what it mean to be human and sees to how it can help improve a person’s aptitude in that. I admire the happiness hat the most out of her artwork, because it makes one think, what does it really mean to be more human? Does simply emulating the behaviors of a refined human make someone more human? In a way, I differ in view from what the projects are trying to portray, because I think that the purpose/place it’s coming from is way more important than action itself. Meaning, just because I smile for the sake of smiling doesn’t make me more human. The smile should come from the desire to make someone else happier or to display how someone else is making me feel.
She presents her artwork by tying different stories and thoughts together with the project, instead of simply presenting them in an orderly manner. I think that this helps illustrate her main purpose and the purpose of the devices she creates. I think that by tying stories to how I present, I can more deeply engage the audience and such.

Website of artist: http://lauren-mccarthy.com/
Video of happiness hat is included in the embedded video.

(Image from Reuben Margolin’s Pentagonal Wave project)

Reuben Margolin is kinetic artist with a background in math and english from Harvard University who is from Berkeley, California. Inspired by the movement of small green caterpillars, Margolin’s research involves the study of structures that are wave like. Based in Emeryville, California, Margolin has been developing mathematically based natural wave structures for almost 2o years. Growing up with a father who always had woodworking tools around, Margolin was introduced to wood models early in life. He later went to Russia to pursue further study in woodworking  with artists. However, a mathematician at heart, Margolin pursued using mathematics to create flow of his wooden art pieces similar to that of a green caterpillar he had seen years ago while hiking in Utah.

The video below shows one such example of how Margolin implements the caterpillar movement into an actual moving caterpillar machine.

One thing that I particularly admire about Margolin’s work is the details he puts into creating such caterpillar – like flow.  There is a subtle sense of flow in all of the modules that carries that larger piece together. Once such project I think that exhibits this well is his work called Nebula, which also implements 14,064 bicycle reflectors into the structure. I find it fascinating how someone who does not have a very technical background/education, is still able to take concepts of mathematics and apply them to a project of this scale like this. Note that the entire structure used in the Nebula structure is comprised of a thousand amber crystals organized in a “multi-tiered, geometric pattern.”

The means in which Margolin presents his work is very much rooted in the process of trial, failure, critical questioning of what is conventional and discovery. These are three critical aspects of design that I do not think is emphasized very often in the overall design process. Often it seems that Margolin makes several mathematical implementation strategies as he is designing the structure. This approach to designing the structures proves that not all of the work can be planned out them implemented. There is a passing between the drawing board and the shop that goes hand in hand.

 

More Information

Reuben Margolin

https://www.reubenmargolin.com/waves/

Nebula

 

 

Anouk Wipprecht is a Dutch, female artist working in the field of Couture Fashion, but at the intersection of analog design and robotics.

Eyeo 2016 – Anouk Wipprecht from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.

Anouk Wipprecht is such an inspiring artist because she is truly pushing the boundaries of her field. She has defined these two fields of interest to her, fashion and robotics, and exploits them to create a new bias in her designs. She sees her designs as living systems that “move, breathe, and react to the space around them.”

One of the most interesting projects to me is the Spider Dress, which “attacks when you come close to it.” Anouk has been especially interested in defining these spaces of interaction with fasion, i.e the tiers of space around our bodies.

Diagram, Anouk Wipprecht

Attached to the shoulders are robotic arms which expand from this boundary of personal space into the social space as people approach the dress and model.

Spider dress, Anouk Wipprecht

Link to video of dress here!

What I love about this artist is her actual deployment of these intersectional ideas. There exists a conceptual level of her work which influences the development of her work and eventual fabrication. At each of these levels, the others don’t fault.

“FashionTech” is defined as “a rare combination of fashion design combined with engineering, science and interaction/user experience design.” The idea of fashion, as more than a garment, that exists on our bodies, in the space around us, and as a response to the environment we exist in is such a holistic approach to an everyday idea we take for granted.

Read more about the artist here!

 

 

Eyeo 2015 – Meejin Yoon from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.

Meejin Yoon: mystudio.us

I was interested in the works and creative practice of Meejin Yoon, the co-founder of Howeler Yoon Architecture, former head of the Department of Architecture at MIT, and dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University. Trained as an architect, she had always been interested in the interactive aspect between people and public space, and responsiveness of space and creating relationships between content and context within the public sphere. In the Eyeo talk, she focused on her work in the field of interactive public space projects that “bridge issues of technology and play”. Her work spans across a wide range of topics, including responsive technologies, interactive technologies, smart materials, renewable energy, media-based public art, public engagement, and the public process.

At the beginning of her talk she explained how she is a very private person, but working with the public sphere has made her realize how the environment and responsive space can have a strong impact on her. I find her workflow of defamiliarizing and refamiliarizing interesting, and the psychologic studies she went through in order to create spaces, where people will intuitively interactive with, where people won’t be intimidated to touch elements in a public space. I’ve personally visited one of her projects, the Swing Time, in Boston. The project mimics the rubber tire swings that people would build in their backyards, refamiliarizing them with the concept,  but also has an accelerator and an interactive lighting feature that responds to touch and speed.

 

This week, I am especially interested in a project in INSTINT 2014 presented by Kate Hollenbach.  The company that the speaker is in is called Oblong. The intention of the software they are designing is to break out from a single screen and use human gestures to create more opportunities.

For decades, our normal interface with computers has been restricted to the possibilities offered by a single screen attached to a keyboard, a mouse, and limited touchscreen function. Although the machines have gotten much smarter, the human-machine interface still remains confined to interactions between one person and one machine. Therefore, in order to make the human-machine interfaces more advanced, Oblong created a 6-degree-of-freedom device that enables pointing at any screen in a Mezzanine room.

To me, I think this is definitely a direction we should aim for. Some people might think this needs a long time to develop and may only exist in fictional movies. However, to give a more common example, I think Apple is also trying very hard in this direction.  The earlier product iPhone X has already started to use gestures to achieve a more intuitive user interface. Therefore, I really admire the spirit of digging into this direction. Overall, I like the idea of encouraging a group of people working together and how their product could help them work more effectively. A lot of the times, conveying new ideas to other people is always the hardest.

For the strategies they present, they used their products step by step which shows one person working at first and then it shows how multiple people can also work together which helps her audience to understand the range of conditions their products are able to accomplish. I think I can definitely learn from it.

Moritz Stefaner “Truth and Beauty”

Moritz Stefaner is a German data visualization specialist. He used to work in the weapons industry, before changing careers to work in cognitive science. He now focuses on data visualization. Among his notable projects is creating a data visualization for nations of the OECD. He focuses on how to best represent how people interact with and can better understand data.

I am very interested in Moritz’s contributions to the Better Life Index, which helps to visually demonstrate which countries are the most livable in the world based upon 11 criteria. I think this is interesting particularly in contrast to his background in weaponry. For one thing, “Better Life” just sounds like a peaceful thing. For another thing, design conceptually draws heavily upon art and aesthetics as well as functionality, which to me, in such design as data visualization which is intangible and thus not physically destructive, I think these aspects juxtapose his background work.

I like Stefaner’s demeanor in his presentation, as he seems very comfortable and friendly with the crowd. He seems very humble, and took time to think about what aspects of his work the audience would be most interested in hearing about, rather than just praising his own accomplishments on stage. I think it is important to remember to let your work speak for itself when you are presenting it.

You can find more information on Stefaner at his website here.

Full video of his lecture below:

Stefaner presenting at Eyeo “Truth and Beauty”

Reuben Heyday Margolin is an American artist and sculptor. His main focus is his mechanically driven kinetic sculptures of wave-forms. He started with math and physics in Harvard University, but later he changed his path and got a degree in English. Later, he went to study traditional painting in Italy and Russia. He became obsessed with the movement of green caterpillar, which inspired him to create wave-like sculptures. He then began to make a series of large-scale undulating installations that combine the logic of mathematics with the sensuousness of nature. The scale of his project varies. His exploration of natural elements, forms and shapes using mathematical method provides him new perspectives to generate interesting artwork. I admire his work because his interest in waving, organic, natural forms allow him to combine his mathematical skills and background with his artistic sensitivity. By using his mathematical skills, he create a series parametric installation with tectonic logic. As an architecture student, these patterns and shapes are really fascinating and interesting to me.

Triple Helix

Triple Helix

2013 – 12 feet tall. 1027 strings, 9280 pulleys, wood, steel, aluminum polycarbonate, three electric motors. Video by Chris Potter.