Category: LookingOutwards-08

Lanna Lang – Looking Outwards – 08

Meejin Yoon – Eyeo Festival 2015

Meejin Yoon’s website: http://www.mystudio.us/

Meejin Yoon is an architect and designer based in Boston, Massachusetts whose practice revolves around the intertwining between architecture and the public realm. She studied architectural design and architectural practice at Cornell University. She didn’t have a background in technology until she became a faculty member in MIT, and then using her new-found knowledge to combine technology, architecture, and the public space to question how design fits into contemporary culture and creating a sense of place and environmental awareness.

Yoon is very focused on the separation between public space and personal space as she is a very private person. Yoon believes that in order to create a truly engaging public space, the artist must create something unfamiliar – defamiliarize the context such that the rules of engagement are less clear. These two values that Yoon holds throughout her work are what I admire about the way she works. This contradiction that her art is made for the public, yet she is so defensive and closed off as a person is very intriguing to me because in a sense, she is more of an open person than she thinks she is.

My favorite piece from her is “White Noise/White Light” because it encompasses everything that I try to include in my own installation work: human interaction with light, playing with sound in an installation, and exploring ways to incorporate technology and art. Another thing I really like about this piece is the fact that she created this work with a specific idea in mind in how people will interact with this work, but, in reality, people interacted with the work completely different than what she imagined. I love the idea of how once an artist puts one of their works in public, the work becomes something completely different than what the artist first envisioned. Another piece I really liked was “Aviary”, which was an installation that explored human engagement and human touch within a public space, combined with light fixtures, and a soundscape of bird songs. What I admired about this piece was her way of abstracting everything to the point that the audience physically interacting with the piece wouldn’t exactly understand what the installation was unless Yoon explained it. Compared to another piece she did, “Swing Time”, I enjoy “Aviary” more because “Swing Time” is very familiar and to me, kind of boring, as it is just beautiful tire swings that light up, versus “Aviary” which is very unfamiliar, yet also beautiful.

I really liked the way Yoon presented her work in this presentation. She would first discuss another artist/piece of work and what it was about, and then she ties that in as her source of inspiration in creating one of her projects, showing the connection between the two, yet how she explored and expanded that theme that she was inspired by. As she presents, she includes many photos of the materials that uses – especially the technological materials – as well as videos that document the work in the public space once it was installed. This helped me understand how I should present my work because now I know that as an artist, it is important to convey every step that I took to reach my final product.

“Aviary”

Ankitha Vasudev – Looking Outwards – 08

Jesse Louis-Rosenberg and Jessica Rosenkrantz are generative artists who founded the design studio Nervous System (New York) in 2007. They created this studio as an outlet for interdisciplinary experiments that did not fit within their respective educations (Rosenberg was studying math and computer science while Rosenkratz was studying biology and architecture). Their body of work emphasizes an interaction between science, art and technology.

One of the projects highlighted in their video: Flora Collar(2015), uses the concept of computation geometry, plant morphogenesis, differential growth

I find their work inspirational because of the methods they use to create computer simulations and digitally fabricate designs and products that draw inspiration from nature. In their Eyeo video, the artists talk about their interest in digital fabrication techniques, plant morphogenesis and differential growth, algorithmic gardening and the creation of objects such as jewelry and clothes using these processes. This video was interesting because it showed multiple experimental fabrication and computational techniques. Both artists also touched upon their interest in making these objects affordable and functional rather than just aesthetically pleasing. 

Another project talked about in their video is Kinematic Dress(2015), which is a 3D printed dress consisting of interlocked panels
The artists’ video from the Eyeo Festival in 2015

Siwei Xie – Looking Outwards – 08

Meejin Yoon is an architect, designer, and educator, whose projects and research investigate the intersections between architecture, technology, and the public realm. Prior to joining the faculty at AAP, Yoon was at MIT for 17 years and served as the head of the Department of Architecture from 2014–18. 

I admire her work that includes interactive public space projects bridging issues of technology and play in the public sphere. Her works have great variety and social values. Spanning work over the past decade, topics covered will include responsive technologies, smart materials, renewable energy, media based public art, public engagement and the public process. I admire the interactive technologies she uses in the interactive architectures. 

She uses relevant data and images effectively to help audience understand. I will incorporate this strategy and present images during my working processes.

In her speech, she backed her data with the studio established in 2001, which she pursues creative works at the intersection of architecture, art and technology. The firm is an international interdisciplinary design practice working across the domains of architecture, urban design, public space, immersive experience, and design strategy.

Link to her website.

Meejin Yoon’s speech on Eyeo 2015.

Emma NM-LO-08

Dear Data

Giorgia Lupi is an information designer at Accurat (data-driven research, innovation, and design), based in New York and Milan. She works to create visual narratives that use data to connect it to what it is: knowledge, behaviors, people. Stefanie Posavec is a data designer from the UK. She tends to use hand-crafted methods to create non-traditional representations of data from language, literature, or scientific areas.

I really enjoyed how they collaborated together and learned new things about each other through data and drawings. I am also really interested in design, so for the dear data project cards to hold data, but in an interesting visual way was cool to me. I liked their thought process of how they created the data visualization.

They talk a lot about their thought process and how they were feeling/felt throughout it. They also mentioned their insights and a reflection of the project. To convey the project, they almost told it as if it were story, after all, postcards are short stories. I think it’s important to include insights and reflection/things you learned when sharing a project. It shows that the project was more than just “moving through the motions” and helps you understand what you’ve learned.

Looking Outwards Week 8

His talk:

One of his works I liked from his instagram:

His website: http://thesystemis.com/

Zach Lieberman describes himself as an “artist, researcher, hacker dedicated to exploring new modes of expression and play.” He studied Fine Arts at Hunter College and has a BFA and MFS in Design and Technology from Parsons, where he currently teaches. His works use technology in a way that augments the body’s ability to communicate, focusing on computer graphics, human-computer interaction, and computer vision.

Throughout the talk, Lieberman was very humorous, genuine, and relatable with his audience. He introduces himself by first talking about his relationship with his father and how his father inspires him. “The world needs stories. Storytelling isn’t about technique, it’s about being fully human.” His personal story is important in contextualizing his work.

I like the way he chose to introduce himself because I feel like it rang true for his work as a whole and the idea of human connection that he works toward.

He uses drawing (live demonstrations of drawing with code) as a vehicle to talk about his projects, as well as introducing other artists and works he likes. For example, using airplane wallpaper to introduce idea of connecting to other places and then connecting that to his project “Play the World”. I liked that project a lot, especially because of the surround sound speakers that serve as a reminder of your physical location in the world.

Sewon Park – LO – 08

The artist that I have selected from the EYEO presentations is Meejin Yoon. As I have several friends that are enrolled in the architecture program, I have developed significant interest in the field of architecture. Yoon’s Korean descent led me to select and view the project, which was both aesthetically mesmerizing and technologically inspiring

Meejin Yoon is currently the dean of architecture at Cornell University and heads the Howeler + Yoon studio, completing architecture projects ranging from from memorials to olympic infrastructures. Yoon studies architecture and likes to incorporate modern technology in her work.

http://www.howeleryoon.com/work/49/circus-conservatory (Link to her studio website)

During her lecture, she gives an effective presentation of her work through discussing why the use of technology was important in her work. She uses reusable energy for the environment and interactive technology to engage the viewers. I admire that she not only uses technology for aesthetics but also for practical purposes.

Meejin Yoon’s lecture at EYEO 2015