Looking Outwards: 11

Jenny Sabin is an American architect, designer, artist, a professor in Cornell AAP, and an experimental architect with her own studio based in Ithaca, NY. Her design focuses on cutting-edge technologies and emphasizes computational design, data, visualization, and digital fabrication.

A_Lumen_Jenny-Sabin-Studio_Photo-by-Pablo-Enriquez.jpg


Lumen (2017) by Jenny Sabin is a digitally fabricated architectural work that won the 2017 Museum of Modern Art’s PS1 Young Architect’s Program. The socially and environmentally responsive structure is made of a lightweight knitted fabric that adapts to the densities of bodies, heat, and sunlight. Lumen is a feminine form that offers luminous interiorities, informal networks, social fabrics, and fibrous assemblages that are pliable, transformative, and playful.


I found Jenny’s work particularly interesting as in my architecture studio we are currently working with environmentally responsive structures with algae and this related back to it perfectly and now I am using this particular project as a precedent for my design.


LO11: Women Practitioners

Mimi Son – Lit Tree

Mimi Son’s installation called “Lit Tree” was a work that I found very interesting. A small potted tree is augmented with video projection, which allows different lights, patterns, and visualizations appear through the branches and leaves of the tree. It can also interact with the visitors, and the work symbolizes the relationship between humankind and nature. I found the work interesting because Son tried to recreate how humans intervene and disrupt nature.

01
LIT TREE -2011 – FutureEverything 2011, Manchester UK

Mimi Son founded a Korean creative studio in called “Kimchi and Chips”in 2009. The goal of her studio is to connect the arts, sciences and philosophy through their research-based approach. She works in South Korea, but has created projects that are installed all over the world. She also became the first Korean artist to win the Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica, which is an award that signifies importance of work within the field of media art.

Looking Outwards 11

The Pack
Emily Gobeille

Emily Gobeille is an accomplished artist and designer interested in the way that children learn and play. A co-founder of Design I/O, she works to create immersive, interactive installations and experiences for museums, galleries, and more. She also plays a significant role in developing video games like The Pack, a strategy and logic-based game that aims to give players experience with computational thinking concepts. Within the game, players must explore  a fantasy world, befriending creatures that act as algorithms to change the world around them. The game’s visual design makes it accessible to younger and more diverse audiences, helping a wider range of players grasp complex concepts. Gobeille’s intrigue with children’s education is reflected in her own child-like creativity that shines through in the vibrance of her work. 

Looking Outwards – 11

02

For this Looking Outwards, I decided to write about the piece Assembly and one of the women involved in its creation. This piece features 5,500 white polymer blocks hanging from the ceiling. Through projectors, each block is illuminated with digital light. What I admire about this project is the use of both physical and digital instruments. I’m especially attracted to the way that light is implemented in this piece, creating a wave like animation. Mimi Son is the co-founder of the Seoul based art studio responsible for this artwork. She studied Interaction Design in Copenhagen, Denmark and got her MA in London, England. Along with working as an art director, she also teaches Interactive Storytelling in Korea.

Project – 11

I chose to do my project in this minimalist style because I thought it was really cute and reminded me of 8-bit video games (minus all the triangles.) My focus was on the smoothness and cleanliness of the moving image by coordinating objects together.

sketch
var count = 0;

var divwidth = 16;
var divider1;
var divider2;

var bench1;
var bench2;
var bench3;

var people = [];   //holds the people
var mountains = [];  //holds the mountains :)
var trees = [];   //holds the trees 😊

var trainbasecolor = 150;

var windowTop = 30;  //just helper variables for the window dimensions
var windowBottom = 150;


function setup() {
    createCanvas(480, 250);

    for (var i = 0; i < width/15+10; i++){
        mountains[i] = makeMountain(i*15);
    }
    bench1 = makeBench(158);
    bench2 = makeBench(458);
    bench3 = makeBench(-142);
    
    for (var i = 0; i < 6; i++){  //start off w some people
        if (random(0, 30)<13){
				people.push(makePerson(bench1.x-108.5 + i*43.1));
			}
    }
    for (var i = 0; i < 6; i++){  //start off w some people
        if (random(0, 30)<13){
				people.push(makePerson(bench2.x-108.5 + i*43.1));
			}
    }
    for (var i = 0; i < 6; i++){  //start off w some people
        if (random(0, 30)<13){
				people.push(makePerson(bench3.x-108.5 + i*43.1));
			}
    }
    
    divider1 = makeDivider(300);
    divider2 = makeDivider(0);

    
    
    

    
    frameRate(24);



}


function draw() {

	background(150, 180, 255);
	
	noStroke();  
	for(i=0; i<mountains.length; i++){ //draw mountains
		mountains[i].drawit();
	}
	for(i=0; i<trees.length; i++){ //draw trees
		trees[i].drawit();
	}

	fill(trainbasecolor);
	rect(0, windowBottom, width, 125);  //trainbase
	rect(0, 0, width, windowTop);
	fill(120);
	rect(0, height-20, width, 20);

	divider1.drawit();
	divider2.drawit();

	bench1.drawit();
	bench2.drawit();
	bench3.drawit();


	for(i=0; i<people.length; i++){ //draw people
		people[i].drawit();
	}
	




	divider1.stepit();
	divider2.stepit();

	bench1.stepit();
	bench2.stepit();
	bench3.stepit();

	for(i=0; i<people.length; i++){
		people[i].stepit();
	}
	for(i=0; i<mountains.length; i++){
		mountains[i].stepit();
	}
	for(i=0; i<trees.length; i++){
		trees[i].stepit();
	}

	removePeopleThatHaveSlippedOutOfView();
	removeMountainsThatHaveSlippedOutOfView();

	if(count % 15 == 0){       //make mountain objects
		//if(random(0,10)<3){

			mountains.push(makeMountain(680));
			
		//}
	}
	if(count % 30 == 0){      //make tree objects
		if(random(0,10)<6){

			trees.push(makeTree(600));
			
		}
	}




	count ++;
	print(people.length.toString());
}

//FUNCTIONS FOR TREE OBJECTS
function makeTree(tx){
	
	var treeTopWidth = random(100, 150);
	var treeTopHeight = random(50, 100)
	var treeHeight = random(70, 250);
	var trunkWidth = random(10, 50);
	

	var tree = {x: tx, y: 150, c: color(random(25, 75), random(125,175), random(25, 75)), topw: treeTopWidth, trunkw: trunkWidth, toph: treeTopHeight, trunkh: treeHeight, drawit: treeDraw, stepit: treeStep};

	return tree;

}

function treeDraw(){
	fill(150, 100, 50);
	rectMode(CENTER);
	rect(this.x, this.y, this.trunkw, this.trunkh);

	fill(this.c);
	ellipse(this.x, this.y-this.trunkh/2, this.topw, this.toph);
	rectMode(CORNER);

	
}

function treeStep(){
	this.x -= 8;
}

function removeMountainsThatHaveSlippedOutOfView(){

    var treesToKeep = [];
    for (var i = 0; i < trees.length; i++){
        if (trees[i].x > -200) {
            treesToKeep.push(trees[i]);
        }
    }
    mountains = mountainsToKeep; // remember the surviving buildings
}
//FUNCTIONS FOR MOUNTAIN OBJECTS
function makeMountain(mx){
	
	var mountainWidth = random(50, 200);
	var mountainHeight = random(50, 125);
	

	var mountain = {x: mx, y: mountainHeight, w: mountainWidth, c: color(random(80, 120), random(225, 255), random(80, 120)), drawit: mountainDraw, stepit: mountainStep};

	return mountain;

}

function mountainDraw(){
	fill(this.c);
	
	triangle(this.x, this.y, this.x-this.w, 250, this.x+this.w, 250);
	
}

function mountainStep(){
	this.x -= 2;
}

function removeMountainsThatHaveSlippedOutOfView(){

    var mountainsToKeep = [];
    for (var i = 0; i < mountains.length; i++){
        if (mountains[i].x > -200) {
            mountainsToKeep.push(mountains[i]);
        }
    }
    mountains = mountainsToKeep; // remember the surviving buildings
}


//FUNCTIONS FOR WINDOW DIVIDER OBJECTS
function makeDivider(wx) { 
    var divider = {x: wx, y: windowTop,
                  drawit: dividerDraw, stepit: dividerStep};

    return divider;
}

function dividerDraw(){
	fill(trainbasecolor);
	rect(this.x, this.y, divwidth, 150);
}

function dividerStep(){
	this.x++;
	
	if(this.x == 600-divwidth){
		this.x = (0-divwidth);
		
	}

	

}
//FUNCTIONS FOR PEOPLE OBJECTS
function makePerson(px){
	
	var personWidth = random(15, 35);
	var personHeight = random(25, 60);
	var headSize = random(8, 20);

	var person = {x: px, y: 196-personHeight/2, w: personWidth, h: personHeight, hs: headSize, c: random(0, 50), drawit: personDraw, stepit: personStep};

	return person;

}

function personDraw(){
	fill(this.c);
	rectMode(CENTER);
	rect(this.x, this.y, this.w, this.h);
	rect(this.x-this.w/4, 212, 5, 36);
	rect(this.x+this.w/4, 212, 5, 36);
	rect(this.x, this.y-this.h/2-this.hs/2+1, this.hs, this.hs);
	rectMode(CORNER);
	
}

function personStep(){
	this.x++;
}

function removePeopleThatHaveSlippedOutOfView(){

    var peopleToKeep = [];
    for (var i = 0; i < people.length; i++){
        if (people[i].x < 600) {
            peopleToKeep.push(people[i]);
        }
    }
    people = peopleToKeep; // remember the surviving buildings
}

//FUNCTIONS FOR BENCH OBJECTS
function makeBench(bx){
	var bench = {x: bx, y: 170+divwidth, drawit: benchDraw, stepit: benchStep};
	return bench;

	
}



function benchDraw(){
	rectMode(CENTER);
	fill(220);

	rect(this.x, this.y, 266, 50);
	
	for(i=0; i<6; i++){
		fill(225, 0, 0);
		rect(this.x-108 + i*43.1, this.y, 38, 40);
		fill(155, 0, 0);
		rect(this.x-108 + i*43.1, this.y+15, 38, 10);
		
	}
	rectMode(CORNER);

}

function benchStep(){
	this.x++;
	if(this.x == 750){
		this.x = -150;
		for(i=0; i<6; i++){
			if (random(0, 30)<13){
				people.push(makePerson(this.x-108.5 + i*43.1));
			}
		
		}
	}

}

LO – 11

The artist I looked at this week was LIA, an Australian multidisciplinary artist who has been producing work since 1995. Many of the works she creates are generative, kinetic images created computationally. She works with themes of ephemerality and randomness, and is interested in exploring the fleeting nature of beauty in her work by creating pieces that are always moving and never repeat themselves.

One of the pieces I looked at was Winter, part of a series LIA did about the seasons. I liked this piece because it represents the slow falling of snow in a beautifully abstract way. I also think that it plays in really well with her theme of change and randomness, expressing nature through coding in a cool way.

LO 11

I researched Yael Kanarek’s website and interactive art piece World of Awe. It’s an extremely impressive narrative website, with three separate stories and uniquely generated terrain for visitors to explore. The most interesting part is that a visitor’s movements in World of Awe are tracked and used to form a new art piece, filled with references to where each visitor has been and connecting everyone in the story’s various locations. It’s such a gorgeous piece of art, and it takes my mind to a lot of locations I’ve read about in books, or fantasy locations from board games or movies. I love the depth and richness of it. Kanarek herself is an artist who works with language in the modern era, and has won many awards for her work in the field of communicative art. One of her guiding principles in her work is her view of the Internet as bridging the gap between human and computer communication, and this concept is extremely present in all of her work, especially World of Awe. In addition to teaching at the Pratt Institute and her personal work, she has founded a text-based jewelry company called Kanarek, and is an artist in residence at the Romemu Center, working on regendering the Bible.

LO-11-Women Practitioners

Jenny Sabin Studio, Ada, 2018-2019. 

Jenny Sabin, Ada, 2018-2019. Source.

Ada is a project by Jenny Sabin’s studio for the Microsoft Research Artist in Residence program. The project was named after Ada Lovelace, one of the first computer programmers and a woman as well. This project uses AI and architecture to create an interactive pavilion using responsive photo-luminescence. The project uses 3d printed nodes to connect fiberglass rods, with a knitted main structure that contains the responsive aspects of the pavilion.  

This project was fascinating to me in its manipulation of what architecture tends to be– static. The pavilion constantly changes in response to the clients it is made for–humans. Thus, the pavilion explores the bounds on which architecture can morph in real time as a response to human stimulus and movements. By integrating the light responsive aspect, the pavilion has yet another transformative variable that generates constant new experiences of Ada. The exploration Jenny Sabin does in this project introduces the possibilities of architecture that become fluid and almost free form to an extent using real time data sets that respond to the environment. It is inspiring in the ways Jenny Sabin uses Ada and artificial intelligence to connect humans to material forms and thus forming an intimate conversation between the pavilion and us where we are able to communicate through interpreted data.

LO-11 : Tega Brain

Keeping Time: a time visualisation with photos

Of all the women practitioners I have come across in the field of interaction design and computation, I find Tega Brain’s voice to be one of the most unique. Tega Brain uses computation and combines it with environmental interpretation of computers and her work forms bridges between computation and design as it occurs in nature. She creates computation systems/projects that respond to natural phenomena and vice versa. 

Tega Brain is an Australian-born computational designer/artist. She has a background in environmental engineering. She is a professor of New Media at NYU and is associated with Processing.org – a language similar to p5.js for visual computation.

The project I found the most interesting, especially because we recently learnt about images in p5.js is called “Keeping Time”. As described on her website – “Keeping Time portrays a complex biological system living through the Anthropocene. The series is made by scraping the Flickr database for images of particular plant species and laying the results out according to their time stamp. Photographs for each year are arranged in rows and are ordered across each row according to date.”

She uses transparency of images and their density in a given area of pixels to visualise time and the age of species. I admire that she uses images to visualise data and this project speaks to her larger body of work where she combines design with environmental phenomena.

LO 11 – A Focus on Women Practitioners

Madeline Gannon is a designer of interactive tools for digital fabrication at Madlab. The project I am highlighting is called Tactum, which is an augmented modeling tool that is used to design 3D printed wearables. This tool uses depth-sensing and projection mapping to sense different inputs and in turn, project touch gestures on the user’s skin. This is a very ingenious method of rapid prototyping that allows anybody to design a 3D printed wearable, and see real-time feedback throughout the process. It is very interesting to see the limitations of a program with a finite amount of possible creations (due to the given size and number of bands). I would really like to explore this tool and discover new methods of interaction and how they would produce different outcomes.

http://www.madlab.cc/tactum