Tutorial 19/11/08

Hmmm... a very mixed bag this week.. the possibility of some much needed direction, but possibly at the expense of relevance..

As I saw it, the main problem with my project thus far has been the lack of a fundamental design question or driving force... I know what it is that I am looking at, and it interests me, but I feel that in order for the designs to develop past a basic exploratory conceptual daliance into something that can be interrogated, calibrated and valued, a more tangible direction or aim is needed.

Phil's suggestion from [last week] to look at crashing a fighter jet into the site was made in an attempt to prompt me into looking at the juxtaposition of different-paced technologies onto the site, and investigate how they might straddle the landscape in altering manners. At this stage I was considering the cockpit as a mapping or controlling device and the boat as more of a single molten material, similar to the air surrounding a living aeroplane.

What I was not considering was the space between 2 technologies; variable reactions to time and scale based on different calibrations to speeds and materials...

'Dances of Death'

Having yawned and ruffled his hair for a few minutes, Neil interjected with some sympathy for my need to understand what it was I am seeking to investigate at more basic umbrella level... His suggestion was to loosen up my theory or need to 'justify' my thread by taking a more sculptural approach, referencing Jean Tinguely's series of sculptures entitled 'Dances of Death', comprised of burnt out wreckages from a house immediately adjacent to the sculptor's studio.

Sounded good to begin with, but after doing a half day of research, mindlessly downloading pictures of crashed or decaying aircraft and Jean Tinguely scultptures, the questions returned once more; if I am to assemble a series of sculptures then I still have to come up with some kind of rationale for their assembly; thinking of them as sculptures or designs makes little difference to my immediate situaion - by looking at death I may have been steered in the direction of a framework with which to create a thesis or narrative, but it is still a blanket concept.. the search continued for a methodology which which to name, construct, and set in motion the elements of a design at a more detailed scale..

The Cockpit: Pilot Instrumentation

After last weeks tutorial, Phil has suggested I consider the reprecussions of a Eurofighter crashing into my site. This idea is to be used as a weapon to understand the representation, mapping, detail, and paradigm shifts that occur when a fast architectural system of high intelligence is juxtaposed with a lower, or slower site such as decaying timber within a landscape... discussions so far have revolved around changing colours and densities caused by movements of the observer within the system...

I have produced one relatively simplistic line drawing superimposed above a photograph, but am as yet to begin named the parts and considering how the image might be arrived at; I think I really need an in depth inquiry into the systems architecture that will enable me to actually assemble this data in a real world scenario...

Phil also pointed me in the direction of computer systems architecture, particular 'FAST' Architecture (Flexiable Systems for Stimulation and Testing).. wherupon I found the below diagram. I think it may be helpful for me to rationalise the objectives of my data-collecting enquiries, and state some aims for the outcomes, as this would allow specificity within the design of the armatures, in turn leading to a level of detail and accountablility, and possibly even iteration. Perhaps a similar diagram naming all the components of my system would be beneficial... I just feel I need a specific enquiry to focus my research and learning regarding these somewhat complex 'FAST' Architectures...

Interstingly yesterday we had a 5th year thesis lecture from Dr Rachel Armstrong, who is also lecturing at UCL this very evening, around the topic of Complex Systems Architecture... Her 'bottom-up' approach deals with the ambition of, put simply, growing buildings. This is to be achieved by a cross-disciplinary approach appreciating the considerably more complex operative rules if living, dynamic materials, rather than reducing them to inert objects...

One thread I discussed with her after the lecture involved looking at the way bacteria operate in relation to the decay of wood - one possible aim for the 2nd part of my project (what to do with the data once collected) could involve looking at a nano-biological defence system for timber framed buildings; recording the unabated decay of timber under natural conditions in order to unlock the algorythms that could hold the key to timber regrowth and repair patterns... maybe an immortal sea-going timber vessel is the ultimate aim?

Perhaps a ship that is able to redefine itself with climate change... the 10,000 year Noah's Ark for bacteria and fauna!!!

Hopefully more on this tonight...

Archaeological Windcatcher Clocks

These renders (immediately below is a photograph) all owe considerably more to the power of Nextlimit Maxwell Render than any modest skills I may possess...fairly simple Rhino models were exported as OBJ files into Maxwell Studio, a little experimentation with a timber material ensued, after which each of the three renders took about 4 hours...

This English clock dates from about 1610 and can be found in the British Museum's Horology section, ticking away on display. To create the below design, I looked into the 5 requisites of any timepiece - Energy, Escapement, Control, Wheels, and Indication in order to rearrange the principles of time into an achaelogocial exporatory armature...

Energy is provided by the wind, stored inside a variable speed coil mechanism, and redistributed using an escapment and control system containing a horizonal weight pendulum. This motion is transfered using wheels to a cylindrical weighted brush, which rythmically rubs away at the surface of the steel structural component still attached to the decaying timber...



This last image is a render manipulated with a simple radial blur in photoshop to represent motion. Overall I am happy with the image but the top left hand corner contain some slight pixelization that I may have to do something about...

More Drawings...

This notation drawing begins to imagine the relationship between multiple members of this dying fleet, communicating with each other through the tops of their [virtual] masts, all the way from estuary to muddy grave, recording the story of their decay.

The above design owes it's basic principle to the 'leg' section pioneered by Theo Jansen and referenced previously on this blog; the leg section is extruded through it's ability to slide up and down the vertical elements, reacting to the tidal forces that turn the propeller element. In place of a 'foot' is a tool that works primarily along the horizontal plane, scratching and disturbing the surface of the sediment below in relation to the movement of the system as a whole.

This drawing looks into the possibility of disecting a rudder and making it's sections subject to the varying displacement of three seperate (interconnected) agents: sediment, water (tidal rythms) and winds.

First Fruits...

This series of drawings contains a conceptual set of archaeological investigative armatures that straddle the dead vessels, seeking to measure the decaying materials to discover the alogrythms that are both inherent within the ecology that acts upon the vessels, and created by the inteface between the this existing ecology and the system that has invaded it (the dead or dying vessel).

Decay and movement occurs at differing speeds and along differing vectors relative to the materials involved and the parts of the local environment affecting them; water will not have the same effect as sediment will on timber, in the same way the timber and steel will react differently to immersion in either water or sediment. There is also the direction, scale, and force of the actions to be considered.

The above system looks to investigate the divorce of steel from timber; the force binding steel and timber previously was largely friction on it's own; friction was allowed through the bulbous turgidity of the timber cells prior to their decay; as this given changes under decay, the system is subject to paradigm shift, and eventually loses much of it's order:

More to follow...