Lines and revolution

The new surface was created by extracting the lines from the diagram and experimenting with multiple interventions of the revolve tool. The final surface was the result of revolving all of the lines together on the y-axis at 280 degrees. The 2d diagram shown was a exploded into series of layers that corresponded to the different scenes in the abstracted clip. This created about 15 planes of lines that when revolved created the dynamic shape shown here. The revolve tool was chosen because the entire clip is based on the two men circling a vague point in space while they try to get a good line of sight on one another.

Heat Abstracted - new video

In “Between Surface and Substance” Surface Consciousness, Mark Burry explores the relationship of form making, parametric creation, and artistic import. The article makes me consider the value of designing through digitally derived permutations of form. Is it just form making for the sake of making previously unseen forms. I think it some cases this has become the modus operandi for designers.

This misuse and misunderstanding of how digital technology is maybe inevitable. It might be akin to architects using books on classical architecture simply as a kit parts by which they could "design" a building. In more mindful hands, however, it seems that this new way of thinking about form may allow the architect to derive spaces, form, and experiences, that could not have been imagined. The craft is, as it always was, to control the variables and constraints that guide the design.

Abstracted Animation

In this animation the movie clip is further abstracted to show the camera views as individual spot lights, the two men as simple cylinders, and the gun sight lines as transparent planes. The animation involves moving lights that turn on and off in a way that coincides with the clip. The camera views for the animation present a new look from within the scene by taking a third-person views of the movement around the space.

The animation and camera cuts are not quite smooth yet but the overall idea suggests the making of a dynamic space created by the camera views and the sight lines which create a sort of rotation around the center space. Primarily, though, the space is created by the two points (the cylinders) and the line created between them. The line rotates around the space as the two points try to avoid/locate one another.

The next task will be to reinterpret this space into a surface that is a dynamic and directed as the one in the created in the clip and the animation.

Project 2

The clip was analyzed to construct the diagram below. The diagram shows the position of the cameras, the positions of the men, and the primary sight lines of the guns. All of the positions and lines are present at one time in the diagram. The diagram creates an interest in how the overlap of the camera positions creates movement around the 2d composition and a hierarchy of spaces.

Project 2

The clip is an edited excerpt of a movie in which two men play out the final stages of a cat and mouse game. The clip is edited to examine how the camera makes use of its movement and focus to make space but, also, allows the planes of the large cubes, the movement of the men, and, the guns to draw lines and make space.

Versioning - The New Trace Paper

In the SHoP article on versioning, the authors describe a new direction in architectural design in which computer algorithms are used to create design possibilities. In a way this seems to be an extension of the process of using many rolls of trace to create variants of design ideas. The computer simply allows the designer to generate many more options in much less time.

Versioning, however, takes a leap forward from the trace paper process in that it allows the designer to see possibilities that go beyond his/her imagination or time constraints. This, at first, may seem like a surrender of the architect's influence on the design. What is really happening here, though, is an extension of the design process into realms of space conception that may be influenced by more than architectural precedent and known building methods.

The promise and difficulty of the exponential increase of technological development should be a serious concern to anyone involved in the construction of buildings. The ability for a designer to constantly absorb new techniques is somewhat limited, not mention the capacity for one to imagine the best combinations and uses of those technologies. Versioning is way in which a designer can create frameworks the allow for the assimilation of new developments.