Jason K Johnson and Andy Payne are excited to announce the public release of the latest version of the Firefly toolset (Build 1.002) for Grasshopper. Firefly is a set of comprehensive software tools dedicated to bridging the gap between Grasshopper (a free plug-in for Rhino), the Arduino micro-controller, the internet and beyond. It allows near real-time data flow between the digital and physical worlds, and will read/write data to/from internet feeds, remote sensors and more. It also includes a Pachube reader. The download file includes:
We will be posting more videos, photos, and information about this exciting release. Come download the latest build and learn more about how we can connect our worlds!
HYDRACITIES ATHENS Workshop Final Presentations are today (June 9, 2010).
Future Cities Lab (Omonia Sq Studio) in Athens, Greece. Students and faculty from CCA, U. Patras and Princeton U. discuss water, public space, ecology and cities.
7 primary issues and questions explored during the workshop:
APPROPRIATE: The Passalimani Port of Piraeus, with its massive luxury yachts and lack of public space, epitomizes the greed and inequality of the post Olympic condition in Athens. What new forms of public space might emerge from financial catastrophe and the upcoming social crisis? [Olya + Lyndon] INSTIGATE: The majority of trash and recyclables generated on the Greek Islands are simply incinerated on site. What if the abandoned buildings of Piraeus Port were used to instigate a productive recycling ethic? What if the forces of mass tourism could become catalysts/engines for social and ecological change in the city? [Leif + Linda] GENERATE: Mass tourists generate 17% of Greece’s current GDP, yet on average - tourists spend very little time or money in Athens. What if Athens mass transportation networks could utilize the cycles of mass tourism to generate new revenue streams? [Tony + Hiram] CULTIVATE: Piraeus Port is a polluted, crowded place for tourists to travel through. Yet the draw of the islands - including their beaches, clean sea air, and the olive trees - force tourists to use the port in ever increasing numbers. What if the atmosphere of the Greek Islands came to the Port? What if Piraeus Port became a destination – a place to relax, unwind (and spend money)? [Sammy+Richard] LAYER: The Port of Piraeus treats local residents and tourist passengers as cargo, with little or no allotment for public space. What if the Port were given a second layer - a new public space for people to move, and converse in an open, friendly and sustainable way? [Britt+Ireen] FILTER: The dense urban fabric of Piraeus is currently underutilized and wasted. Piraeus currently lacks public space, usable parks, and access to a clean and renewable water source. What if the urban fabric of Piraeus was re-engineered to become an urban biofilter for the generation of public space and productive landscapes? [Souzan+Hediyeh] HARVEST: Athens’ Kifissos River and freeway corridor is a wasted resource with immense ecological, social and cultural potential. What if the hidden and exploited rivers of Athens could generate public spaces, productive ecologies and contribute positively to the life of the city? Could future generations of Athenians use this corridor as a continuous park to walk from the Acropolis to the Sea? [Cesar+Doug]
AA Global Visiting Workshop hosted by CCA
10 Day Intensive Workshop _ 12 July to 21 July, 2010
BIODYNAMIC STRUCTURES
AA Visiting School @ CCA California College of the Art
Monday 12 to Wednesday 21 July, 2010
Biodynamics is the study of the force and energy of dynamic processes on living organisms. Through simple mechanisms embedded within the material logic of natural systems, specific stimuli can activate a particular response. This response occurs in carnivorous plants such as the Venus fly-trap, which uses turgor pressure to trap small insects in order to feed, and worms, which by contracting differently oriented muscles, achieve movement. This ten-day intensive workshop, co-taught by the faculty of the Emergent Technologies and Design Programme at the AA and the faculty of Architecture and MEDIAlab at California College of the Arts, will explore active systems in nature, investigating biomimetic principles in order to analyze, design and fabricate prototypes that respond to electronic and environmental stimuli. Students will work in teams to research specific biological systems, extracting logics of organization, geometry, structure and mathematics. Advanced analysis, simulation, modeling and fabrication tools will be introduced in order to apply this information to the design of both passive and active responsive architectural systems. Investigation and application of robotics, sensors and actuators will be employed for the activation of the material system investigation through the construction of working responsive prototypes.
Michael Weinstock (Academic Head, Director of Emergent Technologies Programme, AA London UK)
Christina Doumpioti, Evan Greenberg, Konstantinos Karatzas (Tutors, AA EmTech Programme, London UK)
Jason Kelly Johnson [Future Cities Lab], Andrew Kudless [Matsys] (CCA MediaLab Coordinators, SF CA)
ASSOCIATED FACULTY
George Jeronimidis (Director of Center for Biomimetics, University of Reading UK); Andrew Payne (LIFT Architects, Grasshopper Primer); Daniel Segraves (ASGG Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture); Ronnie Parsons + Gil Akos (Studio Mode, NY); Daniel Piker (Kangaroo Project Live Physics)
This is a growing list of labs, projects and resources related to: urban and building scale energy databases, energy dashboard applications, monitoring systems, etc. Many of these can be incorporated into Arduino/Processing/Flash applications, Grasshopper/Firefly, Energy Analysis applications, GIS based applications, and more. Please send us additional links and we will publish them here:
Portable Devices/Intefaces - iPhone, etc. TouchOSC (custom iphone OSC graphic interface) Various iPhone Apps (iphone app to control building automation) Sentilla (Buildiing and Urban Energy Manager. redwood City, CA )
Visualization and Simulation Software Flare(ActionScript library for creating complex dynamic data driven visualizations) Visual Complexity (Collection of Data Visualizations) Fluent CFD (Flow Modeling and Engineering Simulation [Civil Case Studies])
Software Links Grasshopper Plug-in For Rhino (Graphical Parametric Programmer) Processing (Open Source Electronic Sketchbook Environment) Arduino (Open Source Software and Hardware Micro-controllers) vvvv (free multi purpose tookit for processing media in real-time) pd~ Pure Data (Real-time graphical dataflow programming environment) max/msp + jitter (interactive programmer with visual toolkit) open Frameworks (open C++ coding for creative projects)
Workshop: Sensing the City with Arduino + Processing Instructor: Jason Kelly Johnson (Future Cities Lab/CCA MEDIAlab) and Wendy Ju, PhD (Stanford / CCA Interactive), with presenters including Elizabeth Goodman (UC Berkeley / Confectious) and Andrew Wheeler, CTO of Adura Technologies. Date: February 13-14, 2010 (10am - 5pm) Location: California College of the Arts, Graduate Center, San Francisco Campus Eligibility: Open to all design students and professionals Cost: $100 for students, $200 for professionals. Register Now!SOLD OUT!
Description: The Sensing the City workshop will cover the basics of experimental sensing technologies and their deployment in urban environments for both practical and creative purposes. Participants will learn entry-level electronics and programming using the open-source programs Arduino and Processing, and variety of sensors, actuators and LEDS. During the workshop students will work hands-on with the instructors on a series of exercises designed to give them both technical knowledge and a broad understanding of emerging interactive technologies in architecture, art, interactive media, and beyond. The workshop will be led by an architect and an engineer with years of experience working with creative designers. No prior experience is required. Student will be required to bring a laptop. A list of basic suggested tools will be published soon. If you have questions about the workshop please send an e-mail to:info@future-cities-lab.net
Jason Kelly Johnson is the co-coordinator of the CCA mLab, and an Assistant Professor at the CCA in San Francisco. He is a founding design partner of Future Cities Lab, an interdisciplinary design and research collaborative that was recently awarded the Van Alen NY Prize in 2009. FCL’s work has been awarded an Unbuilt Architecture Award from the Boston AIA and has been most recently published in Softspace: From a Representation of Form to a Simulation of Space, ed. by Lally & Young. Additionally they earned second prize in the 2005 Seoul Performing Arts International Competition. In 2008 an exhibition of their design work was mounted at the Extension Gallery for Architecture in Chicago. He was the 2008-09 Oberdick Fellow at the University of Michigan TCAUP, and a 2008-09 New York Prize Fellow at the Van Alen Institute in New York City. Most recently his research was published in the book Interactive Architecture by Fox/Kemp published by Princeton Architectural Press, and a forthcoming issue of AD magazine entitled, “Territories” (edited by David Gissen). Jason holds a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University.
Wendy Ju is a PhD graduate of the Center for Design Research at Stanford University and the founder of Ambidextrous Magazine, Stanford University’s Journal of Design. Wendy’s work at the MIT Media Lab on an interactive kitchen counter was the direct predecessor to Microsoft’s Kitchen of the Future console, and her work with Remhi Post and Matt Reynolds on the Pengachu handheld Linux platform strongly influenced both Motorola’s Linux phone development and the MIT’s One Laptop Per Child initiative. She studied Product Design and Mechanical Engineering as an undergraduate at Stanford. Wendy’s current academic research harnesses people’s physical interactions to create novel and natural computer and machine interfaces. She currently divides her time between teaching at the d.school, at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, at the California College of the Arts, and being a mother to her infant son Case.
Elizabeth Goodman is a PhD candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Her writing, design and research focus on pervasive computing and the experience of everyday places — especially in cities. Elizabeth has a master’s in interaction design from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University as well as a BA in Art from Yale University.
Software/Hardware: All workshop attendees should bring their own laptop with the workshop software pre-installed. Processing can be downloaded here and Arduino can be downloaded here. Participants should also bring their own Arduino USB Board or a full Arduino Starter Kit. A range of sensors and associated hardware will be provided, but participants are also encouraged to bring components, tools or electronics they would like to use and/or share.
LITTLE BITS OF EVERYTHING Adafruit [Based in NYC - Arduinos, Sensors, Wireless, DIY Central, great range of things ...] Jameco [outside SF in Belmont, CA - Huge selection of Electronics] RobotShop [Huge selection of robot-based electronics, SMAs, Motors, Sensors] Al Lashers Electronics [Located in Berkeley, CA -1734 University Ave (510)843-5915] Electronics Plus [San Rafael, CA - (415) 457-0466] Fry’s [1077 East Arques Ave. Sunnyvale, CA, 408.617.1300 - also in Palo Alto, San Jose and more]
ARDUINO + ELECTRONICS SUPPLIERS Arduino [mothership: great links to everything Arduino] Sparkfun [sensors, hardware, kits ...] MakerShed [sensors, hardware, kits ...] LiquidWare [lots of everything]
GENERAL ELECTRONICS Marlin P. Jones [Huge Supplier including Power Supplies, LED, Connectors, etc]
SENSORS Acroname [Sharp IR Sensor Source - we use the GP2Y0A02YK] Making Things [Great range of Sensors - highly recommend] Sparkfun Sensors [many flavours] LadyAda [Bits and Pieces]
SERVOS Servocity [Great Selection of Servos and Supplies]
Prototypes from the Robotic Ecologies Lab at UVa (2007-08) with Troy Rogers and Matthew Burtner (’08) visit the blog: [LINK TO THE BLOG]
Metropolis Magazine: “Shape Shifters” [link]
ZDNet + Slashdot: [link]
Hook: “Intelligent Design: Will Robots Take Over Architecture?” [link]
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Ideas: This is not just about architectural machines that move. It is about groups of architectural machines that move with intelligence. We have named these new organizations “Robotic Ecologies”: promiscuous new environments brought forth by the rapid release of advanced computation into the physical realm. The ideas presented in this portfolio are an attempt to understand, to work with and against, these new technological (and some say spiritual) paradigms. The work and essays were produced by a small collaborative of architects, urbanists, amateur roboticists, and artists. The projects are as much about exposing the ills of our twenty-first century technological imperative as they are about celebrating their latent potential. We are clearly both terrified and thrilled by the rich and diverse territories emerging in the arts and sciences. The crossing of architecture and robotics represents one of the most promising and perhaps exigent technological intersections in recent times. Robots are sensing, thinking and moving entities. They are different from most machines in that they are capable of intelligent behavior – the capacity to learn, adapt and act on their senses and intuitions. Groups of robots, or robotic ecologies, are unique in their capacity to work as an organized system: rather than merely acting on their individual desires, robotic ecologies can work collectively in swarms or packs. Without much fanfare, an extraordinary new phylum of intelligent machines is coming to life in laboratories, studios and machine shops across the planet. Designers are building and programming kinematic self-replicating machines, modular self-assembling robots, fields of sun-tracking robotic sunflowers, and the like. As Marshall McLuhan famously said, “First we build the tools, and then they build us.” The projects presented in this portfolio are about experimenting, exposing and exalting these new tools, processes and technologies. It is about exploring what happens when endless arrays of intelligent machines come together to form and define the world around us.
