Aetherius: the rhythm of wind

Aetherius: the rythm of wind

Aetherius: the rythm of wind

Aetherius: interaction with participants

Aetherius top view

Aetherius inside view

Aetherius prefabrication

Aetherius on site construction

Kite wings details

Air flow

Vibrations are the very basis of life. Wherever we look in Nature we see self organising and self regulating systems that are in a state of constant vibration, oscillation, undulation and pulsation. Inspiration and expiration of the lungs, systole and diastole of the heart are only two basic examples.

The concept of Aetherius is to translate vibrations into a self organised and self regulated structure. Aetherius makes the participants experience an ephemeral ultra-light architecture in constant movement.

The artwork moves to the rhythm of the wind and becomes a living structure.
It is a visual experience as well as being an interactive experience. As the artwork moves, the participants react to its unpredictable behaviour. Not only Aetheius moves with the windy climatic conditions, but it can also be animated by the particpants.
In summary it is a delicate ephemeral structure that reflects the subtle nature of a vibrating system.

Tremor Vitae Animation

This is the animation that I developed for my Digirep Module at the University. The story is about an old robot that is brought to life with vibrations. The initial set is of course the Burning man Festival.
Mostly everything is done in Cinema 4D and after effects.

Buena Vista!

Tremor Vitae animation by Maria Valente

Centrifugal Pavilion by Clavel Arquitectos

How much does your building weigh?, asked Buckminster Fuller. Now again the curator of the Biennale Terence Riley asks the same question to all six international teams invited to the project “Ultra Lightweight Village” for the 2011 Shenzhen & Hong Kong biennale of urbanism\architecture.

Clavel Arcquitectos’ installation is composed by three circles of waterproof light fabric of 7.8, 6.4 and 5.4 meter of diameter spin around their axis at only 1.5 turns per second. In the biggest one we can reach to cantilever of nearly 4 meters with an only 2 mm roof thickness. It is interesting to check how similar is the movement with the animal aquatic one. Thanks to the rotation the gravity apparently disappears and only aerodynamical forces shape the fabric. The soft waves produced on the surface create a smooth breeze that improves the thermical conditions behind during the hot and sunny days.

The pavilion creates a specific place for children that can experiment with the centrifugal forces, generate electricity to open the structures and activate the lighting. The faster the children chairs rotate the brighter the structure will be.

Above: Centrifugal Pavilion by Clavel Arquitectos

Click on the following link for the full video:

http://www.dezeenscreen.com/2011/12/21/pabellon-ultraligero-centrifugo-by-clavel-arquitectos-filmed-by-cristobal-palma/

Theo Jansen, Strandbeest

Theo Jansen’s animated works are a fusion of art and engineering. He has been creating wind-walking examples of artificial life since 1990. His . The basic design of the so called Strandbeest uses multiple pairs of legs set on a central crankshaft, which produces a galloping-herd effect.

Jansen cares about the environment and produces his living structures with recycled items. The ‘stomach’ of the sculpture is made with retired plastic bottles that capture the air pumped by the wind. To harness the wind, Jansen employs bicycle pumps, plastic tubing and rubber rings. Large flapping wings gather the most wind, allowing for its storage.

One of the most impressive features of the kinetic artwork is the locomotion. The strandbeest walk with legs rather than roll on wheels, as would be expected of an inanimate object, in order to more effectively cross large areas of sand. The ‘hips’ of the strandbeest remain level, while the legs kick forth, without lurching forward.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Reuben Margolin waves

Reuben Margolin is an American-born artist and sculptor known for his mechanically-driven kinetic sculptures of wave-forms. He creates large-scale kinetic sculptures that use pulleys and motors to recreate the complex movements and structures we see in nature. Using everything from wood to cardboard to found and salvaged objects, Reubens artwork is diverse, with sculptures ranging from tiny to looming, motorized to hand-cranked.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Autodesk Project Vasari

Project Vasari supports performance-based design via integrated energy modeling and analysis features. Project Vasari can be used in conjunction with Ecotect Wind Rose analysis to dynamically simulate the impact of wind speed and direction on a projects. This prototype plug-in provides a simplified “virtual wind tunnel” that allows designers and engineers to run computational fluid dynamic early in the design process.
For more information on this software on http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/vasari/

Cymatics, Hans Jenny

Cymatics reveal the geometrical patterns created by vibrating a liquid or a solid with sound waves. In summary it makes sound visible. When a surface is subject to vibrations it distorts in a non uniform way with areas of greater and lesser distorsions.
What Hans Jenny as the founder of Cymatics, pointed out is the resemblance between the shapes and patterns we see around us in physical reality and the shapes and patterns he generated in his investgations.

Jenny was convinced that biological evolution is a result of vibrations, and that their nature determined the ultimate outcome. He speculated that every cell had its own frequency and that a number of cells with the same frequency created a new frequency which was in harmony with the original, which in its turn possibly formed an organ that also created a new frequency in harmony with the two preceding ones.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the image we see a solid shape created in a vibrating environment. A kaolin paste is heated, it liquefies and is then poured onto a vibrating diaphragm. Wave fields are created during the cooling process. Standing, travelling and interfering waves appear. Once the paste solidifies periodicity is inherent in them, it represents a state of flux. It is steady but has a constant movement within the shape. Within the form everything is in a state of circulation. Periodicity generates and sustains everything.

Arduino website

http://arduino.cc/

This is the arduino website where you can find very useful information on what an arduino can do, and how to use it. You can download the processing sotfware for free and browse and post comments and questions on the forum.

http://fritzing.org/ 

This is the fritzing website, which is a sotfware that helps you design your circuit, share information and learn about interactivity

2010 AA Biodynamic Structures Workshop

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

These are some pictures from the 2010 AA Biodynamic Structures Workshop.

The project concept developed by our team was an interactive acoustic wall that reacts to different sound frequencies. The higher the frequency sensed the more the balloons inflate and the brighter the LEDs enclosed in the balloons become. The balloons inflation is controlled by valves that open and close through the use of servos.
We had one night and half a day to build the whole prototype and in the end unfortunately it was not fully functional.