From Fractals to Senses

Think back to when you were younger – how many times were you exposed to technology in a day? Whether it was a phone, a computer or watching TV. The world has had a dramatic advancement in technology and the questions that should be asked are, “are we as humans becoming more robotic? Running day-to-day tasks repeatedly?” My aim with the project below and the help of Burning man is to try to make us human again by reflecting on the 5 senses. Part of my childhood in Kenya was filled with no technology at times especially because it was a third world country. Weather I spent an hour climbing trees or just playing several different sports – no technology was involved. From a more personal experience babies/ kids at the age of 1 are already watching TV and playing games on phones. Where were we 30 or 100 years ago and where are we now? Who are you? What is your identity? When was the last time you experienced something that moved you spiritually/ emotionally? The journey through a temple or certain spaces can personally move me at times. If it’s just experiencing the space or listening to religious hymns – having a connection with something greater than yourself can not be described but just needs to be experienced.

Manveer Sembi’s Aexion Fractal imported from Mandelbulb3D to Rhino and 3D Printed

Art installation name: To Make One Human Again

Project Description
Fractal geometry has always existed but was very recently discovered. The chosen design is based a fractal (as shown above) and the research of temples. At this stage in time everyone around has become very dependent on computers and technology as days go on – systematically – wake up, go to work, have lunch, work again, come home, sleep, repeat. It appears we have become robots running day to day tasks.

Physical Description
The structure is to have several entrances with a variety of different spaces – each space can be used in different ways. The proposed idea is to focus on most of the senses and finally introduce the user/ occupant to an area which can be used as he or she prefers. People who visit the installation will have a range of different background and want to reflect in different ways. The idea of interfaith participation with the installation will be a focus and even if one is an atheist, they should still be able to reflect with the installation. Experiencing the senses in the art piece/ sculpture shall take away the user from their day to day working/ life and try to make them experience a change in conditions which would make them feel “Human” .

Interactivity and mission
The proposal uses the 5 senses, so in order to enter into the main space, the user will need to experience one of the 5 senses. The space in the middle/ communal space can be used for multiple purposes (as burners see fit).
This is a preliminary installation for myself. The project is still at its concept stage and through experimentation and learning a working design can easily be constructed. The assembly process may need more than a one person (burner/ volunteers can help).
Although the burners may use this installation in different ways, possibly climbing it – the final product should be partially combustible, and any material left can be re-used by recycling.
The sensory installation will allow people to reflect with their inner self. Some memories are brought back with certain smells etc. For the installation to work, all the spaces must be kept clean at all times and each person’s privacy respected.

Philosophy of the piece
Focusing on fractal geometries at university – I was drawn to looking at Sikh and Hindu temples. Some of these temples use fractals in their construction. I have studied and worked in the UK but was born and brought up in Kenya. I have come across a range of different people with backgrounds which vary dramatically. The first world counties highly depend on technology and even now certain third world countries value technology over day to day necessities such as food. The idea of using the senses allows technology to be minimised in the installation and for one to be made human again. This is one of my major motivations, however, the objective of the installation at burning man is to experiment with the scalability of materials, construction techniques and to provide a sensory experience.

The proposal of using the 5 senses.
Sight – Certain LED lights can be added to the structure – so that it is visible at night.
Smell – Scent infused timber can be used so during the burn, these can be released or as people occupy the space the timber can have a smell to it.
Touch – Some of the timber can be engraved/ have different textures
Taste – The users can sit in the space to have their snacks/ meals
Hear – Chimes or other instruments which harness the wind can be hung in this area.

 

Babels

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Symbol- Language and Sound into System

Language has a strong symbolic meaning to the mankind. It is not just a sound but with meanings which then allows to self-express, communicate and inspire. The mechanism of the sound system of languages is translated into visually represented geometries using Chladni’s Law.

3-Dimensional computer generated Chladni Patterns 

When the frequencies increase, the pattern gets more complicated.

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Tower of Babel – The origin of different languages

“Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly. […] Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:3~4)

(The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel)

It is the story from the Bible but also architectural structure found in Mesopotamia Civilisation – called Ziggurat. It was made of asphalt and baked bricks with total dimensions of 90m x 90m, 90m high. This is equivalent 30th floor building.

The united humanity spoke a single language and agreed to build a city and a tower that is ‘tall enough to reach heaven’. God found such behaviour as rude and disrespectful. He confounded man’s speech so that they could no longer understand each other. 

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Concept Development through systematic studies of Ziggurat

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The frequency and nodes of the word is analysed and recreated as two geometrical forms. They are proportioned according to the Ziggurat Algorithm ratio and timber pieces are stacked up vertically reaching the highest deck at 8m above. The structure encourages to climb complex geometry.

While reaching the top, less intense the space becomes. The LEDs are placed underneath the timber pieces which are concentrated on the top of the tower and scattered following the central void of the structure. Lights illuminate with the voice reactive sensor placed at the top of the tower.

Human always wanted to reach higher points either physical or spiritual. The height of architecture symbolised one’s power and control. This can be observed from the tower of Babel and continues in architectural history. Such expression of the desire of heights lead to competition of building higher structure.

High rise buildings were often found in religious architecture where they had few typical characteristics. First, it was the only tower to observe your land and the only tower which can be seen from everywhere in town. It has a visual meaning that the land within the perspective is the land within control. Second, religious architecture often had music instruments embedded within. This represented the control of the land where music reaches. And finally, high-rise tower was a representation of the centre of universe and sacred space in religious term. The tower, architecture of height is a spatial symbol of man’s deep desires.

The ritual is all about finding the true desire of your own. This begins with constructing the tower where the ritual follows the biblical story of Babel. Climbing up 8m high construct is a challenge then the climbers are rewarded with the beautiful panoramic view of Black Rock city. The climbers will also interact with the installation by continuously stacking up the Babels with anything they can find. Eventually it will deform from the original shape. Then the Babels will be the collective symbol of the Burners’ pure desire.

• SOL •

 

• SOL •

The Ritual of Light

SOL is an architecture designed by Burning Man for Burning Man as a celebration of its surrounding landscape.The design creates an enclosed space, which is flooded with light daily at 12pm for a limited time. This ritual occurs only when both sun and architecture line up, becoming one entity.

SOL is 9m long, 3m wide and 5m tall. The entire structure is made out of 18mm birch plywood, cut with CNC and assembled on the Playa.

SOL is directly connected with its surrounding landscape, mimicking the silhouette of the harsh mountains. A series of 9 chimneys, which rise from the ground create several sloped surfaces where users can lay down to relax and embrace the natural surrounding. During daytime SOL will be a climbable structure, which can also provide shelter from the challenging conditions of the desert.

SOL was designed to act, appear and generate different experiences based on the user’s position. Frontally viewed it acts as a sun clock aligning with the sun at 12pm.

The overall shape resembles a series of monolithic rocks emerging from the playa, which are inspired by the landscape. During night time, SOL is dynamically lit by LED strips both internally and externally, producing a colorful light show, which celebrates the darkness of the night through artificial light.

Over the years, Black Rock City has seen a multitude of projects which have been created to animate the Playa.

SOL aims to be a playful, interactive and informative design, which enhances the relationship between humans and celestial bodies, in particular with the sun. Human history has been driven by the cult of the sun, and divinities and architecture have been dedicated to it. With the help of parametric design and environmental analysis, SOL is a direct representation of a particular moment on the playa: 12pm of everyday.

Internally, the light that penetrates and cast itself on the floor for only 30 minutes, wants to make the user aware of the sun’s movement in a more evident way. This phenomenon is a daily ritual, which brings people together in order to experience a connection with our universe that we sometimes take for granted since we cannot directly perceive it.

The wooden structure will be lit on fire on the last day of the festival since it was designed to exist only at Burning Man for the length of the festival.

My inspirations has a direct link to archeoastrology, a science that looks at the relationship between celestial bodies and architecture, i.e. Stonehenge, Chiceniza and the Parthenon in Rome. The common element between these projects is the attention, precision and relation with the sky and the movement of the sun. All of these projects and many more, create a different dimension where the architecture only becomes a tool to admire and contemplate what surrounds us.  

In conclusion, SOL aims to be an example of how architecture can be shaped by the use of datas and parametric design, in order to deliver a project which is directly derived from its surrounding environment.

Celestial Field

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Whatever your creed your reliance on the sun is unquestionable.

We have worshipped it as a God.

Spent lifetimes studying it through science.

Yet human hands will never touch its surface.

Celestial Field brings our sun to the Playa for us to dance in its glory.

Triggering our own solar flare.

Internal perspective of the Celestial Field Pavilion

 

From the dawn of time the sun has been a constant in human life. It has been central to the beliefs of nearly every civilisation throughout history. What was once an astrological wonder sustaining life; dictating when to plant and harvest our crops; evolved into a god and deity, woven into the stories and teachings of nearly every culture, from the Egyptians to the Ancient Greeks and even Christianity.

Sun symbolism from across the globe and through the ages

 

The oldest man-made structures in the world have resounding astrological connections to both the sun and constellations, covered in carvings they unquestionably align to major astrological events.

Newgrange in Boyne Valley, Ireland, thought to be built in 3500BC, has a tomb in which sits a stone basin lit by a single beam of light at sunrise on the winter solstice.

 

Newgrange Tomb- Borne Valley, Ireland; built around a single beam of light that exists only for a moment each year

 

The Egyptians, Greeks, and Christians have all referenced the sun within their religion and beliefs.

The Egyptians in 3000BC had Ra, the Greeks in 400BC believed Helios to be God of the sun, and Christians have often depicted Jesus in front of what is thought by many to be the solar cross.

Ra, Helios and Jesus all depicted with solar symbols

 

In the past the sun has been depicted as a 2Dimensional disk of light travelling across the sky before dying only to be reborn at sunrise.

The Ancient Greeks believed Helios to be the personification of the sun. A man with a many rayed crown of light, pulling the sun across the open sky with a horse drawn chariot. The Helios named after the Greek god has been used and adapted through the ages, with one of the most recognisable iterations being the logo of global corporation BP which symbolises “a number of things – not least the greatest source of energy … the sun itself..” – bp.com

 

Building the Helios

 

This once celestial being has now become a tangible thing. Through advances in our technological and scientific capability we have gained an understanding of the suns chemical make-up, uncovering many of its secrets from sun spots to solar flares. Although we have developed an increased understanding of the forces driving the sun, it is still no more accessible to us mere humans than on the first day on earth remaining an impenetrable sphere in the sky only to viewed from a far.

 

Physical model light testing

 

Digital animation of lighting tests

 

The suns surface has taught us much. Galileo’s sun spot diagrams unknowingly demonstrated the unique fluidity of the suns chromosphere. Further study of these sun spots and magnificent solar flares proved that the surface of the sun is covered in billions of interlaced magnetic fields all interacting together to form the whole. When these fields cross swirling plasma burst in an instance out into the corona bringing with it immense light displays that can be seen on earth as the aurora.

 

Recording magnetic fields with computer models and physical experiments

 

In an age where endless streams of newfound knowledge are accessible with the touch of a finger – it is easy to lose our sense of innocent amazement and unquestioning awe. We have a constant need for explanation of why and how phenomena exist, no longer blindly excepting their beauty and revelling in it.

The indescribable beauty of these gigantic magnetic fields can often be lost and forgotten in the mundane when scaled down to earthly objects. Viewing them at a micro scale allows us to connect with their other-worldly nature.

Macro photographs of physical tests of magnetic structure using iron filings

 

Science has taught us how a magnet attracts and repels enabling use in industry, medicine and everyday life. And as our knowledge expands, we move from child to adulthood and our desire to play diminishes – burdened by explanations and reasoning; we are no longer in awe of our ability to make metal move without laying hands on it. It has become the norm and the expected, it is no longer ‘magic’.

Life should be fun and full of mesmerising moments. Our increased knowledge should enable and enhance our experience of ‘magic’ not hinder it.

 

Experimenting with magnetism to define levels of sensitivity for large scale interaction

 

Celestial Fields captures the unexplainable wonderment the sun once held and makes it accessible through modern mediums, combining two worlds; science and enchantment, imbedding them on the Playa at Black Rock City, Nevada, for people to explore and lose themselves in.

Thousands of swaying rods made of tubes of one-way mirror form an undulating field, rising high above your head, and falling like the plasma pulled in all directions by the phenomenal magnetic forces found on our sun.

By day a field of mirrors reflect and intensify the suns natural beauty and power. Creating a maze of ever changing light to explore, push through and play within. At sunset everything transforms. The field morphs, bursting into a sea of glowing beams reacting to movement and mimicking the fluid, almost pulsing nature of the suns corona.

Like the chromosphere, magnetic fields have informed density and pattern, creating patches of pure brightness and areas as dark as sunspots. With each rod built on a spring loaded base it can be pushed a manipulated, enabling you to forge your own path through the densest areas of Celestial Field, parting rods like magnets repelling polarised iron.

 

Individual rods are clad in a one-way mirror film – creating a reflection of the desert in the day and an illuminated environment at night

 

Movement through the sprung rods creates interest not only for the participants but also onlookers. During daylight hours people weaving in and out can be seen across the playa through the constant glinting of the sun on the reflective rods. An ever changing shimmer, like sunlight dancing across water in the distance, drawing people in from all directions out of wonder and intrigue.

Once the sun has set the lights come on, and the show only gets better. The rods now glow and pulse, changing colour, transforming the world around them – each equipped with a sensor so as to react to movement as people push past; creating tracks of swirling light shifting like the turbulent surface of the sun. Areas of intense and overwhelming light can occur when people team together to trigger a cluster of rods forming a concentration of light evocative of a solar flare.

The sun is not solely about light, with it comes inevitable darkness. Shadows too have been used throughout time as a symbol in opposition to that of the sun; and in this instance the areas of shadow formed in the magnetic layout create areas of calm within the thrill of the lights where one can sit and ponder everything from the dessert to the sky and the sun that brings life to earth.

The pavilion layout is informed by the patterns of sunspots and flares forming on the suns surface

 

What was once worshipped as a distant god and celestial being can now exist on the surface of the earth as a Celestial Field in Nevada. The sun has risen and set, bringing with it heat and light; powering life on earth since the dawn of time, a focus of incomprehensible wonder and fascination for each and every culture across the globe.

Celestial Field intends to reignite our faith in the intangible, while showing us there are powers and beauty still to be found in the modern world.

 

 

 

 

Cubic Mandala

The Symbol

The Mandala – Sacred Geometry in Buddhist Art

“We can also discuss the mandala in terms of the soul. The soul is the totality of the mandala. Essence arises in the soul, but for a long time… the soul is not completely essentialized; only part of it is. The rest of the field of the mandala – the rest of the consciousness of the soul – is composed of all your mental, emotional and physical experiences. The thread is defined by the center of the soul, and we can know that center most specifically and in a delineated way by recognizing the essential presence and what quality is manifesting.”   – A.H.Almaas                                                                                                                                 

The word Mandala derives from:

manda =essence, la =container

Thus, the word Mandala translates as “the container of the essence”

However, as an image the mandala is a symbol representing both the mind and the body of the Buddha.

In esoteric Buddhism, the Mandala’s main principle is the presence of the Buddha in it. This can be represented either as a tree, a wheel or as a jewel, or in other symbolic manifestations.

The Centre

The Mandala is consecrated to a deity. In its creation, a line materializes out of the dot, while other lines are drawn up to the point where they intersect, creating in that way triangular geometrical patterns. The central area of the Mandala is the residence of the deity. Each Mandala has its own resident deity, with whom the mandala is identified. The circle drawn around the deity’s residence stands for the dynamic consciousness of the initiated. It is the gathering point, in which all the outside forces are drawn.

The centre is visualised as the essence and the circumference as grasping.

In its complete form Mandala means:

Grasping the essence.

The residence of the deity is located in the square structure concentrically within the surrounding circles. The outlying square symbolizes the physical world bound in four directions, which are represented by the four gates, which in turn symbolize the bringing together of the four boundless thoughts.

Loving Kindness

Compassion

Sympathy

Equanimity

The Square

The square structure is divided into four isosceles triangles by lines that run from the center of the Mandala to the four corners. Each detail in all four quadrants or triangles faces the center, where the deity of the mandala resides. The square form defines the architecture of the Mandala described as a four-sided palace or temple.

Palace – Residence of the presiding deity

Temple – Contains the essence of the Buddha

The Colours

The four quadrants of the Palace or Temple are divided into isosceles triangles of colour.

white, yellow, red, green, dark blue

 Each of the aforementioned colors is associated with one of the five transcendental Buddhas, further associated with the five delusions of human nature. These delusions obscure our true nature, however spiritual practice can transform them into the wisdom of these five respective Buddhas.

The Concentric Circles

The series of concentric circles surrounding the central palace or temple follow an intense symbolic structure.

Ring of Fire

Ring of Thunderbolt or Diamond Scepters (Vajra)

Eight Cremation Grounds or Graveyards

Ring of Lotus Leaves

The Complete Mandala

A person meditating on a mandala visualizes himself going into the mandala and making his way through the levels of images until he arrives at the center. Buddhists believe that the Mandala meditation helps concentrate spiritual power and bring freedom from suffering.

 

Drawing the Mandala

Component Diagram

After thorough research on the Indian Mandala, I started designing mine taking into consideration the various symbolizations and components that constitute the traditional Mandala.

Mandala Layers

Model Concept

Three Dimensional Mandala

The Final Proposal – The Cubic Mandala

 

Day Render

According to Buddhist religion, the mandala appears as a series of concentric circles that are a representation of the process of transformation that human beings are asked to undergo before entering the sacred area, located at the centre of the mandala. In other words, when meditating in front of a mandala, human beings move through the different layers, liberating themselves from the delusions that obscure our true nature, and consequently reach the centre of the mandala and attain enlightenment.

Based on that theory, the Cubic Mandala is a three dimensional, cubic representation of the traditional Indian Mandala and is designed in a way so that all the fundamental elements of the traditional mandala are being incorporated into the design. For instance, the central area, the palace or temple, the four quadrants along with the four gates, the ring of fire, the lotus and diamond ring, as well as the eight graveyards. The aforementioned are of great significance and vital to the process of transformation and the attainment of enlightenment and spiritualism.

This process is further emphasized by the introduction of 4 layers that form each side of the cubic mandala and represent the different stages that human beings have to overcome in order to reach the centre of the mandala. The cubic mandala is an actual representation of the difficulties one is asked to overcome in order to put an end to human suffering and acts as a means to discover divinity by the realization that it resides within one’s one self.

Night Render

The Cubic Mandala is a 4,5 m high timber and acrylic construction consisting of layers that form four concentric cubes, creating a journey to the centre of the mandala. The twenty layers that form the four concentric cubes are made out of timber. However, a 10mm acrylic sheet is attached to the five layers that form the first cube as well as the third concentric cube. LED strips will be attached at the edges of the acrylic sheets, lighting up the whole structure during night-time.

Exploded Axonometric Diagram

Exploded Diagram – Front View

Each cube consists of five sides, instead of six, as the bottom side has been removed and replaced by a base that holds the whole structure. The sixteen vertical layers of the structure are being inserted to the pockets that have been created at the base of the structure. The remaining four horizontal layers are attached to the horizontal elements.

The Base

The Experience

While observing a mandala, a kind of spiritual essence surrounds the one observing it, which as a result allows him a higher level of awareness and consciousness. Consequently, the creative mind of the individual is allowed to escape reality and run free. The mission of the “Cubic Mandala” is to encourage people to focus on it, absorb the beautiful designs and allow their minds to wander. People are tempted to let the “Cubic Mandala” absorb all their attention, by moving into the mandala and gazing into its patterns.

Section

A feeling of lightness is what people are going to experience, while falling into the mandala. Intuitive thoughts might arise. People are encouraged to relax, embrace one another and let the feelings come to them. According to the tradition, the making process of the mandalas involved four monks – one at each quadrant – working simultaneously until the mandala was complete. Having said that, the original process of making highly encouraged interactivity. Therefore, the purpose of the “Cubic Mandala” is to bring people together and, through the ritual of mandala meditation, to raise their spiritualism, to promote self-expression and finally, to liberate them from the everyday life.

Interior View

Interior View

Resonance cryptograph

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe says Architecture is frozen music. Albert Einstein believes the key to unlocking the universe is through the hidden geometry and mathematics.  This design seeks to unlock the geometry of Sound making sound visible through 3-dimensional volume and lights.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe says Architecture is frozen music. Albert Einstein believes the key to unlocking the universe is through the hidden geometry and mathematics.

Sound is a hidden code when it unlocks allows us to perceive it as a set of geometrical patterns. The mechanic of sound is translated visually through frequency and amplitude represents itself with beautiful geometries as code from the universe. My design recreates Sound’s geometries into a physical symbolic Sanctuary for users to retreat their senses in the desert,to unravel meaning behind the symbol of Sound by deconstructing it and re-dressing it with physical form, making Sound visible.

 This design seeks to unlock the geometry of Sound making sound visible through 3-dimensional volume and lights.

 

The structure measures 13.77 feet in length &12.8 feet in height. The material for the structure would be paneled by birch plywood(4ft. x 2ft. panel).2-D dimensional geometry is translated into 3-Dimensional form by folding and joining edges.The sanctuary is made up of three mirroring layers, stacking vertically. The construction of the structure is to explore double curvature design with single curvature paneling and assembly. The ground storey encourages private space for reflection; individual sitting and resting area are carved inwards towards the air-well  ,in contrast, the upper storey is the communal area within the enclosure where users can access from a ladder. Pocket of windows are generated by the stacking and mirroring of sound vibration patterns.  Users enters into the enclosure and view the desert from within.

Live feeding of Sound and the changing LED lights

In the night, live feeding of sound is captured when in contact with the surfaces of the sanctuary. With a contact microphone attaches onto the surface, it captures the sound amplitude when a user touches or tap as sound travels through the surface as a medium. The device(computer coding with Arduino) then translates the amplitude variation (loudness) into changing colours of LED lights. The lights are attached on the rim of the panels.

Process

Studies of Sound patterns through water

Harmonograph

Eigen vector

Snakes and ‘Ladders’

Whatever has a Beginning has an End.

Inspired by a continuous fractal curve, Snakes and ‘Ladders’ takes its form from the space filling Hilbert curve; an image that grows exponentially while at the same time being bound by a square with a finite area. The curve continues to grow until all that can be seen by the eye is a solid cube. From afar, the proposal will sit on the playa as a cube made up of horizontal and vertical wooden studs fixed together. As the burner approaches the structure, it can be seen that the internal space can be explored and allows the user to interact throughout the climbable structure as they make their way to the central and upper levels. As the person makes their way inside, each layer consists of a reinforced fractal curve that can be used as a ladder progress. When the sun sets, LEDS built into the wooden studs light up the various iterations of the Hilbert Curve giving off a colourful effect to each layer inside the structure. Each layer will be programmed to allow a brighter light sequence to follow the curves creating snake-like lights that envelop the laddered structure.

Symbols to Systems

“Then it seemed like falling into a labyrinth: we thought we were at the finish, but our way bent round and we found ourselves as it were back at the beginning, and just as far from that which we were seeking at first.”   Euthydemus, Plato.

My starting point began with the famous symbol from greek mythology, the labyrinth; an endlessly running meander. a structure designed and built by Daedalus for King Minos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur. It was said that Daedalus had so cunningly made the Labyrinth that he could barely escape it after he built it. However, despite this, a labyrinth will always consist of a start and an end point. The goal? Reach the centre.

Many labyrinths today are based on symmetrical patterns,  first seen from the Roman Labyrinth. These represent the first real attempts to create different forms of the genre.

The term labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze. However maze refers to a complex branching of multicursal puzzle choices in path and direction,  the original goal is not lost but rather relocated for creating games to challenge the user.

Looking at the work of M.C Escher I started looking at forms that could be intertwining together. As the number of staircases increase, the denser the stair maze becomes. However from this, each stair leads endlessly and no goal created.

Fractal Curve Analysis

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Looking more into the Hilbert and  Moore Fractal Curves, I constructed both out of match sticks to look at how the pathing route for each curve differed. It was noticed that the Hilbert Curve looked to be more stable when finished as it’s upper level were more supported.

Hilbert Fractal Curve Testing

Moore Fractal Curve Testing

Structural Testing

As a fractal curve will always be developed from start to end using one line, additional support will be needed.Using Karamba, I was able to generate a script that will allow me to test the strength of both fractal curves until it fails. As the structure collapses I will be able to point out the weakest areas and provide additional support to prevent the proposal from failing.

Initial Proposals & Development.

Attempting to combine the stairs with the reinforced Hilbert Curve created some uninteresting results as an initial Proposal, from this point, it was decided that to create a more complex maze would be to increase the amount of iterations and strip out the staircases.

By removing the staircase, I instead increased the size of the structure to allow additional interations to be nested externally and internally. From this a 5m x 5m Cube was to be proposed, constructed entirely out of 2in. x 4in Dried Whitewood studs. This allowed the proposal to be built cheaply and quickly using Karamba to identify weak points in the structure and reinforce them.

Proposal: Snakes & Ladders.

Snakes and Ladders originated in Ancient India, popular by the name Moksha Patam; associated with Hindu Philosophy contrasting Karma and Kama.The game has also been interpreted and used as a tool for teaching the effects of good deeds versus bad.  The squares of Fulfillment, Grace and Success were accessible by the ladders, which represented virtues such as generosity, faith, and humility, while the snakes represented vices such as lust, anger, murder, and theft. The morality lesson of the game was that a person can attain salvation ‘Moksha’ through doing good and reaching the last square was attainment.

The number of ladders was less than the number of snakes as a reminder that a path of good is much more difficult to tread than a path of sins.

With Radical Ritualism being the Theme for Burning Man 2017, I believe my Proposal can itself be a cube of Fulfillment, allowing people to play the game of snakes and ladders to forget about their sins as they try to achieve ‘attainment’ by reaching the top.

The Snake.

 

Like the classical mobile game ‘Snake’ the lighting aims to wrap around the cube, illuminating the ‘N’ Iterations of the Hilbert Curve using LED Lighting.

 

The Ladder.

The structure is made up out of 2in. x 4in Dried Whitewood studs and reinforced to allow people to climb all the way to the top allowing either the external or the internal framework to be used as a ladder system to move throughout the proposal. Each iteration has start and end point which is travelled upon during the night which is reinforced by additional studs to allow no failure.

By Christopher Thornton

THE EYE OF THE STORM

The symbol of the spiral

Through the inviting but challenging spirals I want to bring you to the inside of the dust storms, to the dead zone where you don’t feel anything, not even a single hint of air or dust but you will still enjoy the beauty and the magic.

 

What is an spiral?

A curve on a plane that winds around a fixed center point at a continuously increasing or decreasing distance from the point.

A three-dimensional curve that turns around an axis at a constant or continuously varying distance while moving parallel to the axis; a helix. By definition describes a planar curve, that extends in both of the perpendicular directions within its plane; the groove on one side of a record closely approximates a plane spiral (and it is by the finite width and depth of the groove, but not by the wider spacing between than within tracks, that it falls short of being a perfect example); note that successive loops differ in diameter. In another example, the “center lines” of the arms of a spiral galaxy trace logarithmic spirals.

Analysis of the construction of the spiral

 What does the spiral mean to us?

Spirals are some of the oldest geometric shapes in ancient artwork dating back at least to the Neolithic period, the product of people thousands of years away from having access to writing. As such, we know very little about their religious beliefs and can, at best, guess about general meanings of symbols based on context.

Spiral to me means CHANGE, means CYCLE OF LIFE, means EVOLUTION all these is what The eye of the Storm is to me. A structure that will symbolize change as the same way Burning Man changes people; the cycle of life, the merging of completely different kinds of lives into the same place or same art structure or same festival; and evolution because it will attract you to the inside and will make you push yourself and challenge you towards the center where you will feel the peace of the eye of a storm as the same way life does to us.

To me The eye of the Storm symbolizes THE LIFE CHANGING, every frame of each spiral is an action, a decision you make in life that leads you to the place you want to be or the person you want to become. Although like in a windy storm that pushes you around, these events are not necessary your choice, many factors in life can change your path like a new elect president in the country or falling in love with a person, but all these merged together will consolidate our lives.Hence that is our task, putting all these frames together and connect them to become whatever we want to be and finally find the peace inside of each one of us.

Daytime render of “The eye of the storm”

Breaking down a six sided box The eye of the storm has six spirals, each one of them in a different orientation, symbolizing different kinds of paths in life. But each one of these spirals merge in the center of the cube creating a space of peace. Like the feeling of going through the Burning Man festival until the day the Temple burns when everything goes silent and calm.

The spirals, made out of standard size timber, will attract you to the center but these will be challenging like going towards a storm.The shape of the structure could become an obstacle but if you success you will get your reward of peacefulness in the center, protected by all these wooden spirals and with the chance to share these moment with whoever makes it through the storm with you.

Nightime render

Making the storm real

Starting from a box and breaking its frame into spirals is the basic starting geometry of The eye of the Storm. Going through many different testings and alterations on the parameters and after an structural analysis leading to the final shape.

Design process through parametric modelling

Looking at the materializing of the structure and mimicking the aesthetics of a storm, the overlaying wood planks give the sense of it. Structured but at the same time crazy, just like Black Rock City.

Testing of different materials

Building the eye of the storm

The structure is composed of 6 identical modules called twists, arranged in cuboid manner. Each twist is formed of frame elements and ribs connecting those frames, which act as ruled surfaces.

Vertical loads are spread between the outer frames and the central bottom twist that acts in vending and axial force to carry the vertical load to the ground. Lateral forces are resisted using the perimeter frames acting as bracing or the in-plane rigidity of the modules themselves.

Structural analysis from engineering

The frames with a cross section of 50 by 50 mm will be the main structure. Eleven frames on each side of the 6 sides of the cube, making a total of 66 frames.

The overall length of this out of the shelve timber will be 45.5 meters.

By the interpolation of the division points on the main frames we create the secondary structure which will support and interlock the main frame, with a cross section of 10 by 50 mm.

The overall length of this out of the shelve timber is 672 meters

Building sequence: One of the six sides of the cube

 

The structure is arranged in a cubic form of 14 x 14 x 14 feet and will invite the people to climb,interact and inhabit it. This can represent a health and safety risk. In order to ensure the safety of all actors interacting with the sculpture at each stage of the project, we will be following the right safety requirements.

 

Construction on The Playa

Feeling the dust at Black Rock City

Sand storms that make you lose sense of time, space, people or anything else that happens around you create these magical moments in Playa when every burner feels alone in a place full of people.

With The Eye of the Storm I want to bring you to the inside of these dust storms, to the dead zone where you don’t feel anything not even a single hint of air or dust but you still enjoy the beautiful magic of the storm. Through the challenging spiral structure inviting burners to come in, I want them to come inside the eye to the safety of being inside the storm and at the same time experiencing all the dust storms happening in Playa which are a natural ritual that happens every year.

We can compare the plague from the Exodus with any of the dust storms that we go through at burning man, The eye of the storm is a structure calling at the sun on these occasions.

People experiencing the inside of the storm

The experience from the outside is compared with a tornado in a sand storm. Symbolizing a constant sand storm, kept in a broken box, which often happens in Playa. Within the overlaying of the wood frames experiencing the messiness of a storm but at the same time the spiral of the rotating structured nature force.While in the inner geometry you will sense none of this in the same way as in the dead zone or in the eye of the storm. All the layers of the structure will protect everyone inside from any sand storms in the outside. It wont be easy to reach that inner point as this all wooden layer will be complicated to cross like when you go through a storm and you are not able to find anyone around you and you feel in a place of nowhere.

Construction diagram

The overall dimensions of the structure are 14 x 14 x 14 feet. Allowing people to get inside and experience the space in between the frames.

Front view: Technical drawing

The shadows from the structure will project a similar form as an spider web.Simulating as the sun goes around through the day, a tornado moving through The Playa.

Perspective plan view of the structure

The reward to cross all these layers of wood through is to be in this protected space inside the Eye and experience the storm from the inside until you are ready to leave the peace and call Ra the god of the sun as in Egyptian rituals when the Pharaoh called the God to clear the skies from the storm and get back the sun to Black Rock City.

Abstract render of the structure

Once the ritual is finished the burners will enjoy a view of the dust storm in a protected space while they wait the answer of the call to Ra the god of sun, who will finish with the dust storm and bring the sun back again.

Entrance to the structure from the top spiral

The thunder-light

The LED lights will be located on each one of the frames on every side of the cube. They will be located on the inner face of these frames flowing from the outside to the inside of the cube, giving the sensation of the spiral coming inwards the structure.

TOTAL LENGTH : 45.5 meters
LENGTH ON 1/6 OF THE SIDE OF THE CUBE: 7.6 meters

Night render of the structure

At night the structure will become and spiral of colorful thunder lights that you will recognize from everywhere in The Playa.

Inside night render

 

 

By Maialen Calleja , Master of Architecture ( University of Westminster)

Fractured Cosmos

Truth is a personal conquest which one attains through a mystery.

The Burning Man festival has evolved from a simple gathering of people on a beach in San Francisco into a spectacular spectacle. Burners travel from all over the world to meet in the Black Rock desert of Nevada where they form a city of temporary structures and burn a huge towering figure of a man. The theme of the 2017 burning man event will be Radical Ritual, an attempt to reinvent ritual in our post-post-modern world disregarding assertions of belief and concentrating instead on the immediate experience of play. Fractured cosmos seeks to provide this year’s burners with an edible artwork experience in the playa, a crystalline structure made from hard boiled sugar candy.

Fractured Cosmos draws the inspiration for its form from the Shri Yantra Mandala, a mystical diagram used in the Shri Vidya school of Hindu Tantra. The diagram, nine Isosceles triangles interlaced to form 43 smaller triangles, is said to be symbolic of the entire cosmos. The geometry of this symbol, usually depicted as a flat, two-dimensional construct, has been inclined, distorted and fractalized out of its two-dimensional plane to create a series of inclined planes for Burners to inhabit and play within.

Those cultures which meditate using the Shri Yantra symbol believe life exists between two planes, that of Samsara, this earth plane, and Nirvana, a perfect heavenly plane. One transcends from Samsara to Nirvana when they have gained enough genuine insight into impermanence and non-self reality. This notion has been reinterpreted as a series of transparent colourful planes on the playa, casting colourful light onto the ground beneath our feet. Each of the planes will be made from coloured rock candy, offering burners the opportunity to perceive an altered sweeter perspective of the world, as well as a delicious treat if they’re brave enough to lick it.

The use of hard boiled candy as the structural material for the pavilion means the structure will be made by mixing sugar, liquid glucose and Creme de Tartar with water. This concoction will be boiled to a temperature of 145 degrees celsius before pouring into formwork to cure. Waterproof LED lights will be added once the liquid has cooled to a sufficient temperature, and these will be used to light the structure at night.

The plinth of Fractured Cosmos must be strong enough to support the weight of the candy structure above plus the added weight of any burners, tie the structure down, capture any waste which falls off the structure as it is consumed and house the power source for the night time lighting. This has been designed using the same method of recursion as the candy structure to create a plinth using the mandala’s cosmic gate element as its inspiration. the final form generates a climbable podium for burners to ascend before inspecting and consuming.

Duality

This project is a physical exploration of anamorphosis in three dimensions centred around the theme of duality. It aims to combine two widely recognisable figures into a pavilion that will attract burners, provoke debate, and catalyse interaction.

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The theme of this project arose from the realisation that even the most widely recognisable symbols contain multiple layers of meaning and mystery.  Social, historical and sometimes even spiritual contexts give a symbol its perceived meaning. For example, while the Christian cross is a symbol of hope it is literally a scaled representation of an ancient torture device – an icon synonymous with good carries with it a darker elucidation. This interpretation led to the emergence of duality as a topic and a title. There are many symbols which have multiple meanings and nuances to those who interpret them.

I began by looking at the Ankh, the Egyptian symbol for life/fertility. The Loop of the Ankh represents the feminine discipline or the womb, while the elongated section represent the masculine discipline or the penis. These two sacred units then come together and form life. This is a perfect representation of man and woman in perfect union. I then was led to study the symbol for mercury, which is used in botany to indicate a flower with both male and female reproductive organs.

This duality of meaning in symbols led me to the desire to study how I could physically combine other symbols and forms to create one form. Anamorphosis, from the Greek anamorphōsis meaning ‘transformation,’ from ana- ‘back, again’ + morphosis ‘a shaping’, became an interesting opportunity to do just this.

 

I want to explore this theme using the iconic faces of Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian as instigators. From a random vantage point or even from up close, the subject matter of the piece is evidently unclear, the image changes until the viewer arrives at a specific pre-set location, only then does the likeness reveal itself. This echoes our warped perception of figures in limelight; anything the media choose to present to the world is an engineered production and if taken out of its context it becomes incomprehensible. My aim is to stir ambivalence among the burners, for them to engage in discussion with one another about these two incredibly famous personalities and what they seemingly represent.

As a physical entity, the sculpture is purposefully made durable enough to be able to endure the brunt of any elicited reactions. Its exposed surfaces are smooth, an open invitation to graffiti, carve or deface in any manner possible. It is large enough to climb and to gather within as a group – it only takes a spontaneous suggestion from a creative festival goer to give the sculpture another unforeseen use.

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The aim of my proposed sculpture is to provoke an exchange of opinions and interactions between burners. It depicts two iconic and highly controversial public figures who personify two tremendously important issues that we as a society face today; political and social change.

As festival goers approach the installation, and the two widely recognisable faces reveal themselves, comments about the likenesses will spiral inevitably highlighting or at least touching upon the shift that these two personalities represent.

The sculpture’s physical form comprises of several spatial elements that lend themselves to fostering the kind of debates that I wished to promote. The hollow centre creates an enclosure, to enable hosting or housing for a meeting, it gives its participants a sense of protection; this is an open forum, please take part. The raised base on the peripheries can act as stages or podia. The expansive smooth external surfaces can act as billboards or banners, the skin of the sculpture will bear the physical outcome of the issues discussed here.

Whether people get photographed with it, or whether they deface, damage or even burn it to the ground, I will have succeeded if among any of the interactions the agenda was heard and a heartfelt reaction was made.

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The sculpture will be made of 8mm CNC routed plywood sheets fixed to a heavy plywood formwork. Standing at 6m tall, one side will represent a 25:1 scale stencilled portrait of president-elect Donald Trump, the other side; the likeness of reality television personality and socialite Kim Kardashian. Much like the oblique anamorphosis incorporated in Holbien’s The Ambassadors, the sculpture’s subject matters will reveal themselves only from some 60m away, but from close up, the installation will seem like a mass of abstract wooden extrusions, something suggestive of an adult-sized climbing frame. Fluorescent LEDs recessed into junctions of the outer plywood skin layer will illuminate the piece at night.

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The pavilion achieves the incredible feat of allowing the viewer to have a personal and intimate connection with it whilst also allowing for reflection. The two images are intended to bring moments of delight to viewers to allow for interaction even from a distance.

Combined with its symbolic and evocative power, it should indeed conjure a deeper sense of place and self, and bring a subtlety and complexity to what might have been just another pavilion.