Pavilion – WeWantToLearn.net

Life’s First Flicker

Project Summary

Translucent fractal ball animated by dancing color changing lights symbolizing the very first spark at the beginning of the universe as well as the spark of life that our species is on both an eternal mission to keep alight and is in the final stages of creating anew with artificial intelligence.

Physical Description

A 20 foot diameter translucent form, made of twelve identical five petal polypropylene origami flowers arranged as a dodecahedron each with two smaller flower at their centers and intricately lazercut with a 2d filigree depicting the overall form. All the flowers are tied to each other and to a timber dodecahedral internal skeleton with concealed zip ties. The creased polypropylene held in tension by the origami folds themselves provide the rest of the stability. LED DMX lights sit in the five points which touch the ground, facing upwards, illuminating the entire form.

LifesFirstFlicker_External_Day

Philosophy

At the end of Isaac Asmiov’s book ‘The last question’ a disembodied AI is the last mark of the human race left in an empty entropic universe. It remains calculating the answer to the last question it was asked, and, unable to find a recipient for it’s solution it says ‘Let there be light’ and creation begins again.

This piece is shaped as a tangible interpretation of this spark. The spark at the first second of the universe and the spark of life which our civilization is racing to create in a sentient self learning AI. This moment, when our creations become self aware, is the theme of burning man 2018 and also likely to be the most important moment in our species’ history. Self teaching AI will rapidly become so powerful it will effectively be a deity. This pavilion’s purpose is to draw the visitors attention to this rapidly approaching moment and consider how we should design this mind before it is too late.

Burners can pass by or play with the spark and think it is just a cool shape, but those who climb up inside what is figuratively a snapshot right at the beginning of new life and the universe, can take a moment to pause and ponder from within, whether their life’s endeavor is relevant in the face of coming AI, what our species’ current knowledge may lack and how it could be codified and explained to a machine and how lucky we are as a generation to have both been born late enough to see AI’s birth, and early enough to have known life before it.

<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/244593633″>Life’s First Flicker: Burning Man 2018 Art proposal</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user71835996″>Benjamin Street</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

WeWantToLearn.net wins Burning Man Art Grant for the second year

Toby Burgess and I are very happy to announce that HAYAM – Temple to Sunlight, designed by Josh Haywood of Diploma Studio 10, University of Westminster, has won the Burning Man Art Grant. Similarly to last year’s amazing experience building Shipwreck and Fractal Cult, we will develop the project with the help of engineers at Ramboll Computational Design and will travel to Burning Man in August to realize the project. Josh Haywood has just sent the great pictures below of the latest prototypes in which we are lashing the plywood pieces together.

Josh Haywood - WeWantToLearn.net - Hayam, Temple to Sunshine for Burning Man 2014 — Josh Haywood – WeWantToLearn.net – Hayam, Temple to Sunlight for Burning Man 2014

Toby and I explain the reason behind these projects in the TedX video below, The Architecture of Joy:

As the grant is limited, we need your help to pay for transportation and the additional costs related to construction, you can donate on the PayPal button below:

Burning Man EL Glow Wire from Loopy Lights

I just wanted to say a big thank you to Conrad at Loopy Lights for helping us with our EL Wire for Shipwreck. Big success!

We ended up using ice blue super bright 5mm el wire which was great at withstanding everything burning man had to throw at it!

Go check out http://www.loopylights.com for all your el wire needs!

Shipwreck and Fractal Cult Updates 4

Thank you so much everyone – We received funding on Kickstarter ! You can still help us by donating on our Paypal button:

The past couple weeks since our last updates were very busy. We have sent all the fabrication files to our contact next to San Francisco. To make sure the files were alright we had several meetings with our engineers and made a lot of physical tests.

The team has shrunk so if you are keen to join us from the 18th August until the 6th September,you can email us at info@WeWantToLearn.net

A special thanks to Harri Lewis, Stephen Melville and James Solly from Ramboll Computational Design (RCD) for their precious help all along!

Here are couple updates on the projects:

SHIPWRECK

Shipwreck - Fabrication Files — Shipwreck – Fabrication Files – File by Georgia Collard-Watson, Arthur Mamou-Mani , Chris Ingram and Toby Burgess

6mm wood bending tests – Does it bend enough? Study by Georgia Collard-Watson

Maximum Radius on wood structure – Study by Georgia Collard-Watson

Ramboll Structural Analysis - showing new location for ropes — Ramboll Structural Analysis by Harri Lewis – showing new location for ropes

FRACTAL CULT

Click Here to see the full Assembly Sequence Diagrams

Extract from the Fractal Cult Fabrication Files from Dan Dodds

Cost Savings - New dimensions of the Fractal Cult — Cost Savings – New dimensions of the Fractal Cult – Study by Thanasis Korras and Toby Burgess

Fractal Cult's new scale and new netting strategy — Fractal Cult’s new scale and new netting strategy – Study by Thanasis Korras and Toby Burgess

Fractal Cult scaffolding test model – Study by Thanasis Korras and Toby Burgess

Toby presenting the Scaffolding Structure at Ramboll – Picture taken by Harri Lewis

Near Unison | Dan Dodds | Kinetica Art Fair 2013

Near Unison, my project exploring harmonographic traces is currently being shown at Kinetica Art Fair. The exhibition is in Ambika P3, the exhibition space attached to the University of Westminster on Marylebone Road. For more information on the exhibition, and details about tickets and opening times please visit the Kinetica Art Fair website.

The exhibit features a prototype of the interactive harmonograph swings that could form part of the larger installation proposed for Burning Man Festival, along with casts of the harmonographic traces left in sand, and photographic work documenting the process.

“The 5th Kinetica Art Fair returns February 28th – March 3rd 2013 at Ambika P3, as one of London’s annual landmark art exhibitions and a permanent ﬁxture in the Art Fair calendar, renowned as the UK’s only art fair dedicated to kinetic, robotic, sound, light, time-based and new media art.

Kinetica is hosting the work of over 45 galleries and art organisations nationally and internationally, with representatives from UK, France, Russia, USA, Poland, Holland, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Indonesia and Japan, collectively showing over 400 works of art.

A huge interactive light sculpture from Dutch artist Titia Ex will greet visitors as they enter the impressive Ambika P3 venue, and giant 3D sculptures from Holotronica will hover above the main space of the Fair. Other highlights include an exoskeleton hybrid of mananimal-machine by Christiann Zwanniken; a giant three dimensional zoetrope by Greg Barsamian; and a life-size ‘Galloping Horse’ made of light by Remi Brun”

Kinetica Art Fair Press Release

NEAR UNISON | Burning Man Festival | Black Rock Desert

NEAR UNISON is an installation that allows participants to visualize the harmonic relationships between them. Pairs of sit-on pendulum swings create several large scale harmonographs that scratch drawings onto the surface of the Black Rock Playa. The structure that holds these harmonographs is itself a physical representation of a harmonographic form that can be seen from a distance across the Black Rock Playa.

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The harmonograph was a 19th century machine that was invented to explore the geometry of sine waves. It was soon developed into a popular parlour room toy that was capable of producing beautiful and delicate drawings simply by mapping the relationship between two swinging pendulums. By changing the lengths of the pendulums, their wavelength and oscillating frequency are changed. When the ratio of these two frequencies is something complex like 35:73, there is no discernible pattern, but as soon as it hits a simple ratio such as 3:5 or 2:3 a clear pattern emerges. The relationship between visual harmony and mathematical ratio is exactly the same those found in musical harmonies: the ratios that produce beautiful drawings are the same as produce harmonious musical chords.

The title ‘NEAR UNISON’ is derived from the set of patterns that occur when the ratio of the two pendulums is very close to 1:1, as will occur when people of a similar weight are using the interactive harmonograph. It is expected that the patterns produced by these interactive harmonographs will describe, in an abstracted manner, the similarity of all human beings, while emphasizing the subtle differences between individuals.

The overall form of the structure is also derived from a 3D harmonographic surface with a ratio that is in this ‘near unison’ region. A plywood structure supports pipes that trace the harmonographic lines through space to create a delicately curved sculptural form that sits directly on the Playa. Suspended from this structure are a series of connected pendulums that participants are able to ride like swings. When they are are used, these pendulums trace harmonographic patterns onto the surface of Playa. The drawings that are created will map the interaction between pairs of participants.

For more infomation please visit www.dandodds.co.uk

Fractal Cult

“Fractal Cult” is an installation consisting of two types of structures that aim to create an intriguing, mesmerising, explorative, playful and interactive experience for visitors of the 2013 Burning Man festival, an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self-expression and self-reliance in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.

The geometry of the installation is based on the work of Swedish mathematician Niels Fabian Helge von Koch and in particular his invention of the Koch Snowflake, one of the earliest fractal curves to be described. Specifically, the structures are an adaptation of Koch Snowflake’s principles into a three-dimensional environment that essentially starts with a regular tetrahedron and recursively generates new tetrahedrons on each of its faces resulting in a complex, yet simply and efficiently defined, end result.

gif-for-Koch — Fractal progression in 2D and 3D

The installation is consisted by 4 timber-made, fractal pods that symmetrically surround a space frame-like structure of a similar fractal nature and with climbing nets dressing the faces of the geometrical shape that is created.

timber-model-for-animation — Timber Pod construction progress

kaleidoscope — Timber Pod interior photos of 1.5 : 1 model

The timber pods, during daylight, are the first structure that a visitor encounters and both initiate and welcome the exploration of its symmetric but complex structure. Visitors are also able to enter the pods and experience an even more intriguing spectacle of the formation of faces and joints that create a kaleidoscope-like effect. They can also be used as temporary shelters from wind and sun, or even a meditation space. During the night, these timber fractal pods are illuminated from their interior, creating magnificent patterns of lighting that will attract visitors and welcome them to explore the site.

The imposing, central structure, during daylight, attracts visitors with its fractal nature, yet simple construction, and invites visitors to climb and engage with it with in all sorts of ways. Climbing the exterior and attempting to reach the top or even getting inside the interior and enjoy the complexity that the multiple layers of nets create. Moreover, the structure can definitely be seen as becoming a much more live thing during the festival, with people using the nets to create temporary shelters from the sun by weaving cloth materials or similar, forming a patchwork effect on the structure’s faces. It is difficult to predict exactly the kind of behaviour that visitors will have towards such a structure but more likely than not its lightweight nature, great size and the multifunctional nature of nets will allow for several different scenarios which would be great to observe. During the night, the structure maintains the same use but it is symmetrically lit with stage lights pointing from the ground up that will give the structure an illuminating effect and hopefully attract visitors from far away.

pipe-model-animation — Main structure construction process

Last but not least, the geometry of the structures is strongly spiritually connected to Mekabah, a divine light vehicle allegedly used by ascended masters to connect with and reach those in tune with the higher realms. “Mer” means Light. “Ka” means Spirit. “Ba” means Body. Mer-Ka-Ba means the spirit/body surrounded by counter-rotating fields of light, (wheels within wheels), spirals of energy as in DNA, which transports spirit/body from one dimension to another.

Overall, “Fractal Cult” aims to offer a great variety of fun and explorative options, as well as serving as a place able to transform to temporary shelter or meditation space for visitors, while at the same time impose beauty through its fractal and symmetric nature.

Material Matters

Here is a video explaining the workshop “In Silico Building” (tutors: Paul EHRET & Philipp EVERSMANN) taking place in the Faculty of Architecture at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). They produced the stunning folded steel structure which you saw on during our unit trip and which was part of the “Material Matters” exhibition at the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, france.

MOOM Tensegritic Membrane Structure (Noda) by Kazuhiro Kojima

Architectural students at the Tokyo University of Science developed an experimental, extremely lightweight, load-bearing structure for a temporary pavilion. The 26-metre-long, up to 7,5-metre-wide and 4,25-metre-high volume is self-supporting and comprises only two kinds of component: the metal bearing elements and a delicate space-enclosing skin consisting of an 0,7-mm membrane of elastic polyester fabric. The membrane is drawn over metal tubes that create a tensegrity system and forms the tension element. The 131 compression bars are 25-mm diameter aluminum tubes of various lengths and there is no contact between them; instead, they are connected to the skin by sliding the ends into sheaths sewn on. The membrane is anchored at the base like a conventional tent with pegs consisting of aluminum tubes with tips pressed together to form a point. The compression members are pushed into these pegs and fixed in position by means of steel pins. With a weight of only 600 kg, this airy structure covers a ground area of 146 square meters. The pavilion was erected by 70 students in a single day. Initially, they laid out the ready tailored skin, then slid the tubular members into the sheaths. The overall structure was tensioned on all sides, pushed upwards at the same time in the interior and finally fixed to the ground. The convex and concave forms resulting from this create an animated surface and a lively interplay of light and shade. Since the membrane screens off 80% of the UV radiation, but allows 50% of the daylight to pass through, the softly filtered light creates a fascinating spatial impression internally. When illuminated, the translucent pavilion has the appearance of a lighted sculpture.

Via Archetipo

SPINNING SPACES!

The Institute for Computational Design (ICD) at the University of Stuttgart are collaborating on a new temporary research pavilion. The focus is on biomimetic design strategies for performative morphology in architecture, which form the basis of an investigation into integral structural, spatial and material systems.

As a first step physical models have been used to develop and refined the filament wrapping logic / syntax. In a first wrap (white yarn representing glass-fiber) the spatial enclosure of the pavilion is defined; in the subsequent wraps (black yarn / carbon-fibre) the fibres are placed according to the trajectories of the forces in the system. Through continuous wrapping and accretion of fibers a self-supporting and external load-bearing structure is generated.