Something to look at

A friend of mine just showed me this video...it is just something to think about. It was interesting to see how they went from a completely digital model to the physical object.

http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2009/10/11/evolver/

Movement: the next frontier?

So over Thai food on Sunday, a couple of us (Rob, Tony, Jared, myself) talked about the next thing for AF. Rob and I brought up the idea of motion, as sometime during the week prior I had sent a an amazing Youtube video to Rob. His response (which I was partially expecting) was basically 'can we do that?'. Well, of course we can, and within 20 minutes I had started sketching things out. It seems like incorporating movement could be an interesting direction for us to start moving into, so I wanted to share the video that got it all going with everyone. Here ya go:

fabrication

here is the time lapse video of the making of the form.

e n g a g e : the act of connecting

The word engage contains several meanings. At a personal level, it refers to an act of involving or drawing in, as with conversation. In the context of a community it has to do with participation and connection. In the realm of mechanics, the word denotes a physical act, as with the interlocking or meshing of gears.

“Engage: the Act of Connecting,” a temporary installation held in the Casella Gallery on the Wentworth Institute of Technology campus, explores the social, physical, virtual, spatial and temporal modes of engagement. This installation will ask those willing to participate, “What does it mean to engage?”

November 9 through November 21

Casella Gallery : Annex Central

wac@wit.edu

diy

i just stumbled on this site, and this tip seemed to be inline with the upcoming topic of ENGAGE/ment. and hopefully the level of success can be greater achieved with not only showing our cool gadgetry/fabrication skills, but allowing an enormous amount of physical engagement of the installation both in physically building, but also generating the stimulus that fuels the show. now i know team germany is quite removed from the process so i hope i'm not being too redundant here. in any event, an interesting article...

"I was in a board meeting the other day for a non-profit organization struggling to engage its constituents. Along with the staff, we were trying to find ways to keep people involved and motivated over time. So much work goes into programs and communications – but sometimes people still fail to listen and engage.Rather than focus on the reasons for the struggle, we decided to discuss the examples of success. Why were some programs especially successful?
One early discovery was that the programs organically conceived by participants, rather than staff, seemed to have a higher success rate. In addition, the programs with especially large programming committees (i.e. number of people leading the event) were also quite successful.

It was at this point that a fellow board member chimed in with the concept of the “IKEA effect.” When people buy furniture at IKEA, they are forced to assemble it themselves. As a result, people report a high degree of satisfaction with their IKEA furniture – largely because of the greater sense of ownership from the labor required to assemble the furniture.

For those of us that cook, we know that the meal always tastes better after the labor of making it. This do-it-yourself-to-love-it-more phenomenon presents an invaluable opportunity for leaders of teams – and brands. When you can set up projects for others – or even a product – with a dose of assembly required, you are likely to garner a higher level of commitment.

Of course, by having their customers assemble their own furniture, IKEA runs the risk of poor execution and improper assemblies that reflect poorly on their brand. Similarly, we must accept the risk of deviations from our expectations as a reasonable cost for empowering our teams and our customers. In many cases, the benefits of do-it-yourself are likely to outweigh the costs.

As leaders, we must challenge ourselves to let others create what we have in mind, if only to accomplish the ultimate goal of engaging others."

via [99%]

...opportunity

it's in georgia but... why not... figured i throw it out there


Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, recalled the phrase "LESS IS MORE," from the 19thcentury poem "Andrea del Sarto," as a cliché about 20th century aesthetic style. The notion that through articulation and simplicity of each essential element a more coherent outcome is achieved.

Less is More maybe more important today than ever before as it challenges our tradition and cultural self-perception. Influence of climate changes on human well-being and survival, compounded with our continuing massive use of exhaustible resources, forces us to use what we have in innovative ways to create sustainable design.

This is a call to all artists, architects, designers as well as students of art and architecture to submit projects (artwork, furniture, installation, ideas, drawing, invention, installation etc), for a juried show to be held December 4th2009 to January 31st 2010.

Rules for Entry:

1. Open to all artists, architects, industrial designers/designers and students in design.
2. All works must address the artist’s response to the notion of sustainability as they see fit in their work through environmental stewardship.
3. Original works of art in the following formats: two-dimensional art; experimental and new media; installation art; mixed-media, site-specific art, furniture art, models, drawings, inventions etc.
4. All works must be in suitable form of presentation. The organizers reserve the right to refuse any work not considered acceptable for presentation.
5. Artists are responsible for transportation of their work to Connexion Gallery. Artwork shall be delivered and picked up at designated dates and times. If accepted work is shipped to the Gallery, the artist must pay for all shipping, handling and insurance costs both ways, (further details will be provided following acceptance).
6. Accepted artwork is to be delivered and installed by the artist at the gallery on the designated day and time agreed upon mutually. All entries must be submitted with the description of installation process with the space requirements.
7. During the exhibition period the artwork will be insured by Connexion Gallery.
   Works selected for the show must remain in the exhibition until it closes February 1st, 2010. No exceptions.
8. The coordinating committee and its jury members for LESS IS MORE may reject any works that vary significantly from the work depicted on the accepted slide.

Electronic Submission Instructions

1. All submissions must be in PDF format and submitted electronically by midnight November 11, 2009 @ lessismore2010@gmail.com
2. Each artist may submit up to three entries.
3. Each artist must submit a design or an artist statement for each submission in PDF format with resumes.
4. Each artist may submit 2-10 images per project, in a single PDF file.
5. A non-refundable entry fee of $25 per entry or $60 for three entries. Payments can be made via pay pal with submittal.
6. Slides of selected artwork will be used for publicity purposes.
7. Any sale of artwork during the show will be based on mutual agreement

Deadline to submit: November 15, 2009

Email: lessismore2010@gmail.com
http://www.connexiongallery-studio.com/connexion/gallery/gallery_upcomingShows.asp

i just stumbled on this design/fabrication studio that i though i would share:

http://www.ball-nogues.com/

a great interview via archinect

their work is pretty awesome!