Arch-OS:
Arch-OS represents an evolution in intelligent architecture, interactive art and ubiquitous computing. An ‘Operating System’ for contemporary architecture (Arch-OS, ’software for buildings’) has been developed to manifest the life of a building and provide artists, engineers and scientists with a unique environment for developing transdisciplinary work and new public art. The Arch-OS experience combines a rich mix of the physical and virtual by incorporating the technology of ’smart’ buildings into new dynamic virtual architectures.
i-500:
The i-500 is a collaborative project between Paul Thomas, Chris Malcolm and Mike Phillips who have been commissioned to produce a sustainable, integrated, interactive art work from rich flows of research and general data generated through interaction in the new Curtin University Resources and Chemistry Precinct buildings. This data will be the source material that is reflected through the architectural fabric and surface pattern of the space.
Workshops:
http://www.i-dat.org/ahobartletti-dat/
This workshop will experiment with and forecast potential future use, impact and value of using ‘data’ generated by a building and its inhabitants, to recursively influence behaviour, creating a symbiotic ecology with a potential greater environmental awareness. Through an interdisciplinary approach it will encourage the development of an organic list of solutions or potential methodologies for building design based on the study of the main factors: behaviour, data and interaction. The resultant hybrid construct has the potential to expand and evolve our physical and conceptual space, and behaviours and interaction within these.
Remote Sensing: Ecoid Workshop. http://www.i-dat.org/far-away-so-close/
The Ecoid Workshop will be delivered by Luis Girao with support from Mike Phillips, Chris Saunders, Pete Carss, Musaab Garghouti.
Ecoid beta test:
http://www.ubiquityjournal.net/phylogeny
A arts/science practical symposium organised by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Hamer Dodds and the Ubiquity Journal. A weekend of talks, conversations and making, to explore the concept of phylogenetics and its relevance to cultural art and design practice.
Confluence:
Confluence has three integrated strands of work. At the core of the project is a commission for an artist to develop work that responds to the environment of the River Torridge and its community, from source to sea, the life it supports and the issues it faces to protect and develop the environment recognised by the UNESCO designation. Supported by and working with i-DAT, the artist will have the opportunity to use and respond to a resource of real-time and recorded data collected through a proposed Eco-OS (Ecological Operating System); data measuring environmental variables affected by human and ecological activity. The artist will be encouraged to engage with environmental professionals working within this area, specifically the Biosphere Reserve Team engaged in developing science based work within the Biosphere Reserve. The key fixed element of the brief is that the finished work should illuminate, both for the communities of the Biosphere Reserve and for a wider audience, current environmental developments within the Biosphere space.
This core activity will be enriched by a layer of integrated education and engagement work that is developed and delivered as part of the project. The artist will work with the project partners to deliver workshops and/or practice based demonstrations that generate local engagement and the participatory aspect of the project, contributing to the partners education and community programmes across the communities of the Biosphere. The artist’s work, produced during the project will be incorporated into the 2010 & 2011 Appledore Arts Festival.
Slothbots:
Slothbots are large autonomous robots that move incredibly/imperceptibly slowly. They reconfigure the physical architecture imperceptibly as a result of their interactions with people, over time. Arch-OS: Sloth-bots, build on robotic technology developed by Dr Guido Bugmann that was famously incorporated into Donald Rodney’s Psalms. This work was exhibited in the South London Gallery as a part of Rodney’s last exhibition, Nine Nights in Eldorado, in October 1997. In Psalms an autonomous wheelchair uses 8 sonar sensors, shaft-encoders, a video camera and a rate gyroscope to determine its position. A neural network using normalized radio band frequency (RBF) nodes encodes the sequence of 25 semi-circular sequences of positions forming the trajectory. As the use of the space changes throughout the day, slothbots reposition themselves in anticipation of new interactions with the buildings occupants.
Random Lift Button:
The Random Lift Button tries to interrupt the linearity of going to a familiar destination by offering the choice to travel without knowing where you are going. The intention of the Random Lift button was to place us directly in the centre of a non-linear moment, its outcomes uncertain and unpredictable. The dynamic navigation to unpredictable places forces the users mental model of the building to transform as new floors open up and the architecture to expand. Rather like a live Habitaculus model, the opening up of new floors was intended to be like moving into somebody else’s Habitus and seeing spaces according to other social priorities. By June 2003 two Random Lift buttons were installed in to the Portland Square Building of the University of Plymouth. Visitors and occupants of the building regularly use them, although the author’s request for the removal of all other buttons was turned down, and subsequently the random lift button tends to be used for fun instead of serious navigation.
Green Screen:
http://www.i-dat.org/greenscreen
The Greenscreen is a tool for the strategic delivery of the University of Plymouth Sustainable Futures agenda. Funded by the Centre for Sustainable Futures(CSF) CETL (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning), managed by i-DAT, with technical consultancy provided by Pyramid, the Green Screen is a large LED matrix screen that fills the top 3 floors of the windows of Atrium A of the Portland Square building, i-DAT’s headquarters.
Originally tested using the award winning Noogy.org project, this 10m x 5m low resolution screen provides a unique resource for a public engagement and artistic development with ecological and sustainable issues through the construction and presentation of dynamic information and content. The system is publicly interactive through mobile phones and web access and will be able to show a wide variety of movies, messages and graphics.
Immersive Vision Theatre (Full Dome):
Dome-OS:
i-DAT has been working on the development of the Immersive Vision Theatre with the Experiential Learning CETL (Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning). The University of Plymouth’s old William Day Planetarium (built in 1967) is reborn as a 40 seat Immersive Vision Theatre (IVT), a transdisciplinary instrument for the manifestation of material, immaterial and imaginary worlds.
The ‘Full Dome’ architecture now houses a powerful high-resolution projector fitted with a ‘fish eye’ lens to wrap data, models, video and images around its inner surface. A second, even higher resolution ultra-high contrast projector focuses an intensely detailed cutaway. The 10 speaker spatialised audio system enables the modeling of acoustic environments as well as playback through virtual speakers, ie more speakers than physically exist. The IVT is being used for a range of activities, from cross disciplinary teaching to cutting edge research in modelling and visualisation.
The full dome is augmented by a 5meter portable/inflatable Go Dome with a HL-X2 projector which is used for outreach programmes, exhibitions and site specific experiments. The IVT is also developing a residency and commissioning programme for artists from a range of backgrounds.