Abstracts and Proposals

From Collectivate Course Wikis

Abstract 1

School of Architecture and Planning Graduate Program in Architecture / Media Production THESIS ABSTRACT

Title: Interactive Architecture Student Name: Brian Diesel

Statement of Issue/Problem: The third age of computing, ubiquitous computing has already begun to permeate the built environment. One of the goals of this ubiquitous computing movement is the seamless integration of computation and environment, creating intelligent hybrid spaces equipped with the ability to sense, anticipate, and react. Although inconspicuous, these embedded systems are to become omnipresent and empowering. Under the presence of computing which is anywhere, anytime the very medium of the architect, space, has become forced into a state of re-evaluation. These hybrid environments call for a new design ecology which will account for the physical in conjunction with the living.

Statement of Significance of Issue: As interactions between man and machine move away from the stationary and back into physical space, new hybrid environments will enable people to move around and interact with computers in a more naturalistic manner. Currently a tendency in the development of ubiquitous computing is often to treat physical space as banal and task specific. This thesis project will study the effects of site specific computing and its implication in the built environment as a treatment for social development.

Method of Inquiry: Research will be collected from the disciplines of Architeture, Media Art, Human Computer interaction in order to study the significance embedded systems within the built environment. This analytical research will be coupled with the development of prototype systems to develop a framework to study the implications of pervasive computing under specifications of site.

Expected Outcome: This thesis project aims to develop a prototype system to investigate the use architecture as both a temporary and transposable environment to bear intimate connections to our own preceptions of space and time.

Student signature: Date:

I have read and approved this thesis abstract.

Major Professor (print and sign) Date:

Committee member (print and sign) Date

Proposal 1

As economies shift from a mechanistic, manufacturing, industrial society, to that of an organic, service based, information centered society a significant amount of the built environment is left antiquated. Much of this Architecture was manifest in the same architectonic principles Taylorism's high separation, specialization, and optimization; making these architectural artifacts inept for reuse. While the dream of scientific management of society was analogous to the same rationalized machine, where life would approach the same perfection of the assembly line, this societal machine accounted for the physical in neglection of the living. For the thesis project I propose to re-appropriate these outmoded industrial spaces as the foundation for new publicly available open source Architecture. This Architecture will parallel the same creative commons sentiment of the public domain where no single entity can establish a proprietary interest to foster a collective. Through a series of installations, a network of public nodes will be established tracing the the development of the industrial past. Publicly accessible and manipulable, users of these nodes will be encouraged to act and explore these urban geographies both locally and virtually as active participants. Through prototype installations, the Architecture will become the scaffold for the embodiment of the agency to reclaim the abandoned space. This agency will create new sensational environments which encourage cross-spatial interaction between man and machine.