Results 31 - 59 of 59
Project Persons Year Tags
Natural Resilience Catherine Verpoort (Textile Futures) 2012 project, design, resilience, biology, textiles, materials
The project is inspired by nature’s ability to process and conquer even artificial materials and surfaces in order to sustain and enforce itself. Nature’s immense strength and power is accompanied by an aesthetic that indicates a peaceful progression of time. The emergence of moss, fungi and plants, as well as their disappearing, brings life into the inanimate materials and objects. The project explores how we can design materials that respond to nature and its resilience.
Oil Compass Kasia Molga (V2_) 2011 scenarios, drone, energy, environment, ecology, Google Earth, ocean, visualitzation, interaction, Protei, oil spill, soil
"Oil Compass" explores the potential of the future effects of oil spills on oceans through the convergence of past records with present real-time data. Kasia Molga has attempted to envision possible future response for the novel oil spill cleaning technology called Protei: a swarm of autonomous sailing robots that would monitor and clean up oil spills. It is an interactive visualisation depicting “past”, “present” and possible “future” scenarios of oil spills in world's oceans; and threats which oil rigs and tankers carry while scattered all over the planet. Based on Google Earth API, it take live data visualisation of oil tankers and oil rigs and juxtaposition it together with the 10 worst spills in the history put together with data of energy consumption (and therefore need for oil) all over the world. "Oil Compass v.1" was produces in V2_ in Rotterdam as a part of Protei development - unmanned drone which can clean waters - brainchild of Cesar Harada
Open Columns Omar Khan et al. ( University at Buffalo) architecture, structures, responsive environment, CO2, self-organization, systems, complexity, emergence, adaptability, resilience, nonlinearity, materials, technology, augmented materials
Open Columns is a system of nonstructural columns, made from composite urethane elastomers and can be deployed in a variety of patterns to reconfigure the space beneath them. The system is a mutable architecture that responds to its inhabitants by changing its shape based upon the carbon dioxide (CO2) content in the air. It is capable of learning about its environment by directly acting within it. The genesis of this research and design comes out of an interest in self-organizing systems, which exhibit phenomena of nonlinearity, instability and adaptability. Open Columns is part of a research project exploring computationally inspired and augmented materials for responsive architecture.
Open Energy Fran Castillo ( Kitchen Budapest , Goteo) 2011 app, industry, energy saving, environment, sustainability, prototype, augmented reality, monitoring, power consumtion, open hardware, visualization, smart grid, project, energy, creative commons
Open Energy aims to develop a platform to explore new systems of visualization energy use and to optimize it accordingly, both in domestic and industrial environments. The system is built along two dimensions: first one, Energy Monitoring Device, which investigates open hardware devices in which monitoring power consumption, and a second dimension, Open Energy Visualization (Data Visualization / Augmented Reality App), which explores new ways of real-time visualization power consumption in domestic environments. These systems will allow us to amplify our knowledge about the dynamic behavior of energy anywhere. Open Energy is a prototype of energy infrastructure completely Open Source.
Open Energy Monitor Trystan Lea et al. 2009 open-source, energy, monitoring, industry, heat, sustainability, environment, energy consumption, visualization, data, arduino, diy, solar energy
Our technical vision is to create a fully open-source energy monitoring and control system that is suitable for domestic and industrial application. The current system contains the following modules: emonTx, emonBase, emonGLCD, emoncms and can be configured for the following applications: Home energy monitor PV system monitoring Heatpump monitoring Solar hot water monitoring Hot water tank monitoring Water consumption monitoring
Oxygen Curtain Mae Shaban (RAD: Responsive Architecture at Daniels) 2011 air refreshing, autonomy, organisms, environment, water, sensors, CO2, project, nutrients, algae, bioreactor, plant, carbon, oxygen, design
The curtain integrates an efficient organic living carbon sink into an interior space. The curtain produces an amount of oxygen equivalent to a mature broad leaved tree – it is a dramatically enhanced house plant. The curtain is composed of an array of algae bioreactors. A network of indoor air, power and nutrient supply lines weave the bioreactors into a single membrane. The nutrients are supplied by the building’s waste water. The curtain is nourished by the CO2 from the exhalation of the inhabitants. It is directly responsive to the users and the environment; each module operates autonomously and sensors activate select modules as appropriate to the changing levels of CO2 within a space. The modules then expand and contract with circulating air revealing a mechanic-organic organism that is continuously refreshing the air.
Point Cloud James Leng 2012 interactive, monitoring, meteorology, prediction, controll, interpret data, visualitzation, dynamic data, responsive environment, weather data, visualization, arduino
Created by James Leng, Point Cloud is an attempt to re-imagine our daily interaction with weather data. Even with the modern scientific and technological developments related to weather and when we can deploy sophisticated monitoring devices to document and observe weather, our analysis and understanding of meteorology is still largely approximate. Weather continues to surprise us and elude our best attempts to predict, control, and harness the various elements. Point Cloud builds on this premise, exploring new ways to interpret and understand weather data.
Portscapes Several Authors (SKOR ) 2009 art, photography, society, politics, urban, ecology, intervention, port, performance, video, interdisciplinary
At the extremity of The Netherlands, to the west of Rotterdam, an extension to the port of Rotterdam has been underway since September 2008. With the construction of Maasvlakte 2, The Netherlands will become 2,000 hectares larger and the port, already the biggest in Europe, will increase in size by 20%. The construction of Maasvlakte 2 prompted the Port of Rotterdam Authority to join with SKOR (Foundation Art and Public Space) in inviting the curatorial office Latitudes to in turn ask artists to reflect on the port, its expansion and its function. Under the title 'Portscapes', an artistic voyage of discovery has taken place throughout 2009, touching on the port's architectural, political, social and ecological past, present and future. Portscapes involves artists from The Netherlands, Mexico, Austria, Spain and Great Britain. By creating events, temporary art works, performances, photography, video work and excursions in and about the port area.
Prospero: Robot Farmer (Dorhout R&D) 2011 productivity, seeds, game theory, computerization, land, plants, genetics, technology, robot, farming, agriculture
Despite its quaint reputation, agriculture has always been an early adapter of technology. This is evident from the beginning of mechanization with the cotton gin, McCormick's Reaper, tractors, hybrid seed, to genetically engineered plants that protect themselves and grow in arid environments. Yields have grown quickly, but demand from developing countries and population growth are growing faster We know that we need to continue to find ways to increase the productivity of land on a per unit basis. Agriculture has started to add computerization and automation to the current machinery with things like GPS based precision farming systems that can autonomously drive tractors, monitor yield, and apply fertilizer. However, these aftermarket add-ons are built around the single most expensive and awkward part of the equipment. The person controlling the tractor. Prospero is the working prototype of an Autonomous Micro Planter (AMP) that uses a combination of swarm and game theory.
Protei Cesar Harada et al (V2_) 2011 environmentalism, open source, open hardware, drone, renewable energy, oil spills, gulf mexico
Protei is an oil spill cleaning machine. Protei is a family of unmanned robots (drone) that sails. It is articulated and some versions are inflatable. Oil drifts downwind, so Protei need to be able to sail upwind to capture more oil. Protei is an innovation using conventional technologies, it is therefore immediately possible to build it at a low cost with conventional materials. Protei is developed Open hardware, so everybody can use, modify and distribute our designs. Besides oil spill cleaning many other applications are envisoned for this revolutionary drone.
Pulser pump Brain White 2010 water pump, water, oil, air, energy, ecology, environment, diy
The pulser pump is a simple, water powered mechanical device, also known as a bubble pump. Components of this pump have been used for various purposes, including the extraction of oil or in refrigeration cycles. Heat driven bubble pumps are most common, but this particular design of a pulser pump using the turbulent flow in a stream to trap air has yet to become common. The two main benefits of this pump are that it has no mechanical or moving parts, and that it doesn't use any chemicals, only the water from a stream. Once installed near a stream, the pump can lift water using only the energy from the stream.
Recycled island (WHIM architecture) 2010 island, plastic, recycling, sustainability, urbanism, sea, waste, ocean, architecture, natural resources, habitat, economy, society
Recycled island is a research project on the potential of realizing a habitable floating island in the Pacific Ocean made from all the plastic waste that is momentarily floating around in the ocean. The proposal has three main aims; Cleaning our oceans from a gigantic amount of plastic waste; Creating new land; And constructing a sustainable habitat. Recycled island seeks the possibilities to recycle the plastic waste on the spot and to recycle it into a floating entity. The constructive and marine technical aspects take part in the project of creating a sea worthy island.
Reveal-it! Nina Valkanova et al. 2011 visualization, energy, urban, data, community, intervention, design, interaction, sustainability, awareness
On-going research project. The project “Reveal-it!” envisions the idea of revealing on-site data about the citizens’ consumption processes and its interrelations with energy-related infrastructures publicly in urban communities. It proposes a participatory intervention for interactively discovering and visualizing this data via public projection on urban surfaces. Images of real-world deployments and design process can be seen in our Flickr set.
RSA Arts and Ecology Centre Michaela Crimmin et al. (RSA) 2005 centre, ecology, arts, organisation, artists, environment, climate change, human impact, interdisciplinary, progess
The RSA Arts and Ecology Centre is an organisation whose role is to catalyse, publicise, challenge and support artists who are responding to the unprecedented environmental challenges of our era. Using their inspirations, RSA Arts and Ecology aims to create a positive discussion about the causes and the human impact of climate change through commissioning, debate, interdisciplinary discourse and a high-profile website. The RSA Arts and Ecology Centre was set up by the RSA in 2005.The centre's head, Michaela Crimmin, says "Artists have always had a powerful relationship with the natural environment. Equally artists continually question and re-examine society's notions of progress. We need their unique perspective on the enormous challenges ahead - on the relationship between environmental issues, and not least climate change, and people."
Searching for the Ubiquitous Genetically Engineered Machine Yashas Shetty,Mukund Thattai (ArtScienceBangalore) 2012 biology, life, living parts, soil, environment, synthetic biology, engineered products, ecology, lab, biotechnology
In Synthetic Biology, the Biobrick has been used as an abstraction or template for creating standardized functional living parts. Searching for UGEM is an alternate re-appropriations of the BioBrick by using existing BioBrick primers as random-PCR(Polymerase Chain Reaction) primers in investigating soil samples. This random PCR will provide a succinct signature of the biological diversity present in these samples. These investigations of soil lead us to ask questions about citizen’s science "performed" by non-institutional actors using accessible tools as well as gives us a glimpse into the "post-natural world" where BioBricks may end up in our environment and may very well show up as bands in a gel. By imagining a world in which the Biobrick has become the accepted standard for synthetic biology, and where these engineered products are ubiquitous in our lives and environments, the samples we archive will serve as the baseline from which the subsequent extent of human influence can be measured. These investigations are carried out in a custom built public research laboratory, the blueprints for making one are available online. These Autonomous Public Laboratories can be used as template for creating a citizen's research lab with which one can carry out "experiments"-biotechnological or otherwise.
Spore 1.1 Douglas Easterly,Matt Kenyon (SWAMP) 2004 computer systems, database, controller, reactive environment, ecological interaction, physical computing, responsive environment, gardening, water, plant, trees, sustainability, ecosystem
The curtain integrates an efficient organic living carbon sink into an interior space. Spore 1.1 is a self-sustaining ecosystem for a rubber tree plant purchased at Home Depot. In this project, Home Depot is responsible for the plant in two ways: first, an unconditional guarantee to replace any plant they sell, for up to one year; second through an implied cybernetic contract. This second responsibility is the creative content for the work, where the economic health of Home Depot is transitioned through a series of physical computing techniques to a mechanism for controlling the watering of the rubber tree. An onboard computer uses a Wi-Fi connection to access Home Depot stock quotes once per week, keeping a database of the week’s ending stock values. From the fluctuations in Home Depot stock, programs and circuitry connected to the rubber tree are controlled accordingly. If the company does well by showing stock growth, so does the plant - if the company suffers losses, Spore 1.1 does not get watered.
SUN-D Jonas Burki 1991 sunlight, information, design, technology, aestethics, screen, nature, symbiosis
SUN-D’s look like LED screens, but they’re anything but that. They’re powered by daylight or distinct light sources. They interact with their immediate environment. It’s an aesthetic fusion of information and lighting design. SUN_D depicts information via sunlight and extant natural light sources. To counteract the general sensory overload due to digital media that frequently put a real strain on users, we intentionally work with a way of depicting graphics whose naturally engendered glow is quite pleasant for the human eye to behold.
Surface Tension Several Authors (Science Gallery) 2011 water, future, artists, exhibition, natural resources, sustainability, environment, science, engineering, politics
The future of water is the subject of tension. Water is both disposable and sacred, a muse for artists and a necessity for life – a source of healing and of conflict. The Earth has abundant water, but only a very small proportion is available for human use. How should this be managed and sustained, and what would a water-scarce future look like? SURFACE TENSION brings together work by artists, designers, engineers and scientists to explore the future of water, playing on its physical properties, its role in politics and economics, and ways in which it may be harnessed, cleaned, and distributed.
TechnoMorphica Several Authors (V2_) 1997 book, essays, design, phylosophy, semiotics, intelligence, life, parasites, cyborg, science, evolution, biology, technology
Will technomorphization – the reorganization of the organic based on the intelligent machine model – become the dominant process of our age? Has evolution entered a technological scientific phase in which humans no longer develop in natural ways, in which the human body instead adapts itself to the parameters of a technological era? In this book, fourteen internationally acclaimed authors give their views on this blurring of borders and the fusion of the biological with the technological. It offers ideas on angels and robots, viruses and mad cows, a world where machines are anthromorphized and humans technomorphized. If the glare of our monitors is all that illuminates us, is it time to build a museum for the sun?
The Body is a Big Place Peta Clancy,Helen Pynor 2012 transplantation, death, biology, bio-art, installation, sculpture, heart, organs, live
‘The Body is a Big Place’ explores organ transplantation and the ambiguous thresholds between life and death, revealing the process of death as an extended durational moment, rather than an event that occurs in a single moment in time. This bio-art work is a large-scale immersive installation comprising a 5-channel video projection, a fully functioning bio-sculptural heart perfusion system, an undulating aqueous soundscape, and a single channel video work. ‘The Body is a Big Place’ re-enacted certain defining aspects of the human heart transplant process. The heart perfusion device was used to reanimate to a beating state a pair of fresh pig hearts in 2 performances staged during the exhibition. Rather than sensationalising these performative events, the artists sought to encourage empathic responses from viewers, activating the bodies of viewers by appealing to their somatic senses and fostering their identification with the hearts they were watching. This opened up the possibility of a deeper awareness and connection with viewers’ own interiors.
The Enteric Consciousness Ken Rinaldo 2010 technology, design, interactive, visualization, installation, robots, biology, organisms, culture, robotics, art
Enteric Consciousness 2010 is a large robotic tongue controlled by an artificial stomach filled with the living bacteria Lactobacillus Acidophulus. The artificial stomach in this installation controls and activates the robotic tongue. If the bacteria within the stomach is healthy and reproducing, then robotic tongue-chair senses the presence of the viewer/interactant reclines and delivers a deluxe 15 minute massage. When the interactant leaves the chair the robot tongue returns to an upright position. The Enteric Consciousness is a commission from the Maison d'Aillieur in Switzerland in 2010 for the Do Robots Dream of Spring retrospective exhibition.
The Great Work of the Metal Lover Adam Brown 2012 alchemi, science, art, transmutation, biology, microbiology, bacterium, bioreactor, life, chemistry, gold, electron microscopy
Magnum Opus, or The Great Work, is an Alchemical process that describes a personal, spiritual and chemical method for creating the Philosopher’s Stone, a mysterious red colored substance that was capable of transmuting base matter into the noble metal of gold. Efforts made to discover the principals of the Philosopher’s Stone was one of the defining and at the same time seemingly unobtainable objectives of Western Alchemy. The Great Work of the Metal Lover is an artwork that sits at the intersection of art, science and alchemy, re-examining the problem of transmutation through the use of modern microbiological practice and thus solving the ancient riddle.
The Guerrilla Gardening Richard Reynolds 2004 guerrilla gardening, fun, urban, community, blog, garden, green, sustainability, activism, environmentgardening
GuerrillaGardening.org encourages gardening without boundaries and seeks to provide inspiration through an exchange of ideas and experiences from guerrilla gardeners around the world and those seeking to become one. Whether you're making a place more beautiful, more edible, more fragrant, more bio diverse, more friendly, more thought provoking or all of that what we have in common is gardening without boundaries.
The Tissue Culture and Art Project Ionat Zurr 2004 art, tissues, organisms, cells, biotechnology, life, biology, future scenarios, ethics, environment, science, sustainability, wearable technology
The Tissue Culture & Art Project (TC&A;) was set to explore the use of tissue technologies as a medium for artistic expression. We are investigating our relationships with the different gradients of life through the construction/growth of a new class of object/being - that of the Semi-Living. These are parts of complex organisms which are sustained alive outside of the body and coerced to grow in predetermined shapes. These evocative objects are a tangible example that brings into question deep rooted perceptions of life and identity, concept of self, and the position of the human in regard to other living beings and the environment. We are interested in the new discourses and new ethics/epistemologies that surround issues of partial life and the contestable future scenarios they are offering us.
The Toaster Project Thomas Thwaites (V2_) 2009 culture, economics, manufacturing, project, toaster, ecology, raw materials, sustainability, natural resources, hardware, design, technology, art
I'm Thomas Thwaites and I'm trying to build a toaster, from scratch - beginning by mining the raw materials and ending with a product that Argos sells for only £3.99. A toaster.
The World in a Shell - the polliniferous project Hans Kalliwoda 2010 research, renewable energy, architecture, urban, community, sustainability, installation, autonomy, indigenous, green-design, pollution, environmentart
The World in a Shell, an ambitious work in progress by artist Hans Kalliwoda, brings together themes including art and science, communities and cultural heritage. The World in a Shell is a high-tech, self-sufficient container that functions as a mobile laboratory and living unit. The container can be folded out into a large shell-shaped construction in which exhibitions, presentations and workshops can be held. In collaboration with Delft University of Technology, Kalliwoda and his team have equipped the container with the very latest sustainable technologies. Solar energy, water recycling, and communication facilities ensure the container can function autonomously in every possible environment. The project is a model of sustainability and spreads the message that the most advanced technologies can be used without harming the environment or disturbing a community's way of life.
VES Several Authors fine arts, department, graduate, undergraduate, urbanism, contemporary arts, natural environment, video, design, Harvard
The Department of Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) is the curricular home of a broad range of studio arts and more theoretical studies. The department offers studio courses in areas that include painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, design, film, video, animation, and photography. VES also offers lecture courses and seminars in film history and theory, studies of the built and natural environment, design and urbanism, and contemporary arts.
Virtual Mirror - Rain Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec 2009 rain, weather, urban, sensors, diy, sky, installation, interaction, architecture, art
Virtual Mirror - Rain is a spatial intervention which senses the rain falling outside, and then literarily mirrors it inside the building in its original form - water. Every time a raindrop falls on a rain sensor outside, the same raindrop is being synthesized and reflected back to the sky from the floor inside. The installation makes the rain “fall up” inside. In addition to the rain sensors outside, there is one rain sensor installed in the middle of the installation indoors. By dripping water drops on it, the visitors are able to interact with the installation and to activate the drops to fall up from the floor into the sky.
X Clinic - the environmental health clinic + lab Nat Jeremijenko (NYU) 2007 art, lab, activism, environment, artist, research, sustainability, science, technology, clinic, design
The Environmental Health Clinic at NYU is a clinic and lab, modeled on other health clinics at universities. However the project approaches health from an understanding of its dependence on external local environments; rather than on the internal biology and genetic predispositions of an individual. The clinic works like this: you make an appointment, just like you would at a traditional health clinic, to talk about your particular environmental health concerns. What differs is that you walk out with a prescription not for pharmaceuticals but for actions: local data collection and urban interventions directed at understanding and improving your environmental health; plus referrals, not to medical specialists but to specific art, design and participatory projects, local environmental organizations and local government or civil society groups: organizations that can use the data and actions prescribed as legitimate forms of participation to promote social change.