ACADIA @ Digital Aptitudes | Synthetic Landscapes Workshop
On Wednesday 29 February and 01 March 2012 at the Objet Headquarters in Billerica, MA, this two-day intensive design workshop will provide workshop participants the opportunity to work with a team of expert consultants, to hone their digital and prototyping skills, to experiment with a range of digital production tools, and to design and fabricate a unique set of components that negotiate a range of material across a structured field condition. This workshop will combine technological precision and pedagogical creativity – first, to explicate the creative potentials of both the various forms of software and materials-based investigations that could be replicated in curriculum; second, to exhibit the works produced at the ACSA 100 national; and third, to offer an opportunity for the workshop leaders and participants to discuss the workshop in light of not only what was produced, but to frame the workshop vis-a-vis their personal and professional research trajectories demonstra
Aligning Iteration and Fabrication | the ACADIA @ ACSA Digital Aptitudes – Synthetic Landscapes workshop aligns knowledge information, knowledge integration, and knowledge exchange with design thinking processes. Working across multiple software platforms, workshop participants will develop a series of iterative prototypes that negotiate a gradient field of materiality-texture, color, and light. These prototypes will range from locally- to globally-defined adaptations. Working within a pre-designed digital and physical framework, each workshop participant will explore the performative characteristics of the Objet Connex machine while generating an individual inquiry that will in turn, be cross-referenced across a datascape-driven digital and physical context (developed by the workshop leaders). This immersive workshop will offer participants a truly unique opportunity to explore conditions of material differentiation while critically positioning their work in a synergistic environment.
Design is an integrative process – the synthesizing of parts into a whole. Through iteration, participants will generate and fabricate components (parts) to form a larger network (whole). The results of the workshop will be showcased at the Boston Park Plaza, formally presented during a Special Focus Session on Friday, 02 March during the 100th ACSA Annual Meeting, and be part of a traveling exhibition that will circulate North America in 2012.
SCHEDULE
Wednesday, 29 February
10:00am-10:00pm
And
Thursday, 01 March
10:00am-6:00pm
Consultants:
*Gregory Luhan (ACSA/ACADIA organizer)
MIT: Justin Lavallee, Neri Oxman, and 2-4 MIT student assistants
ACADIA: *Gil Akos, *Kyle Miller, *Ronnie Parsons, *Andy Payne
* Designates Workshop Leaders
Wednesday, February 29
8:00am Buses leave for Objet Headquarters – On Bus Orientation and introduction to the Objet Connex machines
9:30am Introduction of the project, tour of labs, software downloads and installation as needed
10:00-12:00 Site selection, Initial Design and Material testing (work with consultation from instructors), Parts cleaning
12:00 Lunch Provided
12:30-6:00 Site development, Design, testing, and prototyping (work with consultation from instructors), Parts cleaning (additional armature and exhibition generation sent to MIT – Justin Lavallee for fabrication)
6:00-7:00 Dinner Provided
7:00-10:00 Site refinement, prototyping, Parts cleaning, visualization creation (sent to MIT for plotting and mounting) (PROJECTION?)
10:00 Buses return to the hotel
Thursday, March 1
8:00am Buses leave for Objet Headquarters
9:00-12:00 Final part installation into synthetic landscapes exhibition; Exhibition development
12:00-1:00 Lunch Provided
1:00-3:00 Visualization and Special Focus Session visualizations development; dismantle exhibition and package for transport to Park Plaza for display in the ACSA Annual Meeting Exhibit Hall.
3:00-4:00 Buses leave Objet Headquarters – participants take projects to Park Plaza for display in the ACSA Annual Meeting Exhibit Hall.
4:00-6:00 Unpack exhibition materials, setup installation for Exhibit
6:00-7:30 Annual Meeting Keynote Panel on Digital Technologies by: Sanford Kwinter. Jeff Kipnis, Sylvia Lavin, Katheryn Gustafson, Mark Burry
7:30-9:00 eception in the Exhibit Hall (featuring the final designs by the workshop)
Friday, March 2
2:00-3:30 Synthetic Landscapes Special Focus Session
Special Focus Session to discuss pedagogical implications of the workshop. Panelists include team leaders, workshop attendees and Piet Meijs. Using the Digital Aptitudes workshop hosted by Objet as a critical point of departure, this moderated session will focus on linking the pedagogical to the technological. Short presentations by panelists Kyle Miller, Andy Payne, Gil Akos, Ronnie Parsons, Justin Lavallee, Piet Meijs, and Gregory Luhan will frame the conceptual underpinnings of workshop as part of an embedded, participatory, and replicable art-to-part curriculum developed with Neri Oxman. The presenter’s own research into areas including flexible form manufacturing, site malleable construction, building performance, and blended materials research will align the concept-to-completion workshop outcomes as logical extensions of an otherwise technologically-driven and application-based synthetic ecology.
Saturday, March 3
12:00-12:30 Objet Presentation
Lunchtime Objet Presentation by Neri Oxman.
TO REGISTER, GO TO: http://www.acsa-arch.org/progr