Scripting and form 2011 fall pratt
From KokkugiaWiki
fall 2011 | pratt gaud | roland snooks | roland@kokkugia.com
resources
pratt: SI11 schedule + tutorials
SI11 working code
kAgent repository of code and examples
basic kAgent code flow diagram
swarm intelligence reading
swarm intelligence links
scripting links
meshing resources
processing useful stuff
rhinoScript importing custom file formats
rhinoScript exporting points to processing
syllabus
Swarm Intelligence will examine the role of agency within generative design processes. This is an experiment exploring the implications of high population computational swarm systems. The seminar will introduce the lightweight programming language Processing and build from an extensive body of existing multi-agent code. The seminar will focus on non-linear design methodologies and their impact on tectonic hierarchies, with a particular emphasis on developing a non-linear relationship between structure and ornament.
The repositioning of design intent and the complex order generated by the behavioral techniques of multi-agent systems has implications for the affects which are generated as well as the nature of hierarchy within architecture. The distributed non-linear operation of swarm systems intrinsically resists the discrete articulation of hierarchies within Modern architecture and contemporary parametric component assemblies. The bottom up nature of these systems refocuses tectonic concerns on the assemblage at the micro scale rather than the sequential subdivision of form. Instead we will look for an alternative organization of matter that draws from an understanding of micro-structures such as those found in butterfly wings; where color and pattern are determined through the organization of matter as a geometrical configuration rather than through chemical attributes such as pigmentation.
The semester will focus around two areas of research, initially developing techniques and methodologies of multi-agent design and secondly the radical effect this has for the production of form, structure and ornament. While the first half of the seminar will predominately deal with methodological concerns, the second half of the semester will involve designing a proto-architectural chunk or tectonic assemblages that embodies the non-linear negotiation between structure and ornament.
The seminar will intensively engage scripting predominately in Processing. This work will use and expand on an existing library of agent code that will ensure that students are not slowed by the necessity of writing all the code they require. Instead the focus will be on the application and manipulation of code within the design process. This expansive library has been developed through research at Kokkugia and previous seminars. The library consists of relatively simple functions (such as steering behaviors) that can be recombined in the development of more complex algorithms.
