Swarm intelligence 2010 spring upenn
From KokkugiaWiki
spring 2010 | penndesign | roland snooks | roland@kokkugia.com
resources
upenn: SI10 schedule + tutorials
kAgent repository of code and examples
kGeom
basic kAgent code flow diagram
swarm intelligence reading
swarm intelligence links
scripting links
meshing resources
processing useful stuff
student projects
upenn: SI10UP_chris, emaan, fleet
upenn: SI10UP_Valmik, Sara, Ben
upenn: ST10UP_Jingyi, Yiqin, Ana, Florina
upenn: SI10UP_danny, hyung, Mahdi
upenn: SI10UP_Wenqing, Yang, Ziyue
upenn: ST10UP_Yongdae, Young, Sunghyun
syllabus
Swarm Intelligence will examine the role of agency within generative design processes. This is an experiment with the emergent architectural implications of extremely high populations of computational entities interacting within a swarm logic. The seminar will focus on an abstract design methodology, recasting simple decision making ability into agents capable of self-organizing into an emergent intelligence. The seminar will introduce the lightweight programming language Processing and build from an extensive body of existing multi-agent code. The project will explore the implications of high population thinking on the generation of architectonic assemblages, specifically exploring the dissolution of modernist tectonic hierarchies. The implications of this on fabrication and materiality will be explored, culminating with the production of a small-scale prototype.
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. This inquiry will not be confined to the digital realm; the latter part of the semester will look at the implications of swarm-based tectonics for fabrication. This will involve the production of a prototype that engages innovative production techniques and their relationship to high population generative forms of articulation.
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.
The work from the seminar will be featured in an exhibition in Shanghai titled ‘Swarm Intelligence’ which will be curated by Neil Leach and Roland Snooks and will be accompanied by a book and conference. The exhibition will feature leaders in the fields of architecture, engineering, art and science who are developing swarm-based methodologies.
