Succulent Hyspid
UCLA Department of Architecture + Urban Design 2009
Professor: Kivi Sotamaa
Partners: Jordan Gearhart + Francesco Valente-Gorjup
Location: UCLA Currents Gallery
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Topic of the Studio: The technological focus of the seminar was multimedia. Instead of focusing on a single material or manufacturing technology we worked on the problems involved in combining a multiplicity of technologies and materials into sensible electro-material wholes. The task was to design an EMO - emotionally charged, interactive, electro-material object. EMOs must react to human presence, change mood and deploy a minimum of three material technologies. EMO's are sensation objects. They should be specific in character, avoid easy comprehension, retain their mystique and capacity for surprise. A successful EMO should generate powerful and immediate lived experiences. We studied entities in nature, art, fashion and architecture which are formed by a multiplicity of material systems in order to understand what makes them coherent as opposed to collaged, as well as to understand how they create their effects. We explored available manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing, lasercutting, milling, vacuum forming, casting and various molding methods in order to select suitable fabrication technologies for each project. We also researched computer controlled robotic movement, LED lighting and sensor technologies in order to introduce interactivity and kinetics to the EMOs.
