Parasitic position and their graphic agencies: Spring 2020, 9th semester
- Prior to, and at the beginning of, the first covid-19 lockdown -
- Prior to, and at the beginning of, the first covid-19 lockdown -
Starting the semester by reading Deleuze and Guattari's "A Thousand Plateaus" and unlocking the visual characteristics of the rhizome, by employing a user experience as subject matter and procedural modeling as the primary tool of graphic articulation.
With the intention to employ parasitic disruptors at later stages, ironically, the whole world would come to experience a major parasitic disruption, COVID-19. Needless to say, COVID-19, a parasite that changed the lives of billions of people, had a significant influence on the development of this project.
Assignment from Studio 2B Aarhus School of Architecture
With the intention to employ parasitic disruptors at later stages, ironically, the whole world would come to experience a major parasitic disruption, COVID-19. Needless to say, COVID-19, a parasite that changed the lives of billions of people, had a significant influence on the development of this project.
Assignment from Studio 2B Aarhus School of Architecture
The initial copy and voice
Recopy I and the refining of your voice
Recopy II and the identification of the voice's agency
Contemplate, iterative drawings of Morten's rhizomatic condition of amber
Parasitic Positions and Their Graphic Agencies
Lebbeus Woods, indirectly, wrote that architecture, both graphic and physical, is read in the same way as literature. Where both the graphic and the written, can deliver a precise message but only through iterative constructions of the same subject matter.
Using Marco Frascari's concept of the Brouillon, where contemplate drawings a produced through iterations. No single drawing has the same communicative impact as the collection of recopied drawings, each adjusted through a better understanding of technique, subject matter, and previous iteration. Employing the six characteristics of the rhizome, defined by Deleuze as connection, heterogeneity, multiplicity, rupture, cartography, and decalcomania to draw an initial understanding of one of our co-students experience through line drawing, constructed only in projection, where depth is revealed through line weight and layering. All the lines are initially made using Grasshopper, then further articulated, modified, and crafted in Illustrator.
Using Marco Frascari's concept of the Brouillon, where contemplate drawings a produced through iterations. No single drawing has the same communicative impact as the collection of recopied drawings, each adjusted through a better understanding of technique, subject matter, and previous iteration. Employing the six characteristics of the rhizome, defined by Deleuze as connection, heterogeneity, multiplicity, rupture, cartography, and decalcomania to draw an initial understanding of one of our co-students experience through line drawing, constructed only in projection, where depth is revealed through line weight and layering. All the lines are initially made using Grasshopper, then further articulated, modified, and crafted in Illustrator.
Brouillon 01 - 03, all depict the same subject matter, the rhizomatic condition of amber at Saltum Strand in Denmark, as experienced by co-student, Morten Hagemann Nielsen. The initial one focuses on the experience of collecting amber but is not specific enough to depict their location at Saltum Strand. The recopy is very specific in locating the amber both in space and time since the amber was formed millions of years ago, but it loses the experiential qualities. So the third Brouillon is where the voice's agency is fully identified, where the illustration shows a rhizomatic experience at a very specific place.
Amber that Morten has collected and a Satellite photograph of Saltum Strand where he collected the amber
- Morten Hagemann Nielsen's experience of the rhizomatic condition of amber -
You are just searching for something exciting when you are taking a trip to the summer vacation house.
Looking for rubbish on the beach,
because that is where it hides, where it is not just sand.
Looking for rubbish on the beach,
because that is where it hides, where it is not just sand.
It tells you about something.
It tells you about the history of the Danish west coast
where millions of years ago there was a forest between Denmark and England.
It tells you about the history of the Danish west coast
where millions of years ago there was a forest between Denmark and England.
The amber comes from that forest,
from the soft sap from the trees
which has been lying at the bottom of the sea
and has become solid over time.
from the soft sap from the trees
which has been lying at the bottom of the sea
and has become solid over time.
There is something on the beach,
rummaging, pushing, showing sand away
there is something here,
no, nothing, keep searching,
back and forth, slightly digging.
rummaging, pushing, showing sand away
there is something here,
no, nothing, keep searching,
back and forth, slightly digging.
Unlike the rocks, this, amber, is characteristic for this place,
the rocks can be swept in from far away,
granite from England, Norway or Iceland,
which the currents have brought here,
but this, amber, stems from here.
the rocks can be swept in from far away,
granite from England, Norway or Iceland,
which the currents have brought here,
but this, amber, stems from here.
I have only done this once as an adult,
this is something I did with my grandparents,
young children don't understand the meaning of it
it's something you don't do by yourself.
this is something I did with my grandparents,
young children don't understand the meaning of it
it's something you don't do by yourself.
You compete who will collect the most.
We bring the amber home,
to the summer house,
put it in a jar
and place it on the windowsill
to the summer house,
put it in a jar
and place it on the windowsill
Arterial Recordings and Rhetorical Instigations
Partially working with co-student Morten Hagemann Nielsen
Having created a personal graphic language, we were now tasked with visualizing the rhizomatic conditions found along the Elbe River in Hamburg, Germany, in order to understand the site's parasitic potential. This was before Covid-19 hit Europe, so the Studio went onsite in Hamburg. Spending time at the site alone and together with my co-student Morten, we both produced a series of mappings to identify qualities and conditions within our assigned Elbe Zone, which was a part of the Zaha Hadid promenade. Combining our latest mappings together to create a singular partner-based mapping. That we again evolved into what we thought would become tool paths for CNC routing, however, this is when Covid-19 restrictions inhibited us from creating a 3D construction of our graphic interpretation of the site conditions.
The intention was to create a large tactile model, milled in Hardwood, composed of 7 models representing the 7 different zones the students were assigned of the Elbe River, but we had to make do with the 3D compilation constructed in Rhino.
Registering the site from the train a stranger approached (0:50) to tell me that without the city man can not survive: "Ohne Byen Kann Der Menschen Nicht Existieren"
Pockets of energy
Intensification of energy
Energy currents
Situationing
Evolution of Brouliion from my own observations at the Elbe Zone in Brouillon 04 and 05 combining them with Morten's observations in 06 which
we evolved together into Brouillon 07 with the intention of milling it from a compilation of different Hardwood, which would not be possible due to Covid-19
we evolved together into Brouillon 07 with the intention of milling it from a compilation of different Hardwood, which would not be possible due to Covid-19
Brouillon 04 uses similar techniques as Brouillon 3 identifying places of interest, pockets of pedestrian energy at Elbe River.
In Brouillon 05, I deploy agents/particle systems in Grasshopper and use them to show the intensification of energy in designed simulation through interventions and disruptions. Brouillon 06 is made from the collective system of my own Brouillon 05 and Morten's that exhibit the energy currents at the site. The culmination of the arterial recordings is Brouillon 07 showing the movement of pedestrians and the different points of attractions that they visit on the Elbe Promenade. This is what we intended to CNC mill with a 60°V tool.
In Brouillon 05, I deploy agents/particle systems in Grasshopper and use them to show the intensification of energy in designed simulation through interventions and disruptions. Brouillon 06 is made from the collective system of my own Brouillon 05 and Morten's that exhibit the energy currents at the site. The culmination of the arterial recordings is Brouillon 07 showing the movement of pedestrians and the different points of attractions that they visit on the Elbe Promenade. This is what we intended to CNC mill with a 60°V tool.
Rhizomatic mappings of the 7 zones of the Elbe River and their tooling intentions
Programming PArasitic Disruptors
The itch in my wall & SKIN in Hamburg
The itch in my wall & SKIN in Hamburg
Parasitic Machine, Parasitic body and Worldbuilding
The next phase involved using science-fictional storytelling as a discourse to discover the possibilities in our present, to shape the future through these hopes and potentials. Mapping the Elbe zone revealed an aspect of the real world that was previously hidden from a normative mode of site analysis. Having revealed a world for a parasite to inhabit, I now needed to invent the parasite. Developing a speculative technology, which can take advantage of the energetic mapping Morten and I made, from our combined reflections on the movement of people, I began to see Brouillon 07 as something alive, compressing and expanding, pneumatic.
Activated by human presence.
Expanding as human energy can be harvested and compressing when there is no energy. Evolving the parasitic machine further into the parasitic body, imagining how humans were likely to want to manipulate this parasitic condition. Without needing to understand every nuance of this technology would work, I needed to understand the spatial and temporal requirements. Science Fiction is addresses not only the technical but also the socio-political, ecological etc., and I couldn’t ignore our current situation, as mankind had been struck by a deadly virus, Covid-19 people were spending their days inside, in an attempt to fight the virus.
Tourist map
Storyboard
First impression
Wow factor
Developing the social media image of #SKININHAMBURG for Instagram
I started writing "The itch in my wall" reflection when COVID-19 restrictions were first in place, during the spring of 2020, as a part of my architecture studies. There I describe my desire for an architecture responsive to my needs, architecture that is capable of altering itself. At some point in time, most of our habitations responded directly to us, like the clothes on our body buildings were construed and constructed specifically to suit our needs and desires. While cities pulsate, grow, and regenerate we rarely experience the same reaction to human presence at the scale of single construction, the scale of a building. The scale of a wall.
I also address the connection between the written reflection and the parasitic instigation of SKIN in Hamburg, in a YouTube talk, focusing on how they influenced each other's development.
The reflection became a driver for a futuristic sci-fi response to the situation the pandemic posed. Due to social restrictions at the time, the final presentation of the project, SKIN in Hamburg, was presented on an Instagram account from the perspective of the social media manager of SKIN in Hamburg the safest destination in the world.
SKIN was discovered by microbiologist Brünhilde Sepp and geoscientist Nico Hersch, who met in an ASMR chat for stress relief.
Initiating Parasitic Interventions
The story of SKIN IN HAMBURG
The story of SKIN IN HAMBURG
The year is 2028. The parasitic instigation of SKIN (Superimposed Kinetic Interactive Nurturing devices) enables people to interact safely. Implanted into every surface in Hamburg in 2029 in the aftermath of Covid-28, when social distancing had become the new way of life and the earth population was touch starved and obese. It's a parasitic network that awaits, only manifests itself when there is human presence, activated by the seismic energy of people. It expands as human energy is harvested and compresses, returning to its deflated state once there is no more energy. Transitioning from making its presence known to be completely hidden.
As the biomechanism is lit by daylight it emits serotonin gases in order to stimulate humans so that it may activate. During the nighttime, the biomechanism releases converted waste products as melatonin. Inducing rest, inducing activity again. SKIN is haptic, when we reach out we feel it but simultaneously it feels us. The parasite grows at a rate comparable to the rate of the energetic input. Expanding in slight anticipation of what’s to come and holding on to the energy just a bit longer than it lasts, so you can see slight trails of past energy. It appears to follow you but it’s actually different parts of the skin activating as you move through the field of network sensors.
Capable of instantly changing to desired shapes, understanding what shape it is in, and adapt to it. Capable of making a dent in our biological skin just like the edge of the table. This appears to be a symbiotic relationship, we invited SKIN in to dine on our activity in return for its protection. It’s an emergent organ in which we become enmeshed, the perfect tactile companion shaping our lives. When we need protection, our SKIN is thick, and when we need more oxygen it opens up. SKIN is now everywhere, even if static awaiting human presence. It has rendered the frame of our past lives redundant. All we need now is to exist within our own SKINS.
SKIN's social media promotions on Instagram
REFLECTION
I hope that SKIN inspires architects to take a closer look at the emergent conditions of programmable, transformational architecture. Architecture is constantly changing its form in a response to an environmental stimulus, where there is no single optimized performance. An architecture that reflects our true nature. We as humans are not confined by the matter of our bodies and are by no means static entities. We exist in the constantly shifting network of our relationships, internally and externally. Why should our constructs be any different?
@aarch_hafdis_bragadottir #skininhamburg #studio 2B #scifi #futurearchitecture #cityofthefuture #worldbuilding #responsivespace #agentsbasedsystem #rhizome #coronavirus #covid19 #covid28
