There are good reasons why science fiction ideas percolate through culture like background radiation, instead of being baldly trotted out front and center. Archigram’s sci-fi flavored architecture-fiction was never commercially practical, it wasn’t meant to be, but it was usefully provocative: while pretending to be all zap-pow, pop-art and spacey, Archigram was chopping the future’s wood and hauling its water. That’s why their battlesuit ideas have survived for forty years.
Month: September 2009
Timo’s reference library
Virtual video prototyping
“Computing power is an integrated part of our physical environment, and since our physical environment is three-dimensional, the virtual studio technology, with its unique potential for visualizing digital 3D objects and environments along with physical objects, offers an obvious path to pursue in order to envision future usage scenarios in the domain of pervasive computing. We label the work method virtual video prototyping, which grew out of a number of information systems design techniques along with approaches to visualization in the field of architecture and set design. We present a collection of virtual video prototyping cases and use them as the platform for a discussion, which pinpoint advantages and disadvantages of working with virtual video prototyping as a tool for communication, experimentation and reflection in the design process. Based on more than ten cases we have made the observations that virtual video prototypes 1) are a powerful medium of communication in development teams and for communication with industry partners and potential investors, 2) support both testing and generating ideas 3) are particular suited for addressing spatial issues and new ways of interacting. In addition practical use of virtual video prototypes has indicated the need to take into account some critical issues including a) production resources, b) hand-on experience, and c) the seductive power of virtual video prototypes.”
Virtual video prototyping
Computing power is an integrated part of our physical environment, and since our physical environment is three-dimensional, the virtual studio technology, with its unique potential for visualizing digital 3D objects and environments along with physical objects, offers an obvious path to pursue in order to envision future usage scenarios in the domain of pervasive computing. We label the work method virtual video prototyping, which grew out of a number of information systems design techniques along with approaches to visualization in the field of architecture and set design. We present a collection of virtual video prototyping cases and use them as the platform for a discussion, which pinpoint advantages and disadvantages of working with virtual video prototyping as a tool for communication, experimentation and reflection in the design process. Based on more than ten cases we have made the observations that virtual video prototypes 1) are a powerful medium of communication in development teams and for communication with industry partners and potential investors, 2) support both testing and generating ideas 3) are particular suited for addressing spatial issues and new ways of interacting. In addition practical use of virtual video prototypes has indicated the need to take into account some critical issues including a) production resources, b) hand-on experience, and c) the seductive power of virtual video prototypes.
“Poggenpohl asserts that design research is developed through a typology within academic and business contexts, and follows different research theories and strategies. Such issues in design collaboration are explored in-depth, with essays on an inter-institutional academic project, cross-cultural learning experiences, and a multi-national healthcare project, demonstrating the importance of shared values, interdisciplinary negotiated process and clear communication for tomorrow’s designers.”
“The great icons of industrial and architectural design are cornerstones of our material culture. They are referred to again and again in education, research, and cultural debate, and as such they have become nodal points of human discourse. The knowledge embedded in such artefacts has often been referred to as “silent knowledge”. Drawing on the one hand on an analysis of the elements of the design process and, on the other, on a simple model for knowledge construction as such, taken from the world of scientific research, this article discusses the nature of such silent knowledge. It is argued that the structure of any new knowledge contribution is the same regardless of field, be it art, philosophy, or science, whereas the phenomena involved are different.”
– Solid knowledge: notes on the nature of knowledge embedded in designed artefacts – artifact
“Digital Art and Culture 2009 is the 8th in an international series of conferences begun in 1998. DAC is recognized as an interdisciplinary event of high intellectual caliber. This iteration of DAC will dwell on the specificities of embodiment and cultural, social and physical location with respect to digital technologies and networked communications.”
“Delagrange, Susan. (2009). Wunderkammer, Cornell, and the Visual Canon of Arrangement. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy 13(2). Retrieved September 22, 2009, from”
VizThink – Neil Cohn
“Burry, M.C., “Homo Faber”, in Architectural Design: Design Through Making, Volume 75, Number 4 (July/August 2005), Wiley-Academy, Chichester, 2005, pp. 30 – 37”