PROJECTS REVIEW 2008
In an age of unprecedented interaction between natural and artificial realms, the conservative ethos of environmentalism is losing its currency. Today, we are confronted with the need to develop more adaptive, transformative mechanisms for evaluating and managing the impact of human actions on natural ecosystems; we call these mechanisms ecoMachines.
The year began with a series of workshops exploring critical dynamic processes unfolding in Central London. Students developed tools and techniques to register, abstract, transpose and manipulate these processes, turning their analysis into a set of strategies for material interaction.
The field trip, to La Paz and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, provided the opportunity for a first collaborative experiment. A 1:1 ecoMachine for a market stall – a cybernetic ciwina – was built and tested in a local Sunday morning street market, while a 1:1 sedimentation machine was proliferated in the tropical Rio Piraii.
A phase of engineering followed, resulting in the first collection of ecoMachines. Working from the Paskian paradigm of second-order cybernetics, students developed relational diagrams for their models, defining functional regimes for the machines and setting up a series of simulations to register their sensitivities and response thresholds and, most vitally, their spatio-temporal impact.
These experiments formed the background for the final phase of work, which was divided between the development of design scenarios for the individual machines and the collective 1:1 scale prototyping work for the ‘riverside walk experiment’, to be shown as part of the London Student Festival from 27 June to 23 July.
References for prototyping materials and technologies were collected during a trip to the Milan Furniture Fair in March, while in London a team of consultants, supporters and manufacturers helped with the realisation of the machines. The experiment – documented on video – is part of the Projects Review exhibition.
The unit work has been featured in AA publications such as Environmental Tectonics and aarchitecture and in AJ and Icon.
See http://aainter10.wordpress.com/
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Credits
Unit staff
Claudia Pasquero
Marco Poletto
Students
Calvin Chua
Carrie Lim
Danecia Sibingo
Fabrizio Matillana
Gideon John Alcantara
Helena Agurruza
Joon Oh
Josiah Barnes
Kim B