Client: University of Calgary Faculty of Environmental Design
Location: Calgary, AB, Canada
Completion date: 2014
Artwork budget: $2,000
Project Team
Artist
Joshua Vermillion
UNLV School of Architecture
Other
Jason S Johnson
University of Calgary
Other
Mehrdad Amjadi
University of Calgary
Other
Michael Chu
Other
Nic Dykstra
Other
Meysam Ehsanian
Other
Daniel Farid
Other
Alyssa Haas
Other
Kendra Kusick
Other
Joanna Long-Tieu
Other
Matt Marrotto
Other
Jamie Lynne McFadyen
Other
MacKenzie Nixon
Other
Obinna Martins
Other
Shane Oleksiuk
Other
Sadaf Rabbani
Other
Matt Stewart
Other
Sabrina Vastag
Overview
Self-organizing and self-assembling systems are trending topics in design, notable for their capacity to use simple parts and interactions to generate complex organizations. This project is an architectural installation for experimenting with such systems. We developed a suspended cloud of acrylic components that snap together magnetically. As the “simple parts” attract and attach in clusters, simple looping electric circuits are closed, triggering glowing LEDs. Thus, the phenomenon of small parts organizing into clusters is rendered with light in real time. The project was installed for the client at the Kasian Gallery on the campus of the University of Calgary.
Goals
The project was completed with the help from University of Calgary students, and the focus of this exercise was to demonstrate the importance of integration--spatial design, multi-discipinary teams, electronics and interactions, fabrication and prototyping, etc--with delivering a well-crafted installation within an existing gallery space. We coordinated all of this with the following framework: 1) Creating fabrication and material studies to define basic components.
2) Investigating relational interactions and systemic disturbances while prototyping with simple electrical and magnetic components.
3) Generating organization from disorder through repetition.
4) Examining scalar relationships between parts and aggregations, and between local and global behaviors.
Process
This project was a true test of collaborative design as it was completed in only four days by myself and a group of university students. The process involved a lot of design and prototyping in small groups, collective meetings for feedback and critique, and coordination of many tasks and skill sets--all in a very short amount of time.