recently published: the Metabody Journal of Metacultural Critique, nr. 1. the Metabody project is an EU-supported project and will last 5 years, i.e. from 2013-2018. It covers various disciplines : music, dance, architecture, media, etc.; but above all “the context of the project is an unprecedented control society, with the onset of Big Data as new economy that aims to reduce all reality to traceable data” .(p.4) TU-Delft’s Hyperbody Lab represents the Architecture section. The Journal, accompanied by a dvd with works, prototypes and subprojects is available via the website.
Auteur archieven: martinpot
Warren Ellis at ThingsCon
Disruptive, fascinating, out-of-the-box, playful and, above all, a true attentive keynote from Warren Ellis at ThingsCon 2015 in Berlin. While using the house and its – assumed – internet of things connectivity as an example he illustrates that we need to think a lot harder to come up with real adequate solutions if we really want to add meaning to the place we call our home.
smog free tower
After his first smog-project in Being, artist/designer Daan Roosegaarde – based in Rotterdam – now focuses on his own city. Supported by a crowd-funding action he plans and designed a 7 meter Smog-Free Tower in Rotterdam, to be completed in September 2015. After being presented in Rotterdam the tower will travel to other countries. Participants/partners that donate at least € 50,- receive an object containing the dust taken from the air; for € 250,- you can wear it as a ring: techno poetry………….. Let’s hope the tower will remain and/or others will follow……
cells
Until August 2nd. this year nobody should miss the beautiful exhibition in Munich’s Haus der Kunst of Louise Bourgeois’ ‘Cells, Structures of Existence‘ , a series of intimate spaces created in a decade between 1998 and 2008, just 2 years before her death in 2010. The `Cells’ represent the remembrance of her life and – in particular – childhood. They show a remarkable ability to transfer memories and events
into spheres recognizable for many; with simple materials – in particular doors rescued from e.g. her studio – the small spaces become a reference to often lost experiences.
Engage Rotterdam
Constructive meeting and – above all – breakout sessions – yesterday on the 14th floor at Central Post Rotterdam as part of Engage Rotterdam; organized by Hogeschool Rotterdam and Livework on Smart City-issues. Once again a call for ‘rethinking the future’ (Ingrid Mulder, TUD & HR) and various attempts to create real participatory projects, some of which will be added to the CityLab-010.
IoT-MeetUp on WW-IoT-day
On April 9, 2015 , the 4th Internet of Things & Built Environment MeetUp was held in Rotterdam, after 3 years now back at V2. In combination with a parallel program at HR and WdKA in their own venues; we had an interesting series of presentations and debates on the actual issues concerning iot and smart city. See the recordings at https://vimeo.com/channels/908003/ and listen back.
smart or feel
smart or feel
“There are many realities. There is no single world. There are many worlds, and they all run parallel to one another, worlds and anti-worlds, worlds and shadow-worlds, and each world is dreamed or imagined or written by someone in another world. “
Paul Auster, Man in the Dark
While my first article here originated from several more theoretically oriented issues concerning the iot and the built environment, it should be obvious that theory only will not provide the solutions needed to really achieve understanding, let alone real practical progress. When summarizing the Onlife Initiative discussion in 2013 it was chairman Luciano Floridi who stated that ‘we should write a Manifesto for mum’ ; illustrating that the Manifesto as discussed that day in July needed a transformation that would make it more accessible for the average citizen. The subtitle of the Manifesto – ‘Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era’ – points to the place and role of humans in a framework that increasingly becomes a mix of bits and atoms, of the digital and the analog, of the real and the virtual. Floridi again, later in his recent book: “the infosphere is progressively absorbing any other space”.(Florida, 2014) This, I would add, includes the ontology of the built environment, as discussed in my former article. Lees verder
Internet of Things & Built Environment, April 9.
Coming up; the 4th. Internet of Things, Built Environment & Smart City MeetUp in Rotterdam on the evening of April 9, WW-IoT-day. Location is V2, with a fine line-up of speakers that promises an actual state of affairs as well as an interesting discussion. For now: Nimish Biloria (TU-Delft/Arch.) Floris Schiferli (Superuse Studios), Bem van Lier (Centric), Cristina Ampatzidou, Jan Belon (Buitengewone Zaken), Elizabeth Sikiaridi (hybridspacelab). We plan debate with local politicians on the ‘Smart City’.
HR as well as WdKA will organize parallel programs within their own venues that same day.
admission is free but strictly limited to 75 visitors. More info and registration soon on the MeetUp-site.
IoT, built environment and a hyperconnected world
the internet of things connects things to the internet,
architecture connects people to the environment….
What is it that really frames, determines and influences our built environment? Since centuries we create – out of ‘nothing’ – a (semi-)permanent built structure out of natural and/or artificial materials; in the words of v.d.Laan: “we extract architectonical space as an emptiness out of natural space”.[1] It provides an artificial physical structure in an analogue – originally natural – environment, which – ultimately, when inhabited – facilitates a living space, creating lived space. Architecture thus has fulfilled its role, i.e. the defining and articulation of space, providing a social order, creating a static distinction between public space and private space. Is what we call ‘home’ the only adequate answer to our need for shelter and for our ‘right to be left alone’?
But; ”Architecture’, in the words of Virilio, ‘is more than an array of techniques designed to shelter us from any storm. It is an instrument of measure, a sum total of knowledge that, contending with the natural environment, becomes capable of organizing society’s time and space.” [2]
the Dilapidated Dwelling
Recently published on the Architecture_MPS website : an article by Patrick Keiller on housing in which he refers in particular to the situation in the UK, but nevertheless touches upon a contemporary issue: “Perhaps we are all ‘others’ when we are at home?”. Maybe the most interesting statement is that “the history of house-building suggests that the market will never be able to modernise dwelling on its own.(..) If there is to be any possibility for a more promising approach to dwelling, it is very unlikely to come from the conventional house-building industry.”. This is a challenge not for architects only, but rightly so, for the whole building industry involved.