Topological Theory in Bioconstructivism

In the essay “Landscapes of Change: Boccioni’s Stati d’animo as a General Theory of Models,” in Assemblage 19, 1992, Sanford Kwinter proposed a number of theoretical models which could be applied to computer-generated forms in Bioconstructivism. These included topological theory, epigenesis, the epigenetic landscape, morphogenesis, catastrophe and catastrophe theory. Topological theory entails transformational events or deformations in nature which introduce discontinuities into the evolution of a system. Epigenesis entails the generation of smooth landscapes, in waves or the surface of the earth, for example, formed by complex underlying topological interactions. The epigenetic landscape is the smooth forms of relief which are the products of the underlying complex networks of interactions. Morphogenesis describes the structural changes occurring during the development of an organism, wherein forms are seen as discontinuities in a system, as moments of structural instability rather than stability. A catastrophe is a morphogenesis, a jump in a system resulting in a discontinuity. Catastrophe theory is a topological theory describing the discontinuities in the evolution of a system in nature. A project which applies these models, and which helps to establish a theoretical basis for Bioconstructivism by applying topological models, is a design for a theater by Amy Lewis in a Graduate Architecture Design Studio directed by Associate Professor Andrew Thurlow at Roger Williams University, in Spring 2011. In the project, moments of structural stability are juxtaposed with moments of structural instability, to represent the contradiction inherent in self-generation or immanence. The singularity of the surfaces of the forms in the epigenetic landscape contradicts the complex network of interactions of topological forces from which they result. Actions in the environment on unstable, unstructured forms, and undifferentiated structures, result in stable, structured forms, and differentiated structures

‘The Action of the Brain’. Machine Models and Adaptive Functions in Turing and Ashby

Given the personal acquaintance between Alan M. Turing and W. Ross Ashby and the partial proximity of their research fields, a comparative view of Turing’s and Ashby’s work on modelling “the action of the brain” (letter from Turing to Ashby, 1946) will help to shed light on the seemingly strict symbolic/embodied dichotomy: While it is clear that Turing was committed to formal, computational and Ashby to material, analogue methods of modelling, there is no straightforward mapping of these approaches onto symbol-based AI and embodiment-centered views respectively. Instead, it will be demonstrated that both approaches, starting from a formal core, were at least partly concerned with biological and embodied phenomena, albeit in revealingly distinct ways

Achilles And The Tortoise: Some Caveats To Mathematical Modeling In Biology

Mathematical modeling has recently become a much-lauded enterprise, and many funding agencies seek to prioritize this endeavor. However, there are certain dangers associated with mathematical modeling, and knowledge of these pitfalls should also be part of a biologist\u27s training in this set of techniques. (1) Mathematical models are limited by known science; (2) Mathematical models can tell what can happen, but not what did happen; (3) A model does not have to conform to reality, even if it is logically consistent; (4) Models abstract from reality, and sometimes what they eliminate is critically important; (5) Mathematics can present a Platonic ideal to which biologically organized matter strives, rather than a trial-and-error bumbling through evolutionary processes. This “Unity of Science” approach, which sees biology as the lowest physical science and mathematics as the highest science, is part of a Western belief system, often called the Great Chain of Being (or Scala Natura), that sees knowledge emerge as one passes from biology to chemistry to physics to mathematics, in an ascending progression of reason being purification from matter. This is also an informal model for the emergence of new life. There are now other informal models for integrating development and evolution, but each has its limitations

Overcoming the Newtonian Paradigm: The Unfinished Project of Theoretical Biology from a Schellingian Perspective

Defending Robert Rosen’s claim that in every confrontation between physics and biology it is physics that has always had to give ground, it is shown that many of the most important advances in mathematics and physics over the last two centuries have followed from Schelling’s demand for a new physics that could make the emergence of life intelligible. Consequently, while reductionism prevails in biology, many biophysicists are resolutely anti-reductionist. This history is used to identify and defend a fragmented but progressive tradition of anti-reductionist biomathematics. It is shown that the mathematicoephysico echemical morphology research program, the biosemiotics movement, and the relational biology of Rosen, although they have developed independently of each other, are built on and advance this antireductionist tradition of thought. It is suggested that understanding this history and its relationship to the broader history of post-Newtonian science could provide guidance for and justify both the integration of these strands and radically new work in post-reductionist biomathematics

The un-designability of the virtual. Design from problem-solving to problem-finding.

Drawing on Gilles Deleuze (1991) this chapter investigates the virtual as what problematizes the possible by inserting contingency in the process of emergence of the new. The tension between the virtual as what is uniquely placed to engender true innovation, and its aleatory and unforeseeable nature mirrors the tension existing in design between form-making and the need to acknowledge contingency. In embracing the un-designability of the virtual, design is called to take contingency and material variability as forces impinging on the process of emergence of the new. The chapter puts forward a new model for design research that shifts from problem-solving to problem-finding and is predicated on the undesigned at the core of design itself. This points to a further shift: the role of designer from creator to facilitator, teasing form out of the formless, engaged with the manifold forces expressed through material variation

Generalized crystallography

X-ray crystal structure analysis can now be seen as a special kind of microscopy which is being extended to the recognition and examination of many kinds of ordered structure more general than crystals and which leads to their synthesis or construction by various methods. Electron microscopy and many other techniques now combine to give a coherent science of structure at the scale range of Ångstroms to microns, atoms to assemblies visible to the eye, which should continue to be called crystallography although it overlaps with nanotechnology, molecular biology, and solid state physics. Most generally, a crystal is a structure the description of which is much smaller than the structure itself and this view leads to the consideration of structures as carriers of information and on to wider concerns with growth, form, morphogenesis, and life itself

The city of future: biourbanism and constructural law

Nowadays dynamic elements in urban fabric are often concealed by the insertion of stylish new architecture; real patterns of social life (‘bios’), have been replaced by rigid geometric grids and compact building blocks. New Urbanism and Biourbanism affirm that cities are now risking to be unstable and deprived of healthy social interactions. As an expansion of older historical urban fabric patterns, harmonious architecture can have a positive impact on the fitness of both human body and mind. Not only Biourbanism attempts to reinstate balance and lost values in the urban fabric, but also reinforces human-oriented design emergences in micro and macro scales. As a multifaceted discipline, it embraces laws of physics, such as Constructal Law and acknowledges its noticeable and unremitting influence to urban human behaviours. Urban life and behaviours are based upon systems of human communication formed by dynamic patterns; we are now talking about negotiating boundaries between human activities, changes in geographic mapping and mainly about sustainable systems to support uninterrupted growth of communities worldwide. Therefore, as a vital shift in architectural education, not only Biourbanism offers the opportunity to explore patterns and linguistics deeply imbedded into the built environment, but also enables scholars and communities to come together and participate actively into fast and innovative urban interventions. Projects developed during educational and professional training aim at reinstating memorable and preferential paths of communication, favouring everyday life rituals of the body and mind. Hence, by following everlasting laws of physics and formulas inherited from nature, architectural forms can be considered as the real innovation in urban design and planning of the City of the Future.Conference presentation funded by Department of Engineering