KINE[SIS]TEM'17 From Nature to Architectural Matter

Kine[SiS]tem – From Kinesis + System. Kinesis is a non-linear movement or activity of an organism in response to a stimulus. A system is a set of interacting and interdependent agents forming a complex whole, delineated by its spatial and temporal boundaries, influenced by its environment. How can architectural systems moderate the external environment to enhance comfort conditions in a simple, sustainable and smart way? This is the starting question for the Kine[SiS]tem’17 – From Nature to Architectural Matter International Conference. For decades, architectural design was developed despite (and not with) the climate, based on mechanical heating and cooling. Today, the argument for net zero energy buildings needs very effective strategies to reduce energy requirements. The challenge ahead requires design processes that are built upon consolidated knowledge, make use of advanced technologies and are inspired by nature. These design processes should lead to responsive smart systems that deliver the best performance in each specific design scenario. To control solar radiation is one key factor in low-energy thermal comfort. Computational-controlled sensor-based kinetic surfaces are one of the possible answers to control solar energy in an effective way, within the scope of contradictory objectives throughout the year.FC

Reflection and transparency model of rose petals for computer graphics based on the micro-scopic scale structures

International audienc

Builders of the vision : technology and the imagination of design

Thesis (Ph. D. in Design and Computation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-208).This dissertation identifies and documents a "technological imagination of design" emerging around the reconfigured discourses of design and design representation by the culture of technology production in the Computer-Aided Design Project, a Cold War era research operation funded by the US Air Force at MIT, tracing it into its contemporary deployment in the technology project known as Building Information Modeling. Exploring the discursive and technological linkages between these two sites, the dissertation outlines the ongoing project of construing technological centrality and universality as the dominant trope in discourses about design production. An expanded critical perspective on design is thus developed that looks at technological systems -such as software- and the cultures that produce them, with their histories and regimes of power, as crucial participants in, rather than as neutral vessels for, the design and production of our built environment. The dissertation ranges from examining the politics of representation, participation and authorship in the systems imagined by members of the Computer-Aided Design Project -in particular that of Steven Coons and Nicholas Negroponte's "man-machine" design systems- to discussing the culture of BIM coordination through an ethnographic portrait and data-visualization of its practice at Gehry Technologies, in two large-scale projects in the United Arab Emirates. As this study demonstrates, technological discourses and artifacts act as brokers for culturally dominant conceptions of design, representation, and work.by Daniel Cardoso Llach.Ph.D.in Design and Computatio

Growth and Characterization of some Bio-material Crystals

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Selling and collecting art in the network society: Interactions among contemporary art new media and the art market

Aquesta tesi explora i analitza les interaccions actuals entre art, nous mitjans i el mercat de l'art, i també les transformacions que es produeixen en el reconeixement de l'art digital, l'estructura del mercat de l'art i els rols de l'espectador i el col·leccionista. La tesi es divideix en tres parts. La primera part analitza les maneres en què l'art de nous mitjans s'ha definit ell mateix com un món de l'art específic, i les polèmiques que exemplifiquen la seva separació del món de l'art contemporani. La segona part analitza les motivacions i les expectatives dels artistes que treballen amb tecnologies emergents, per mitjà d'una enquesta feta per l'autor entre més de cinc-cents artistes de cinquanta països. La tercera part analitza les maneres en què l'art digital ha estat comercialitzat i els canvis recents en el mercat de l'art contemporani a internet.La presente tesis explora y analiza las interacciones actuales entre arte, nuevos medios y el mercado del arte, así como las transformaciones que se están produciendo en el reconocimiento del arte digital, la estructura del mercado del arte y los roles del espectador y el coleccionista. La tesis se divide en tres partes. La primera parte analiza las formas en que el arte de nuevos medios se ha definido a sí mismo como un mundo del arte específico, y las polémicas que ejemplifican su separación del mundo del arte contemporáneo. La segunda parte analiza las motivaciones y las expectativas de los artistas que trabajan con tecnologías emergentes, por medio de una encuesta realizada por el autor entre más de quinientos artistas de cincuenta países. La tercera parte analiza las maneras en que el arte digital ha sido comercializado y los cambios recientes en el mercado del arte contemporáneo en internet.The present dissertation explores and analyzes the current interactions among art, new media and the art market, as well as the ongoing transformations in the recognition of digital art, the structure of the market, and the role of the viewer and collector. It is divided into three parts. The first part analyzes the ways in which new media art has defined itself as a distinct art world, as well as the controversies that exemplify its separation from the mainstream contemporary art world. The second part exposes the motivations and expectations of artists working with emerging technologies by means of a survey carried out by the author among more than 500 artists from 50 countries. The third part discusses the ways in which digital art has been commercialized as well as the recent developments in the online contemporary art market

微視的・巨視的構造に基づく花のグラフィックスモデルに関する研究

本稿では、赤いバラのフォトリアルなコンピュータグラフィックス（CG）の生成手法について述べる。バラの花弁には、花弁の形状や模様のように肉眼で直接観察することのできる構造と、細胞のように目には見えないほど小さなスケールの構造がある。ここではそれぞれを、巨視的構造、微視的構造と呼び、実際のバラの構造に基づいたモデル化を行う。微視的構造を考慮することで、バラ花弁の表面に数多く密集しているドーム形状の細胞に起因する、花弁が持つ独特の反射特性を表すことが可能となり、これを用いて花弁の質感のフォトリアルなCG表現を実現する。また、CGの生成にレイトレーシング法とラジオシティ法を適用し、花弁同士の光の反射や透過といった巨視的構造による光学現象についても考慮する。　：　This paper describes a reflection and transparency model of rose petals for computer graphics. Our model for each rose petals is based on the micro-scopic scale structures, such as dome-shaped and translucent cells. It has some parameters whose values are obtained from measuring of intensity and colors of reflected light. It is available for the faithful simulation of the optical phenomena on rose petals. Moreover, a reciprocal diffuse reflection and transparency model among petals is based on the macro-scopic scale structures. Finally, photorealistic images of roses are shown

Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Aesthetics, Possible Worlds of Contemporary Aesthetics Aesthetics Between History, Geography and Media

The Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade and the Society for Aesthetics of Architecture and Visual Arts of Serbia (DEAVUS) are proud to be able to organize the 21st ICA Congress on “Possible Worlds of Contemporary Aesthetics: Aesthetics Between History, Geography and Media”. We are proud to announce that we received over 500 submissions from 56 countries, which makes this Congress the greatest gathering of aestheticians in this region in the last 40 years. The ICA 2019 Belgrade aims to map out contemporary aesthetics practices in a vivid dialogue of aestheticians, philosophers, art theorists, architecture theorists, culture theorists, media theorists, artists, media entrepreneurs, architects, cultural activists and researchers in the fields of humanities and social sciences. More precisely, the goal is to map the possible worlds of contemporary aesthetics in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australia. The idea is to show, interpret and map the unity and diverseness in aesthetic thought, expression, research, and philosophies on our shared planet. Our goal is to promote a dialogue concerning aesthetics in those parts of the world that have not been involved with the work of the International Association for Aesthetics to this day. Global dialogue, understanding and cooperation are what we aim to achieve. That said, the 21st ICA is the first Congress to highlight the aesthetic issues of marginalised regions that have not been fully involved in the work of the IAA. This will be accomplished, among others, via thematic round tables discussing contemporary aesthetics in East Africa and South America. Today, aesthetics is recognized as an important philosophical, theoretical and even scientific discipline that aims at interpreting the complexity of phenomena in our contemporary world. People rather talk about possible worlds or possible aesthetic regimes rather than a unique and consistent philosophical, scientific or theoretical discipline

Exploring abjection in twenty-first century ‘quality’ TV horror and the abject spectrums of its online fan audiences

This thesis focuses on the rise in graphic TV horror in the twenty-first century. Locating it within wider cultural contexts, shifting TV industries and digital technologies, and online transcultural audiences, I analyse this mode of genre television hitherto unseen on this domestic media platform. The thesis draws upon and revises Julia Kristeva’s abjection theory (1982) as a means of constructing an analytical framework that allows me to explore the cultural and subtextual meaning of TV horror, evidencing how graphic horror is implemented as a discursive marker of quality TV aesthetics within specific production and (trans)national contexts. These are British public service television, US basic cable, and US/Japanese premium cable co-productions, providing both domestic and transcultural foci. I also explore how the formatting and media ecologies of TV horror can shape meaning (Lobato and Thomas 2015), and how screen abjection is affectively engaged with in an on-going and gradational manner via what I am conceptualising as ‘abject spectrums’. This involves considering how the phenomenological, psychological, and cultural components of abjection can intersect, serving to better account for audience-horror text relationships at pre-textual, paratextual and extra-textual levels, as well as in relation to diegetic, transmedial, and post-object audience readings. In order to do this, I employ textual analysis and netnography to provide in-depth examination of my case studies: BBC3’s youth TV horror In the Flesh, AMC’s basic cable transmedia franchise The Walking Dead, and Showtime’s premium cable Masters Of Horror, specifically its American/Japanese co-produced episodes ‘Imprint’ and ‘Dream Cruise’, analysing the online fans and anti-fans who responded to these texts. In my effort to offer much needed attention to this form of television, I build on the work of Lorna Jowett and Stacey Abbott (2013) and offer two interlinking sections that critically unpack graphic twenty-first century TV horror. Beginning from a textualist point of view in Part I, each Chapter analyses a specific case study’s abject attributes as diegetic horror, and considers how abjection is used within bids for an elevated cultural status in TV industry contexts. In Part II, all three case studies are analysed together, with each Chapter structured thematically to develop my abject spectrum model – a gradational conceptualisation that situates abjection between aesthetic, affective, and/or ideological reactions/readings. This begins by considering how Web 2.0 has shaped the formatting, circulation, and consumption of twenty-first century TV horror, particularly on an international scale. I therefore offer ‘Only-Click TV’ (see also Gillan 2011) as a model that addresses the situation when textual content is solely available online for certain audiences,and how this can shape meaning and value for these viewers. I then turn to how audiences’ responded to the on-screen abjection of the case studies. Using my abject spectrum model I account for polysemic readings, how self-identity can anchor readings, and how the cultural construction of abjection is negotiated via ‘third space’ transcultural translations (Bhabha 1994). Finally, building on the traditional analysis of audiences’ written logos (Postill 2010:648, Gillan 2016:21), I extend my analysis to online image culture as a salient user practice and a valuable data type in evidencing abject spectrums. Such work complements the mixed method approaches of TV Studies (Geraghty and Lusted 1998, Geraghty 2003, Creeber 2006a, Casey et al 2008) better serves the understanding of audiences in Horror Studies (Cheery 20020, Hills 2005a, 2014a, Hanich 2010, Barker et al 2016) and triangulates these approaches with the focus on active participation that has been characteristic of Fan Studies (Hills 2002a, Jenkins 2010a, Booth 2015b, Gillan 2016). The thesis concludes by highlighting how graphic and ‘cinematic’ TV horror has become far more common. Thus, the Conclusion discusses potential future research into other forms of TV horror present in the twenty-first century that experiment with more ‘ordinary’ forms of television, such as reality TV, and how ‘post-TV’ that disrupts TV’s ontology also opens up new areas of research in terms of content and audience engagement. Furthermore, in noting the limitations of netnography to develop and demonstrate abject spectrums, I suggest interviewing as a research method that could better serve the phenomenological aspects of the model involving individuals’ histories and experiences of texts. Resultantly, the thesis’ main original contribution is the abject spectrum; this is an on-going and gradational concept that can account for the range of ways audiences encounter a text; the myriad readings and responses to TV horror texts that involve a much more expansive affective field than simply being scared; and the longitudinal perspective where new experiences and repeat consumption can shift and change audience-text relationships