Synthesis

For background, here’s a set of core descriptions of Synthesis, and working ethos, etc:

hence: Transmutations Online:  I attach the  proposal

I'm talking with various possible allies, or sibling projects in Copenhagen, Moscow, and Beijing…

But Dehlia and I would like to push forward our own issue #2, which can take forms appropriate to the theme and contributions, quite different from the inaugural issue:

We wanted to use Jhave Johnston’s MUPS code, which Jhave graciously offered years ago.  Now it may be good to recode it in HTML 5. (Who is good enough to do that — Jen?)

 

Goal:  

Goals for June (and summer) is to reset the Brickyard space and replace the previous office with a new topology conducive to the various work we want todo. This open concept office, reconfigurable atelier space, will be the site for the Synthesis everyday research.  This continuously running apparatus for research @ brickyard will be the foundational platform for projects (ie  portal project) as well as the over all enchanting of the space.  

Targeted completion date: August 19, 2014

 

WHO: To do this we have a core student team (Byron, Garrett, Cooper, Matt, Kevin) each with project roles. Synthesis staff (Katie and Kristi) and AME staff that will help facilitate work (Ozzie, Pete, Tain) as well as our neighbours from CSI (Joey, Chelsea, Nina and Ed).

TALKING POINTS:

 

General topology of space; to be applicable in a variety of situations

Portal project, Now that we have connectivity how do we make portals more interesting

 Xin Wei: think about the social protocols… social translucency issues, privacy issues

 Projection into and onto 3D space (Ceiling, table, floor) 

 Camera (fisheye) from the ceiling à project on wall (abstracted –reduced)

Camera and projectors on snake mounts à project from table

Trackable Cardboard (fiducial markers, etc.)

Pico Projector (robotic motion/small localized uses)

Computer-controlled fans

Robotic “spider”

Portals (audio, visual, tangible)

Paper project

Lighting systems

Furniture

Julian, Garrett and Byron talked about their projects (sensors, floating "air" mics, video; Byron's "spider" sensor (currently run off audio, but it could be run off of anything); virtual physics. Byron's other project (computer controlled fans) could be for Place and Atmosphere. (Side note: Xin Wei is working on the “paper project” in Copenhagen: taking sounds made by manipulating paper)

 Garrett: projection on wall (shadows, silhouettes) - slight time delay i.e. two videos in an office can be combined/layered. Transient shadows are more ghostly; more static images, more sharp

Ozzie: 4 streams – video process from two cameras (Room 390)

“Glass Wall” – Combining what’s coming from the TML with what’s here in the Brickyard, Xin Wei’s office, iStage (via portals) – all will be integrated in the system (i.e. motion detection, sound detection)

  Again: --Xin Wei: think about the social protocols; social translucency issues, privacy issues

Kevin: Interested in furniture (i.e. bleachers that are stackable and can become tables, modular, flexible)

Matthew: Interested in the potential of the open space; modify/build tiles in ceiling to utilize space – make automated tiles to create natural light using an automated mirror to bounce light. He’s also interested in thin panels of water, different viscosities of water.

Xin Wei: bring in light through diffusers to illuminate the room – build a skylight network (Q: add this to list of projects?)

 Cooper: Whiteboard map of the space

Tables: modular (i.e. make a circle of tables for meetings, different configurations for different purposes

Xin Wei: think of the materiality of it (tools, fabrication)

 Ed: have maybe a third of a circle instead of a semi-circle – the space is an active research space, but maybe it can also be a community space (i.e. 50 people could come in to watch something)/create a bean-bag lounge area (maybe in the front… ?)

  Katie: remember that whatever is done in the Brickyard is not permanent – everything should be movable from one kind of space to another (community space, quiet space, etc.). If we have a library, make it movable (make the front area a lounge waiting area)

 PORTAL – Room 386: Cooper – space designs for festivals – who is using what space? How many people are using what spaces? (screens and mics)

 Garrett and Julian: Images on screens projected onto others; layer the effects of the projected images

  Byron: make it modular…

  Ed: enchanted objects…

  (Xin Wei is working with a cinematographer. in Copenhagen)

 Julian: Shortest path video/audio rhythm…

  Xin Wei: rhythms in the street and office interaction – everyday activities – transient image and sound

(John MacCallum in Berkely could come for a workshop)

  Xin Wei: We need a Jitter programmer (recruit a local expert)

 (Xin Wei mentions the San Jose Public Library designs:

desks slowly coming apart in the pattern of the continental drift

lamps slowly moving to mimic the movements of the sun)

The world we have built has become full of “wicked problems” - problems that cannot be solved by divide-and-conquer techniques, problems whose solutions are other problems, problems whose very definition is problematic, and problems in which we are part of the problem. 

We live at a time in which there is a great deal of technological innovation with the potential of supporting deep meaning making and reflection but instead seems to have largely made our lives more complex, fragmented and passive. Part of the reason for this state of affairs is that there are significant rifts between those creating the technology, those asking questions about the meaning of such developments, and those exploring the creative possibilities of using the technology to elevate our experiences. Simply put, what is lacking is a true synthesis of thought that could be brought to bear on such questions. In particular, a blending that does not reduce to lowest common factors but also opens a space for rich difference.

The Synthesis Center at Arizona State University is focused on the central question: How can we make worlds that are richer but not more complicated?  Our approach to this question is radically transdisciplinary: Humanities can help us make environments meaningful. Engineering can help us make environments that are effective and resilient. Arts can help us make environments worth living in. The Synthesis Center’s mission is to create a space in which all three may come together to answer our fundamental question.

Our method is to carefully curate multiple research clusters at the same time in a physical space, investing technology to enrich the already unboundedly rich social and conceptual interaction of teams working on their own projects but in a common space at a common time.  Each cluster comprises at least two faculty PI’s with grad students and consultant(s) — focused on a proposition or project.  A key feature is that these clusters will live in common physical space modelled after an atelier / studio / lab structure  housed at Concordia University in Montréal.

An example of our method in action: Under the theme of Place and Atmosphere, Synthesis is co-ordinating a place-based art + business initiative with Concordia University’s David O’Brien Center for Sustainable Enterprise in public spaces in Quebec and Greece.