Jia-Rey Chang's portfolio

EMAIL: archgary@gmail.com TEL: 302-763-2042 WEB: http://www.archgary.com/ ADDRESS: 1122 Chrisinam Mill Dr., Newark, DE, USA

Jia-Rey(Gary) Chang was born in Taiwan. After completing his M.Arch degree in Architecture and Urban Design Department, UCLA, under the direction of Neil Denari in 2009, he came back to his Alma mater, the Architecture Department in TamKang University, Taiwan, researching on interactive and parametric architecture. In 2010, he established “P&A LAB” (Programming and Architecture LAB: http://pandalabccc.blogspot.com, and lately integrated into archgary.com: http://www.archgary.com to continue) exploring the new possible relationship between the programming and architecture. Meanwhile, he also worked in the Architecture Department of the National Taipei University of Technology as an adjunct lecturer.

In 2011, he joined the Hyperbody LAB (http://www.hyperbody.nl/), Department of Architectural Engineering and Technology, TU Delft, for his Ph.D. research on Interactive Architecture.

Cooperating with choreographers, visual artists, composers, and programmers, he has been involved in an EU project, MetaBody (http://metabody.eu/), during 2011-2014 to explore the pro-activeness and intra-action relationship between body movement and spatial quality. In early 2018, he finished his Ph.D. research with the dissertation titles as “HyperCell: A Bio-inspired Design Frameworks for Real-time Interactive Architectures”, proposing the idea of self-intelligent building components by exploring into the fields of computation, embodiment, and biology in design. Meanwhile, he is also extremely interested in the transdisciplinary topics of interactive architecture, tangible interactive design/art, immersive sensory experience, bio-inspired design, AI (artificial intelligence), creative coding/generative art/visualization, 3D modeling, fashion design, /wearable technology, and motion tracking technology, and has conduct numerous related workshops over the years. He is now an assistant professor in the IXD Lab, Department of Art&Design, University of Delaware continuing developing his HyperCell concept and projects around his philosophy of 'space as a living being' and immersive spatial Interaction Design, and initiate/develop his artistic trajectory on experimental immersive sensory spatial experience and body-movement-driven instruments.

CONTENTS

01

Immaterialicious

05

02

Myth from the Future

06

03

Ambiguous Topology

07

04

08

HyperCells

innerSpace

Build Organs

Creative Coding

Physical Comuting & Digital Fabrication

01 immaterialicious

photo by Jan Willem Kaldenbach model Michelle Elisabeth First Interactive Fashion Show in the Netherlands

project summary During the Mercedes Benz Amsterdam Fashion Week 2016 (08.07.2016), the innovative fashion company, Nuages Gris, invited 5 young Dutch fashion designers together with 3 sound composers, and 3 digital visual creators including Jia-Rey Chang, to develop the first interactive fashion show of all time in the Netherlands, " Immaterialicious: Carrousel de Mimetique" at Pakhuis de Zwijger. It is an opportunity and interesting to see how the digital artists transform the 5 Dutch fashion designers’ labels into unique identities in this post-digital age.

Jia-Rey Chang was invited to this innovative fashion event, and created a specific piece including 5 sequential eye-catching dynamic visual effects, inspired by David Laport's fashion style and design philosophy. (David Laport is currently working on a set of dresses for the touring concerts of the world-renowned singer, SIA).

Collaborating with David Laport and digital sound composer Alberto Caruso, the project was selected to be the show stopper of the whole event gaining numerous great compliments from the audience and the organizer during the night.

The interactive bomber jacket on the runway was printed with the signature images on David Laport's facebook as an identification. Through the wireless communicating sensors embedded in the garment (the ‘miniBee’ developed by Marije Baalman and supported by STEIM), the model was able to expand, squeeze, extend, shrink and twist her flesh body to trigger the influential effects on either the sound or the digital graphics extracted from the aesthetics of the fashion designer. With the geometrical visual effects Jia-Rey Chang created and the ethereal sound effect, the model improvised through fluid body movement to deliver a fruitful audio and visual integration experience.

Jacob Kok x

Schueller de Waal x

Tiago Cruz x

David Laport x Alberto Caruso x

Alberto Caruso x

Tiago Cruz x

Emiel de Haan

Jia-Rey Chang

Guilia Pri

Emiel de Haan

Nieuw Jurk x

Black Earth x

Igor Botur x Cyanne van den Houten & Paul Boelens

SCENES In this 4.5 minutes cat walking, there five major scenes titled as: the wave, the moon, the space, the garment, and the swarm, which would be described individually in details as followings.

The Wave: This initial scene was designed to drag the audience into a sense of immersive spatial quality with two layers of waves from both the top and bottom sides. The rough data coming from the sensory garment was translated into the curvature of the wave lines. The stronger the movements had been made, the higher waves had been shown. At this moment, the model had not yet been seen on the stage.

The Moon: After ‘the wave’, it shifted to a relatively closer view of moon-like sphere to show the color blending effect between yellow and white manipulated by the model’s body gestures through the sensory garment. A fogging smoke effect would subsequentially exhibit as well to increase another blurry layer on the color.

The Space: As a transition scene, it exhibited a simple rectangular tunnel-like space with numerous unpredictable flashy rectangular light passing through the tunnel while the model was executing high-exaggerating-performing movements. The model started to step on the catwalk moving towards the stage.

The Garment: This is one of the crucial scene showing the geometric interpretation of the David Laport’s well-known garment. A folding paper like structure following a mathematical algorithm was delicately composing his significant garment as a motion graphics shown on the background of the stage. A continuous movement from the construction to the deconstruction process was at the same time showing the aesthetic style of the fashion designer as well as the beauty of the mathematics/algorithm. The model was performing on the stage and clearly exhibiting the sensory garments.

The Swarm: A series of points in the air representing an invisible guideline of the construction of the fashion designer’s garment were exploded away as agents of swarm wandering around the space to make the following traces.

After several black-out scenes, these swarm agents started to be attracted by the construction line of the garment to create a silk-like virtual garment through a weaving process based on the same construction line of the “Garment” scene. By zooming in and out of the simulations perspectives, the audiences would be more engaged and feel the immersion of the space, especially when the model standing in front of the screen.

The End: After a chaos of the swarm behavior, a speedy shrink scene with a spinning cube scaling down as a disappearing process was set to be the end scene to close the whole series in a sudden.

The Wave

The Moon

The Space

The Garment

The Swarm

The End

The Wave

The Moon

The Space

The Garment

The Swarm

The End

video_link: https://vimeo.com/174651503 information_link:

http://www.archgary.com/works/immaterialicious-2/

immaterialicious Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Immaterialicious-1497683767202212/?fref=ts

02 Myth from the Future

Body-Visual-Audio Immersive Interactive Installation Visual \ Sound \ Code designed by Jia-Rey Chang

project description

Myth focuses on the idea of reflecting/reminding how current technology has blended into our daily lives, physical and mental bodies by referring to the ancient Chinese classic literature, “the Classics of Mountains and Seas”. Can you imagine how a human being will evolve into a 3-head-man in the future? No need to wait, because actually, we ARE this kind of 3-head “tech-species” (a species with tech-devices merging) if you consider our smartphone, laptop as heads, and plus our own head. Although many strange living things were no longer existing but written down in “the Classics of Mountains and Seas”, this project attempts to take these creatures in these tales of marvels as metaphors to indicate people who wear/hold hi-technology gadgets and the robotic creatures as “tech-species”. Through this 3-4 minute live experience, one of the audiences will become the “tech-species” by controlling the instrument to influence the immersive audio and visual effect in real-time.

audience experience

It’s a journey of bodily senses experience! The project is an interactive installation lasting around 3-4 minutes as a cycle. One of the audiences will volunteer to wear the easily-take-off interactive instruments as a controller (a gamepad-based garment) attaching to his/her body/limbs. By actively moving his/her body, this active audience wearing the instrument will influence/interact with the visual and sound effects of the projecting background. This particular active audience will "be/come" the “tech-species” in the experience while the other passive audiences may stand freely and do observation within the dynamic immersive visual-audio interactive environment.

Tech-Description

project description

The visual effect will be scripted in openFrameworks. And the sound effect will be generated by PureData(along with SimpleSynth and Ableton_Live). The wearable instruments will be designed based on old fashion wired gamepad devices. After sending the signal wirelessly through the gamepad to the computer

by USB ports, the internal protocol will be based on OSC communication. The protocol is quite simple by taking PureData as the receiver to get the data from the wearable instrument, and then the data will be passed to the openFrameworks for the rest of visual generations correspondingly.

[ PureData (sound)

Speakers WIRED

SOUND VISUAL

Instrument

Projectors

[

OpenFrameworks (Visual)

COMPUTER

Wearable Sensors

USB Wireless

USB openFrameworks Calculating...

OSC...

Computer

Visual Sound

web_link: http://www.archgary.com/works/myth-from-the-future/ videos_link: https://vimeo.com/374976087 https://vimeo.com/374981214

03 Ambiguous Topology

The project was under the MetaBody EU culture project (Webpage: http://metabody.eu/) The paper titled as “Ambiguous Topology” had been published at IEEE VISAP'15 (Visualization Arts Program) conference, Data Improvisation, Chicago, USA, 2015 Full paper can be viewed through the link: http://visap.uic.edu/2015/VISAP15-Papers/visap2015_Chang_AmbiguousTopology.pdf

project summary Ambiguous Topology is an innovative experimental installation tends to challenge conventional modes of perceiving space as a dormant object and abolishes the subject-object relationship, which has long been associated with it. Space, in this case, acquires a pro-active character and most importantly is built up via a non-tangible entity: Light. The installation also physiologically and psychologically appeals and instigates our regulated behavioral selves resulting in the generation of novel reactions and interactions. Ambiguous Topology thus attempted to create a fully transformable topology composed of numerous autonomous agents(following the Swarm Behavior logic) to achieve a unique e-motive spatial environment.

Different geometric instances of the fluid environmental topology are generated via the interplay between the participants and the conceived system and are materialized via the immersive light projection (volumetric projection) system as a meta-narrative. As a result, an intimate relationship between the overall environment and participants naturally appears during the experiential phase. Meanwhile, an information feedback loop is at play, which binds the physical interactions of the participants, with soft simulation and computation processes to ultimately impact and influence the participants’ behavior in real-time. During the interaction process, novel movements, group dynamics, and gestural novelty came to the fore. The research was thus able to address an individual's innate bodily and mental experiences. In this five-minute immersive/interactive environmental experience, Ambiguous Topology gives the participants opportunities to introspect, engage, influence and explore their perception and inner creative instincts in an engaging experience.

Jia-Rey Chang x Nimish Biloria x Dieter Vandoren

A LITTLE BIT TECHNIQUES Volumetric Projection developed by Dieter Vandoren “Volumetric Projection System” is the main technique of realizing the simulating geometries mapping to the real physical space. The interpretation and production of 3-Dimensional simulated geometries using the light projection system, or in other words “volumetric projection”, has been developed by media artist; Dieter Vandoren (one of the team members of the Ambiguous Topology project). This involved extensive use and customization of Max/MSP based routines. In terms of hardware, four high-resolution projectors are located in four corners of the effective space in order to attain a fully immersive interaction zone at their point of convergence. Besides this, one Microsoft Kinect device is used for motion tracking and is placed at the center-front of the interaction zone. Within this physical set-up, unlike the hologram projection, specific ways of interpreting geometries with light projection, such as points, lines, polylines etc. are stated below.

Desired Point in 3D Projection Area

Desired Line in 3D Projection Area

Desired Polyline in 3D Projection Area

Point: A point in 3d space is visualized by the intersection of four light beams from the four projectors located in the corners of the space. As a result, participants will experience this specific point as four light beams' instead of a single light pixel flying in space. This principle is mainly implemented for realizing each point’s location in space using different colors.

Line: A line in 3d space is achieved by the intersection of four light planes from four projectors located in the corners of the interaction zone. In other words, in accordance with the projection angle, the participants would see a spatial intersection line built up in the interaction zone as four triangulated planes.

Polyline: A polyline in 3d space is achieved by the intersection of light planes with a curvature from four projectors located in the corners of the interaction zone. Because of the original geometry's curvature and the limitation of the projection angles, participants mostly will be surrounded in the conical shape created by the light projections.

Swarm Behavior Premise The particle system simulations responsible for the generation of the constantly transforming topology is essentially based on Craig Reynolds' swarm (flocking) behavior principles developed in 1986 (http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/) (Reynolds, Steering Behaviors For Autonomous Characters, 1999) (Reynolds, Steering Behaviors For Autonomous Characters, 1999). By observing flocks of flying birds, Craig Reynolds developed a swarm behavior simulation to mimic numerous animal species, which intend to move collectively as gigantic creatures, for example, birds, fishes, and bees, etc. Separation, Alignment, and Cohesion are the three major principles of swarm behavior determining each single agent's intelligence virtually in the flock.

Separation implies avoiding crowding next to each other, alignment implies steering towards the average direction of the neighboring flocks, and cohesion implies driving the agents' movement towards the average position of the local agents. Using the combination of the above simple rule sets encoded within each agent, emergent clustering formations can be derived. Ambiguous Topology, and its inherent drive to generate continuously transforming topologies at a global output level, harnesses these simple rule set based behavior and embeds it within each constituting particle in the simulations. Emergent topological formation as a result of local level interactions within the swarm of particles is thus a novel attribute that is exploited within the installation.

SEPARATION

ALIGNMENT

COHESION

Furthermore, as an interactive installation, the particles/agents within the installation specifically, relate to participant’s body movements in real-time. Therefore, the propulsion of agents is not only influenced by their internally coded rule sets in accordance with the swarm behavior principles but also extremely driven by the participant’s reactions. In other words, participants can create attracting or repelling forces by propelling the agents to affect their 3d location, velocities and accelerations through different narrative scenes in the installation. In order to communicate the state of each agent's locomotion and energy levels to the participants, color gradients within the projections are utilized as a clear visual cue. Aggressive colors, such as red and yellow indicate high value of locomotion compared to blue and green, which express relatively passive and stable agent movement. As regards the 3-dimensional projection of agents, all agents are exhibited as "Points" using the aforementioned projection logic with the color gradient representing their energy and movement state. These colorful light beams strongly encourage the participants to engage in the Ambiguous Topology installation without any external persuasion.

Technical Interpretation of Data Protocol The agent-based simulation is created using an open-source programming language, Processing. Hardware wise, the motion tracking system in Ambiguous Topology is set up by utilizing the Microsoft Kinect device and is correlated with simpleOpenNi which is a motion-tracking library of Processing. All computational processes are calculated and simulated in Processing 3-Dimensionally based on swarm behavior principles which, were directly networked with skeleton tracking based data from Kinect. During the computational process, Processing simultaneously transmits the required data, the coordination of the autonomous particles, to a platform set up in Max/MSP through OSC (Open Sound Control) protocol. By establishing a communication protocol between Processing and Max/MSP, the X-Y-Z coordination of each swarm agent's location is synchronized with the projection system to materialize three-dimensional geometries in space using the aforementioned volumetric projection principles. Furthermore, after receiving the input data from Processing, the Max/MSP patches are able to adequately implement it with the render mode for the HD projectors.

Max/MSP 3D + Swarm simulation

Processing

Projection System (Xn, Yn, Zn)

LOOP

KINECT Skeleton Joints KINECT

MOTION TRACKING

Interative Narrotives Ambiguous Topology was successfully set-up as a real-time immersive public installation in Media-Prado, Madrid, July of 2014. The site allocated for the installation allowed, an effective interaction zone (the convergence point of the four projectors) as 6 meters in width (X-direction), 5 meters in length (Y-direction) and 5 meters in Height (Z- direction). 640 agents/particles embedded in the space wait to be triggered by the influx of participants. 7 fundamental narrative modes are developed and arranged in a fluent sequence in order to facilitate a holistic experience to the participants. These narratives are sequenced as different modes in the following order: Rain Mode, Follow Mode, Spike Mode, Disturb Mode, Attract Mode, Nurbs Mode, Rain-Up Mode.

Rain Mode: The Rain Mode is triggered by the presence of people (tracked by Kinect) within the allocated installation space. A high-velocity downpour of 640 agents/particles constituting the installation akin to heavy rainfall is immediately set in motion. The agents gradually reduce their speed of falling and completely cease to do so in certain locations in space. This is accompanied by a change in the color gradient of the agents (from magenta to dark blue), indicating the change in the velocity levels of the agents; from high velocity to a stable and calm state.

Follow Mode: This is the first instance that participants provide an impulse to the agents. Each movement of the participant creates a flux in the agent field within which they are immersed. The swarm logic further entails that the agent propels its movement to the nearest neighbors and thus a ripple is sent through the virtual field as an emergent global outcome. It was observed that over time, the swarm of agents in space tends to follow the average direction of movement of the participants (if they move in the same direction). However, if two participants attempt to move in opposite directions, the swarm tends to remain stable. Furthermore, differential agent velocities of the entire swarm are the result of the participant’s movement velocity and thus tend to speed up or slow down, with high-velocity states depicted as magenta and low state as blue. This mode thus subtly engages the participant via responsive interaction and hence provokes physical movement of the participants.

Spike Mode: The Spike Mode, involves the introduction of geometry using the volumetric projection system. In this narrative, along with all the existing colored agents, pure white lines are exhibited (line-connections). These lines are directly connected to the distances between the nearest agents of the swarm and are specifically triggered by tracking of the participant’s body joints. Both hand and feet joints of the participant’s digital skeletons (as seen via Kinect) are specifically chosen. Thus while waving one’s hands and feet, any two agents falling within this waving path, which is triggered establish a connection depicted by a white line to be drawn between them. Because of numerous autonomous agents floating around the participants, they can freely and easily generate these flashing lines and start manipulating them once they unravel this simple logic. Some characteristics of the Follow Mode, such as the panning effect and color gradations are retained in this narrative and tend to seamlessly blend with the characteristics of the Spike Mode.

Disturb Mode: The Disturb Mode is the narrative where a shift from responsive to pro-active interaction germinates. Participants lose the ability to influence the movement of swarm agents using their own body movements. Additionally, all the agents, as autonomous entities start losing their energy, turn transparent and become almost invisible in space. In reality, once the agents lose their momentum, they become imperceptible and acquire a state of readiness for new stimulation from the participants. By touching, pushing, swinging the invisible agents, the participants actually feed/pass the agents energy and trigger their movement again. Each participant's hands and knees, now, become activating nodes, which, in turn, influence the agents, based on the momentum produced by the movement of the participant’s joints. The faster the participants move, the larger the area of influence of the agents is, and thus the impact on the agent’s velocity and energy is also stronger. The swarm logic behind the scenes implies that active agents seek to influence other passive neighbors and thus set forth a non-linear movement. It was observed that the participants tend to become keen and keep trying different body postures and movements to gradually set the dormant swarm in action once more.

Attract Mode: The Attract Mode involves the swarm of agents to suddenly and aggressively move rapidly towards the participant. This is also accompanied by the agent’s switching their color to an aggressive red and yellow gradient. In this mode, the agent simulations are programmed to be attracted towards the participant’s hands and feet in order to create virtual polygonal geometries in space. Over a period of time, these virtual polygons unknowingly produced by the participants also appear in white along with other colored agents thus distinguishing the polygonal geometries the participants generate. Once the participants become aware of this game-play, they instinctively start attracting the agents via producing strange but interesting movements, such as changing moving direction rapidly, jumping up and down radically, and curling or stretching bodies oddly.

NURBS Mode: In the Nurbs Mode, the participants are allowed to push, wave, and touch the agents similar to the Disturb Mode. In addition to this, a continuous transforming nurbs (spline-line) is materialized based on the agent aggregation based density in space. On an average, ten locations coinciding with ten densest locations of the agents in space are selected as control points to construct the nurbs. Since the agent densities can be impacted directly by the participant’s influential movement in space, the nurbs geometry fluidly morphs from one shape to another shape.

Rain-Up Mode: Before the "Rain-up Mode", the "Follow Mode" is exhibited again to gently inform the participants that the experiential installation is nearly towards the end. After a few minutes of "Follow Mode", the participants entirely lose their control over all the agent movements and only witness the agents flying back up to the sky. All the agents will fly up with high velocity and gradually slow down to cease in a certain location in space. In terms of color, all the agents start with magenta representing higher speed and become dark blue corresponding to the velocity each agent embodies. Towards the end, all the agents lose their momentum, turn transparent and tend to fully disappear. Hence, the whole space returns back into an entirely dark state awaiting the next group of participants to engage with.

The Follow

The Flash

The Disturb

The Attract

The Nurbs

The Follow

The Flash

The Disturb

The Follow The Attract

The TheNURBS Flash

video_Teaser_link: https://vimeo.com/105027652 MetaBody, Madrid, 2014: http://metabody.eu/es/imf-madrid-2014/ video_Techniques_link: https://vimeo.com/105421757

information_link: http://www.archgary.com/works/ambiguoustopology/

04 HyperCell

project summary HyperCell is a series of design projects developed along with Jia-Rey Chang’s Ph.D. research.

These projects support the concept of the research, a design framework for real-time interactive architecture. Following the nature-inspired principles, and especially inspired by the research of the Evolutionary Development Biology (Evo-Devo), the HyperCell was designed as a modular intelligent building block to compose a real-time adaptive architectural space. The principles derived from Evo-Devo were sufficiently embodied within the design developments of HyperCell as the “Simple to Complex”, “Geometric Information Distribution”, and “On/Off Switch and Trigger”. The “Simple to Complex” logic refers to a modular componential system, like how our spines are composed by similar and repeated bone elements; “Geometric Information Distribution” indicates the communication protocol amongst each cell from the evolution of the embryological phase; “On/Off Switch and Trigger” idea represents not only the common idea between the operating mechanism of DNA and computers but also an assembly logic for the construction of space.

HyperCell, as a transformable building block, is like a cell in a body, an agent of a swarm, which is the fundamental module composed of a larger and ultimate interactive spatial body, the HyperBody. In other words, with their own rough intelligence and behaviors (not necessary to be high-intelligent), they are able to make decisions and interact not only amongst themselves but also with the surroundings to “emerge” a relatively larger intellectual form. Under this premise, the research executed the idea with design projects on different focuses which are exhibited as followings.

HyperCell: Geometric Transformation Principles/ Premise Before getting into the application of HyperCell, it is crucial to have a general idea of its transformation principles. By following the 3 major principles derived from the Evo-Devo (Evolutionary Development Biology) as “Simple to Complex”, “Geometric Information Distribution”, and “On/Off Switch and Trigger”, the HyperCells fulfill these principles in various aspect. The first part is the geometric transformation from each single entity which is relatively simple by tweaking the length of the fundamental quadrangle shape, as a parametric system. While the input value (the length of the quadrangle) of the HyperCell co-operating with the logic of mirror reflection (here the logic has been taken simply as the on/off or 1/0), it has already created numerous infinite settings and resulting forms. Later on, these principles would be applied to the project as a basic (trans)forming design principle for achieving a real-time transformable space. Here, it is the best embodiment of the general idea of "Simple to Complex" as an intriguing logic as well as its outcomes. To have a better understanding, please follow the description below along with the diagram to know the basic principles driving the coming geometric outcomes.

1. Define the basic quadrangle shape as basic HyperCell by setting up the length (Diagram A).

2. Start stacking them up by using 2 optional mirror functions defining as “True” and “False”. (Diagram B or C).

3. A series of the objects was composed of the same quadrangle shape from step 1 and with diverse mirror functions applying to each joint section, resulting in various geometric forms(Diagram D).

perpendicular bisector

True-True-True

T Axis

AXIS

True-False-True

T

T T

F

T

A

B

C

D

Basic Element Shape

Mirror Function ( True )

Mirror Function ( False )

True-False Connection

PROJECT 1: HyperCell & HyperWall

info

Sigular Cell’s Degree of Freedom

g

ndin

rou

Su

Collective Cells

local

adap

tatio

n

Collective Decision Making

more Wall\\Seat

Wall\\Shelter

Wall\\Ramp

Topology Variation

In order to see the potential and the possibilities of its geometric logic, the first application was to design an interactive morphing wall which can transform from one to another not only from shape but also function wise. The interactivity of the wall was due to its constant input values to set up the basic quadrangle module (hexahedral), and mirror effects defining the assembly mechanism from the user's demands. Therefore, a wall element can morph into various furniture functions under this simple geometric principle.

In this case study, the HyperWall can transform into “Shelter”, “Seat”, “Desk”, and “Ramp”. Each HyperCell component will inform each other as a distribution information system while a single component has been triggered.

video_link: https://vimeo.com/55289946

PROJECT 2: HyperCell Real-Time Simulation In order to vision the real-time interaction, the 3D simulation tool has been switched to an open source programming, Processing. By utilizing Processing, various potential applications of the HyperCells can be envisioned to reach a transformable interactive space through the simulation.

video_link: https://vimeo.com/61828421

PROJECT 3: HyperCell Interface Instead of using regular Human Computer Interaction devices, such as keyboard and mouse, this project sought to take the challenge of using free-hand gestures. The input variables of the HyperCell furniture parametric model would be constantly manipulated by different gestures. Within this interface for customization, the users/customers are able to “play” with the overall design and generate their own special furniture in a relatively intuitive way while shopping in a furniture supplier store. With Microsoft Kinect device, the function of the mouse was replaced by the tracking of the users’ hands to adjust the parameters. By pressing the “SAVE” button on the interface, a DXF format file would be exported in order to have further developments by utilizing Digital Fabrication techniques.

[ Furniture Functions ] Choosing different furniture functions.

Each catagory has several default shape.

[ Gestures’ Meanings ] Both user’s hands can be manipulated as a virtual mouse for selection. Moreover, the distance between 2 hands will be mapped into a certain value to modify the input parameters of the furniture as tweaking sliders.

[ Variables Value ] All parameters as input values through a slider interface to detailly modify the funiture’s shape

video_link: https://vimeo.com/68836252

PROJECT 4: HyperCell Tracking In this project, a Virtual Reality space was set to take the audience on an immersive journey. The audience would be tracked by the Microsoft Kinect device and re-mapped their skeleton figure onto this VR simulation by Processing.

This VR-kind experience provides spatial quality and experience built up by HyperCells. For example, a virtual wall composed of HyperCells will make a sudden-appearing opening while the audience needs to walk through; a chair/bench built up by HyperCells will provide a comfortable sitting area while the audience approaches it; a space emerged by HyperCells will morph accordingly to the audience’s body movements.

video_link: https://vimeo.com/78387283

PROJECT 5: HyperCell Furniture System Following the major design principles derived from the Evolutionary Development Biology which are “Simple to Complex”, “Geometric Information Distribution”, and “On/Off Switch and Trigger”. Here, the research attempted to push the boundary to the extreme. By exhibiting the profound potential and various possibilities of generating multiple furniture functions, it is to support the idea of the feasibility and the applicability of HyperCell as a real-time transformable cubic component.

A future scenario proposed here is to envision a coming future that people will go to retails like IKEA to buy these transformable cubes instead of furniture pieces as chairs, tables, beds...etc. With the transformation nature of the HyperCells, it becomes possible to have different settings of parameters and the amount numbers of the HyperCell to create various furniture pieces resulting from the user’s demands. Simply saying, the users can have a chair composed of HyperCells at this moment, and several individual benches in a few hours due to the purpose of spatial usage. It somehow decreases the redundancy of the space with a fixed bedroom, a living room, a reading room...etc. The ultimate goal is that a small footprint of space can sufficiently satisfies all the spatial usages with the solutions of transformable cubes, the HyperCells.

It is not only strictly following the 3 aforementioned principles from Evo-Devo but also the evolutionary fact that all animals are sharing the same gene toolkits. Logic-DNA(L-DNA) and Dimension-DNA(D-DNA) are the two major logics and parameters applied here to generate these variations furniture pieces. The L-DNA is the logic extending of the “True/False” mirror geometric transformation determining the assembly regulations while the D-DNA is the logic of defining the basic component’s shape. Moreover, the D-DNA as the degrees of freedom concerning the physical constraint of the component in order to interact with the users to make the transformation as an emergence behavior.

By tweaking the L-DNA and D-DNA, the research is able to generate different “Species” of furniture which will be exhibited as followings. This tweaking idea simply leads the project to another interesting perspective of the “Evolution” coming from the users’ sides. The HyperCell instruction might suggest certain default settings for certain furniture usage but the user should be able to modify the parameters themselves to create new “Species”. For example, a combination of bed-chair can be evolved(created) by the users’ requirement. However, the end goal of the HyperCell developments is to become a real intelligent building block which can apply not only for the interior but also exterior structural usage which should await to be further explored in the near future.

Diagram illustrating the conceptual idea of having different reconfiguration and combination of the furniture system as various spatial usages metaphorically representing different species.

Reception Wall

Bench

Working Seat Desk

Attempt to exhibit all the possibilities by applying the transformable HyperCells to fulfil all the daily usages in a single footprint of space.

HyperCell Furniture System

CHAIR//

TABLE//

{Logic DNA}

[ 20,20,0,30 ]

{ 1,8,1,1,1 }

[ 20,40,-10,20 ]

[ 20,40,0,20 ]

60 cm

50 cm

40 cm

[ 20,20,20,30 ] [ 20,20,40,30 ]

[ 20,40,20,20 ]

table no.3

table no.4 ( tatami )

{ 5,1,1,1,1 }

{ 1,3,4,1,1 }

{ 1,3,4,6,9 }

{ 3,4,5,6,9 }

[ 20,40,10,20 ]

[ 10,36,-24,26 ]

[ 10,10,20,90 ]

55 cm

{ 1,4,1,1,1 }

table no.2

83.5 cm

{ 2,1,1,1,1 }

table no.1

72 cm

chair no.2

70 cm

chair no.1

70 cm

bench no.1

90 cm

50 cm

70 cm

[Dimension DNA]

[ 2,18,-28,22 ]

[ 4,50,-40,10 ]

BED//

{ 1,2,4,1,1 }

[ 8,72,4,18 ]

50 cm

46 cm

70 cm

[ 2,20,-20,30 ]

{ 1,3,4,7,1 }

[ 16,46,-4,18 ]

[ 20,50,-4,32 ]

[ 20,50,-4,46 ]

bed no.2

bed no.3

bed no.4

{ 2,1,1,1,1 }

{ 3,6,1,1,1 }

{ 3,5,6,1,1 }

{ 3,4,5,8,1 }

[ 12,38,0,50 ]

[ 25,25,0,50 ]

[ 20,40,-20,30 ]

50 cm

{ 1,3,4,1,1 }

bed no.1

50 cm

{ 1,4,7,8,12 }

chair no.6

30 cm

chair no.5

50 cm

chair no.4

80 cm

chair no.3

[ 24,40,0,50 ]

[ 14,54,0,50 ]

STAGES & OTHERS

[ 12,52,-20,30 ]

[ 16,46,-20,30 ]

[ 16,46,-20,30 ]

[ 16,40,-20,30 ]

{ 3,4,6,9,11 }

{ 1,3,4,7,1 }

223 cm

storage no.1

[ 40,60,-20,30 ]

bathtub no.1

{ 2,3,5,6,8 }

[ 22,42,-20,30 ]

+

{ 1,2,4,1,1 }

82 cm

{ 1,3,4,5,1 }

stage no.1

80 cm

{ 3,5,6,7,8 }

300 cm

{ 1,2,6,1,1 }

wall no.3

294 cm

wall no.2

264 cm

wall no.1

294 cm

295 cm

WALLS & PARTITIONS

[ 10,40,-20,30 ]

[ 10,40,-20,20 ]

[ 10,40,-20,10 ]

[ 6,32,-24,26 ]

[ 6,32,-24,26 ]

web_link: http://www.archgary.com/works/hypercells-series/

{ 1,3,4,6,8 }

{ 1,2,3,5,6 }

{ 3,6,1,1,1 }

wall no.7

{ 3,4,5,6,10 }

110 cm

300 cm

wall no.6

290 cm

wall no.5

300 cm

wall no.4

[ 30,44,-20,30 ]

[ 50,80,-20,30 ]

[ 20,40,-20,30 ]

[ 16,32,-20,30 ]

05 innerSpace

project summary Body Space x 10 Social Diseases = The unconventional CD cover Design of “innerSpace” “innerSpace”, as an indie electronic band, E.S.O.a.C (Empty Space On a Chessboard)’s second album’s title, is the theme of the CD cover design. The composition’s concept of “innerSapce” devised by E.S.O.a.C represents the space inside of a human body, and each title of the songs portrays different diseases or symptoms reflecting current social phenomenon or problems associated to living organs as a metaphor.

Following the fundamental concept, the exclusive graphics of cover design are generated accordingly matching each song’s title as well as the music. Unlike the typical expectation of sickness and glitches usually visualized with darkness and depression, the design interprets radically in the opposite manner showing extremely aesthetics and delightfulness. Instead of using the images or forms of the organs literally, pure geometries and swarm particle system were abstractly created/generated, and in a sense, ironically revealing the beauty of the negativity to catch customers’ eyes.

Superimposition Effect is Created for Multiple Choices of The CD Cover Design Unique from other CD covers mostly accompanied by lyrics booklets, with no lyrics in the music of “innerSpace”, 10 specifically designed graphics were printed on transparent plastic films. Moreover, with this special make-up, superimposition effect can be exceedingly observed. The fun part of the design is that customers can freely switch the orders of the transparent films to modify their own covers according to their preferences.

The Design of The Graphics Is a Once in a Life Time Performance.

All graphics were generated through digital computational methods in a virtual 3D environment, so the same code can result in different outcomes each time. Moreover, since it’s a digital art project, It can be exhibited as an animation or interactive digital forms on screen, not only as a design process but also can be seen/imagined as shapes/pets virtually floating in this “innerSpace” in 10 different frames of the screen.

after quarrel

liver busting

infected lungs

heart attack

drifting blood

Dementia with Lewy bodies

kidney’s filter

gallbladder

gastroesophageal reflux disorder

innerSpace

cover underlay

cover back

superimpossion effect

video_link: https://vimeo.com/104761795 web_link: http://www.archgary.com/works/innerspace/

06 Build Organs

project summary “Build Organ” is an experimental project relied on 3D printing as a Digital Fabrication techniques.

Following the “Swarm Behavior” principles, a form generating tool was developed by using Processing as a user-friendly interface. Through this interface, the users/designers are able to have partial control to draw the initial powerline (a polygonal line here) as a guideline for form-generating. The script will add a vector to these control points as their Z-axis to transform the original powerlines into 3-Dimension. Afterward, an attractive force applied to these 3D powerlines will drive a swarm of agents float around it. With the assistant of mesh brush function from the tocixlib library in Processing, the agents are able to generate volumetric form among themselves under the principle in accordance with the approximate threshold in between any 2 agents.

While the form is generated, it can immediately be exported as a STL format file for 3D printing.

By harnessing the Ultimaker 2 machine with its own open source software, CURA, a 3D model object can easily be imported and manipulated to a proper position for printing. Within the constraint of the printable size, the objects of “Build Organs” were designed in a jewelry scale.

However, the design process and principle can retain the same but varies/extend in scale to develop objects from wearable accessories to architectural scale.

video_link: https://vimeo.com/95034951 web_link:

http://www.archgary.com/works/build-organs/

related_video_links = Swarmmy Chair: https://vimeo.com/48436693 https://vimeo.com/48436316

07 Creative Coding

Description In the section of “Creative Coding”, some minor projects and some interesting formation experiments to testify different creative possibilities through coding techniques will be exhibited here. For example, the side projects of “Immaterialicious”, the experimental testing before the real applications of the “HyperCell”, the form-finding experiments through mathematic formulas, and the swarm behavior experiment of “Ambiguous Topology”...etc.

On one hand, without these interesting experiments as side-projects, it would be nearly impossible to complete the major ones. On the other hand, all these intriguing and beautiful “WIP”(Work in Progress) projects are to a certain extent the crucial inspirations and resources while designing.

Beofre Immaterialicious A couple of experimental visual effects by a creative coding tool, Processing, explored the proper visualizations suiting the focus and style of the fashion designers in the “Immaterialicious” interactive fashion show. A summarized video here shows the exact sequence and strongly exhibited the varieties and potentials of the visual effects in accordance with the experimenting results.

video_link: https://vimeo.com/192792675 another_testing_video_link: https://vimeo.com/163544204

Showreel Showreel, a 4.5-minutes summarized video of various projects from 2010, exhibited a collection of diverse experimental experiences under the scope of creative coding, mainly focusing on the topic of 2D/3D “Form exploration“. Most of them are the experimental studies for the major projects, such as HyperCell, Ambiguous Topology, Build Organs, but keep retaining the intriguing elements of the visual effects.

#FATAMORGANO WORKSHOP @ WARSAW

#FATAMORGANO WORKSHOP @ WARSAW

#FATAMORGANO WORKSHOP #SPIRO @ WARSAW @ TAIPEI

#FATAMORGANO WORKSHOP @ WARSAW

#FATAMORGANO #HE_MESHING WORKSHOP @ WARSAW @ NL

#FATAMORGANO WORKSHOP @ WARSAW

#FATAMORGANO WORKSHOP #HyperShell @ WARSAW @ NL

#FATAMORGANO WORKSHOP @ WARSAW

video_link: https://vimeo.com/126749919 web_link: http://www.archgary.com/works/creativecodingshowreel-2/

#FATAMORGANO WORKSHOP #FACE @ WARSAW @ NL

08 Physical Computing & Digital Fabrication

Description “Physical Computing & Digital Fabrication” includes both the interactive and digital fabrication projects which have been physically realized.

“Spiral Wall” is the most popular interactive project in the portfolio attracting 16.1K plays and 114 likes from the video on VIMEO. And it was also published by an online medium, “Creative Applications Network”, as an article (http://www.creativeapplications.net/processing/spiral-wall-processing/). The reason why it drew the attention world widely is because the simple rotation mechanism with gears controlled by Arduino with Processing interface and flexible fibers generate various interesting patterns. It is not only to create the diversity of the pattern as a decoration but also the potential of utilizing it as an intriguing opening as an interface in space.

“The Stone Lions” and the “Autumn, the Falling Leaves” are 2 digital fabrication projects designed for “Digital Di-hau” exhibition in Taipei, 2011. The Taipei city government invited architects and artists to re-activate the Di-hau district by holding a series of exhibitions, and “Digital Di-hau” was the first. “Mobius Ring” was another digital fabrication project suspended at the entrance hall of the Architecture Department of the Tamkang University, Taipei. All the projects were designed in a 3D parametric model with Grasshopper and fabricated through the laser cutting techniques.

Spiral Wall Fiber applied here as the main material was nearly transparent but clearly defined a tube-like shape as a single unit.

The project was made out of 12 single tube units with 24 servo motors and 1 Arduino board manipulate by the script running in Processing. By pressing the keyboard, the user can rotate servo motor clockwise or counter-clockwise to change each individual tube shape. Through this scaled prototype, the possibility of an interactive wall letting people passing through when they want to can be strongly supported.

0

π/5

π/4

π/2

π

The project was initiated by a simple rotation mechanism by setting up two acrylic plates in a certain distance and connecting them with 12 stretchable fibers through the holes within the plates as a unit. The rotation generated by the the motors and plates gives not only the diverse intriguing patterns but also various functional gaps/openings for people to walk through.

Servo Motor

Servo Motor

Showing 1 set out of 12 elements as an explosion drawing.

Showing one of the variou resulting pattern as a outcome.

video_link: https://vimeo.com/13977063

The Stone Lion The paired Stone Lions are traditional sculptures commonly located in front of the palaces, the temples, the gardens, or the houses to symbolize not only power and dignitary, and also guardians to protect the country, the family, or the properties from the invasion of evil, illness or enemies. Here, this pixelating approach was applied to give the lion sculptures new digital re-births. By using the visual coding tools, the Grasshopper in 3D modeling software called Rhinoceros, it is relatively easier to pixelate 3D complex shapes than before. The 2 larger Stone Lions were generated slightly different in accordance with their orientation. One stayed in an orthogonal setting while the other was given a 45-degree angle to make the difference. These one pair of lions were located closer to the front door of the exhibition space to keep the conventional meaning of “protection”. The other 44 smaller ones were placed onto the wall referring to a tongue twister titled in Mandarin as “sìshísì zhi shíshiz (44 Stone Lions)”.

The process from Laser cutting layers to the final assembly outcome.

information_link:

http://pandalabccc.blogspot.nl/2011/11/ddh127-digital-di-hauexhibition.html http://pandalabccc.blogspot.nl/2011/08/pixelgrasshopper-pixel-render-these-are.html http://pandalabccc.blogspot.nl/2011/05/pixeleyesfishsharksgrasshopper-t-spline.html

Autumn,The Falling Leaves The “Autumn/ The Falling Leaves”, is a wooden panel engraved and cut through with various leaf-like patterns by the laser cutter. The wooden screen inspired by a traditional Chinese furniture is called “PingFeng”. The “PingFeng” was commonly used as a partition or a folding wall to change the usage and the division of a larger space. In this particular project, the “Grasshopper” as a plug-in of Rhinoceros was used as a pattern generating machine in accordance with numerous random points on the panel. In other words, by manipulating the points’ locations, different patterns will be generated accordingly.

Laser Cutting Process

infomation_link: http://pandalabccc.blogspot.nl/2011/07/flowerwindow-patternrhinoscript.html http://pandalabccc.blogspot.nl/2011/11/ddh127-digital-di-hauexhibition.html

Möbius Ring The “Möbius Ring” is a continuous stripe structure composed of 72 acrylic components by dividing the whole structure by a 5-degree difference in X-Axis. From the aspect of Y-Axis, each component also has a 5-degree difference to connect the tail and head of the form as a continuous and enclose stripe. This 2-meters-diameter ring was able to be efficiently assembled in short time due to the advantage/precision of digital fabrication. The final project was suspended at the entrance hall of the architectural department, Tamkang University, Taipei, as a temporary exhibition.

the whole Möbius Ring

5 degrees single component assemby

5 degrees

One Single Component

One Single Component

One Single Component

web_link: http://www.archgary.com/works/spirowall/ http://www.archgary.com/works/digitaldihua/ http://www.archgary.com/works/mobiusstructure/