James Nanasca - Work Samples - Summer 2023

S Spectralurreality

PROJECTS,PAPERS, & THINGS IN BETWEEN | JAMES NANASCA

MEDITATIVE ROBOTICS

HUMAN-ROBOTIC DREAMSCAPE

...AND THINGS IN BETWEEN...

CORTEN STEEL GARDEN

PARAMETRIC SCREEN

ALTERED ESTATES: SINGAPORE

ARCADIA AUTOMATA WASTE-ENERGY-RECYCLING CENTER

NANOTECTONICA: SEM-GAN

CAPITOL HILL HOUSE

HOLOGRAPHIC MEDITATION

SPEED AND STILLNESS

PARAMETRIQUE CHIC

DYNAMIC PROJECTION

HYPERREALITY AND ECOLOGY

Meditative Robotics

To investigate meditative potential of human-robot-interatction, an Acrylic Hoberman Sphere was fabricated to aid “Coherence Breathing” to illicit a meditative state. The Sphere travels along a “meditative” sinosoidal path by two industrial robot arms, and is illuminated via LED to indicate the user’s heart rate.

Human-Robotic Dreamscape

CLIENTS: NEWLAB AND FORD MOTOR COMPANY

COLLABORATORS: DOT DOT DASH AND LOUPE

NEWLAB DETROIT / MICHIGAN CENTRAL | 2023

STILLS: DOT DOT DASH | 2023

Developing an exhibition for Newlab’s expanded location in Detroit, investigates the state of human-robot interaction and machine dreamscapes. This interactive exhibition combines LIDAR data of Detroit, and 3D scans of the building. Both human and robotic arm are collaborators in the manipulation of the generative data-field projected along the expansive 24ft long x 10ft high panels. The generative dreamscape of Detroit folds in 3D scans of people as point cloud data, illustrating how people, data, and machines loop into one another. My role here for this project as NBRR’s Director of Design Technologies were: interaction and end effector design, robot, and safety system commissioning, and general project management.

Altered Estates: Singapore

CRITIC: DAVID ERDMAN PRATT GAUD | 2020 MODEL PHOTOGRAPHS: DAVID PINTER | 2022

People’s Park Complex in Singapore is a landmark for the locals - and is studied as a prepared ground Adaptive-Reuse. Investigating assets of the existing building via photograph montage and diagrams, People’s Park Complex caps off with a crown of additional housing units and interior corridors for a rapidly urbanizing and quickly densifying population of Singapore.

Arcadia

CRITIC: STEPHANIE BAYARD | COLLABORATOR: SAMUEL DIAZ1

Briefed with designing a Waste to Energy Recycling (WERC) Facility in Brooklyn, NYmy collaborator’s1 and my approach was to take the elements of geology laying dormant in Brooklyn and imbuing it with the high tech machines of our post-anthropocentric age. This high contrast geological and technological pallet served as a jumping point of our WERC facility. My role in this project was: physical model fabrication, digital modeling, renderings, video editing, and drawings.

Speed and Stillness

CRITIC: SULAN KOLATAN | COLLABORATOR: SAMUEL DIAZ

A train station and a space for rapid mass-transit and spirituality is designed in Istanbul. A study in generative design, and fractal driven aggregations, this project combines two seemingly disparate programs and syncs them together via digital tools and physical material studies. My role in this project was to generate the digitally altered components into massing, renders, and floor plan/section/axon composite drawings, and model fabrication.

Nanotectonica SEM-GAN:

The Strange Materiality of Sub-visible Bodies

AUTHORS: JONAS COERSMEIR, JAMES NANASCA, IVAN YAN MAN HIN1, EZIO BLASETTI ACADIA 2022 | UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Starting at Pratt GAUD as a seminar taught by Jonas Coersmeir.My collaborator1 and myself were invited to deepen our research in the seminar and produce an academic research paper for the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture. The abstract from the paper outlines the interactions between the surveillance and documentation of natural structures to artificial intelligence to artifact fabrication. My role in this project was coordinating the robotic fabrication, writing, and computational research.

Abstract

Nanotectonica is an architectural research project that examines the convergence of nanotechnology and contemporary design tools. The present study –Nanotectonica SEM-GAN – focuses on two processes for image production, one based in the field of nanotechnology and the other in machine learning: Scanning Electron Microscopy and Generative Adversarial Networks.

It establishes commonalities of these routines as they pertain to aesthetics and design methodology, and it explores methods of spatializing and materializing images produced in their interaction. The study of transposing rich image material to 3-dimensional geometry and material artifact is considered relevant not only to the particular study at hand (SEM-GAN,) but also to the general problem of image-based machine learning techniques when applied in the spatial design disciplines. A third process – Robotic Incremental Metal Forming (RIMF) – advances the aesthetic language of SEM-GAN through the sculptural method of the relief. Analogous to the electron beam probing minute bodies in nanoscopic imaging, the end effector impresses robust steel plates in robotic fabrication.

The study elaborates a strange materiality, identified in SEM imaging, enhanced through GAN and materialized via RIMF. It refers to the inherent unfamiliarity of subvisible expressions that are made visible through the Scanning Electron Microscope.

The SEM visuals are generally misperceived as blackand-white photography, yet they are not produced with light (photons) but with electrons (matter). Hence, the strange materiality of the aesthetic quality — the infinitesimal manifestation of things rendered visible in total darkness.

Materialism here refers to the mind-independent existence of objects under observation. Strangeness hints at expressing the vibrant agency of their invisible matter through appropriated aesthetic methods such as SEM and GAN.

Robotic Metal Forming Toolpath Diagram| Right Top Robotic Metal Forming Section

Left | “Parametrique Chic” Bio-Bag

Right Top | Strap + Buckle Details

Right Bottom A | Massing + Seam Investigation

Right Bottom B | Unroll

Right Bottom C | Unroll

Deploying the practices of bio-material fabrication - this bag is an exploration of using parametric design, digital fabrication methods and bio-materials. Unrolled digital design patters are cut and creased out of a cheesecloth and biodegradable polymer composite. This composite material is structured via the curved-creased folding methods, and accented with biodegradable 3DPrint buckles, gelatin-charcoal flexible polymer straps, then closed with a metal and cloth zipper. This all resulting in a +95% biodegradable and functioning “Parametrique Chic” bag.

Parametrique Chic “Bio-Bag”

CRITIC: DUKS KOSCHITZ

Holographic Meditation

CRITIC: MATTIA CASALEGNO

Exhale Valley

A meditative state is striven for by syncing the operator’s breath with the expansion and contraction of the holographic sphere. The rhythm of the breath is driven by a “mathematically relaxed” expansion and contraction of the sphere. The operator’s breath is read via microphone.

Vacuum formed Polycarbonate (Reflective Medium)

24in Dell Monitor W/ Painted MDF Housing (Supplies Light and Images)

Lapel Microphone (Sonic Meditative Breathing)

Parametric Screen

Custom fabricated aluminum guardrails, these parametric screens provide both safety privacy for the occupants of this home. More than 20 of these units were cut and fabricated for a multi-home dwelling in Calgary Alberta. My role in this project was in the template design, CNC mill operation, and fabrication of these screens.

Drawing from elements from NY’s Governors Island, this project explores composite drawing, and digital fabrication in the creation of a multi-material relief. The relief focuses on a field condition of artifacts that aggregate and flow throughout the composition.

Corten Steel Garden

DESIGN: STUDIO NORTH | FABRICATION: MERCEDES AND SINGH

PHOTOGRAPH: HAYDEN PATULLO| 2021

A resilient winter garden for a property in suburban Calgary, Alberta is installed to age in place. Corten Steel provides the character of the garden as a statement piece and a more sustainable alternative to more processed/engineered materials and finish. My role in this project was in the fabrication and installation team of these planters.

Capitol Hill House

Before the Capitol Hill House, Mercedes and Singh primarily was contracted to fabricate; sculpture, interior fixtures, and furniture. As their first architecture project, Mercedes and Singh designed a luxury home for a for a client in downtown Calgary, Alberta. My role in this project was doing the schematic designs, CAD modeling, BIM integration, fabrication strategy site analysis, building code study, and land use bylaw study.

Exterior Facade | Left Top

Front Elevation | Left Bottom

Interior Stairs | Right Top Short Section | Right Bottom

Rarely are technologies of projection mapping (PM) and mixed reality (MR) used together with an architectural agenda. Dynamic Projection imagines the confluence of accessible PM and MR technologies and asks “How might we leverage the strengths of both technologies while obviating their weaknesses?” And then “How might this technology be of use in making architecture from within the Climate Movement?” First, we will examine the dor mant potential of Projected MR by augmenting a physical model in an exhibition setting. The exhibition set-up deploys Unity and Vuforia to generate MR, and Mad Map per to generate a projection mapped background space. Using this set-up reveals strengths in both technol ogies, which we can evaluate with a Cybernetically Enhanced Mixed Reality Framework. We can leverage this Projected MR as a suite of tools to make architecture a more active participant in the Climate Movement: for example, by augmenting buildings with statistics that could help reduce energy consumption or through the augmentation of the construction process, helping fa cilitate waste reduction through efficient construc tion. Our initial research is being expanded through development of a more versatile Projected MR platform with Dynamic Projection 02, in which we are utiliz ing better MR tools, more responsive PM tools, and an industrial robot to simulate various dynamic feedback systems. This expanded research design speculates on a 3-part exhibition that can respond with low latency via Projected MR controls during a public and private interactive experience

Dynamic Projection

AUTHORS: JAMES NANASCA, AARON BEEBE

Driving my own research from Architecture Graduate School - “Dynamic Projection” investigates the potential for Augmented Reality and Projection Mapping in architecture. The paper also speculates on how robots can be leveraged to aid the efficiency of our Augmented Reality and Projection Mapping platform. My role in this project was the primary investigator, primary author, and editor of the paper.

Hololens Headset and Operator: Enables AR control of Robot and Projected Media

S Spectralurreality

PROJECTS,PAPERS, & THINGS IN BETWEEN | JAMES NANASCA