LIGHT COMPUTER INK THE CITY
N ay l a B o u M a r o u n Antoinette El Chidiac M a r g a r i ta M o s h o n k i n a Fa b i o
Rivera
MASTER IN ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE SOL AR ENERGIES PROJECT TUTORS:
Javier Peña Jonathan Minchin Oriol Carrasco Phillip Serif
BARCELONA 2
2016
LIGHT
COMPUTER INK THE CITY
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INDEX ABSTRACT
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12 Introduction 16 Methodology 20 References
RESEARCH 36 Site 44 Social Intervention 48 Phenomenas 50 Sun Light Scattering 51 Color Spectrum 55 Refraction 57 Fresnel Lens 59 Stirling Engine
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PROTOTYPE 62 Concept 68 Process 70 Final Prototype
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CONSTRUCTION MANUAL
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84 Construction Steps 104 Technical Drawings 109 Diagrams
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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ABSTRACT
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The intent in this project is to capture the complexity of the city and the changing lives of the individuals in the city and turn it into an artwork. The installation goes beyond simple color intervention to single or multiple user interaction to entirely represent the complexities of the real time city as a shifting morphing and complex system. The artwork presents new ways of thinking about life, materialization and interaction within public space and how this affects the socialization of space. The project uses the landscape of the color spectrum and solar based technologies to create visualizations of life as it unfolds. The interactions with this device is converted from user input and represented virtually onto the city as real time artwork.
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INTRODUCTION
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In the era of social networking and computing, the merge of the people and the Internet leads to a shift from system-oriented design to data-driven service. Nowadays products have become terminals of services and systems become platforms to deliver the services. The growth and development of social computing have dramatically increased the complexity towards social innovation. Technology plays an important role in the new ways of social interaction and urban environments. Cities are coming to life in the digital world and one way to approach these challenge is by building interactive public installations. This document will explore into the challenges brought by social computing in designing for social interaction in public spaces, as well as the phenomena implied for the development of a new proposal and the results. The current development in digital public installations involves a significant amount of new bearers of technology and materials resulting in new dynamic and interactive forms that require devices to work from a system with good understating of human interaction. For this reason The Light Computer Installation emerges as a new attractive and sustainable solution for the social issues regarding the El Poblenou neighborhood in Barcelona, Spain.
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METHODOLOGY
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REFERENCES
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SOLAR LIGHT ART INSTALLATION By Erskine and Killefer Falmmang Lafayette Library, California
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‘EXENTRIQUE (S)’ By Daniel Buren Monumenta at Grand Palais, Paris
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AURA UTRECHT By Fundacion Kunst In Het Stationsgebied
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CATCH AS CATCH CAN By Daniel Buren Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, England
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SITE
EL POBLENOU 37
The area for the development of this project is El Poblenou in Barcelona, Spain. El Poblenou is an extensive neighborhood pertaining to the Sant Martí district that borders the Sant Andreu to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Sant Adrià del Besòs River to the east and Parc de la Ciutadella to the west. Even though it’s not considered part of the Eixample it was designed by the prominent urban planner Idelfons Cerdà. In the 19th century el Poblenou was the epicenter of Catalan and Iberian industry playing and important role for the Industrial Revolution in Barcelona. When the Industrial agitations passed, the neighborhood fell into a state of decay and abandonment. Only after The Olympic Games in 1992 the Poblenou received a massive transformation that brought the full development of some of its surrounding area. Nowadays after completing the unfinished plan by Cerdà the Avinguda Diagonal now pierces from Plaza de les Glòries to the sea. Thanks to the new 22@ Plan, known as the Innovation District for the urban renewal of Poblenou, the neighborhood is now being transformed into the city’s technological and innovation district as well aims to increase leisure and residential spaces.
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Even though El Poblenou is part of multiple plans of urban renewal and its state remains in constant transformation, the neighborhood still maintains many issues regarding to the social life and cultural differences. El Poblenou confronts many problems linked to immigration, gentrification and delinquency. For the sake of fighting these issues, the government is trying to implement the new plan for Superblocks but unfortunately this is only bringing more problems. The new superblocks reduce the parking lots in the street affecting the commercial stores and increasing the distance between bus stops. The increase of open areas improves the landscape but contributes to delinquency. Due to the economic recession many of the proposed changes for El Poblenou are slowing down; reason why the inhabitants are not realizing any changes or improvements. Currently the neighborhood lacks of night life, guiding systems and it has not been affected by the impact of tourism. The lack of tourism reduces the economical incomes for new infrastructure. Visitors only come to Poblenou for specific places; they won’t enjoy walking by the streets because it still has the appearance of an abandoned and dangerous neighborhood. After realizing all these issues regarding El Poblenou, the Light Computer Project is developed to increase the tourism on the site and improving the social interaction and quality of life with an a attractive device that brings colors and public utility.
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SOCIAL INTERVENTION
IMPACT Catalan culture is well known for its invaluable art and architectural heritage especially from Romanesque and Modernist movements. In general, the region of Catalonia contains more than 2000 buildings from the Romanesque and many others from the Modernist period belonging to famous figures such as Antoni Gaudí, Josep Puig I Cadafalch and Lluís Domènech. It also counts with great painters like Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí. Art is an important factor for the culture of Catalan people; this essential element is also present in El Poblenou neighborhood. Currently El Poblenou counts with many art galleries, studios, workshops and design schools. After the Industrial Revolution the general urban image for the neighborhood is decadent and without life. It is important to recover and transform the image of El Poblenou showing the true culture of the Catalan’s. Inspired by many art installations and using the color the same way as Antoni Gaudí did, it is necessary for the neighborhood’s improvement to develop a solar device that brings life and interaction to the inhabitants of El Poblenou.
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Interaction experiences with public art installations are becoming common recently; however the actual interaction is superficial and usually not very rich. The Light Computer aims to increase the level of social connectedness among visitors; by connecting people with the device physiologically, the installation has a clear impact on social interaction showing the attractiveness to people from aspects such as novelty, motivation and creativity. Public art installations are effective in engaging multiple people while advertisements, entertainment and promotion engage people as a single person with one message. The Light Computer addresses multiple people at the same time, increasing the level of social connectedness among them. People from Barcelona already know how to read and interpret colors due to their coexistence with many art expressions. Colors are proven to send messages and information to the brain that stimulates feelings and emotions. Colors are immediate referents to draw attention and show a powerful psychological impact to cognitive performance. For that reason the Light Computer works as a solar installation that uses colors to project information in the streets of El Poblenou neighborhood according to what the inhabitants want to express. The interactiveness of the device allows people to change the message and project the visitor’s real-time information about the immediate location.
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PHENOMENA
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SUN LIGHT SCATTERING The Sun Light Scattering, also known as the Rayleigh scattering, is the light phenomenon that occurs when light travels through transparent solids and liquids, but most prominently seen in gases. The scattering refers to the dispersion of electromagnetic radiation by particles that are smaller than the wavelength radiation. The Light Computer Installation takes advantage of this phenomenon using the Sun light as the main trigger to activate the device; the light comes into the installation not only warming the engine but also projecting pure, white and clean natural Sun Light that can be later refracted and used into many purposes.
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COLOR SPECTRUM The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. This range of wavelengths is called visible light or simply light. The spectrum does not contain all the colors that the human eyes and brain can distinguish. Colors contain only one wavelength and they are so called pure colors or spectral colors. In the 17th century, Isaac Newton discovered that prisms could disassemble white light. He was the first to use the word spectrum meaning “appearance” or “apparition”. Newton observed that when a narrow beam of sunlight strikes the face of a glass prims at a specific angle, some is reflected and some of the beam passes into and through the glass, emerging as different colored bands. Newton divided the spectrum into seen colors (Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet), chosen by the musical notes and the days of the week. The Light Computer uses the color spectrum as the main phenomena for the installation. The device takes advantage from a prism to disassemble the light to be later projected in the streets and the buildings. The projected colors will bring joy and interaction to the inhabitants of El Poblenou neighborhood.
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REFRACTION This phenomenon is the charge in direction of propagation of a wave due to a change in its transmission medium. The wave passes from one medium to another at any angle other than 0 from the normal. Refraction is responsible for rainbows and for the splitting of white light into a rainbow-spectrum as it passes through a glass prism. When a beam of white light passes from air into a material having an index of refraction that varies with frequency the light dispersion occurs in which different colored components of the white light are refracted at different angles, so they become separated. The different colors correspond to different frequencies. The Light Computer device uses the refraction phenomena to produce the rainbow effect on the city. The refracted colors would be used to bring emotions and improve the perception of El Poblenou Neighborhood.
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FRESNEL LENS In optics a Fresnel lens is a type of compact lens originally developed by Augustin-Jean Fresnel for the design of lighthouses. The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume that a conventional lens requires. Fresnel lens can capture more oblique light from a light source, allowing the light from a lighthouse to be visible over greater distances. The Fresnel lens design consists in an array of prisms arranged in a circular way on the edges and a flat or slightly convex in the center. There are many types of Fresnel lenses such as the Spherical Fresnel that focus all the light on a single point and produces a sharp image. These types of lenses have been used nowadays for solar energy since they can be made larger than glass lenses and concentrating sunlight onto solar cells. The Light Computer installation takes advantage of the Fresnel lens to increase and concentrate the Sun Light into the device. Since prism need direct and concentrated light to produce a sharp spectrum, the Fresnel lens with spherical shape will redirect the light onto it so it has a better effect on the streets and buildings.
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STIRLING ENGINE The Stirling Engine is a heat engine that operates with expansion of air or other gas and by cyclic compression at different temperatures. It is a closed cycle regenerative heat engine with a permanently working fluid. The Stirling Engines have a higher efficiency compared to other engines, being able to reach more than 50% efficiency. It can use almost any heat source and it is capable of work in quite operations. The Stirling Engines represent a new alternative for renewable energy source helping reduce the climate change. It was invented by Robert Stirling who invented a closed cycle air engine in 1816. For being a closed cycle operation, the heat driving a Stirling engine must be transmitted from a heat source to the working fluid by heat exchangers and finally to the heat sink. The Solar Light computer uses the Stirling engine as the core for its performance. The Engine will receive the hot Sun Light from the top while the other face would be cold enough to produce the cycle to move; this movement would rotate a group of gears that will scroll the punch card system. This cyclic movement would move the punch card pattern across the light projection allowing some colors to project across the cards.
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CONCEPT
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The Light Computer device is an interactive public art installation designed for the El Poblenou neighborhood in Barcelona, Spain. The installation is suspended in the air in the middle of the streets and intersection between the blocks of the neighborhood so it can be seen from a distance. The Light Computer is a solar instrument that utilize the clear Sun light to project information on the streets. At a first stage the sun light reaches the device and it is concentrated over a prism that later will refract it in the spectrum colors. These colors then will be filtered by a punch card system that would project the information in the streets and buildings. The punch card system would be constantly moving so it can block some of the colors of the spectrum; the system is powered by a Stirling Engine that uses the Sun’s heat to compress the air inside it and produce the cyclic movement. The Light Computer then is a complete solar device that involves and recreates most of the nature’s optical phenomena. The device not only is based on Sun-related phenomena but also in a complete system inspired by the news technologies such as the Photonic Computers. By replacing electrons and wires with photons, fiber optics, crystals and thin films and mirrors, the photonic computers are known as the new generation of computers. The Light Computer thus is by definition a photonic computer as well: The Stirling Engine and most of the pieces conforms the Hardware, the punch card system plays the role of the software by the transference of encoded information and The City itself is the screen. The district is then made of units, grids and repetitions of colors.
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The Light Computer project allows individuals to become artist and their art is layout across the city. The artwork is a responsive installation driven an embedded and interactive element. The device is interactive and visually appealing and stills maintain an effective power through distinctions in inputs. It is responsive through individually designed panels or “punch cards� to deliver messages through color in the perception of Morse code. This code is then represented virtually into the city and the city is then represented in a whole art work installation. The projection becomes a manipulation of the colors of the solar spectrum with specific data that highlights events, actions and interactions of the people within the region. This Light Computer project is an experiment with art and technology in the sense of interactive art works in and or urban scale to activate the locality. It borders between artistic, technological and scientific sectors inviting viewers to insert data or to simply observe the prior generated compositions. This virtual painting shifts from abstract to iconic patterns which people can explore to the stretch of their scope.
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PROCESS
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FINAL PROTOTYPE
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VIEWS OF THE FINAL PROTOTYPE
RIGHT VIEW
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FRONT VIEW
TOP VIEW
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LIGHT
COMPUTER CONSTRUCTION MANUAL
MASTER IN ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE SOLAR ENERGIES PROJECT
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STEPS
CONSTRUCTION STEPS 84
3D PRINT AND LASER CUT Locate the files and 3D print and laser cut them. Make sure the files and the final pieces have the same dimensions. Use sand paper to smooth the edges.
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Building the Cylinder Plates These two components cannot be printed with the materials available today for 3D printing, which means that we have to do some craftsmanship. As the material you can use any standard aluminum-alloy. First you should draw the part. Next, you can center punch and drill the bores. Then the outer diameter of 125mm is sawn with a coping saw. If you constantly deal with alcohol as a lubricant, this work is done in a few minutes. After completion of the sawing you should smooth all edges with sandpaper or a file and deburr bores with a countersink.
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The Displacer Cylinder Start assembling the parts and then place one of the piston templates No.5 on a piece of Styrofoam, 140mm x 140mm size. Mark the three 3mm bores and drill 3mm bores perpendicular through the Styrofoam. Place a piston template No.5 on both sides of the Styrofoam and screw it together with screws.
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Assembling the Displacer Cylinder and the Displacer Piston Place the piston into the lower cylinder module and place the upper one on top. Now screw both modules together like you did before. Tighten the screws only slightly and crosswise and make sure that the upper and the lower module are well aligned.
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Assembling the Power Cylinder and the Power Piston Place two loops of yarn No.45 around the membrane and the cylinder. Make sure that you place the loops in the little slot. You have to tighten the loops and to make a knot in a way, that membrane and cylinder become an airtight assembly. The best is to do this with two persons. One holds the yarn tight, and the other one puts a little drop of superglue onto the knot. If it is done you can take the little rubber ring of and cut the ends of the yarn short. And then cut the membrane as shown in figure.
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The Flywheel mount Do the work on the parts No.18 and No.19. Do the same work on the displacer mount No.17 as you did it on the power mount No.18. Check that both mounts are absolutely free of warpage. If they are not, the ball bearings will not be well aligned to the flywheel axle and this causes a lot of friction. Make sure that the center lines of the ball bearings are perpendicular to the surfaces of the mounts. Lock the ball bearings in the openings with some superglue. Screw the parts of the flywheel mount. Take attention to the orientation of the single parts to each other, don’t tighten the screws. Push the flywheel axle No.49 through both ball bearings. Align the mounts to each other in a way that the flywheel axle is perpendicular to the mounts surfaces and that it slides easily through the ball bearings without clamping. Tighten the screws with low torque only.
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Assembling the Crank Drive When assembling the crank drive ensure that all parts are free from distortion and move without any friction. Place the prepared flywheel mount on the displacer cylinder and fasten it with the screws No.53 and washers No.52. Align the flywheel mount in a way that the connecting rod of the displacer piston stays in the center of No.17 mounts bore. Fasten the screws. Open the displacer cylinder and set a about 1 - 1.5mm thick spacer on the bottom cylinder plate. You can use some cardboard or some business cards for this. This spacer serves the distance between the displacer piston and the bottom cylinder plate during assembling. Place the displacer piston in the displacer cylinder. Place the upper module of the displacer cylinder with the flywheel mount on the displacer cylinder. Insert the adjusting ring No.54 on the connecting rod. Align the displacer cylinder top and bottom module in the way you did it before, but do not screw them. This point is important! If you push the crank arm the other way onto the axis the assembly will not match to the counter weights and the position of the fylwheel. Clamp the crank arm to the axis with the help of the screw. Make sure that it is well clamped, but do not give too much torque to the screw. If you do so, you will deform the crank arm and it will wobble during operation. Push the axis through the ball bearing of the displacer mount. Place a washer No.57 on both sides of the ball bearing. Place the flywheel into the mount. The glued “flywheel cover” faces in the direction of the “D-crank arm”! Slide the axle through the flywheel and through the ball bearing of power mount No.18. Slide the flywheel and the crank arm tightly together that only a very small clearance between these components and the displacer mount No.17 is left. Clamp the flywheel by tightening the screw No.51
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Because it looks very nice if the flywheel runs without any wobbling, here is a very good method how you can rework a bad aligned axle: Drill a 4,5mm bore in a piece of plywood or in your workbench. Place the axle half the way into the fylwheels hub and clamp it with the screw. With a help of punch marks you can press the axle in the right direction to align it well. With a little practice this method works very well and you will get a really nice running flywheel, without any wobbling! The important point is, that the axle is clamped with the screw when you hit the punch marks. |Lock the flywheel that way, that the pivot screw No.53 of the D-crank arm is in 6 o’clock position. This is easy to do with the help of two normal pegs that you clamp to the flywheel. Connect crank arm and hinge block with the screw No.51. Place a washer No.57 between crank arm and ball bearing. Fasten the screw in a way that there is still a small axial clearance between these parts.
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Build the Punch Card System Assemble the gears, each 2 in group (3 groups) and then connect the 3 with the long hinge. Once you are done with that. You can connect the first group to the Stirling wheel with the small hinge. Wrap the camshaft around the gears. It’s now time to create different options of punch cards by creating voids onto a paper as wide as the camshaft. Fix the paper onto the timing belt.
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FINA
FINAL PROTOTYPE 104
STIRLING ENGINE
Technical Drawings
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STIRLING ENGINE GEARS WITH PUNCH CARDS
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STIRLING ENGINE GEARS WITH PUNCH CARDS MIRROR AND PRISM
STIRLING ENGINE GEARS WITH PUNCH CARDS MIRROR AND PRISM PROTECTION SPHERE AND LENS
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Diagrams
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BIBLIOGRAPHY http://www.osa-opn.org/home/articles/volume_27/october_2016/features/quantum_computing_how_close_are_we/ http://www.barcelonacheckin.com/img/stored_images/barcelona/ area/811_guide.png http://eileen-hall.com/research/Installation_Art_Place_Awareness_EileenHall.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_phenomena http://media.designs.vn/public/media/media/picture/16-04-2014/image/Jean-Nouvel%2012.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering https://science-edu.larc.nasa.gov/EDDOCS/Wavelengths_for_Colors. html http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/hillger/optical-phenomena.htm http://phys.org/news/2015-05-team-big-faster.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow https://www.hastac.org/blogs/haley117/2013/06/07/social-medias-affect-human-interaction http://generationartscotland.org/features/what-is-an-installation/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction h t t p s : / / p d f s . s e m a n t i c s c h o l a r .o rg / f 8 3 7 /e 76 a 2 8 d 6528f650596fa88276ac6324cb9f1.pdf
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LIGHT
COMPUTER INK THE CITY
LIGHT COMPUTER Is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia Developed at Master in Advanced Architecture in 2016 N ay l a B o u M a r o u n Antoinette El Chidiac
2016
M a r g a r i ta M o s h o n k i n a Fa b i o
Rivera
MASTER IN ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE SOLAR ENERGIES PROJECT NAYLA BOU MAROUN ANTOINETTE EL CHIDIAC MARGARITA MOSHONKINA FABIO RIVERA
2016