Ma 16/17 Brief 01 memetic wells

1.0 Memetic Wells

19/09/16 - 20/01/17 2.1 Brief

Memetics is the theory of mental content based on an analogy with Darwinian evolution, originating from the popularization of Richard Dawkins’ 1976 book The Selfish Gene.

Proponents describe memetics as an approach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer.

The first project is a combination of group work, a live build project and also individual design outcomes. You will, as a team, and with other students, fabricate and assemble a large installation in Folkestone and design your own, interactive elements or devices, which may, if successful, be included as part of the public installation. A little bit of the survival of the fittest! But don’t worry, even if your interactive module does not quite make it to Folkestone, your work can be bigger, better and a great species of its own!

UCA and its students have been commissioned to design and build an installation in the bar space of the Quarterhouse building in Folkestone for the yearly book festival, running this year between 18-27th November. For the duration of the festival the Quarterhouse building will be host to many events in the auditorium, followed by signings in the bar space. The installation you will help design and build will support these activities and contain lighting, book storage for book sellers, a place for authors to sign books and a place for seating. The installation will be quite large and fill an appreciable amount of the bar space.

The materiality of the installation is intended to reflect the aesthetic of the HG Wells stories which engages with Victoriana and industrial and often ornate metal finishes. A style [continued...]

UCA Canterbury School of Architecture // MA Architecture // MA Interior Design // 2015-16

2.1 Brief Cont.

developed from the sci-fi tales and novels of H.G. Wells and his contemporaries called Steampunk. This style is often employed by Cos-Play and is common amongst nerd culture and festivals such Burning Man. The aim and intention of the installation is to present the essence of this aesthetic as it is so quintessentially Wellsian, but in a pared back more minimal sense, using simple copper piping in a 3-d cross module. This module can be used to design each programmatic part of the installation, as constructed by the students.

H.G. Wells is known as one of the first major authors to engage with the concept of evolution and natural selection as published by Charles Darwin in his text ‘On the Origin of Species’ in 1859. In his novels the Time Machine, War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr Moreau and many of his short stories, Wells dealt with all sorts of implications of evolution and ideas of strangeness and mutation. You will each be given one of Wells’ short stories to study and extract from it a visual language of the narrative, and from this visual language you will develop your interactive modules. Through working with your design tutor, and through other teaching expertise, you can develop a responsive interactive module responding to the spatial language suggested by your Wells short story.

2.2 Outcomes

Initially, this project will serve as an introduction to design research through knowledge investigation and making practice. You will learn how to respond to a very specific brief, using contextual research as the basis for developing a spatial aesthetic language. This project should introduce you to the workshop spaces on site and offer the opportunity to engage with some of the specialist making expertise available. You will engage with both digital and analogue making and increase your skills in both. Through the review and supervision process you will develop a critical framework and self-evaluation which will allow you to progress your project work freely. You will become familiar with the process of design through prototype and the opportunities of testing to failure to develop a rigorous and ambitious designed outcome.

You will have an introduction to the challenges of working with interactivity with respect to both hardware and software. Electronics and sensors and the software manipulations involved in understanding their control can be challenging and uniquely technical. You should not be afraid of engaging freely with the technologies available to you and ask for help from your design tutor, Lucy Jones or David Di Duca or JJ Brophy who will gladly offer advice in how you might achieve your aims.

Through the team live build work you will develop skills in fabrication, project management, design and build, construction in a sensitive, live area and responding to a very specific brief with a clear set of deliverables in a certain time frame. You will learn to balance the work you do as part of a team and your individual design work and develop your performance as an overall team player.

2.3 Written Sources

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The Moth (1895) The Stolen Bacillus (1894) The Crystal Egg (1897) The Star (1897) The Flowering of the Strange Orchid (1894) A Dream of Armageddon (1901) Aepyornis Island (1894) The Sea Raiders (1896) The Plattner Story (1896) The Final Men (1895)

2.4 Assessment

Completion of the Memetic Wells project will contribute 50% of the grade for the MA Interior Design ‘Context and Method’ unit (CARC 7001) and MA Architecture ‘Studio Practice Theory and Analysis’ unit (CIND 7008) and 100% of the grade for the MA Interior Design ‘Exporatory Practice’ unit (CIND 7002) and the MA Architecture ‘Exporatory Practice’ unit (CARC 7002). Both units for each course units are valued at 30 credits. Assessment will be carried out at the point of submission via a final A2 paper portfolio and a completed curio object or device. Feedback will be verbal and written at formative stages and written at the summative stage for this project. [continued...]

UCA Canterbury School of Architecture // MA Architecture // MA Interior Design // 2015-16

2.5 Duration

The project will run from the 19/09/2016 until the portfolio submission on 20/01/2017.

2.6 Key Events

21/09/16:

Site Visit to Quarterhouse building, Folkestone, Art Walk, Folkestone

22/09/16:

London Study Trip: London Design Bienlle and Bjork Digital Exhibition

26-27/09/16: Interactive Workshop with visiting lecturer Ross Cairns

2.7 Deliverables

29/09/16:

Initial Ideas Pin-up review

(written formative feedback)

13/10/16:

Interim Review

(written formative feedback)

07/11/16

Installation build starts

18/11/16

Book festival opening

28-29/11/16

Interactive Workshop with visiting lecturer Ross Cairns

08/12/16

Final Review

(written formative feedback)

21/01/2016:

Portfolio submission & marking

(written summative feedback)

The following are minimum deliverable requirements for completion of the project: A final, prototyped, working (or documented working) interactive module.

Drawn documentation of the final built installation and interactive module.

1. A2 portfolio design development drawings 2. A2 portfolio records of all physical fabrication tests & prototype pieces 3. A2 portfolio records of any simulation, or digital work 4. A2 portfolio documentation of installation and interactive module.

5. A2 Interactive drawing illustrating the responsive nature of theinteractive module over time and people’s interaction with the piece Online digital blog of work done (minimum one entry per week)

2.8 Staff/Guests

The project will be run by Lucy Jones (MA Course Leader) and assisted by David Di Duca, visiting design tutor. Technical support will be provided by Chris Settle and Ben Westacott when required.

During the course of the unit we will be joined by key guests for crit reviews. In order to stimulate debate and discussion reviews will be held in tandem with the BA Interior Architecture and Design Stage 2 reviews.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-bizar re-experiment-that-became-a-flying-jellyfish-1501503423

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UCA Canterbury School of Architecture // MA Architecture // MA Interior Design // 2015-16

2.9 Site visit and art walk

The site visit for this project is on Wednesday 21st of September, in Folkestone. We will visit the Quarterhouse at 11:30am, to see the space for the installation. Following this we will have a walk around Folkestone to explore some of the urban art projects which have been comissioned around the town.

Please make your way to Folkestone under your own steam and meet outside the Quarterhouse building at 10:45.

2.10 Study Trip

There is a day study trip associated with this project to London on Thursday 22nd September with the following itinerary: 1. London Design Bienalle, London’s first Design Bienalle, hosted at Somerset House entry from 11am. http://www.londondesignbiennale.com 2. Looking Backward/Looking Forward: Utopian Literature and its afterlives, a talk about the importance of literature in spatial understanding and exploration, presented

by UCL Urban Laboratory Co-director Professor Matthew Beaumont, Somerset House Screening Room, 1pm. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/urbanlab/events/looking-backward-lookingforward 3. Bjork Digital Exhibition, An immersive virtual reality exhibition from Icelandic icon Björk in collaboration with visual artists and programmers. Somerset House, entrance at 4.15pm https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/visual-arts/bjork-digital Please make your way to London King’s Cross St Pancras, the first train is at 9:23 from Canterbury West, arriving at 10:21 to St Pancras, please meet in front of the main departures board at 10:30. From there we will make our way to Somerset House by tube, so please bring Oyster Cards if you have them.

UCA Canterbury School of Architecture // MA Architecture // MA Interior Design // 2015-16

2.11 Lear ning Aims

The aims of this unit are: A1. To enable you to locate your practice in relation to appropriate fields of research and enquiry and develop your in-depth specialist understanding of these in relation to your own research.

A2. To introduce and develop creative practice methodologies in relation to theoretical investigation.

A3. To introduce and develop specialist knowledge, technical skills and processes and to begin to explore experimental approaches to your work A4. To develop your ability to critically appraise your own work and that of others through regular critiques and student forums

2.12 Lear ning Outcomes

A5. To support you in developing your project proposal providing a framework for the planning and implementation of your research within clear practical and theoretical parameters.

On satisfactory completion of the unit you will have: LO1. Demonstrated specific knowledge of research methods, critical theory and historical and contemporary practices relevant to the discipline.

LO2. Demonstrated an ability to recognise potential areas for investigation, formulate research questions and identify appropriate strategies and methods of enquiry for further development through creative practice.

LO3. Conducted investigation through experimentation developing an appropriate level of technical skill.

LO4. Developed an ability to present creative work as a response to a research context in a clear and coherent manner.

LO5. Demonstrated an ability to set goals, manage workloads and meet deadlines.

2.13 Further Reading

In addition to the below you are expected to identify and develop specific reading and research sources of your own: 1. Wells, H.G. (2000) The Complete Short Stories of H.G. Wells. London: Orion.

2. Wells, H.G. ed. Parrinder, P. (2005) The Time Machine. London: Pengiun.

3. Wells, H.G. ed. Parrinder, P. (2005)The Island of Dr Moreau. London: Pengiun.

4. Page, M. (2012)The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H.G. Wells: Science, Evolution, and Ecology. Farnham: Ashgate.

5. Dawkins, R. (1989)The Selfish Gene. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press.

6. Dawkins, R. (1996) River Out Of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life. New York, Basic Books 7. Harari, Y.N. (2015) Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. London, Harvill Secker.

8. Harari, Y.N. (2014) Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. New York, Harper.

2.14 Useful web-links

The following are a first primer for useful materials and know-how resources: Instructables - http://www.instructables.com/ - Massive open source database of tutorials.

The Workers http://theworkers.net

Ross Cairns’ company website. Some helpful projects.

Kobakant - http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/ Arduino - http://www.arduino.cc/

- Tutorials and more relating to textiles and interaction.

- Popular cheap open source microcontroller.

Freeduino - http://www.freeduino.org/ - Knowledge base for the Arduino.

Make - http://www.makezine.com/ - Similar to the above with a more deliberate approach.

Fritzing - http://fritzing.org/projects/ - Useful for gaining knowledge about electronic circuits.

Cool Components - http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/ - UK Store for component supplies.

Robives - http://www.robives.com/mechs - handy guide to mechanic gear systems.

Grand Illusions - http://www.grand-illusions.com/ - Online shop of optical and other tricks.

Rapid - http://www.rapidonline.com/ - Key online supplier of basic kits including gear and electronics. [ends] UCA Canterbury School of Architecture // MA Architecture // MA Interior Design // 2015-16