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research_report_cocky_eek [2009-08-25 12:32] 87.210.211.132research_report_cocky_eek [2009-08-30 15:22] (current) 87.210.211.132
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-==== Inflatable Inspirations research report ====+==== PNEUMATOLOGY - research report Cocky Eek ====
  
 by [[Cocky Eek]] by [[Cocky Eek]]
-  + 
-  * [[pneumatology]]: writings on Christopher Alexander's pattern language and design considerations for inflatable structures. + 
-   15 sections of visual -Inflatable Inspirations-. Each section by far don't give a complete overview in its field but I hope all works are, in one way or another, inspiring and can lead to new vibrations...: [[Experience Inflatables]] [[Powered By Wind]] [[Parasite Inflatables]] [[Soap Experiences]] [[When Nature Inflates]] [[Environmental Blendings]] [[Hardened Bubbles]] [[Inflatable Spaces]] [[Inflatable Sound]] - [[Interactive Inflatables]] - [[Inflatable Wearables]] - [[The Non Categorized Inflatables]] - [[Lighter Than Air]] - [[Nasa Inflatables]] +   
-  * [[Inflatable structures]]: An inventory of links for innovative //inflatable//- manufacturers, research labs, producers and other people working with inflatables both from the artistic and in the technological field, and links with innovative //inflatable// architecture, objects,  & robots +---- 
-  * [[Research Report Cocky Eek]] + 
-  * [[Research Inflatable Literature]]: "Timeless way of Building", "Cradle to Cradle" and "The Eyes of the Skin" [[reading notes]] +Libarynth >  Libarynth Web > CockyEek r42 17 Apr 2007 07:51 
-  * [[Inflatable Experts]] under constuction+ 
 +---- 
 + 
 + 
 + 
  
 ==== Context ==== ==== Context ====
  
-'Inflatable Inspirations' is a survey of interesting infatable projects. It consists of a visual survey, a survey of innovative inflatable experts and materials and theory about what makes an inflatable alive (on body and architectural scale)+'Pneumatology' is a survey of interesting infatable stuff. It consists of a visual survey, a survey of innovative inflatable experts and materials and theory about what makes an inflatable alive (on body and architectural scale)
  
 This research is written in the context of foam's multireal and real worlds: This research is written in the context of foam's multireal and real worlds:
  
-MultiReal: 'translocal': Art in uncertain conditions –> guerrilla art-forms – portable, robust, low-tech, recyclable media, materials and technologies that can adapt to a variety of conditions. How can we make works such as responsive environments more mobile, easy to unpack, even pocket-size (inflate as needed)? how can we make such works accessible to people without galleries and black boxes - in the middle of the desert, or a jungle, or in an urban ghetto? is this type of art and tech needed at all? (think of modular tech and architectures, cheap technological solutions for providing full-body participatory media experiences, portable and soft architectures…)+__MultiReal__: 'translocal': Art in uncertain conditions –> guerrilla art-forms – portable, robust, low-tech, recyclable media, materials and technologies that can adapt to a variety of conditions. How can we make works such as responsive environments more mobile, easy to unpack, even pocket-size (inflate as needed)? how can we make such works accessible to people without galleries and black boxes - in the middle of the desert, or a jungle, or in an urban ghetto? is this type of art and tech needed at all? (think of modular tech and architectures, cheap technological solutions for providing full-body participatory media experiences, portable and soft architectures…
 + 
 +__Real__: 'levitating': 'off the ground' & 'out of this world'. –> from extreme sports to extreme arts, (sometimes) defying the laws of physics. experiments in wind tunnels and zero-gravity, under-water and hanging from cliff-tops. have the arts become too tame and too self centered? has everything already been experienced? can arts still provide excitement and surprise as they used to when they were more in tune with what society experienced in everyday life? What games to we want to play in a world of mixed realities? (small performances and public interventions, expeditions and playgrounds)
  
-Real: 'levitating': 'off the ground' & 'out of this world'. –> from extreme sports to extreme arts(sometimes) defying the laws of physicsexperiments in wind tunnels and zero-gravity, under-water and hanging from cliff-topshave the arts become too tame and too self centered? has everything already been experienced? can arts still provide excitement and surprise as they used to when they were more in tune with what society experienced in everyday life? What games to we want to play in a world of mixed realities? (small performances and public interventions, expeditions and playgrounds)+While working on this researchI have scanned and will discuss in the end three design principles 
 +  * 1sustainability  
 +  * 2playfulness  
 +  * 3. modularity
  
-while working on this research, I have scanned three design principles 1. sustainability 2. playfulness and 3. modularity 
  
-Lightness as a state of being;+__Lightness as a state of being__\\
 Around our contemporary environmental questions at least one thing became clear to me and that’s that out of fear, or to build on top of our guilt, we can’t create anything. So instead I rather like to slide the heavy burden of my shoulders and choose the quality of lightness. Italo Calvino underlines this quality as one of his ‘Six Memos for the Next Millennium’, in here he describes a scene from Cernavantes’ novel, leaving me with an unforgettable impression of lightness, in which Don Quixote drives his lance through the sail of a windmill and is hoisted up into the air. And I wonder can we construct our worlds from this lightness. Imagine a life more light and imagine it to be constructed more mobile, flexible, portable, organic and more related to our natural surroundings and the elements, and that we can create our homes or shelters wherever our heart is with no fixed form or any beginning and end, either spatially or in time. Around our contemporary environmental questions at least one thing became clear to me and that’s that out of fear, or to build on top of our guilt, we can’t create anything. So instead I rather like to slide the heavy burden of my shoulders and choose the quality of lightness. Italo Calvino underlines this quality as one of his ‘Six Memos for the Next Millennium’, in here he describes a scene from Cernavantes’ novel, leaving me with an unforgettable impression of lightness, in which Don Quixote drives his lance through the sail of a windmill and is hoisted up into the air. And I wonder can we construct our worlds from this lightness. Imagine a life more light and imagine it to be constructed more mobile, flexible, portable, organic and more related to our natural surroundings and the elements, and that we can create our homes or shelters wherever our heart is with no fixed form or any beginning and end, either spatially or in time.
  
-The Renaissance embodied the idea of air or better ‘pneuma’ [wind, air, breath, spirit and soul] in their art of building. One of the primary goals of renaissance architects was to enhance the powers of pneuma so as to foster the art of well-being, essence, wind and ventilation were core principles of classical buildings. Pneuma was a wonderful link for establishing harmony between the human body, architecture and the cosmos, and that building was envisioned as a mediator between the inhabitant's soul and the -anima mundi-, the soul of the world. This indicates a link to contemporary environmental questions. Philibert Delorme's [French Renaissance architect 1514 -1570] describes that -the prudent architect is fully utilizing all his senses, and explains that the sense-less architect has “little nose” because he does not have the intuition of good things-, is evidence that the pneumatic architectural imagination is multi-sensorial. Renaissance notions of pneuma revealed a concern for the connectedness of person and place where architecture can refine the qualities of air to.+The Renaissance embodied the idea of air or better ‘__pneuma__’ [wind, air, breath, spirit and soul] in their art of building. One of the primary goals of renaissance architects was to enhance the powers of pneuma so as to foster the art of well-being, essence, wind and ventilation were core principles of classical buildings. Pneuma was a wonderful link for establishing harmony between the human body, architecture and the cosmos, and that building was envisioned as a mediator between the inhabitant's soul and the -anima mundi-, the soul of the world. This indicates a link to contemporary environmental questions. Philibert Delorme's [French Renaissance architect 1514 -1570] describes that -the prudent architect is fully utilizing all his senses, and explains that the sense-less architect has “little nose” because he does not have the intuition of good things-, is evidence that the pneumatic architectural imagination is multi-sensorial. Renaissance notions of pneuma revealed a concern for the connectedness of person and place where architecture can refine the qualities of air to.
  
 And in wondering if we can construct our worlds from the lightest quality surrounding us everywhere: –air- inflatable architecture comes the closests. Its thin flexible membrane, acts as a space-defining skin is able to give shape of –air- itself allowing it to be a breathing unity with its own integrity. Its close related to its surrounding its specifically bodily and tactile by nature and its portable, mobile, and playful. And in wondering if we can construct our worlds from the lightest quality surrounding us everywhere: –air- inflatable architecture comes the closests. Its thin flexible membrane, acts as a space-defining skin is able to give shape of –air- itself allowing it to be a breathing unity with its own integrity. Its close related to its surrounding its specifically bodily and tactile by nature and its portable, mobile, and playful.
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 - I came across some problematic patterns in the Architects of Airs’s Luminarium which I recognized in creating inflatables myself, and other inflatable experts I have interviewed. So underlined the most common obstacles one comes across in inflatable structures. When we are able to surpass these obstacles, these structures will be more stable and alive. It considers issues like; dominant odors, choosing the right materials, energy sources, climate control etc. In this part no solutions will be given to any design problem, but some suggestions will be given so now and then…I called it -Design considerations for inflatable structures- - I came across some problematic patterns in the Architects of Airs’s Luminarium which I recognized in creating inflatables myself, and other inflatable experts I have interviewed. So underlined the most common obstacles one comes across in inflatable structures. When we are able to surpass these obstacles, these structures will be more stable and alive. It considers issues like; dominant odors, choosing the right materials, energy sources, climate control etc. In this part no solutions will be given to any design problem, but some suggestions will be given so now and then…I called it -Design considerations for inflatable structures-
  
-- From the three most relevant books I red I made a summary on line (Timeless way of Building, Cradle to Cradle and The Eyes of the Skin): see [[Research Inflatable Literature]] +- From the three most relevant books I red I made a summary on line;  [[The Timeless Way Of Building]] by Christopher Alexander[[Cradle to Cradle]] by [[William McDonough]] & Michael Braungart,  [[The Eyes of the Skin]] by Juhani Pallasmaa
  
 - visited //The Dead Chamber// at the Tu Delft to experience a space where our hearing is blocked\\ - visited //The Dead Chamber// at the Tu Delft to experience a space where our hearing is blocked\\
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 -  I have listed the innovative inflatable experts, labs etc. at [[Inflatable Structures]] a page already existing at Foams libarynth. Most of them I came across during making the -Alive Inflatable- visual survey and for the rest I collected them from my own archive, the most interested ones I asked to send brochures for Foam's Library. -  I have listed the innovative inflatable experts, labs etc. at [[Inflatable Structures]] a page already existing at Foams libarynth. Most of them I came across during making the -Alive Inflatable- visual survey and for the rest I collected them from my own archive, the most interested ones I asked to send brochures for Foam's Library.
 +
 ====Results==== ====Results====
 +  * [[Inflatable Inspirations]]: 15 sections of visual -Inflatable Inspirations-. Each section by far don't give a complete overview in its field but I hope all works are, in one way or another, inspiring and can lead to new vibrations...
  
-   * A visual survey of -Inflatable Inspirations-.  I came to a collection of 14 sections with each specific qualities. Each section by far don't give a complete overview in its field. But the main criteria for selecting the works is that they are in one way or another inspiring and that they all can lead to new vibrations… Images of Inflatable Inspirations: [[Experience Inflatables]] - [[Powered By Wind]] - [[Parasite Inflatables]] - [[Soap Experiences]] - [[When Nature Inflates]] - [[Environmental Blendings]] - [[Hardened Bubbles]] - [[Inflatable Spaces]] - [[Inflatable Sound]] - [[Interactive Inflatables]] - [[Inflatable Wearables]] - [[The Non Categorized Inflatables]] - [[Lighter Than Air]] - [[Nasa Inflatables]]  
  
 +  *[[pneumatology]]: Lightness as a state of being. Some problem domains in our contemporary architecture.
  
-    * A summary Christopher Alexanders "Pattern Language" found with the title “There is Timeless Way of Building”: see [[Pneumatology]]+  [[Pattern_language]] A summary of Christopher Alexander’s -Pattern Language-  to create timeless way of building. This pattern language is based on the actions which takes place in space and time which makes one feel “alive.  
 + 
 +  *[[An Inflatable Pattern Language]]A despription of the patterns based on the structures of `The Architects on Air (UK), which can be useful for anyone interested in building ‘living inflatable structures’. 
 + 
 +  *[[Design Considerations For Inflatable Structures]]:  After Coming across the problematic patterns of the architects of Airs’s Luminarium. I thought its worthwhile to acknowledge the most common obstacles one comes across in inflatable structures anyhow. No solutions will be given to any design problem, but some suggestions will be given so now and then… When we are able to surpass these obstacles, these structures will be more stable and alive. 
  
-    * A pattern language specific made for inflatable architectural structures: see [[Pneumatology]] 
-    * Design considerations for inflatable structures: see  [[Pneumatology]] 
     * A collection of physical materials and catalogues for inflatables at foam's public material library     * A collection of physical materials and catalogues for inflatables at foam's public material library
-    * An inventory of innovative inflatable- manufacturers, research labs, producers and other people working with inflatables both from the artistic and in the technological field can be found at: [[Inflatable Structures ]] \\+ 
 +  *[[Inflatable Links]]: An inventory of links for innovative //inflatable//- manufacturers, research labs, producers and other people working with inflatables both from the artistic and in the technological field, and links with innovative //inflatable// architecture, objects,  & robots\\ 
 + 
 +  * [Related reading notes: [[The Timeless Way Of Building]] by Christopher Alexander, [[Cradle to Cradle]] by [[William McDonough]] & Michael Braungart,  [[The Eyes of the Skin]] by Juhani Pallasmaa] 
 + 
  
  
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 - I scanned during this inflatable research three design principles of gRig, and I came along thre next findings during this research: - I scanned during this inflatable research three design principles of gRig, and I came along thre next findings during this research:
  
-  * //sustainability//    This is quite a complex matter and I wonder if sustainability is a word that really empower us... Personally the word itself is putting a heavy load on my shoulders. It rather paralyzes me, tries to push my guild buttons and to block my creativity; do we have to shrink our presence, our systems, our activities and so on. But we humans are part of nature to! And part of this nature is that we want to evolve, grow, So maybe what empowers us more is to start thinking in __(bio) [-life-] cycles__. And another thing is that we don’t have to be perfect right now, for instance the biodegradable materials we want are just not all available now, but we can set our goals for 20 years. From now we can define where we wanna go. Another thing I like to mention is that something will //sustain//` itself, when its made with real care and when its patterns are deeply connected to our own experiences and surroundings, then problably we automatically like to look after it. +  * //sustainability//    This is quite a complex matter and I wonder if sustainability is a word that really empower us... Personally the word itself is putting a heavy load on my shoulders. It rather paralyzes me, tries to push my guild buttons and to block my creativity; do we have to shrink our presence, our systems, our activities and so on. But we humans are part of nature to! And part of this nature is that we humans like to make things.  The character of nature is that everything is made in the knowledge that it is going to die. And so we should think of the __(bio) [-life-] cycles__  of all the stuff we make, considering that everything is build to die one day...  Another thing is that we don’t have to be perfect right now, for instance the biodegradable materials we want are just not all available now, but we can set our goals for 20 years. From now we can define where we wanna go. Another thing I like to mention is that something will //sustain//` itself, when its made with real care and when its patterns are deeply connected to our own experiences and surroundings, then problably we automatically like to look after it. 
  
     * The second design principle //playfulness//, reminds me most of a documentary I've seen about otters; in one scene; an otter is swimming in a river, and that day a thick layer of snow was fallen. One moment the otter is passing a hilly bank covered with snow. He goes out of the water and rans up the hill, and slides down into the water, he repeats it about 5 more times and then continues swimming in the river. There was no purpose for the otter for gliding down this hill, no other then that he enjoyed doing do. I guess I selected the pictures for the Inflatable Inspirations aswell all with this quality of playfullness. Its the world where possible obstacles don't have to mean anything but an opportunity for just play.      * The second design principle //playfulness//, reminds me most of a documentary I've seen about otters; in one scene; an otter is swimming in a river, and that day a thick layer of snow was fallen. One moment the otter is passing a hilly bank covered with snow. He goes out of the water and rans up the hill, and slides down into the water, he repeats it about 5 more times and then continues swimming in the river. There was no purpose for the otter for gliding down this hill, no other then that he enjoyed doing do. I guess I selected the pictures for the Inflatable Inspirations aswell all with this quality of playfullness. Its the world where possible obstacles don't have to mean anything but an opportunity for just play. 
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