In the afternoon the students joined Jaume Barnada, the Deputy Chief Architect of the City Council of Barcelona, for a guided tour of the city of Barcelona.

The main purpose of the European Art Science and Technology Network (EASTN) Initiative is to contribute to make digital creativity more accessible, by promoting the development of a deep and collective knowledge of the current artistic movements and of theirs tools. Digital technologies play a significant and increasing part in artistic creation, from generating the substance of a work of art to broadcasting it. Nevertheless, because of a profusion of possibilities and because of the speed of evolutions, the inherent concepts of these tools are often overlooked by the general public, and even by the artists themselves. In order to ensure that Europe fully participates in the Cultural Revolution rising from these technologies and that European citizens are encouraged to be more than just isolated consumers, specific actions must be undertaken.

The central theme of 2014‐2015 is about Tangibility, which is at the heart of a major evolution in the creative field. Indeed, nowadays, new methods of interaction with the information and with digital medias are proposed, relying more on senses and gestures in a way to connect real and virtual worlds. In this way, the body resumes its predominant place in the act of creation, and the publics are able to achieve a better assimilation and utilization of the digital creation tools.

The missions of the network are:

_To support creation and artistic exchanges through residencies and workshops

_To conceive and realize digital tools in relation with tangible objects encouraging digital creativity

_To promote European digital creation to the general public

All of these experimentation have been shown on the 22nd of May at the final presentations of the seminar “lightweight structures 1:1″ at IAAC.

The aim of the seminar, led by Silvia Brandi and Rodrigo Rubio, with the collaboration of Pepe Ballestero (ETSAM Prototipolab) and Maria Kupstova, was to build four lightweight structures using structural fabric, within the format of an intensive workshop.

For the development of the project the course counted on the partnership of Serge Ferrari company, which provided the high-performance fabric Stamisol FT 371-3048 and Stamisol FT 381-3128.

The seminar has been developed in two sessions of three days each: in the first one four groups have been formed around four research topics: tensegrity structures, tensile structures, pure tension structures and fibrous structures.

During the first phase each group developed a project proposal and went trough some material testing and prototyping. During the second phase the construction of the four pavilions has been carried out in IAAC.

At the final presentation the students presented their projects to the jury board, formed by Ramon Sastre, tensile structure expert by ETSAV-UPC, Carmelo Zappulla, IAAC Faculty and principal of External Reference, Areti Markopoulou, MAA Director, together with the IAAC Alumni and Staff Mathilde Marengo, Dori Sadan and Moe Beagle.

In response to the request of the CCCB Barcelona to create furniture – in particular for the Big Bang Data Exhibition – that would fit the ever changing needs of a space for workshops, the Fab Lab Barcelona and the design team of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) proposed several options.

“The Water Team”, a team of Master in Advanced Architecture students designed a modular system with the goal of creating an open source design that would fulfil the needs of the diverse people using the space offering multifunctional possibilities.

The choice of this design as the winner is based not only on aesthetics, but on the strength and sturdiness of the piece, as it will be used by thousands of people over time.

The following parameters were also taken into account: the use of plywood as the material chosen for the design, time laser cutting boards and hands and quick mounting system.

The result is this open source design that follows the philosophy of good digital fabrication practices linked to Fab10 Barcelona, an event that will bring together the international community of Fab Labs from the 2nd through the 8th of July in Barcelona.

Designed and Manufactured by Master in Advanced Architecture Students: Ruxandra Iancu Bratosin, Gokhan Catikkas, Hriday Saini, Maria Czajcynska and Rodion Eremeev.

The aim is to give an introduction to robotic fabrication, focusing on setting up processes and tools to be used with the robot. The students are learning and practicing how to teach and offline program the robot’s movements and tool-paths. In fact the first couple of days of the workshop have been dedicated to the student’s understanding and manipulation (manually moving the robot) of the Kuka Robot.

The ambitious objective of the Seminar is to mass-produce wooden chairs, where the robot will handle all steps, from shaping the elements to applying the connections, with the aim of integrating digital planing and production into traditional craft.

SEMINAR BRIEF:

Each day, the average computing power of any given device increases. Technologies that were visionary and innovative in the

past, might not have been birthed at the correct time in order to take full advantage of their potential. For example, Virtual Reality in the late 80’s or 90’s was little more than a gimmick as the real time rendering capabilities of computers was not up to par with the vision for the technology. Last month, Facebook purchased a startup company that makes the Occulus Rift Virtual Reality Headset for 2 Billion USD. The technology is the same, but the computing power is different.

Unity is a Game Editor, allowing artists and designers to have one common platform for the development of 2D or 3D games that are deployable across many platforms including Windows, MacOSX, Android, iOS, XBox, etc. This means we can create immersive environments with realistic shadowing, information overlay, animation, and much more and be able to run them on the phones most of us have in our pockets. The implications for how we present our projects are broad.

Objective:

Over the course of this module, we will learn the Unity interface, how to model for a game environment, how to create navigation systems, cameras, and gui elements. In the end of the module, each individual will have a game engine platform to use for the presentation of their studio project.

Tools:

- Unity 4.3.4 or latest version

- Rhinoceros 5.0 or any 3D CAD for modelling (Rhino will be used in any tutorials dealing with modelling for games)

- Grasshopper 0.9.0072 + Plugins

The aim of the Seminar is to realize lightweight spatial installations (embedding textile materials) that are demountable, digitally fabricated, and eventually performative.

The students have formed 4 different groups, each one working on a different structural prototype implementation. In these first 3 days of the seminar each group worked their concept design, testing the structural capacities through the production of small scale prototypes.

The course counts on the collaboration of the company SERGE FERRARI, an international producer of flexible composite materials and membranes of high performances for architecture, who will provide the material for the construction.