NATURAL SYSTEMS STUDIO

2012 Semester 2 L

INUS G

RUSZEWSKI

0/INDEX

1/COMPLEXITY

2/GRID

3/ PRESCRIPTIVE EMERGENCE

4/COINCIDENT DISRUPTION

GRUSZEWSKI

“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” Isaac NewtonWhere does our fixation for the COMPLEX stem from?Is it a transfer of our wonder in the intricacies of the natural world towards the artificial?

1/ COMPLEXITY

Trianglesweep.pdeSIMPLE

Trianglestack.pdeSIMPLISTIC

COMPLEXIT

Y

John Stump COMPLICATED

Venn DiagramCOMPLEX

COMPLEXIT

Y

EiffelCOMPLEX

Kapoor + Balmond:CONVOLUTED

EiffelCOMPLEX

COMPLEXIT

Y

Abstract references help us to understand and control our environment. Grids, matrixes and planes enable us to represent and communicate spatial data, like vectors or objects. But the grid can become an object in itself, deformed to suggest a landscape, sub-divided to create textures and intricacies, the abstract overlay becomes highly contextual, with attractors and repellersaffecting its shape.

2/ GRID

Regular Grid as generator of architectureJNL Durand

Grid as base for all forms of lifeSuperstudio

GRID

Grid as base for all forms of lifeSuperstudio

Reactive surface of repeated geometric shapesDeCoi, Aegis Hyposurface

Orthonormal overlay to decompose and represent space. The grid serves to rationalise the trans-

lation between reality and representation Leon Battista Alberti

Reactive surface of repeated geometric shapesDeCoi, Aegis Hyposurface

GRID

Is the grid adaptive to accidentsor intransigent to context?

Roadkill pragmatics

Vs.

Haussmannbulldozing between points of attraction

Cerdarigorous grid regardless of topology

GRID

Localised disturbances of orthagonal grid are caused by randomised attractors. Pinching

effect creates distortion.Grideform.pde

Contrained hand drawing to understand attraction and repulsion

Notebook

GRID

GRID

low tech parametrics

notebook

Drawing a grid from survey data measured with giant theodolites in order to precisely map the

topology of the region.Trigonometrical survey of India, Gujarat

GRID

Generating virtual landscapes, with incrementally complex tesselations of fractal geometries.

Mountains, Pixar

Going from determining an end result to softly curating behaviours of automata.

3/ PRESCRIPTIVE EMERGENCE

STALACTITES/STALAGMITESstacking drops

We are stuck in the realm of the prescriptive. How to break from this habit of determining a specifically shaped end-result?By considering the design as a process, which we can monitor and tweak along the way, we give more freedom for the project to evolve autonomously.The knee-jerk reaction to this apparent surrender of the designer’s power over the creation. This is where the technical abilities of the designer as programmer come into play. Up to us to use the tools in the right context. We may speculate about end results, and it is always of interest to compare initial sketches to finished projects, but this should not limit our speculative study.Breaking free of the constraints we impose on our own process by switching medium, for instance projecting, printing, or building mod-els, enables us to see outside the processing window.

Gwanggyo power centerMVRDV

PRESCRIP

TIV

E E

MERGENCE

STALACTITES/STALAGMITESstacking drops

Raindrops.pde mitosis hand sketch

PRESCRIP

TIV

E E

MERGENCE

mitosis hand sketch

This sculpture suggests a landscape eroded by (acid) rain, it shows another possibility of

representation from similar data. Noriko Ambe, a piece of a flat globe

PRESCRIP

TIV

E E

MERGENCE

Study of agglomeration/cohesion,based on the agents.pde behaviour

notebook

Variations in the flocking parameters modulate density and distribution of elements.

PRESCRIP

TIV

E E

MERGENCE

Study of particle flocking, simulating cohesion, separation and alignment, tracing diaphanous

strands between neighbouring elementsagents.pde

Variations in the flocking parameters modulate density and distribution of elements.

Grids are deformed by external forces, disrupting the orthonormal matrix by pushing elements away from their initial position.Data can be represented in many ways, here an attempt to extrapolate spatial evolution from cellular interactions serves as a speculative exploration of where things could go from this point.

4/ COINCIDENT DISRUPTION

Every shape is tracked to its original position with a spring that allows it to oscilate around its

origin, gradually stabilising its trajectory.springrid.pde

Suspended grids are disturbed by the flight of owl. This installation tracks the invisible motion of air particles reorganising themselves inthe wake.Claire Morgan, Here is the end of all things, 2011

COIN

CID

ENT D

ISRUPTIO

N

Every shape is tracked to its original position with a spring that allows it to oscilate around its

origin, gradually stabilising its trajectory.springrid.pde

Suspended grids are disturbed by the flight of owl. This installation tracks the invisible motion of air particles reorganising themselves inthe wake.Claire Morgan, Here is the end of all things, 2011

Regular matrix is disturbed by motion on touchscreen, hexagonal elements swing out, then gravitate back towards their original positions.

Gridspring.pde

How to draw a regular hexagon.Releasing the springs with mousePressed.

//SNIPET 1 DRAWING HEXAGONS ON A GRID OF SPRINGS pushMatrix(); //translate hex to end of each spring translate(xPos+springPosX, yPos+springPosY); //a,b and c values determined in relation to a pre-established variable ‘hexagonSize’ c = hexagonSize; b = hexagonSize/2; a = sqrt((c*c)-(b*b)); // draw the hexagon based on a,b and c values beginShape(); vertex(-b, -a); vertex(b, -a); vertex(c, 0); vertex(b, a); vertex(-b, a); vertex(-c, 0); endShape(CLOSE); popMatrix();

//SNIPET 2 SWINGING THE HEXAGONS WITH THE MOUSE

void update() { //if intersect with bounding box when mouse is pressed, update spring’s position based on variable parameters if (mousePressed && lineRectIntersect(xPos, yPos + boxSize, xPos + boxSize, yPos, pmouseX, pmouseY, mouseX, mouseY)) { //velocity proportionally based on mouse movement( springVelX = 0.1*(mouseX - pmouseX); springVelY = 0.1*(mouseY - pmouseY); } else { //acceleration takes into account spring’s variables springAccX = (-(stiffness*(springPosX - boxSize/2))-(damping*springVelX))/mass; springAccY = (-(stiffness*(springPosY - boxSize/2))-(damping*springVelY))/mass; //velocity is adjusted by acceleration springVelX += springAccX; springVelY += springAccY; //position is updated based on the velocity springPosX += springVelX; springPosY += springVelY; }

How to draw a regular hexagon.Releasing the springs with mousePressed.

COIN

CID

ENT D

ISRUPTIO

N

saturation Translation of rectangle generates

‘zigzag’ Yellowtrace.pde

Translation of rectangle generates ‘zigzag’

Yellowtrace.pde

COIN

CID

ENT D

ISRUPTIO

N

MVRDV ‘Kissing Towers”grid/disturbance/grid

François Roche ‘Urban (re)fuse’

Based on a simplified version of Gridspring.pde,seven layers are projected in perspective and

spring towers evolve from the grid, ultimately to return?

MVRDV ‘Kissing Towers”grid/disturbance/grid

François Roche ‘Urban (re)fuse’

COIN

CID

ENT D

ISRUPTIO

N

trees What drives our fascination for natural systems?

“what binds me to the trees is something they know how to do and I don’t”Milorad Pavič, Dictionary of the Khazars, 1988

Are we still just as bound to the tree once we have witnessed com-puter generated arborescences so lifelike as to be fooled into thinking it is real?Is it the complexity of the growth, with innumerable variables making each tree a unique instance, which draws us to these forms?

If we can focus simply on the image, 2D or 3D, and marvel at the complexity of this artificial projection, can we be as satisfied by the artificial as the natural?is our purpose to generate complex systems so as to trick the eye, or to create suggestive forms and evolutions. Perhaps the jump in medium of representation can help to go beyond the coldness of the grid, using other protocols like hand tracing over projections in order not only to give texture and feel to the image, but also in order to interpret and mediate between one tool and the eye.

References as found in Hernan Diaz Alonso’s Xefirotarch

STACKIN

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