Pneuma[ ]

p[r] Pneuma Research [2005 – ongoing]Ongoing research into issues of indeterminacy (open endedness) in cellular, generative and interactive assemblies. The research is hands on culminating at various moments in public manifestations, exhibitions and installations.

p[a] Pneuma Assemblage [2007][Île Sainte-Hélène: Montreal]Inflatable installation: a construct of air, a biological assemblage of cells and valves to magnify unseen natural phenomenon into the scale of the constructed world, experience and behaviours.

p[d] Pneuma Device [2007][Joyce Yahouda Gallery: Montreal]Gallery installation: a device for registration of imperceptible changes, small perturbances, tics and involuntary movements. Comprised of various circuits, to channel the flows of electrons, light, and air.

Pneuma is an open source research and project platform. Pneuma’s activities include: initiating research, conducting projects, establishing collaborations, developing affiliations and dissemination, Formed by Peter Hasdell and Patrick Harrop, Pneuma work and projects to date include:

Pneuma[ ]

p[a] Pneuma Assemblage [concept drawing]p[dr] Vector base for lasercut artwork

p[r]Research p[r] Pneuma Research [2005 – ongoing]

Pneuma Research investigates issues of indeterminacy (open endedness) in cellular, generative and interactive assemblies. The research derives from interests in Daidala (a category of objects that seeks to imbue inanimate matter with an animus), responsive systems, generative processes (in CNC and responsive or scripted environments) and open source paradigms of making, hacking and doing. The ongoing research considers evolution, mutation, adaptation, imperfections, viral replications and unscripted behaviours. Component failures and genetic dead-ends are also a part of this same field of interest. The research involves conceptualisation, prototyping / rapid prototyping and fabrication. A strong emphasis is placed on development, making and full size testing as open-ended processes.

To date Pneuma Research has developed research and expertise in:CNC material re-purposingGenerative and evolving CNC fabricated connector systems Rapid prototyping as a mutation processElastomer and flexible material structures fabricationLaser-welded inflatable prototypingNichrome (hand) welded inflatable prototypingBEAM robotics and interaction systemsSimple pneumatic systemsFlexible structural systems

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p[r][laser][hex]

p[r][laser][ray]

p[r][laser][block]

p[r][nichrome][hex]

p[r][nichrome][make]

p[r][laser][series]

p[r][lasercut][drawing]

p[r][laser][tn]

p[r][nichrome][make]

p[r][laser][tn]

p[r][nichrome][tools]

p[r][laser][tn]

p[a][connections]

p[r][nichrome][inflate]

p[r][nichrome][workshop]

p[r][nichrome][hex]

p[a]Assemblagep[a] Pneuma Assemblage [2007] [Île Sainte-Hélène: Montreal]

Pneuma Assemblage a public art installation, commissioned for Artefact Urban Sculptures 2007 in Ile Ste Hèlene in Montreal as a part of the 40 year anniversary celebrations of Expo 1967. Sited 100 meters from Buckminster Fuller’s Dome, Pneuma Assemblage comprised a pneumatic installation using many interconnected inflated cells on a flexible substructure. The installation was able to respond to changing conditions in its milieu with the potential to exhibit various behaviours and responses.

The installation development occurred through a generative process, in which inflatable cell prototypes were continually added to the overall assemblage. Pneumatic cells were evolved, mutated or adapted in the next generation of cells, as a phylogeny of imperfection and mutation. As a result the installation included the processes of its formation and evolution within its matrix, creating a meshwork between the whole and its cells that was unpredictable in outcome.

Conceptually the installation drew from a context of 1960s Immaterial Architecture, Archigram’s “Blowout” and Yves Klein’s Air Architecture. The connection between the counter culture roots of the inflatable movement and the nature of the Expo 67 itself offered a potential to critically update the inflatable folly.

p[a][plan]

p[a][connections]

p[a][bucky][a]

p[a][clouds]

p[a][detail]

p[a][shadows]

p[a][iris]

p[a][structure]

p[a][bucky][b]

p[d]Devicep[d] Pneuma Device [2007] [Joyce Yahouda Gallery: Montreal]

Pneuma Device, a commissioned site-specific installation and Instruction Manual.

Instruction Manual contains the components of the installation and the instructions for the assembly of the installation. Constructed from laser cutter cut sheets, it can be replicated and expanded, employing sets of simple physical relationships intended to grow into a scaleless set of complex behaviors, but able to fold back into the book to be re-configured elsewhere.

The Pneuma Device installation comprised of a series inflatable cells and BEAM robotics employing electronic sensors, pneumatics and mechanical systems to engage the viewer, their shadows and their movements in space to cause continual slight adjustments to the installation.

p[d][shadows][a]

p[d][shadows][c]

p[d][climbers][prototypes]

p[d][climbers]

p[d][sensors]

p[d][armature]

p[d][shadows][b]

p[d][gallery]

p[d][cells]

p[d][sensors]

With

p[r] Michael Banman, Dirk Blouw, Spencer Cutten, Carl Drohomereski, Ryan Gorrie, Andrew Lewthwaite, Darcy Fraser-MacDonald, Zach Pauls and others

p[a] Dirk Blouw, Carl Drohomereski, Zach Pauls, Brian Rex / Texas Tech Students and others

p[d] Carl Drohomereski Affiliations CAST: Centre for Architecture Structures and Technology, University of Manitoba, WinnipegFaculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba, WinnipegSchool of Architecture, McGill University, MontrealSchool of Design, Polytechnic University of Hong Kong

CollaboratorsCanadian Design Research NetworkBrian Rex, College of Architecture, Texas Tech University, LubbockTopological Media Lab, Hexagram, Concordia University, MontrealSmith Vigeant Architectes, MontrealCatalyse Urbaine Architects and Landscape Architects, MontrealAna Rewakowiz Artist, Montreal

Peter Hasdell [aa diploma, b.sc.(hons)(arch), riba, sar]

Architect, artist and academic. Trained in Australia and the UK, practiced / worked in Australia, Europe, Asia and North America, has taught in Europe and North America

Patrick H. Harrop [b.arch(prof.) m.arch(p-prof) moaq maa mraic]

Architect and academic. Trained in Canada, practiced in Canada and USA, Associate professor of Architecture at the University of Manitoba.

p[who]

a. Pneuma, pneus, pneumatics. Containers of almost nothing: a pulmonary void.b. Cells: biological and behavioral automata and cellular pneumata, divers d’ampoules pour fluroscopie. c. Aether, breath, gaseous matter and the stuff that fills the space between things. d. Manual of assemblage: A step by step guide that is both the piece itself and a set of explicit instructions for assembly, process and a map of its implications at a critical level. e. Daidala, a family of objects imbuing lifelike attributes or anima into inanimate matter. f. Sensors and senses: an experiential mimesis analogous to a cognitive process.g. Biological topology: the analogous magnification of unperceivable natural phenomenon into the scale of the lived world. h. Circuits: Heterogeneous layers of physical and synaptic systems channel the flows of electrons, light, and air i. [ ]j. Nervous systems, anxious assemblies, agitators and generators of small perturbances, tics and involuntary movements, feedback, self regulation and metabolic systems.k. Synaptic and haptic responses: Transmission and reception of a multiplicity of binary relationships to provoke a complex neural network. l. Ocular projection, lenses and scopic fields m. Microscope, telescope and the magnification of phenomena, bringing things distant up closen. Marionette: A proxy of movement. A manifestation of motor functions tethered and controlled from a manifold outside of the body.o. Light and shadow. Shadow projection, the foliage on a tree, a passing cloudp. Plato’s cave

p[attributes]

Contact

Pneuma [ ]w: www.pneumata.net e: info@pneumata.net

Peter Hasdellp: +852 9475 4177e: peter@hasdell.com

Patrick H. Harropp: +514 862 6429e: harropp@cc.umanitoba.ca design[zach pauls]