Last week, F.A.T. introduced the Graffiti Markup Language (GML), a new XML file type specifically designed for archiving graffiti tags. Of course it doesn’t make sense to only archive those tags, you should also be able to reproduce them. And that’s exactly what Golan Levin and Jeremy Ficca did. They wrote a small tool to translate the .GML files from 000000book.com into instructions for their industrial ABB IRB-4400 robot arm. If they now could place his robot on a truck like Evan Rothsuggested …
Here you can find some more details about the Robotagger.
The Senster was a robotic sculpture developed by Edward Ihnatowicz in the late 60’s. It was commisioned by Philips and part of their permanent showplace, the Evoluon, in Eindhoven between 1970 and 1974. It was the first robotic sculpture to be controlled by a computer and could react to the behaviour of the visitors with its sound and movement sensors. The computer used to control The Senster was a Philips P9201 and had only 8K of core memory. Now, almost 40 years later, every interaction student could make something like this and fit the logic in a small box. But this is still an amazing project.
Tomorrow starts the construction of the architectural installion “Pike Loop” at the Storefront of Art and Architecture (New York), together with the opening of the exhibition of the work of Swiss architects Gramazio & Kohler on Architecture and Digital Fabrication. Gramazio & Kohler shipped R-O-B, their Mobile Fabrication Unit robot, to New York to build Pike Loop, a 22m long structure built from bricks.
I would really like to see these kind of fabrication techniques to be used more often, they definitely offer new possibilities to architecture and design.
This is a photo of another design called “Structural Oscillations”, it should give you an idea how Pike Loop could look like when it’s finished.
Kunstrasen is the German word for artifical turf but you could also interpret it as art turf. It’s also the name of Sebastian Neitsch and Jan Bernstein their robot. You can send any vector based artwork to the robot and it will then burn that design into the grass. You can see it at the exhibition Paraflows 09: Urban Hacking in Vienna starting this Friday.
Growth Modeling Device is a kinetic installation by David Bowen. The machine uses lasers to scan a plant, in this case an onion, from 3 different angles. That data is then used in real-time by a fuse deposition modeler, to create a plastic model of the current state of the plant. This process takes place every 24 hours, but each time the plant is scanned from a different angle. In the end you have several models illustrating the growth of the plant. You can see a video of this installation here.
This is actually a little similar to an older project of David: Growth Rendering Device.
I assume that you all know about TED by now and that we all want to go there … Golan Levin, half artist half engineer, was one of the speakers at TED last February. He has done the most amazing projects like Messa di Voce or Double-Taker. Yes, I’m a fan. So I can recommend you to watch his presentation.
Hiroo Iwata developed these Robot Tiles. You have to imagine them as movable floor tiles which arrange them automatically in front of you as you walk. They’re covered with KURALON® EC, a textile made of conductive fibers. So when you step on it, it can detect in with direction you’re heading. It was part of the Tokyo Fiber ‘09 Senseware exhibition during the Milan furniture fair.
As always, a video will make it clear to you.
Drone #2 by Björn Schülke is an autonomous observing system.
The futuristic appearance of “Drone #2″ seems like a requisite from a science fiction film.The autonomous hi-tech construct, consisting of solar cells, heat sensors,propellors, videochips and a TFT monitor is suspended from the ceiling and reacts to the “warmblooded” spectator without him or her being able to directly influence its movement.
This construction, at first glance finely structured and fragile, mutates, once activated, into a menacing surveillance apparatus whose function is nothing but permanent observation.
