SITUATED TECHNOLOGIES

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Adrian Cruz, John Mark Nachbar

Nicholas Bruscia

Spring & Fall 2022

ARC605 & ARC606, Situated Technologies Graduate Research Group

MArch

How will immersive technologies transform human experience and spatial practice? The Situated Technologies Graduate Research Group—concerned with exploring the intersection of emerging technologies, space, tectonics, and culture—reflected on this question with two complementary studios in Spring 2022 and Fall 2022, focusing on the use of extended reality (XR) technologies, an umbrella term for virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality technologies.

The first studio concentrated on digitally augmented hand-crafting techniques. Partnering remotely with professionals in the rural village of Hida, Japan, students learned about the fabrication histories and technical innovations associated with the region. This work resulted in largescale chainsaw cutting of local logs, or ‘nemagari’ (bent root), using augmented reality (AR) headsets. AR processes allow for a new use of this material, as these trees grow curved due to snow load on the mountainside, making them unusable in standardized industrial milling operations. After this phase, students experimented with hybrid digital/material workflows using XR tools. Their projects demonstrated how to use digital technologies to foster local engagement, bridging design and production.

Many students from the first studio stayed on for the Fall 2022 iteration of the studio, building on more advanced AR systems. The studio speculated on the representation of the “invisible” through augmented reality imaging in real-time, employing data-driven holograms mediating existing and proposed architectural spaces. The outcome consisted of a series of curated design installations to reveal atmospheric and/or historical specters.

Past As Present

Nachbar’s project aimed to bring awareness and memorial to the former Erie County Almshouse and cemetery, located on the grounds of UB’s South Campus. During the transitional period of ownership between the county and university, the collective memory of this period had faded. To reflect on this history, Nachbar created a hybrid physical and AR experience that used differences in color and height to present population data related to the almshouse records.

As the user explores the model and space of the cemetery in AR space, they may draw close to a physical marker. Based on the user's proximity to the marker, a digital plaque will appear, revealing the age, nativity, sex, and occupation of an individual that would be representative of the almshouse population at large.

Conveying Two Realities

Cruz’s concept conveyed past and future realities using collage drawings and occluded “found” objects. The occluded objects acted as portals that distorted the studio space and the drawings. Cruz’s research was sited at the Salton Sea in California – an artificial lake that came into existence through an engineering fiasco at the beginning of the last century.

Using the Light and Space Movement, an art movement from the 1960s spearheaded by artists like Robert Irwin and Helen Pashgian, geometric shapes and abstraction affect how the viewer perceives the project. The resulting installation pulled the context of the studio space into an AR demonstration.

Nachbar and Cruz’s work serves as a testament to how architectural thinking constantly evolves. These piloting studios are focused on developing new curricula focused on extended reality, which the Department of Architecture has supported via the Formworks funding initiative, a grant program that supports transformative research.

“The studio developed a sense of mutual respect for each other, evident in peer-to-peer technical support and feedback, empathy and emotional support, as well as a studio culture of good humor."

- John Mark Nachbar