Implementing Advanced Knowledge
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5.1.3 Informed Matter Ignacio Borrego
Informed Matter
Incidental, Instrumental and codified information
This research examines the ability of the matter to storage information, and suggests a classification to arrange all its manifestations: incidental, instrumental and codified information. The aim of this text is to describe these procedures (which are three and give way to each of its three chapters), and to determine that all processes of manipulating matter, leaving a trace on it, are produced following one of them. To reach this target an exhaustive route is covered through many different experiences of alteration of matter, to give rise to an extensive classification that provides the basis for interpreting any other intervention. The goal is not so much to classify most relevant interventions in history, but to discover a structure, an order, a taxonomy in these proceedings on the matter for interpreting any event, both in the past and future. This study aims to address one partial, though essential, aspect in any construction prioritizing materiality, with no intention of denying the importance of space in architectural form. It focuses on the parameters relating to the interpretation of the matter. This is a close attention to objects that avoids global understanding to go in depth in specifically material aspects. It neglects the whole to understand the fragment. In architecture, matter has always been under investigation, and therefore has been receiving and storing each progress achieved. The main interest of this thesis focuses on the manipulation of matter that has been carried out with the purpose of constructing, but the field of construction is not unique to the architecture. Other activities such as art and natural science bring aspects and advances that have also been included in this investigation. In fact, many of these activities are not even related to construction, but they make or they reveal relevant procedures in the field of work on matter, which requires its inclusion. This offers a multifaceted approach from interdisciplinary perspectives, to describe rigorously the possibilities found in constructions, both existing and potential applications. Cover - Informed Matter, IaaC Archive Figure 1 - Thom Faulders Studio - Vertical Salt Deposit Growth System, 2009 2
1 – Matter and deformation. Incidental information.
Matter has diverse inherent properties such as hardness, porosity, brittleness, cohesiveness, strength, transparency, temperature, reflectivity, chemical reactivity, carbon-14 dating etc. that enable an object passively accumulate any sort of circumstances occurred on it over time. This alteration of the matter is incidental, that is, that changes happen without altering its substance, and by the simple fact of exposing a substance or an object during a given time to the avatar of context. Matter listens and reacts. This accidental information, seems at first that should have no intention, however, the implementation of actions that allow or promote their appearance lead to results where we read occasionally wills. The idea is to move away from the traditional idea that matter is only a neutral substance, which plays only a structural role, to approach a
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more contemporary notion which is understood as excitable materials by environmental events. Materials, due to their intrinsic characteristics, are able to actively respond to external stimuli, such as those that light up when an electric current passes through them, which expand or contract with changes in temperature or acidity, or materials called smart possessing memory of shape that allows them to recover a previous configuration after deformation. The materials technology approaches to a new era where boundaries are blurred between materials and machines. These alterations, usually superficial consequence of an incidental event or circumstance, require an analysis of the traces through the knowledge of a scientist, with a focus on natural processes.
2 – Matter and conformation. Instrumental information.
Matter is a necessary ingredient in all construction and although the goal is usually a final state, the construction phase influences the result inevitably based on its characteristics and the process through which it reaches any form. Manufacturing involves a constructive process that is directly influenced by the characteristics of the material used, by imposing geometric requirements according to its formal applications. Configurative processes respond to the logic that establishes the materials used and the systematic development of parts. The construction elements are visible. There is no preconceived formal result, but this is the result of assemblage laws established by their materials and elements. These material alterations, unlike incidental ones, are deliberately caused by direct manipulation of the material to change its qualities, or as a result of the construction process. The legacy of the process in the final state, generate a range of information, which is read through knowledge of a builder, with focus on technological processes.
3 – Matter and content. Codified information.
The last step of the information stored in matter, would be a third type that would collect all data that is not accidental or constructive. It is information stated to be read. Man’s intelligence has been able to reflect information symbolically on a material medium. Reading this information requires a language education, or at least cultural knowledge, for its understanding. Any coding procedure involves a representation or a substitution of a new reality by establishing some kind of relationship with the object represented. These mechanisms are very different: allegory, appearance, diagram, emblem, fake, figure, graphic, hieroglyph, icon, idea, ideogram, image, letter, mark, Figure 2 - Ignacio Prieto - CoLaboratorio, 2009 (ETSAM, UPM Madrid)
metaphor, message, metonymy, model, personification, portrait, registration, symbol, sign, symbol, simile, text... This information can cover surfaces with unambiguous messages like hieroglyphs carved on the Egyptian mastabahs or more metaphorical allusions, but they all have in common the desire to communicate. This information needs to be decrypted with the knowledge of a spectator, with a cultural base shared with the encoder agent.
4 - Identity, matter and information
The new materials tend to be less sensitive to incidental information and they offer more outputs for conformation and codification. Among the most recurring objectives of the research about the new materials there is the increase of resistance and other mechanical properties, but also the invulnerability against actions and the trace of time. In 1951 Alexander Mackendrick showed in “The Man in the White Suite� one of the many dreams of mankind to defeat the Laws of Nature through the discovery of new materials. The plot of this story describes how the young chemist Sid Stratton develops a new fabric that never gets dirty or wears out. He deduces from analyzing the chemical properties of long chain molecules that it would be possible to synthesize infinite lengths of a polymer by managing the rupture of the fabric not when fraying the fibres but only when breaking the solid intermolecular bonds. Moreover the existence of static electricity on the
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surface would repel the dirt deposit. The result of the combination of these properties was a material unable to acquire incidental information, up to the point that the designed garments had to be purely white as it wouldn’t be able to fix any type of colouring or dyeing. The film focuses on the dramatic social and economic consequences of a discovery of this dimension which would lead to closing factories, textiles shops, cleaning companies, etc. due to an exhausted market as all garments would permanently be clean and durable. The current research around the new materials focuses basically on three differentiated fields: compound materials (composites), intelligent materials and the nanomaterials. The composites are synthetic materials which heterogeneous blend produces a compound. These combinations aim to respond efficiently to both elemental mechanical stresses that materials can be subjected to: traction and compression. Therefore the composites are constituted by two types of substances with a specific function: cohesion and reinforcement. The cohesion components create the mold that ties, protects and maintains the position of the reinforcement components which form the fibers. This deliberate combination allows to take advantage of the specific characteristics of different materials and apply them to the optimal circumstances and disposition?
Figure 1 - Energy map, Jardin du Luxembourg, drawing by Shujie Chen. Atelier Re-, Ecole SpÊciale d’ Architecture, Paris. 2013. Figure 2 - Cutting table. Photograph by Anthony Boguszewski.
Intelligent materials are those that have the ability to react to external stimuli. The name is confusing since it is only a natural and passive reaction due to extreme physical or chemical properties of some particularly sensitive materials. The variation of temperature, humidity, electric fields, magnetic fields, pH or mechanical stress can trigger changes in the shape or properties of a material with the resulting range of possible applications. Nanotechnology enables the manipulation of materials at the atomic level, allowing the creation of new structures at that scale. Traditionally materials have been the support on which the design was applied, but the evolution of nanotechnology and the new manipulation methods have changed the materials into objects of design themselves. Instead of designing objects, we can design the substances that will generate those objects. Including these three study areas (composites, intelligent materials and nanomaterials) there is the biomimesis, a research model that inspires its innovations in the solutions analysis that Nature itself offers. Natural structures arised by accident but with a demanding verification through an evolutionary process offer references for new material designs according to intensely tested solutions. The cuticles of insects2, the repairing keratine of rhinoceros3, the weaver insect that walks on water4, biofabrics like the spider web5, molluscs nacre (abalones) 6, adhesive substance of blue mussels7, etc., they all turn into models that have lighten up new solutions with unheard applications in the field of materials. The challenge of the new materials research is the uncertainty reduction and the increase of outputs, that is, synthesis and design of substances with properties that limit degradation and other unforeseen or unintended circumstances, while offering exceptional mechanical and handling characteristics. The materials tend to modify their properties to reduce their sensitivity to the environment, such as cement, concrete and mortar that through an additive and a photocatalytic process acquire decontaminating qualities when they decompose noisome and selfcleaning gas that dissolve the accumulated dirt. Nevertheless, in spite of being very interesting from a commercial point of view, as Alexander Mackendrick showed us, this knowledge of material properties should not mean that the goal of this researches must only head toward this end and cancel the capacity of incidental information absorption. The ability of constructions of deformation, deteroration, and capture of traces of experiences around them, must be explored beyond a mere functional questions resolution. Figure 3 - MTM – Civic Center in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid. 2003-2007 8
The accumulation of information in materials, besides mentioning its conformation through constructive process or the “inscription� of encoded meanings, can be enhanced by the preservation of traces of a certain physical context. Incidental information, far from being an involuntary degeneration, can be an intentional and significant part of the constructions conception. However, despite the exciting potential of the registration of these incidental questions, the constructions activity can be explained in most part of the occasions as the productive tension between the configurative (conformation) and the figurative (signification). The figurative or configurative architectural positioning confront both types of information produced by man. The figurative constructive processes use tectonic means to reach a legible form, where the conclusion is an information as a result of the desire of reaching a particular meaningful form not as a result of a circumstantial, accidental or constructive fact. On the other hand, the configurative processes respond to the logic that used materials lay down and the systematic development of their parts, prevailing the prominence of the constructive elements. There is no preconceived formal result, it is the consequence of the set-up laws established by its materials, elements and process. Besides the used material, the fabrication scale gains an essential relevance. Architectural thinking finds its ascertainment in reality when it gets translated into an objectified fact and then the ideas are defined and a proposal gets its scale. The scale is a relative concept, it is a measurement; it is exactly a relation. The architecture doesn’t talk with a single scale, it is the result of overlapped meshes each of one attend different factors and find a compromise in the constructed reality. The interpretation of these dimensions crystallized by the constructive elements transmits the intentions and interests of the architect, from the most thorough modulations coming from structural elements and used systems, but also the most platonic positions that dilute the influence of the constructive process for a more relevant thinking brought into reality straight from the world of ideas. Architecture has traditionally registered the incidental information with intensity and in the western culture is proud of the patina of time. The most radical Modern Movement in its hygienic abstraction moved away its interests in stored information about matter, both accidental and instrumental, although in an involuntary way, and as it was a neutral canvas it turned out to be a relentless record of incidental information. Apart from these considerations about the three sides of the stored
information and the relations between them, putting close attention on the analysis of the matter’s inherent and acquired qualities allows us to distinguish other questions that seem contradictory or away from the prejudice derived from the collective imaginary. Matter is the holder of permanence and stability connotations, however, rest does not exist, all matter is in continuous motion. There is a surprising analogy between solids formed by the slow flow of matter that sometimes is not even perceptible by the human eye, and also the artificially produced apparent crystallization, for example by the capturing an image. On the other hand, the playback speed of a high definition motion picture 8 sequence of a fierce water flow can express opposed material qualities from a fast flow that seems increasing its density becoming viscous as it slows down the film, until its extreme clot if we stop at a frame. The notions of stillness and stability are a result of our perceptive disability to detect high speeds or excessive slowness, and only thanks to evidences recorded on matter and our rational ability to translate them, we are able to reconstruct this processes to move away our vision of an static reality and be able to assemble dynamic models with scientific accuracy. The motion of matter is uninterrupted and is linked as much to its natural condition as to its artificial transformation. The liquid or gaseous state of any matter is a situation of weak internal cohesion that links it directly with motion. The denomination itself of these substances, fluids, has a connotation attached to motion. However solids have not reached an extreme rigid state as we tend to perceive, but is only a high viscosity state that limits not eliminate their motions. Matter is in constant creep. The perception of stability is an interested intellectual construction that we need to simplify and be able to understand our environment, but reality differs from that premise. Even in crystal structures, atoms are in constant vibration and the internal tensions offset in a statistic way so that due to the high quantity of them, the probability of an adequate number of electrons coincide in any direction is highly unlikely, but mathematically possible, and they could lead to apparently extraordinary displacements and apparently random ones as the movement of an inert fragment9. Furthermore, the external forces, like gravity, constantly subdued over solids, has an effect in its configuration. Glass has a macroscopic aspect that corresponds to a solid one, however, from a molecular point of view, glass is an overcooled liquid. What happens is that it is a very viscous material and therefore the speed of flow is very slow, but perceptible within a long term; it would take hundreds of years to notice its creep at room temperature. The case of the stained glass windows of the Amiens cathedral (13th century) which thickness in each of the glass pieces is considerably bigger in the bottom part than in the upper one, has become a polemic evidence 10
of this circumstance. Despite it has been scientifically disproved (for that particular case), the viscous qualities of glass have been confirmed10 and the conclusions that invalidate it refer to the necessity of a period of time much greater to produce that effect, but it is not established that the effect is not real. Consequently, the glass put under its own weight pressure suffers a slow deformation. Depending on the glass composition, its cohesion can be more or less viscous and allows to metrically calculate the passage of time with a certain temporary perspective. From the point of view of human action on matter, it can also be deduce a dynamic and continuous process. Constructions do not reach rest after the realization, but their useful life is a constant progression where matter is subject of a permanent change which perception can be more or less evident, but still has to be taken into account in the design phase.
“The motion of matter is uninterrumped and is linked as much to its natural condition as to its artificial transformation.�
The motion of matter can be caused by incidental facts in a passive form, merely because of being in a context with certain environmental conditions (deformations), or because of the human intervention through artificial processes (conformations) providing constructed matter with a double changeable condition. If we think from a large enough temporary perspective, motionlessness and stability of solids are merely an illusion. Matter is replaceable, corruptible, dispensable. The essence of constructions is in their form. The importance lies in their geometric relations and physical-chemical conditions, in systems, in the group of decisions, solutions and relations between the different elements that make up a construction. The identity is not in the matter, but in the information it harbours. The living matter carries instructions to replace cells gradually over the life of an organism. Most of the human cells are replaced in less than ten years, and those who doesn’t, change their components (molecules and atoms) at a similar speed, to the point that is possible that all matter of a living being may vary without modifying its properties or even its individual awareness. Similarly, the constructions can replace its material components without changing the features of the whole. Architecture has traditionally clung to spatial and temporary stability, however, conditions like changing, light and ephemeral define with more contemporaneity our new context. Since Buckminster Fuller worried us asking about the weight of our buildings, we have dreamed with new forms of facing the need of constructing. The issues that directly influence over a construction configuration have been so multiplied and accelerated that today we know that the impositions and readings that appear during the development of any project will not be the same as the ones that will actually affect the materialized reality along its useful life. Thus, it is a contemporary necessity that buildings are able to adapt to changes, from exchanges of elements that rejuvenates their state, flexibility to assume configuration modifications, and even have the systematic ability to disappear and make way for new structures. Natural selection is a concept that reaches the field of construction, and it is in our hands, that regeneration runs according to sustainability means. The systematics of construction when working it out is as important as during its maintenance, dismantling, materials fabrication and its return to the production line. Theseus paradox brings up the question of whether an object with all its parts replaced is still the same. This uncertainty set out by Plutarco appears from Theseus ship which brought him back to Athens from Crete. In the long voyage, the ship required reparations and the damaged parts where changed 12
successively with new and resistant ones until all the original elements where replaced. In this paradox there is a new question. In case all replaced parts where stored and a new ship where reconstructed with them: Which ship would be the original? The greek philosopher Heraclitus refers to the meaning of identity as identical quality, to offer an opposed vision stating that no man can cross the same river twice, because neither the man nor the water will be the same. However, identity in a wider sense is the set of specific features that define opposite others, so in that case we do accept the river as one only as the man as well, and we would refer to it with a single own name. The question of the progressive replacement of elements in a construction, even has different perceptions among diverse cultures. In the traditional western thinking the originality of an object is linked to the material substratum while the eastern cultures approach to construction identity is clearly closer to the idea that the constructions and objects value lies in the intentionally stored information not as in the matter itself. The british writer Douglas Adams tells us with surprise the anecdote of a visit to the Golden Temple of Kyoto. He was astonished by how it had stood the test of time as it was a 14th century construction, until they explained him that in reality the building did not have stood as it was completely burnt two times during the 20th century: -So, it is not an original building? -On the contrary, of course it is the original –He responded (the guide) a bit surprised by my question. -But wasn’t it burnt? -Yes. -Twice? -Many times. -And it was reconstructed? -Of course. Is an important historic building. -With completely new materials? -Of course, It was burnt! -But in that case, How can it be the same building? -It is always the same building11. This understanding of the identity of what is constructed underlines the value of the intentions that lead to the project, the ideas in the shape of geometry, relations and constructive procedures. This stance is more contemporary from a point of view where specific materials are disdained in favor of the information they carry, however, it ignores the incidental information stored after the execution, which can be a relevant part of the attached information.
Information accumulates, and the prominence of matter vanishes. The tectonic qualities give way to information. The matter becomes information. The matter stops being a collection of intrinsic generic properties to become specific stored information. The matter is an information container, it doesn’t exist while it doesn’t carry contents that give it relevance. The value of matter concentrates in the carried information. The relation between matter and energy described by Albert Einstein in the beginning of the past century, blurred the established principles in classic physics and allowed a new reading of the reality where mass stopped being a stable magnitude unaware of energy. Nicholas Negroponte, from the MIT Media Lab, extends the equivalences and establishes the parallelism between matter and the numeric information, between the real world composed by atoms and the computing world composed by bits12. Nowadays the economic value of objects is still established on its material backup, and not on the stored information. In 1994 in the United States, Negroponte made a visit to one of the leading companies in integrated circuits production and during the access control they requested him to describe the objects he had. And as he was carrying a laptop he had to put its characteristics and its value in a question form. Negroponte estimated it was worth two million dollars. The receptionist surprised asked
“...what gains relevance are the incidents on matter that are registered as information” 14
for a verification and after taking a quick look she estimated it was worth two thousand dollars and allowed him to access. The anecdote reveals how the value of the object was independent of its contents, as the price was based on the atoms not on the bits13. The calculation of the embedded energy as the sum of all energy consumed in the extraction, production, transportation, installation, and any material disposal, is becoming a reference value that determines its use. This magnitude becomes part of the history of a substance in an abstract way as the process doesn’t necessarily leave traces on the matter. This is the embedded energy that is a very important information relating to matter but is not physically stored in it. Traditionally the matter has been valued according to its tectonic characteristics, inherent in its composition. Regarding intern generic properties unaware of the specific conditions of each fragment of material. However, in our contemporary context, the understanding of matter is not limited to its essential features like color, density, transparency, but what gains relevance are the incidents on it that are registered as information. Circumstances gain such an importance that the material origin of a construction or physical production is no longer the main role as it is the complex pile of adhered data that can be interpreted. Matter and the derivative materials have no longer fixed and certain characteristics and they have become in active information hardware. In fact, matter disappears from the discourse because it is the hosted message in it that gives the most important meaning to its presence. Different materials can be manipulated in a similar way, with a similar appearance. Deterioration, adhesion, cuts, prints, technological devices can all show antagonistic or similar materials while on the other hand the same substance but crafted in different ways can become in diverse materials. Matter slowly forgets its condition of substance and tries to become a support, a hardware, the material qualities lead into contents accumulation, of information, that each day is more complex and generous. The identity of a construction does not lie in the matter itself, but in its configuration, in its form as a deep superficial property, in its information. It is informed matter.
*This text is part of the researches derived from the thesis of the author, directed by Federico Soriano, and presented at the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid the 10th of December of 2012. The thesis, was graded cum laude, was entitled: “Materia informada. Deformación, conformación y codificación. Los tres procedimientos de almacenamiento de información en la materia”.
Notes: 1 William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the way we make things. North Point Press, 2002. 2 ABC – 15th of December 2011. “Crean un material fuerte como el aluminio que imita la cutícula de los insectos”. 3 Janine Benyus, “Biomimicry” in Bruce Mau and Institute without Boundaries, Massive Change. Phaidon. NY, 2004. 4 Agencia EFE – 27th of March 2012. “Crean un nuevo material casi insumergible”. 5 MIT.edu 2001. Stephanie Kwolek. “The Creation of Kevlar”. 6 Biomimicry Institute. 7th of July 2004. “Abalone Inspires Lightweight Building Materials”. 7 L. M. Rzepecki, K. M. Hansen and J. H. Waite. The Biological Bulletin, Vol 183, Issue 1 123-137. “Characterization of a Cystine-Rich Polyphenolic Protein Family from the Blue Mussel Mytilus edulis L”. 8 Juan Luís Moraza. -3.200.000/+2.006. Tejidos (Óseos, arquitectónicos, pictóricos). Obra Social de Caja Madrid. Madrid, 2006. Pag. 18. ISBN-13:978-84-95321-882 / ISBN-10:84-95321-88-2. 9 Richard Dawings. “Queerer than we can suppose: the strangeness of science” TED Talks. Oxford, UK. July, 2005. 10 D. G. Holloway. The Physical Properties of Glass; Wykeham: London 1973. Pags. 131-143. 11 Douglas Adams. Last Chance to see. Pan Books in 1990. ISBN: 978-0-34537198-0. 12 Nicholas Negroponte. Being Digital. Knopf ,New York 1999. ISBN: 0-67976290-6. 13 Nicholas Negroponte. “Bits and Atoms”. WIRED, issue 3.01. January, 1995.
Figure 4 - Rock texture, IaaC Archive 16
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