VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS MATTHEW GREENWOOD - 641211 MODULE 1: IDEATION
1.1 PATTERNS IN NATURE I researched natural patterns online finding many examples in the petals of flowers. Spiderwebs also provided and example of patterns in biological structures. The spiraling shape of a nautilus shell stood out to me amongst the rest. As the creature and the shell grows small chambers are created progressively getting larger.
Unknown. (2010). Patterns in Nature. [image onlines] Available at: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/5144001335_cd376f64e9.jpg [Accessed: 10/03/2013].
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BALANCE/SYMMETRY
PROGRESSION OF SCALE
MOVEMENT/FLOW
RECIPE Step 1. Choose a point from witch the pattern will expand.
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Step 2. Create a spiral that starts looping around the centre point very tight and expands as it gets further out, this creates a curved “funnel”
Step 3. Create small curved lines that span the “funnel”, these curved lines become thicker and further spaced as they progress.
1.2 RHINO TUTORIALS
SELECTING OBJECTS
RECTANGULAR ARRAY
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SCALING OBJECTS
MANIPULATED CURVES
CREATING OBJECTS
MIRRORED BOXES
1 RAIL SWEEP
REVOLVE
2 RAIL SWEEP
RAIL REVOLVE
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PIPES
1.3 WEEKLY READING AND REFLECTION
In this weeks lecture we looked at how through virtual representation, we can see information and patterns not normally perceivable to our eyes. The images we were shown provoked a lot of thinking about how we see are world, how the world is structured and how virtual modeling of these patterns will be able to influence the work I do as a designer. Our first tasks included researching patterns in nature, analysing how they are structured, and in doing so creating a recipe on how they are created. I wanted to choose something other than the copious amounts of flower patterns that I was founding so I settled on the well known shape of a nautilus shell. The small compartments created as the animal grows fascinates me and creates a beautiful pattern. To guide us through the analysis of these patterns we were provided with a reading on “Tooling” by Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch, This reading told the story of Wilson Bentley who studied snowflakes for 45 years to discover that no two snow flake crystals are identical. He asked questions of why every single example of snowflake was governed by the ‘rule of six’ having no knowledge at the time of his research of the atom. In the reading Aranda and Lasch outline the seven algorithmic (Aranda, Lasch, 2006) techniques of Tooling: spiraling, pacing, weaving, blending, cracking, flocking and tiling. These techniques can be used to describe and dissect patterns in our world. The remainder of the reading gives us examples of how Aranda and Lasch implement ‘tooling’ to create analytical drawings of patterns as well as constructing recipes on each of them. Aranda, B, Lasch, C, 2006, Tooling, Princeton Architectural Press, New York
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Snowflakes (Aranda, Lasch, 2006)