Module Four - Reflection
Rovi Dean Lau
Student No: 543495 Semeter 1/2012 Group 8 Virtual Environments ENVS10008
The Sound Wave Experiment
No Sound, No Life! At the start of this module, we were tasked to choose a natural process to work and develop for our Lantern project. What made me inspired to choose sound waves as my natural process was what I love to do, music. The love for beautiful sound in music is un-explanatory. The wonders about sound are that we cannot see them but we can hear and feel them. It creates this phenomenal feeling that one cannot explain but can feel it inside. Sound creates life, sense of freedom, sense of fear, sense of warmth, sadness and joy, light and dark. When there is no music, there is no life. It intrigues me that something you love cannot be seen. In the reading of “The Man Who Loves Fluids� by Philip Ball, talks about how Leonardo perceive nature and how animates his drawings of flow by capturing its fundamental forms and patterns. Going back to my natural process, perceiving what sound waves are and how I am going to animate the principle of it was my challenge.
Sketches of sound waves.
Chapter One: The Sound Wave Experiment
Research In science, it cannot explain what causes this phenomenal senses and feelings, however it could show us how sounds are made. Principle of sound: Compression and Rarefaction (expansion) of molecules or particles in the air. It needs matter to travel. Sound waves cannot travel through a vacuum.
Sound Waves Influencing Solids
and
Liquids
Top Sound Sculptures; created by sound vibrating the liquid on a surface.
Top Sound vibrating particles to form shapes. Each pitch or frequency creates unique patterns.
Bottom Concepts molded by infuences from patterns and sound waves, compression and rarefaction.
As I went on to do more research on sound waves and how sound waves can be seen, I stumbled upon interesting finds on how people use different types of matter to create sound sculptures. From there, I used its form to mould and form my first concept on sound waves and how it would look like on a body.
Chapter One: The Sound Wave Experiment
Paper Folds
Top Paper folds replicating sound waves.
Mixed Used Development (In progress) Architects: B+U (Herwig Baumgarter & Scott Uriu) Area: LA, California
Looking through precedents and sketches, I tried looking into different materials and try to form how sound waves could be seen. Making different patterns out of paper. Trying to find the relationship between materials and sound waves.
Da Vinci Rotating Tower Architect: Dynamics Architect Group (David Kisher) Area: Dubai, UAE
Chapter One: The Sound Wave Experiment
Left Sketches of development from precedents and earlier research.
Sound Wave Concept From many developments, sketches and moulds, I finally formed a shape that best represents what sound waves are in a lantern form. Sending out the message to the audience what sound waves mean and how it feels. Sound is pure, yet it gives different emotions and senses to different people. Replicating that feeling into a form was my challenge and I believe that this form replicates that phenomenal feeling. With its wavy like structure, fluid form and grabbing around the body gives that sound is part of us. Life would be empty without it.
Chapter One: The Sound Wave Experiment
Making Frankenstein
Imagination
to
Digizitation The challenge now was to replicate the form that I moulded out using plasticine into virtual space. I felt that it was important to keep the shape as much as possible because if the shape is an awkward shape, it may bring the wrong sense of message to the audience. Key things that it should be shown was the fluidity and the holes which shows that sound waves disperse. At first I started out by mapping my first mould, however I figured out it was impossible for Rhino to loft 4 different individual curves at ones. That was the limitation I had to work around with. So I made another mould, but this time it was a whole piece. Mapped it and sliced it, managed to bring it into the virtual world. From there, I adjusted and manipulated the lofted surface to the desired shape. Twisted the seam curve and using cage edit to keep the shape as close as the mould.
Top The process on how I put it into Rhino.
Chapter Two: Making Frankenstein
Top Twisted the seam curve to give me that desired shape. Left The final outcome.
Concepts of Different Shapes These are the few concepts that I had. Trying out which concept best suits my natural process as sound waves. When the audience sees this shape or form, it has to have this random shape formed with the feeling of violence yet peaceful or harsh yet quietness. Sound waves are not just about waves, different mediums give different kinds of waves. If it is loud and harsh, there will be big sharp sound waves. If it is quiet and peaceful, there will be round and gentle waves.
Custom 3D Panel
3d Partition
Chapter Two: Making Frankenstein
Panel 3D Pyramid 2 + Offset Face Borders
Custom 3D + FinEdges
CUstom 3D + Curve Attractor + Offset Face Borders
F i n d i n g T h e P i e c e s (P a r t 1) Thinking about sound waves, The Esplanade is a place for music and performances which relates to my natural process, sound waves. On the roof, it has triangle panels to shield of the sun rays at a certain direction. It has that effect where it looks open from the front and closed from the side. Analysing that pattern, I needed to show the audience how different sound waves are in a form of a lantern, solid form. Once on the surface, I edited the points manually to create the effect of compression and rarefaction of sound waves. I did not use curve attractors or other forms because I wanted random length of triangles, giving a compressed - explosive random look. Offsetting the face borders are for the lights to illuminate.
Chapter Two: Making Frankenstein
The Esplanade (Singapore) Architect: DP Architect (Singapore) & Michael Wilford & Partners, UK Completed in 2012
F i n d i n g T h e P i e c e s (P a r t 2)
The precedents gave me an idea on how I am going to create my twisted holes for my lantern. Evolver Architect: Alice Studio (grop of students from Ecole polytechnique fĂŠdĂŠrale de lausanne) zermatt, switzerland Completed in 2010
Chapter Two: Making Frankenstein
Once I panelled my surface, I ungroup them and deleted the panels one by one, creating a space for the light to illuminate out as well as manipulating closely to my plasticine model. This step was important in my design as we go back to my natural process and concept model. Because of Rhino’s limitations where I could not loft 4 individual pieces together, this method was the best way to resemble my natural process as sound waves. It represents the rarefaction of sound, dispersing randomly and fading away.
Thematic Pavilion EXPO 2012 Yeosu, South Korea Architect: SOMA (Austrian firm founded in 2007) Construction date: 2010 (completion 2012)
F i n d i n g T h e P i e c e s (P a r t 3) This precedent gave me an idea for material and lighting for my lantern. It was impossible for Rhino to prototype the light, so I had to improvise by constructing a pyramid shape and using LED lights. At night, this pavilion has a light that goes along the walls of the building in a wave pattern. But what caught my attention was how the light was not striking but calm and relaxes. This relates to my natural process in a way where sound is not always harsh. It can be soothing and relaxing as well. To manipulate the effect, I placed the light behind a tracing paper which helps diffuse the harsh light and gives a soft light, creating a sense of peace and quietness. Letting the audience have that phenomenal sense the lantern is not harsh from the spikes yet having that comfort and peace in it. Another unexpected find was that it helps the lantern to glow as well.
Chapter Two: Making Frankenstein
Top Prototype light effect of the triangle.
Final Design - Orthographic Views
Top
Front
Perspective
Right
I learnt that in digital form, there are limitations it can go compared to freehand drawing or sketching or plasticine. There is a positive benefit I would say about using 3D software to fabricate objects is that it has more accuracy and precision to the tenth and hundredth than any human. Another benefit is that we can see our object in 3D before it is made, enabling us to manipulate and edit, which gives use a good judgment about the design before making it. In the reading “Mathematics and the Sensible World� by Dahan, explains that mathematics and and the world influence each other. And also in our lecture, Henry Segerman also explains about how mathematics are all around us, and he shows us those obscure shapes which are actually formed by mathematics. This shows that within this 3D software, all of it is formed by mathematics. However, the mathematics in the 3D software could not create what my origial concept was but it influence me to push myself to work with the software and find an alternate way to create what sound waves meant.
Chapter Two: Making Frankenstein
IT’s ALIVE!
First Baby Step Before anything could fly, we must first learn how to crawl. I started by making a prototype of scale 1:3 with an A4 paper, 80gsm, of the head and the body. I needed to know which way is the best to unroll and stick my surface probably so that it does not create an awkward mess which I do not intend to. I planned to unroll it in a way which still keeps the flow of the twisted structure. One constrain that I encountered was that it was difficult to stick sharp corners together. The other constrain was I did not want the audience to see where my tabs are when the lantern is illuminated. If it was seen, it would not create that calm peaceful sense of sound waves. Outcome: Not good to unroll vertically due to the shape of the panels, giving it a hard time to stick sharp corners together.
Top Prototype of model - Scale (1:3) Material: White A4 paper 80gsm
Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!
T a b s F r o m G r a s s h o pp e r Found a script for grasshopper which made things easier. In order to manually edit tabs from grasshopper, I had to bake them first then explode it in Rhino. This allowed me to deleted tabs that I do not need and resize individual tabs. Once the tabs were created, I arranged my surfaces into the area of 900x600mm and were ready for cutting.
From this 1:1 prototype, I wanted to test out whether the paper cutter has its limits to cutting size as well as whether unrolling the surfaces in a twisted manner would work. This was important for the design as it hides the tabs when the lantern is illuminated. Lastly, testing out the lights on the prototype. Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!
Labels
and
C o l o u r (H e a d )
After my first 1:3 prototype, I carried on with a full scale prototype. It makes more sense for me to do a full scale prototype due to its fragile triangular shape panels. Unrolled it in a twisted manner, mmistake laernt from my first prototype.
Head
Legend: - Above
Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!
- Below
Label
and
C o l o u r (B o d y )
Unrolled in a twisted manner. Designing it as close as possible to my plasticine.
Body
Legend: - Above
Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!
- Below
Label
and
C o l o u r (T a i l )
Tail also unrolled in a twisted manner. Showing the flow of wave going through the lantern; soundwave.
Tail
Legend: - Above
Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!
- Below
While making my prototype, I found a mistake. There were double tabs on the same side of the joint. So I resolved it by cutting it away and edit it on Rhino as I go along. One limitation of Rhino was that it could not score the material on the other side. If you want to fold or bend the material upwards, we have to manually score it ourselves.
P r o t o t y p e S c a l e 1:1
Above Underscore the otherside of the paper to fold upwards to form triangles.
Trying out the lights in my prototype, found out that the panels does not give the lantern and the natural process justice. It does not show to the audiences the calm and peaceful sense of a sound wave. So I went to edit that panels and changed the materials for my final model. Right Prototype scale 1:1
Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!
Materials,
m a t e r i a l s , m a t e r i a l s ... I tried using tracing paper, black paper or polypropylene for the effects on the body. Polypropylene was more rigid then tracing paper, however it was too clear. It did not diffuse the light like how a paper lantern does.
Tracing Paper
Using tracing paper is not the only thing that will represent a soothing sound waves, the light plays a part as well. It is where the life of the sound wave comes alive. Creating from a harsh to soft lighting, I grouped a bunch of LEDs in a descending order, leaving the last light dim.
Black paper did not allow the light to pass through, so went back to the original idea, tracing paper. The idea of using tracing paper was as close as I could get to what soothing, peaceful sound waves represents.
Black paper - 200gsm
Top Connected them in Parallel: - Shares the same voltage across all LEDs Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!
I t ’ s ALIVE!
Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!
Final Design
Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!
From the first day when I first stepped into the room of Baldwin Spencer, uncertain of what I will learn except that it was something relating to virtual design. For the first few weeks, I did not know what was going on; it was still a blur to me despite having the grading rubric and readings that we have to read every week. To me, at first, it did not make any sense between the readings, lectures and what we were supposed to do, until the period between module two and three where I started to get hold of the module. It started to make sense once we had to create a virtual module and fabricate it. All the readings and lectures were meant to help us explore the impossibilities to possible outcomes, stretching one’s mind and ideas and explore and growth with the idea, our natural process. In the reading “Replacing Space in the Digital Dialectic” and “New Genius of Place in E-Topia” by W. Mitchell, explains to us how the virtual world has evolved within a decade. When I was reading that, I thought of how our buildings have changed so much, from the impossible to the possible. For example, in the year 1966, the sci-fi movie series, Star Trek, shows all futuristic stuff, from sliding doors to laser guns. Another movie was Starwars (1977), showing off lasers and touch screen technology. In reality during those years, it was impossible but as years go by, we now have sliding doors at almost every convenient store, touch screen technology, as well as lasers. This reminded me that nothing is impossible in the world. Another obscure situation from a movie would be Terminators. It is about robots taking over the world and having the humans extinct. At this present day, most of us could not live without technology on us. Is technology taking over the world? May be and maybe not. As for my future studies, I planned to be an architect and build structures which are out of this world, thanks to this virtual module. Giving me the opportunity to explore virtual world in designing first hand, at least now I know where I stand and using that knowledge to my advantage. Manipulating, editing and deleting, changing the idea without worrying, using that undo command, the world of designing has changed. From the parade on Monday evening, it was an experience to view all different lanterns and no one in that vicinity has the same design. It opened up my mind to improve my lantern design if it was possible. Firstly making it bigger, gives it more shape and depth. Secondly, giving it a more distinct look, probably mixing it with black paper or other colours for the twisted body which represents sound wave. Lastly, adjusting the lights to show more on what my lantern means and represents. Now this module has come to an end and moving on to the next, but learning does not end, it will be a on going process, a life cycle. Chapter Three: It’s ALIVE!