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CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
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_id	ga9926
id	ga9926
authors	Antonini, Riccardo
year	1999
title	Let's Improvise Together
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	The creators of ‘Let's-Improvise-Together’ adhere to the idea that while there is a multitude of online games now available in cyberspace, it appears that relatively few are focused on providing a positive, friendly and productive experience for the user. Producing this kind of experience is one the goals of our Amusement Project.To this end, the creation of ‘Let's Improvise Together’ has been guided by dedication to the importance of three themes:* the importance of cooperation,* the importance of creativity, and* the importance of emotion.Description of the GameThe avatar arrives in a certain area where there are many sound-blocks/objects. Or he may add sound "property" to existing ones. He can add new objects at will. Each object may represents a different sound, they do not have to though. The avatar walks around and chooses which objects he likes. Makes copies of these and add sounds or change the sounds on existing ones, then with all of the sound-blocks combined make his personalized "instrument". Now any player can make sounds on the instrument by approaching or bumping into a sound-block. The way that the avatar makes sounds on the instrument can vary. At the end of the improvising session, the ‘composition’ will be saved on the instrument site, along with the personalized instrument. In this way, each user of the Amusement Center will leave behind him a unique instrumental creation, that others who visit the Center later will be able to play on and listen to. The fully creative experience of making a new instrument can be obtained connecting to Active Worlds world ‘Amuse’ and ‘Amuse2’.Animated colorful sounding objects can be assembled by the user in the Virtual Environment as a sort of sounding instrument. We refrain here deliberately from using the word musical instrument, because the level of control we have on the sound in terms of rythm and melody, among other parameters, is very limited. It resembles instead, very closely, to the primitive instruments used by humans in some civilizations or to the experience made by children making sound out of ordinary objects. The dimension of cooperation is of paramount importance in the process of building and using the virtual sounding instrument. The instrument can be built on ones own effort but preferably by a team of cooperating users. The cooperation has as an important corolary: the sharing of the experience. The shared experience finds its permanence in the collective memory of the sounding instruments built. The sounding instrument can be seen also as a virtual sculpture, indeed this sculpture is a multimedial one. The objects have properties that ranges from video animation to sound to virtual physical properties like solidity. The role of the user representation in the Virtual World, called avatar, is important because it conveys, among other things, the user’s emotions. It is worth pointing out that the Avatar has no emotions on its own but it simply expresses the emotions of the user behind it. In a way it could be considered a sort of actor performing the script that the user gives it in real-time while playing.The other important element of the integration is related to the memory of the experience left by the user into the Virtual World. The new layout is explored and experienced. The layout is a permanent editable memory. The generative aspects of Let's improvise together are the following.The multi-media virtual sculpture left behind any participating avatar is not the creation of a single author/artist. The outcome of the sinergic interaction of various authors is not deterministic, nor predictable. The authors can indeed use generative algorythm in order to create the texture to be used on the objects. Usually, in our experience, the visitors of the Amuse worlds use shareware programs in order to generate their texture. In most cases the shareware programs are simple fractals generators. In principle, it is possible to generate also the shape of the object in a generative way. Taking into account the usual audience of our world, we expected visitors to use very simple algorythm that could generate shapes as .rwx files. Indeed, noone has attempted to do so insofar. As far as the music is concerned, the availability of shareware programs that allow simple generation of sounds sequences has made possible, for some users, to generate sounds sequences to be put in our world. In conclusion, the Let's improvise section of the Amuse worlds could be open for experimentation on generative art as a very simple entry point platform. We will be very happy to help anybody that for educational purposes would try to use our platform in order to create and exhibit generative forms of art.
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	2145
authors	Engeli, Maia and Mueller Andre
year	1999
title	Digital Environments for Learning and Collaboration Architecture, Communication, Creativity, Media and Design Process
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1999.040
source	Media and Design Process [ACADIA ‘99 / ISBN 1-880250-08-X] Salt Lake City 29-31 October 1999, pp. 40-52
summary	Digital networks are gaining importance as environments for learning and creative collaboration. Technical achievements, software enhancements, and a growing number of applicable principles make it possible to compile complex environments that satisfy many aspects necessary for creative collaboration. This paper focuses on three issues: the architecture of collaborative environments, communication in these environments and the processes inherent to creative collaboration. The information architecture of digital environments looks different from physical architecture, mainly because the material that it is made out of is information and not stone, wood or metal and the goal is to pro-vide appropriate paths and views to information. Nonetheless, many analogies can be drawn between information architecture and physical architecture, including the need for useability, aesthetics, and consistency. To communicate is important for creative collaboration. Digital networks request and enable new strategies for communicating. Regarding the collaborative creative process we have been able to detect principles and features that enhance this process, but there are still many unanswered questions. For example, the environment can enable and improve the frequency of surprise and coincidence, two factors that often play decisive roles in the creative processes but cannot be planned for in advance. Freedom and transparency within the environment are other important factors that foster creative collaboration. The following findings are based on numerous courses, which we have taught using networked environments and some associated, research projects that helped to verify their applicability for architectural practice.
series	ACADIA
type	normal paper
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	ga0026
id	ga0026
authors	Ransen, Owen F.
year	2000
title	Possible Futures in Computer Art Generation
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	Years of trying to create an "Image Idea Generator" program have convinced me that the perfect solution would be to have an artificial artistic person, a design slave. This paper describes how I came to that conclusion, realistic alternatives, and briefly, how it could possibly happen. 1. The history of Repligator and Gliftic 1.1 Repligator In 1996 I had the idea of creating an “image idea generator”. I wanted something which would create images out of nothing, but guided by the user. The biggest conceptual problem I had was “out of nothing”. What does that mean? So I put aside that problem and forced the user to give the program a starting image. This program eventually turned into Repligator, commercially described as an “easy to use graphical effects program”, but actually, to my mind, an Image Idea Generator. The first release came out in October 1997. In December 1998 I described Repligator V4 [1] and how I thought it could be developed away from simply being an effects program. In July 1999 Repligator V4 won the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation prize for "Best Graphics Program of 1999". Prize winners are never told why they won, but I am sure that it was because of two things: 1) Easy of use 2) Ease of experimentation "Ease of experimentation" means that Repligator does in fact come up with new graphics ideas. Once you have input your original image you can generate new versions of that image simply by pushing a single key. Repligator is currently at version 6, but, apart from adding many new effects and a few new features, is basically the same program as version 4. Following on from the ideas in [1] I started to develop Gliftic, which is closer to my original thoughts of an image idea generator which "starts from nothing". The Gliftic model of images was that they are composed of three components: 1. Layout or form, for example the outline of a mandala is a form. 2. Color scheme, for example colors selected from autumn leaves from an oak tree. 3. Interpretation, for example Van Gogh would paint a mandala with oak tree colors in a different way to Andy Warhol. There is a Van Gogh interpretation and an Andy Warhol interpretation. Further I wanted to be able to genetically breed images, for example crossing two layouts to produce a child layout. And the same with interpretations and color schemes. If I could achieve this then the program would be very powerful. 1.2 Getting to Gliftic Programming has an amazing way of crystalising ideas. If you want to put an idea into practice via a computer program you really have to understand the idea not only globally, but just as importantly, in detail. You have to make hard design decisions, there can be no vagueness, and so implementing what I had decribed above turned out to be a considerable challenge. I soon found out that the hardest thing to do would be the breeding of forms. What are the "genes" of a form? What are the genes of a circle, say, and how do they compare to the genes of the outline of the UK? I wanted the genotype representation (inside the computer program's data) to be directly linked to the phenotype representation (on the computer screen). This seemed to be the best way of making sure that bred-forms would bare some visual relationship to their parents. I also wanted symmetry to be preserved. For example if two symmetrical objects were bred then their children should be symmetrical. I decided to represent shapes as simply closed polygonal shapes, and the "genes" of these shapes were simply the list of points defining the polygon. Thus a circle would have to be represented by a regular polygon of, say, 100 sides. The outline of the UK could easily be represented as a list of points every 10 Kilometers along the coast line. Now for the important question: what do you get when you cross a circle with the outline of the UK? I tried various ways of combining the "genes" (i.e. coordinates) of the shapes, but none of them really ended up producing interesting shapes. And of the methods I used, many of them, applied over several "generations" simply resulted in amorphous blobs, with no distinct family characteristics. Or rather maybe I should say that no single method of breeding shapes gave decent results for all types of images. Figure 1 shows an example of breeding a mandala with 6 regular polygons: Figure 1 Mandala bred with array of regular polygons I did not try out all my ideas, and maybe in the future I will return to the problem, but it was clear to me that it is a non-trivial problem. And if the breeding of shapes is a non-trivial problem, then what about the breeding of interpretations? I abandoned the genetic (breeding) model of generating designs but retained the idea of the three components (form, color scheme, interpretation). 1.3 Gliftic today Gliftic Version 1.0 was released in May 2000. It allows the user to change a form, a color scheme and an interpretation. The user can experiment with combining different components together and can thus home in on an personally pleasing image. Just as in Repligator, pushing the F7 key make the program choose all the options. Unlike Repligator however the user can also easily experiment with the form (only) by pushing F4, the color scheme (only) by pushing F5 and the interpretation (only) by pushing F6. Figures 2, 3 and 4 show some example images created by Gliftic. Figure 2 Mandala interpreted with arabesques Figure 3 Trellis interpreted with "graphic ivy" Figure 4 Regular dots interpreted as "sparks" 1.4 Forms in Gliftic V1 Forms are simply collections of graphics primitives (points, lines, ellipses and polygons). The program generates these collections according to the user's instructions. Currently the forms are: Mandala, Regular Polygon, Random Dots, Random Sticks, Random Shapes, Grid Of Polygons, Trellis, Flying Leap, Sticks And Waves, Spoked Wheel, Biological Growth, Chequer Squares, Regular Dots, Single Line, Paisley, Random Circles, Chevrons. 1.5 Color Schemes in Gliftic V1 When combining a form with an interpretation (described later) the program needs to know what colors it can use. The range of colors is called a color scheme. Gliftic has three color scheme types: 1. Random colors: Colors for the various parts of the image are chosen purely at random. 2. Hue Saturation Value (HSV) colors: The user can choose the main hue (e.g. red or yellow), the saturation (purity) of the color scheme and the value (brightness/darkness) . The user also has to choose how much variation is allowed in the color scheme. A wide variation allows the various colors of the final image to depart a long way from the HSV settings. A smaller variation results in the final image using almost a single color. 3. Colors chosen from an image: The user can choose an image (for example a JPG file of a famous painting, or a digital photograph he took while on holiday in Greece) and Gliftic will select colors from that image. Only colors from the selected image will appear in the output image. 1.6 Interpretations in Gliftic V1 Interpretation in Gliftic is best decribed with a few examples. A pure geometric line could be interpreted as: 1) the branch of a tree 2) a long thin arabesque 3) a sequence of disks 4) a chain, 5) a row of diamonds. An pure geometric ellipse could be interpreted as 1) a lake, 2) a planet, 3) an eye. Gliftic V1 has the following interpretations: Standard, Circles, Flying Leap, Graphic Ivy, Diamond Bar, Sparkz, Ess Disk, Ribbons, George Haite, Arabesque, ZigZag. 1.7 Applications of Gliftic Currently Gliftic is mostly used for creating WEB graphics, often backgrounds as it has an option to enable "tiling" of the generated images. There is also a possibility that it will be used in the custom textile business sometime within the next year or two. The real application of Gliftic is that of generating new graphics ideas, and I suspect that, like Repligator, many users will only understand this later. 2. The future of Gliftic, 3 possibilties Completing Gliftic V1 gave me the experience to understand what problems and opportunities there will be in future development of the program. Here I divide my many ideas into three oversimplified possibilities, and the real result may be a mix of two or all three of them. 2.1 Continue the current development "linearly" Gliftic could grow simply by the addition of more forms and interpretations. In fact I am sure that initially it will grow like this. However this limits the possibilities to what is inside the program itself. These limits can be mitigated by allowing the user to add forms (as vector files). The user can already add color schemes (as images). The biggest problem with leaving the program in its current state is that there is no easy way to add interpretations. 2.2 Allow the artist to program Gliftic It would be interesting to add a language to Gliftic which allows the user to program his own form generators and interpreters. In this way Gliftic becomes a "platform" for the development of dynamic graphics styles by the artist. The advantage of not having to deal with the complexities of Windows programming could attract the more adventurous artists and designers. The choice of programming language of course needs to take into account the fact that the "programmer" is probably not be an expert computer scientist. I have seen how LISP (an not exactly easy artificial intelligence language) has become very popular among non programming users of AutoCAD. If, to complete a job which you do manually and repeatedly, you can write a LISP macro of only 5 lines, then you may be tempted to learn enough LISP to write those 5 lines. Imagine also the ability to publish (and/or sell) "style generators". An artist could develop a particular interpretation function, it creates images of a given character which others find appealing. The interpretation (which runs inside Gliftic as a routine) could be offered to interior designers (for example) to unify carpets, wallpaper, furniture coverings for single projects. As Adrian Ward [3] says on his WEB site: "Programming is no less an artform than painting is a technical process." Learning a computer language to create a single image is overkill and impractical. Learning a computer language to create your own artistic style which generates an infinite series of images in that style may well be attractive. 2.3 Add an artificial conciousness to Gliftic This is a wild science fiction idea which comes into my head regularly. Gliftic manages to surprise the users with the images it makes, but, currently, is limited by what gets programmed into it or by pure chance. How about adding a real artifical conciousness to the program? Creating an intelligent artificial designer? According to Igor Aleksander [1] conciousness is required for programs (computers) to really become usefully intelligent. Aleksander thinks that "the line has been drawn under the philosophical discussion of conciousness, and the way is open to sound scientific investigation". Without going into the details, and with great over-simplification, there are roughly two sorts of artificial intelligence: 1) Programmed intelligence, where, to all intents and purposes, the programmer is the "intelligence". The program may perform well (but often, in practice, doesn't) and any learning which is done is simply statistical and pre-programmed. There is no way that this type of program could become concious. 2) Neural network intelligence, where the programs are based roughly on a simple model of the brain, and the network learns how to do specific tasks. It is this sort of program which, according to Aleksander, could, in the future, become concious, and thus usefully intelligent. What could the advantages of an artificial artist be? 1) There would be no need for programming. Presumbably the human artist would dialog with the artificial artist, directing its development. 2) The artificial artist could be used as an apprentice, doing the "drudge" work of art, which needs intelligence, but is, anyway, monotonous for the human artist. 3) The human artist imagines "concepts", the artificial artist makes them concrete. 4) An concious artificial artist may come up with ideas of its own. Is this science fiction? Arthur C. Clarke's 1st Law: "If a famous scientist says that something can be done, then he is in all probability correct. If a famous scientist says that something cannot be done, then he is in all probability wrong". Arthur C Clarke's 2nd Law: "Only by trying to go beyond the current limits can you find out what the real limits are." One of Bertrand Russell's 10 commandments: "Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric" 3. References 1. "From Ramon Llull to Image Idea Generation". Ransen, Owen. Proceedings of the 1998 Milan First International Conference on Generative Art. 2. "How To Build A Mind" Aleksander, Igor. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1999 3. "How I Drew One of My Pictures: or, The Authorship of Generative Art" by Adrian Ward and Geof Cox. Proceedings of the 1999 Milan 2nd International Conference on Generative Art.
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	5f9c
authors	Castello, Regina
year	1999
title	GIS and the Investigation of the Environmental Heritage
source	III Congreso Iberoamericano de Grafico Digital [SIGRADI Conference Proceedings] Montevideo (Uruguay) September 29th - October 1st 1999, pp. 219-224
summary	This paper presents an investigation on the architectural, natural, and cultural resources in the southern part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, according to their historical or environmental value, identifying natural and cultural elements known and valued by local communities, regardless their experts’ classification. Resources are identified by means of geographical information systems, combined with field information. The area comprises the coastal strip and the plains located in the last frontier of the Brazilian territory and the water system dominated by the lakes Patos, Mangueira and Mirim. The inventory of the environmental, sociocultural and economic heritage provides the necessary insight for issuing new development alternatives based on local resources. Research activities will include: the ellaboration of general and thematic maps, based on LANDSAT 5 [bands 3, 4 and 5] images; aerial photographs; DSG/SGE and municipal maps [scales 1:250.000, 1:50.000 and 1:25.000]; field work for the recognition of remarkable elements; interviews with residents for assessing their perception of local values; and community and institutional statements. These informations, comprising the elements valued by their architectural and urban quality, historical relevance and environmental significance, organised in a database, will provide contextual guidelines for the planning of a tourist route. This route, delineated by the preservation, recovery and use of representative local resources, valued as expressions of a native culture, evocates the initial occupation of the gaúcho territory, and may be touristically promoted as "The Gaúcho’s Way". The project also aims at showing the potential offered by GIS for identifying and evaluating specific spatial characteristics.
keywords	Environmental Planning, Historical Preservation
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:48

_id	8ac3
authors	Shih, Naai-Jung and Yang, Chih-Hsiang
year	1999
title	A VR-Based Preference Study on the Selection of Egress Route in Evacuation
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.1999.063
source	CAADRIA '99 [Proceedings of The Fourth Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 7-5439-1233-3] Shanghai (China) 5-7 May 1999, pp. 63-70
summary	This preliminary study tried to characterize an occupantÌs preference in egress route selection, with/out signage and smoke. In a VR simulation conducted in a public space, six types of egress routes were categorized and exemplified based upon the width of the corridor, fillet corner, or the intersection of two corridors.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:59

_id	ga9922
id	ga9922
authors	Annunziato, M. and Pierucci, P.
year	1999
title	The Art of Emergence
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	Since several years, the term emergence is mentioned in the paradigm of chaos and complexity. Following this approach, complex system constituted by multitude of individual develop global behavioral properties on the base of local chaotic interactions (self-organization). These theories, developed in scientific and philosophical milieus are rapidly spreading as a "way of thinking" in the several fields of cognitive activities. According to this "way of thinking" it is possible revise some fundamental themes as the economic systems, the cultural systems, the scientific paths, the communication nets under a new approach where nothing is pre-determined, but the global evolution is determined by specific mechanisms of interaction and fundamental events (bifurcation). With a jump in scale of the life, also other basic concepts related to the individuals as intelligence, consciousness, psyche can be revised as self-organizing phenomena. Such a conceptual fertility has been the base for the revision of the artistic activities as flexible instruments for the investigation of imaginary worlds, metaphor of related real worlds. In this sense we claim to the artist a role of "researcher". Through the free exploration of new concepts, he can evoke qualities, configurations and hypothesis which have an esthetical and expressive value and in the most significant cases, they can induce nucleation of cultural and scientific bifurcation. Our vision of the art-science relation is of cooperative type instead of the conflict of the past decades. In this paper we describe some of the most significant realized artworks in order to make explicit the concepts and basic themes. One of the fundamental topics is the way to generate and think to the artwork. Our characterization is to see the artwork not as a static finished product, but as an instance or a dynamic sequence of instances of a creative process which continuously evolves. In this sense, the attention is focused on the "generative idea" which constitutes the envelop of the artworks generable by the process. In this approach the role of technology (computers, synthesizers) is fundamental to create the dimension of the generative environment. Another characterizing aspect of our artworks is derived by the previous approach and specifically related to the interactive installations. The classical relation between artist, artwork and observers is viewed as an unidirectional flux of messages from the artist to the observer through the artwork. In our approach artist, artwork and observer are autonomous entities provided with own personality which jointly intervene to determine the creative paths. The artist which generate the environment in not longer the "owner" of the artwork; simply he dialectically bring the generative environment (provided by a certain degree of autonomy) towards cultural and creative "void" spaces (not still discovered). The observers start from these platforms to generate other creative paths, sometimes absolutely unexpected , developing their new dialectical relations with the artwork itself. The results derived by these positions characterize the expressive elements of the artworks (images, sequences and sounds) as the outcomes of emergent behavior or dynamics both in the sense of esthetical shapes emergent from fertile generative environments, either in terms of emergent relations between artist, artwork and observer, either in terms of concepts which emerge by the metaphor of artificial worlds to produce imaginary hypothesis for the real worlds.
series	other
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	4805
authors	Bentley, P.
year	1999
title	Evolutionary Design by Computers Morgan Kaufmann
source	San Francisco, CA
summary	Computers can only do what we tell them to do. They are our blind, unconscious digital slaves, bound to us by the unbreakable chains of our programs. These programs instruct computers what to do, when to do it, and how it should be done. But what happens when we loosen these chains? What happens when we tell a computer to use a process that we do not fully understand, in order to achieve something we do not fully understand? What happens when we tell a computer to evolve designs? As this book will show, what happens is that the computer gains almost human-like qualities of autonomy, innovative flair, and even creativity. These 'skills'which evolution so mysteriously endows upon our computers open up a whole new way of using computers in design. Today our former 'glorified typewriters' or 'overcomplicated drawing boards' can do everything from generating new ideas and concepts in design, to improving the performance of designs well beyond the abilities of even the most skilled human designer. Evolving designs on computers now enables us to employ computers in every stage of the design process. This is no longer computer aided design - this is becoming computer design. The pages of this book testify to the ability of today's evolutionary computer techniques in design. Flick through them and you will see designs of satellite booms, load cells, flywheels, computer networks, artistic images, sculptures, virtual creatures, house and hospital architectural plans, bridges, cranes, analogue circuits and even coffee tables. Out of all of the designs in the world, the collection you see in this book have a unique history: they were all evolved by computer, not designed by humans.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	ga9924
id	ga9924
authors	Cardalda, Juan Jesus Romero J.J.
year	1999
title	Artificial Music Composer
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	Traditional Musical Computation Systems had to face the differences between the computational techniques and the characteristics of musical creation. Characteristics such as a high degree of subjectivity, a great irrational component, and a learning process based on the use of examples and environmental absorption, have made music difficult to be formalized through algorithmic methods or classical Artificial Intelligence methods such as Expert Systems. We propose the creation of a cybernetic model of a human composer in a primeval stage of human musical evolution, following a paradigm of cognitive complex models creation, based on the use of the human reference, not only in a static point of view but also considering its evolution through time. Therefore, the proposed system simulates musical creation in one of the first stages of musical evolution, whose main characteristics are the percussive and choral aspects. The system is based on Genetic Algorithms, whose genetic population is integrated by several tribes. This model carries out the task of musical composition, led by the user who expresses his/her musical taste assigning a punctuation to each tribe. The GA selects the worse tribes as individuals to be eliminated. In order to select those tribes which are going to be used as parents, a random function is used, having each tribe a probality proportional to its punctuation. The new tribe is produced by crossing the parent tribes in each individual. Afterwards, mutation takes place in the created individuals. The experiments carried out with this system have proved its functionality in the composition of rhythmic patterns. It is intended to enlarge the experiment's scope by communicating the system via Internet. This would enable its use by users of different musical cultures, taking into account that the system is user-friendly, since it requires no musical knowledge.
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	ga0015
id	ga0015
authors	Daru, R., Vreedenburgh, E. and Scha, R.
year	2000
title	Architectural Innovation as an evolutionary process
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	Traditionally in art and architectural history, innovation is treated as a history of ideas of individuals (pioneers), movements and schools. The monograph is in that context one of the most used forms of scientific exercise. History of architecture is then mostly seen as a succession of dominant architectural paradigms imposed by great architectural creators fighting at the beginning against mainstream establishment until they themselves come to be recognised. However, there have been attempts to place architectural innovation and creativity in an evolutionary perspective. Charles Jencks for example, has described the evolution of architectural and art movements according to a diagram inspired by ecological models. Philip Steadman, in his book "The Evolution of Designs. Biological analogy in architecture and the applied arts" (1979), sketches the history of various biological analogies and their impact on architectural theory: the organic, classificatory, anatomical, ecological and Darwinian or evolutionary analogies. This last analogy "explains the design of useful objects and buildings, particularly in primitive society and in the craft tradition, in terms of a sequence of repeated copyings (corresponding to inheritance), with small changes made at each stage ('variations'), which are then subjected to a testing process when the object is put into use ('selection')." However, Steadman has confined his study to a literature survey as the basis of a history of ideas. Since this pioneering work, new developments like Dawkins' concept of memes allow further steps in the field of cultural evolution of architectural innovation. The application of the concept of memes to architectural design has been put forward in a preceding "Generative Art" conference (Daru, 1999), showing its application in a pilot study on the analysis of projects of and by architectural students. This first empirical study is now followed by a study of 'real life' architectural practice. The case taken has a double implication for the evolutionary analogy. It takes a specific architectural innovative concept as a 'meme' and develops the analysis of the trajectory of this meme in the individual context of the designer and at large. At the same time, the architect involved (Eric Vreedenburgh, Archipel Ontwerpers) is knowledgeable about the theory of memetic evolution and is applying a computer tool (called 'Artificial') together with Remko Scha, the authoring computer scientist of the program who collaborates frequently with artists and architects. This case study (the penthouse in Dutch town planning and the application of 'Artificial') shall be discussed in the paper as presented. The theoretical and methodological problems of various models of diffusion of memes shall be discussed and a preliminary model shall be presented as a framework to account for not only Darwinian but also Lamarckian processes, and for individual as well as collective transmission, consumption and creative transformation of memes.
keywords	evolutionary design, architectural innovation, memetic diffusion, CAAD, penthouses, Dutch design, creativity, Darwinian and Lamarckian processes
series	other
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	3936
authors	Geroimenko, Vladimir
year	1999
title	Online Photorealistic VR with Interactive Architectural Objects
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.414
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 414-417
summary	This paper describes how Virtual Reality (VR) technologies can be used for modelling photorealistic environments with interactive and changeable architectural content. This application of VR allows us to create photograph-based panoramic models of real places that include a variety of interactive architectural objects and details. The user is able not only to navigate through a virtual environment (look around, up and down, zoom, jump to another viewpoint or location) but also to change buildings or their architectural details by clicking, moving or rotating. The following types of interactive objects are completely integrated with a virtual environment: 2D image-based objects, 3D image-based objects, 3D VRML-based objects and onscreen world controls. The application can be used effectively for teaching, including distance Internet-based education, project presentations and rapid prototyping. A sample VR environment is presented and some of the key creative and technological issues are discussed.
keywords	Virtual Reality Modelling, Architectural Design, Interactive Contents, Photorealistic Environments
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:51

_id	ga9928
id	ga9928
authors	Goulthorpe
year	1999
title	Hyposurface: from Autoplastic to Alloplastic Space
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	By way of immediate qualification to an essay which attempts to orient current technical developments in relation to a series of dECOi projects, I would suggest that the greatest liberation offered by new technology in architecture is not its formal potential as much as the patterns of creativity and practice it engenders. For increasingly in the projects presented here dECOi operates as an extended network of technical expertise: Mark Burry and his research team at Deakin University in Australia as architects and parametric/ programmatic designers; Peter Wood in New Zealand as programmer; Alex Scott in London as mathematician; Chris Glasow in London as systems engineer; and the engineers (structural/services) of David Glover’s team at Ove Arup in London. This reflects how we’re working in a new technical environment - a new form of practice, in a sense - a loose and light network which deploys highly specialist technical skill to suit a particular project. By way of a second disclaimer, I would suggest that the rapid technological development we're witnessing, which we struggle to comprehend given the sheer pace of change that overwhelms us, is somehow of a different order than previous technological revolutions. For the shift from an industrial society to a society of mass communication, which is the essential transformation taking place in the present, seems to be a subliminal and almost inexpressive technological transition - is formless, in a sense - which begs the question of how it may be expressed in form. If one holds that architecture is somehow the crystallization of cultural change in concrete form, one suspects that in the present there is no simple physical equivalent for the burst of communication technologies that colour contemporary life. But I think that one might effectively raise a series of questions apropos technology by briefly looking at 3 or 4 of our current projects, and which suggest a range of possibilities fostered by new technology. By way of a third doubt, we might qualify in advance the apparent optimism of architects for CAD technology by thinking back to Thomas More and his island ‘Utopia’, which marks in some way the advent of Modern rationalism. This was, if not quite a technological utopia, certainly a metaphysical one, More’s vision typically deductive, prognostic, causal. But which by the time of Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis is a technological utopia availing itself of all the possibilities put at humanity’s disposal by the known machines of the time. There’s a sort of implicit sanction within these two accounts which lies in their nature as reality optimized by rational DESIGN as if the very ethos of design were sponsored by Modern rationalist thought and its utopian leanings. The faintly euphoric ‘technological’ discourse of architecture at present - a sort of Neue Bauhaus - then seems curiously misplaced historically given the 20th century’s general anti-, dis-, or counter-utopian discourse. But even this seems to have finally run its course, dissolving into the electronic heterotopia of the present with its diverse opportunities of irony and distortion (as it’s been said) as a liberating potential.1 This would seem to mark the dissolution of design ethos into non-causal process(ing), which begs the question of ‘design’ itself: who 'designs' anymore? Or rather, has 'design' not become uncoupled from its rational, deterministic, tradition? The utopianism that attatches to technological discourse in the present seems blind to the counter-finality of technology's own accomplishments - that transparency has, as it were, by its own more and more perfect fulfillment, failed by its own success. For what we seem to have inherited is not the warped utopia depicted in countless visions of a singular and tyrranical technology (such as that in Orwell's 1984), but a rich and diverse heterotopia which has opened the possibility of countless channels of local dialect competing directly with the channels of power. Undoubtedly such multiplicitous and global connectivity has sent creative thought in multiple directions…
series	other
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	5e85
authors	Heylighen, Ann and Neuckermans, Herman
year	1999
title	Learning from Experience: Promises, Problems and Side-effects of CBD in Architecture
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.567
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 567-575
summary	Learning from design experience is the essence of Case-Based Design (CBD). Because architects are said to learn design by experience, CBD seems to hold great promises for architectural design, which have inspired various CBD tools. Learning from the experience of developing and using these tools is the objective of this paper. On the one hand, the original expectations seem far from being accomplished today. Reasons for this limited success can be found at three different levels. Level one is the cognitive model underlying CBD, which raises some specific difficulties within the field of architecture. At the level of implementation, few tools manage to draw the full consequences of this view, thus leading to an oversimplification of CBD and/or architectural design. Level three has to do with introducing CBD tools in design education and assessing the effects of this introduction. On the other hand, CBD seems to have caused some interesting side effects, such as an increased interest in creativity and copyright, and the recent re-discovery of the key-role cases play inside and outside the field of CAAD. Thus, although its promises may not be fulfilled, CBD definitely can contribute to design education, be it sometimes without the support of computer technology.
keywords	Case-Based Design, Design Education
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	ab9c
authors	Kvan, Thomas and Kvan, Erik
year	1999
title	Is Design Really Social
source	International Journal of Virtual Reality, 4:1
summary	There are many who will readily agree with Mitchell's assertion that "the most interesting new directions (for computer-aided design) are suggested by the growing convergence of computation and telecommunication. This allows us to treat designing not just as a technical process... but also as a social process." [Mitchell 1995]. The assumption is that design was a social process until users of computer-aided design systems were distracted into treating it as a merely technical process. Most readers will assume that this convergence must and will lead to increased communication between design participants, that better social interaction leads to be better design. The unspoken assumption appears to be that putting the participants into an environment with maximal communication channels will result in design collaboration. The tools provided, therefore, must permit the best communication and the best social interaction. We see a danger here, a pattern being repeated which may lead us into less than useful activities. As with several (popular) architectural design or modelling systems already available, however, computer system implementations all too often are poor imitations manual systems. For example, few in the field will argue with the statement that the storage of data in layers in a computer-aided drafting system is an dispensable approach. Layers derive from manual overlay drafting technology [Stitt 1984] which was regarded as an advanced (manual) production concept at the time many software engineers were specifying CAD software designs. Early implementations of CAD systems (such as RUCAPS, GDS, Computervision) avoided such data organisation, the software engineers recognising that object-based structures are more flexible, permitting greater control of data editing and display. Layer-based systems, however, are easier to implement in software, more familiar to the user and hence easier to explain, initially easier to use but more limiting for an experienced and thoughtful user, leading in the end to a lesser quality in resultant drawings and significant problems in output control (see Richens [1990], pp. 31-40 for a detailed analysis of such features and constraints). Here then we see the design for architectural software faithfully but inappropriately following manual methods. So too is there a danger of assuming that the best social interaction is that done face-to-face, therefore all collaborative design communications environments must mimic face-to-face.
series	journal paper
email
last changed	2003/05/15 10:29

_id	0297
authors	Maher, M-L., Simoff, J. and Cicognani, A.
year	1999
title	Understanding Virtual Design Studios
source	Springer, London
summary	Understanding Virtual Design Studios examines the issues involved in setting up and running a virtual design studio. Rather than focusing on the technology or how to apply it, the reader is presented with an interdisciplinary framework for understanding, organising, running and improving virtual design studios both in professional and educational practice. The authors assess the potential benefits, such as improved creativity and collaboration, and highlight the areas in which our understanding needs to improve; How people collaborate in an environment where interaction is mediated by shared computer resources; How to organise and manage a distributed workspace efficiently; How people represent and communicate design ideas in an electronic form. Of interest to both design professionals and researchers interested in computer-mediated collaboration, this volume will also be of interest to anyone who needs a clear picture of what this new technology can do for them
series	other
email
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	ga0010
id	ga0010
authors	Moroni, A., Zuben, F. Von and Manzolli, J.
year	2000
title	ArTbitrariness in Music
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	Evolution is now considered not only powerful enough to bring about the biological entities as complex as humans and conciousness, but also useful in simulation to create algorithms and structures of higher levels of complexity than could easily be built by design. In the context of artistic domains, the process of human-machine interaction is analyzed as a good framework to explore creativity and to produce results that could not be obtained without this interaction. When evolutionary computation and other computational intelligence methodologies are involved, every attempt to improve aesthetic judgement we denote as ArTbitrariness, and is interpreted as an interactive iterative optimization process. ArTbitrariness is also suggested as an effective way to produce art through an efficient manipulation of information and a proper use of computational creativity to increase the complexity of the results without neglecting the aesthetic aspects [Moroni et al., 2000]. Our emphasis will be in an approach to interactive music composition. The problem of computer generation of musical material has received extensive attention and a subclass of the field of algorithmic composition includes those applications which use the computer as something in between an instrument, in which a user "plays" through the application's interface, and a compositional aid, which a user experiments with in order to generate stimulating and varying musical material. This approach was adopted in Vox Populi, a hybrid made up of an instrument and a compositional environment. Differently from other systems found in genetic algorithms or evolutionary computation, in which people have to listen to and judge the musical items, Vox Populi uses the computer and the mouse as real-time music controllers, acting as a new interactive computer-based musical instrument. The interface is designed to be flexible for the user to modify the music being generated. It explores evolutionary computation in the context of algorithmic composition and provides a graphical interface that allows to modify the tonal center and the voice range, changing the evolution of the music by using the mouse[Moroni et al., 1999]. A piece of music consists of several sets of musical material manipulated and exposed to the listener, for example pitches, harmonies, rhythms, timbres, etc. They are composed of a finite number of elements and basically, the aim of a composer is to organize those elements in an esthetic way. Modeling a piece as a dynamic system implies a view in which the composer draws trajectories or orbits using the elements of each set [Manzolli, 1991]. Nonlinear iterative mappings are associated with interface controls. In the next page two examples of nonlinear iterative mappings with their resulting musical pieces are shown.The mappings may give rise to attractors, defined as geometric figures that represent the set of stationary states of a non-linear dynamic system, or simply trajectories to which the system is attracted. The relevance of this approach goes beyond music applications per se. Computer music systems that are built on the basis of a solid theory can be coherently embedded into multimedia environments. The richness and specialty of the music domain are likely to initiate new thinking and ideas, which will have an impact on areas such as knowledge representation and planning, and on the design of visual formalisms and human-computer interfaces in general. Above and bellow, Vox Populi interface is depicted, showing two nonlinear iterative mappings with their resulting musical pieces. References [Manzolli, 1991] J. Manzolli. Harmonic Strange Attractors, CEM BULLETIN, Vol. 2, No. 2, 4 -- 7, 1991. [Moroni et al., 1999] Moroni, J. Manzolli, F. Von Zuben, R. Gudwin. Evolutionary Computation applied to Algorithmic Composition, Proceedings of CEC99 - IEEE International Conference on Evolutionary Computation, Washington D. C., p. 807 -- 811,1999. [Moroni et al., 2000] Moroni, A., Von Zuben, F. and Manzolli, J. ArTbitration, Las Vegas, USA: Proceedings of the 2000 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Workshop Program – GECCO, 143 -- 145, 2000.
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	ee8a
authors	Porrúa, Marina and Rueda, Marta
year	1999
title	Innovación Didáctica. Digitalización de un ejercicio práctico cuya problemática central es la organización de la forma en el espacio bidimensional y la introducción al diseño textil (Didactic Innovation. Digitalization of a practical exercises whose Central Issue is the Organization of Form in Bidimensional Space and the Introduction to the Textile Design)
source	III Congreso Iberoamericano de Grafico Digital [SIGRADI Conference Proceedings] Montevideo (Uruguay) September 29th - October 1st 1999, pp. 285-288
summary	The projectual disciplines must respond with some grade of originality to a approached problem. In order to products of design be creative must be implemented a creative process of design and also from the teaching. The essence of creativity are the variations over a subject. A pedagogic way for this, is the one to recognise, individualise and represent the problem attributes, building upon them an "exploration space", to analyse and create new combinatorial alternatives or restructuring of the problem. The digital media incorporation as a new proyectual environment approaches the interactivity not only of the combinatorial variables, but, also to the hypermedia's. Both the digital documents, as the creative process, have a "no linear" or a "net" structure, that allows the construction of a himself way, self-managemented into this structure. The interactivity makes possible to work, as the divergent thought does, in a "polydirectional" field, that stimulates the fluency, the flexibility and the originality. The new- media's, used as didactic tool, open to "action", allow the students to convert them in "co- author", together professors, about themself learning process. >From this educational conception and its potential enrichment with the hypermedia, we are designing a project of digitising of an exercise to our didactic proposal and its later application into the course with our students.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:57

_id	c9ed
authors	Saito, Elena Keiko
year	1999
title	Formal Alternatives Through Ludic Process Applied to Tessellation
source	III Congreso Iberoamericano de Grafico Digital [SIGRADI Conference Proceedings] Montevideo (Uruguay) September 29th - October 1st 1999, pp. 101-108
summary	The digital graphic systems development is evident during the alternative generation process, especially when the component objects are linked to a geometric base by modulation. In this sense, the tiling modular characteristics are used as geometric support which modulation or internal divisions contain material forms (objects in 3D) immaterial forms (spaces in 3D). That is to say that each tiling module can be projected or not in 3D. The way to do this consists of applying it not only as two-dimensional support but also as operational structure by means of operations of pure translation, in 3D. It is applied to architectural themes which systemic parts or components sectors admit repetitions of units (dwelling buildings, schools, offices, hotels, etc.) in plan floor levels and in elevation as well. When programmatic and morphological requirements are solved groups are organized conforming systems in two or three dimensions. In the alternative generation stage it is tried to avoid conditioning and restrictions developing a ludic process of "piling up tiles" simple concepts stimulating creativity for the production of innovating architectonic forms. Creative ideas can arise from the game playing with 3D forms. This paper attempts to show a manner to generate unusual architectural forms that, otherwise, within a traditional design process might not be found. Some architectural examples developed with this ludic procedure are presented.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:59

_id	3d23
authors	Sellgren, Ulf
year	1999
title	Simulation-driven Design
source	KTH Stockholm
summary	Efficiency and innovative problem solving are contradictory requirements for productdevelopment (PD), and both requirements must be satisfied in companies that strive to remainor to become competitive. Efficiency is strongly related to ”doing things right”, whereasinnovative problem solving and creativity is focused on ”doing the right things”.Engineering design, which is a sub-process within PD, can be viewed as problem solving or adecision-making process. New technologies in computer science and new software tools openthe way to new approaches for the solution of mechanical problems. Product datamanagement (PDM) technology and tools can enable concurrent engineering (CE) bymanaging the formal product data, the relations between the individual data objects, and theirrelation to the PD process. Many engineering activities deal with the relation betweenbehavior and shape. Modern CAD systems are highly productive tools for conceptembodiment and detailing. The finite element (FE) method is a general tool used to study thephysical behavior of objects with arbitrary shapes. Since a modern CAD technology enablesdesign modification and change, it can support the innovative dimension of engineering aswell as the verification of physical properties and behavior. Concepts and detailed solutionshave traditionally been evaluated and verified with physical testing. Numerical modeling andsimulation is in many cases a far more time efficient method than testing to verify theproperties of an artifact. Numerical modeling can also support the innovative dimension ofproblem solving by enabling parameter studies and observations of real and syntheticbehavior. Simulation-driven design is defined as a design process where decisions related tothe behavior and performance of the artifact are significantly supported by computer-basedproduct modeling and simulation.A framework for product modeling, that is based on a modern CAD system with fullyintegrated FE modeling and simulation functionality provides the engineer with tools capableof supporting a number of engineering steps in all life-cycle phases of a product. Such aconceptual framework, that is based on a moderately coupled approach to integratecommercial PDM, CAD, and FE software, is presented. An object model and a supportingmodular modeling methodology are also presented. Two industrial cases are used to illustratethe possibilities and some of the opportunities given by simulation-driven design with thepresented methodology and framework.
keywords	CAE; FE Method; Metamodel; Object Model; PDM; Physical Behavior, System
series	thesis:PhD
email
last changed	2003/02/12 22:37

_id	91c8
authors	Stellingwerff, Martijn
year	1999
title	Evocation and Serendipity in a Cyberreal World
source	AVOCAAD Second International Conference [AVOCAAD Conference Proceedings / ISBN 90-76101-02-07] Brussels (Belgium) 8-10 April 1999, pp. 181-188
summary	Adding two apples to three oranges is not possible in a purely computational way. It takes creativity to see that you have got five pieces of … fruit. Computation implies exact solutions while creativity is needed when there is an arbitrary gap or bias in a given situation. This paper is about the explicit introduction of gaps and biases in a visually simulated world. The computer is treated as a medium in which reference information from a virtual city model is confronted with sketch objects. The juxtaposition of referential information and sketch information delivers images that can evoke new ideas. The serendipity (gift to pick up ideas) of the designer transforms the given capricious cyber-real world into useful ideas and inventions. This process is supposed to trigger creativity for urban and architectural design.
series	AVOCAAD
email
last changed	2005/09/09 10:48

_id	6800
authors	Stellingwerff, Martijn
year	1999
title	SketchBoX
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.491
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 491-497
summary	Most Computer Aided Architectural Design software suits the engineered aspects of design quite well but is lacking as a design medium. As far as sketching is concerned, many architects still rely on traditional media such as pen and paper and scale models. This paper presents a theory concerning design media and the application of typical media aspects in a spatial sketch program. SketchBoX is conceived as an experimental 3D version of a sketchbook. It can be used for the notation of primary forms and structures in 'architectural' space. The program consists of several transparent drawing surfaces that can be placed in relation to each other and in relation to models of design or different design contexts. Thus architects and students in architecture might be able to explore more adequately the spatial configuration of the built environment and they can comment within the models of their designs. Architectural group discussions and collaborative work can be enhanced by SketchBoX because visual annotations can be made directly in relation to a 3D model. This paper describes the consequent design considerations and expected use of the SketchBoX program.
keywords	Exploration, Sketching, Commenting, Media, Creativity
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

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