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CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
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_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	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	db00
authors	Espina, Jane J.B.
year	2002
title	Base de datos de la arquitectura moderna de la ciudad de Maracaibo 1920-1990 [Database of the Modern Architecture of the City of Maracaibo 1920-1990]
source	SIGraDi 2002 - [Proceedings of the 6th Iberoamerican Congress of Digital Graphics] Caracas (Venezuela) 27-29 november 2002, pp. 133-139
summary	Bases de datos, Sistemas y Redes 134The purpose of this report is to present the achievements obtained in the use of the technologies of information andcommunication in the architecture, by means of the construction of a database to register the information on the modernarchitecture of the city of Maracaibo from 1920 until 1990, in reference to the constructions located in 5 of Julio, Sectorand to the most outstanding planners for its work, by means of the representation of the same ones in digital format.The objective of this investigation it was to elaborate a database for the registration of the information on the modernarchitecture in the period 1920-1990 of Maracaibo, by means of the design of an automated tool to organize the it datesrelated with the buildings, parcels and planners of the city. The investigation was carried out considering three methodologicalmoments: a) Gathering and classification of the information of the buildings and planners of the modern architectureto elaborate the databases, b) Design of the databases for the organization of the information and c) Design ofthe consultations, information, reports and the beginning menu. For the prosecution of the data files were generated inprograms attended by such computer as: AutoCAD R14 and 2000, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and MicrosoftAccess 2000, CorelDRAW V9.0 and Corel PHOTOPAINT V9.0.The investigation is related with the work developed in the class of Graphic Calculation II, belonging to the Departmentof Communication of the School of Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture and Design of The University of the Zulia(FADLUZ), carried out from the year 1999, using part of the obtained information of the works of the students generatedby means of the CAD systems for the representation in three dimensions of constructions with historical relevance in themodern architecture of Maracaibo, which are classified in the work of The Other City, generating different types ofisometric views, perspectives, representations photorealistics, plants and facades, among others.In what concerns to the thematic of this investigation, previous antecedents are ignored in our environment, and beingthe first time that incorporates the digital graph applied to the work carried out by the architects of “The Other City, thegenesis of the oil city of Maracaibo” carried out in the year 1994; of there the value of this research the field of thearchitecture and computer science. To point out that databases exist in the architecture field fits and of the design, alsoweb sites with information has more than enough architects and architecture works (Montagu, 1999).In The University of the Zulia, specifically in the Faculty of Architecture and Design, they have been carried out twoworks related with the thematic one of database, specifically in the years 1995 and 1996, in the first one a system wasdesigned to visualize, to classify and to analyze from the architectural point of view some historical buildings of Maracaiboand in the second an automated system of documental information was generated on the goods properties built insidethe urban area of Maracaibo. In the world environment it stands out the first database developed in Argentina, it is the database of the Modern andContemporary Architecture “Datarq 2000” elaborated by the Prof. Arturo Montagú of the University of Buenos Aires. The general objective of this work it was the use of new technologies for the prosecution in Architecture and Design (MONTAGU, Ob.cit). In the database, he intends to incorporate a complementary methodology and alternative of use of the informationthat habitually is used in the teaching of the architecture. When concluding this investigation, it was achieved: 1) analysis of projects of modern architecture, of which some form part of the historical patrimony of Maracaibo; 2) organized registrations of type text: historical, formal, space and technical data, and graph: you plant, facades, perspectives, pictures, among other, of the Moments of the Architecture of the Modernity in the city, general data and more excellent characteristics of the constructions, and general data of the Planners with their more important works, besides information on the parcels where the constructions are located, 3)construction in digital format and development of representations photorealistics of architecture projects already built. It is excellent to highlight the importance in the use of the Technologies of Information and Communication in this investigation, since it will allow to incorporate to the means digital part of the information of the modern architecturalconstructions that characterized the city of Maracaibo at the end of the XX century, and that in the last decades they have suffered changes, some of them have disappeared, destroying leaves of the modern historical patrimony of the city; therefore, the necessity arises of to register and to systematize in digital format the graphic information of those constructions. Also, to demonstrate the importance of the use of the computer and of the computer science in the representation and compression of the buildings of the modern architecture, to inclination texts, images, mapping, models in 3D and information organized in databases, and the relevance of the work from the pedagogic point of view,since it will be able to be used in the dictation of computer science classes and history in the teaching of the University studies of third level, allowing the learning with the use in new ways of transmission of the knowledge starting from the visual information on the part of the students in the elaboration of models in three dimensions or electronic scalemodels, also of the modern architecture and in a future to serve as support material for virtual recoveries of some buildings that at the present time they don’t exist or they are almost destroyed. In synthesis, the investigation will allow to know and to register the architecture of Maracaibo in this last decade, which arises under the parameters of the modernity and that through its organization and visualization in digital format, it will allow to the students, professors and interested in knowing it in a quicker and more efficient way, constituting a contribution to theteaching in the history area and calculation. Also, it can be of a lot of utility for the development of future investigation projects related with the thematic one and restoration of buildings of the modernity in Maracaibo.
keywords	database, digital format, modern architecture, model, mapping
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:51

_id	9f08
authors	Hillis, K.
year	1999
title	Digital Sensations: Space, Identity, and Embodiment in Virtual Reality
source	University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota
summary	Virtual reality is in the news and in the movies, on TV and in the air. Why is the technology -- or the idea -- so prevalent precisely now? What does it mean -- what does it do -- to us? Digital Sensations looks closely at the ways representational forms generated by communication technologies -- especially digital/optical virtual technologies -- affect the "lived" world. Virtual reality, or VR, is a technological reproduction of the process of perceiving the real; yet that process is "filtered" through the social realities and embedded cultural assumptions about human bodies, perception, and space held by the technology's creators. Through critical histories of the technology -- of vision, light, space, and embodiment -- Ken Hillis traces the various and often contradictory intellectual and metaphysical impulses behind the Western transcendental wish to achieve an ever more perfect copy of the real. Because virtual technologies are new, these histories also address the often unintended and underconsidered consequences -- such as alienating new forms of surveillance and commodification -- flowing from their rapid dissemination. Current and proposed virtual technologies reflect a Western desire to escape the body Hillis says. Exploring topics from VR and other, earlier visual technologies, Hillis's penetrating perspective on the cultural power of place and space broadens our view of the interplay between social relations and technology.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	f9c4
authors	Kvan, Thomas and Candy, Linda
year	1999
title	Designing Collaborative Environments for Strategic Knowledge in Design
source	2nd International Workshop on Strategic Knowledge and Concept Formation, Iwate Prefectural University, 20-22 October 1999, pp. 85-94
summary	This paper considers aspects of strategic knowledge in design and some implications for designing in collaborative environments. Two key questions underline the concerns. First; how can strategic knowledge for collaborative design be taught and second; what kind of computer-based collaborative designing might best support the learning of strategic knowledge? We argue that the support of learning of strategic knowledge in collaborative design by computer-mediated means must be based upon empirical evidence about the nature of learning and design practice in the real world. Examples of research by the authors that seeks to provide that evidence are described and an approach to computer system design and evaluation proposed.
keywords	Collaborative Design; Strategic Knowledge; Empirical Studies; Computer Support
series	other
email
last changed	2002/11/15 18:29

_id	ga9908
id	ga9908
authors	Senagala, Mahesh
year	1999
title	Artistic Process, Cybernetics of Self and the Epistemology of Digital Technology
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	From the viewpoint of Batesonian cybernetics, ‘conscious purpose’ and artistic process are distinct ends of a spectrum of the functioning of self. Artistic activities— by which I mean art, poetry, play, design, etc.— involve processes that are beneath the stratum of consciousness. By definition, consciousness is selective awareness and is linear in execution and limited in its capability to synthesize complex parameters. As Heidegger pointed out, technology is a special form of knowledge (episteme). A machine is a manifestation of such a knowledge. A machine is a result of conscious purpose and is normally task-driven to accomplish a specific purpose(s). The questions this paper raises are to do with the connections between conscious purpose, artistic process and digital technology. One of the central questions of the paper is "if artistic process requires an abandonment or relinquishment of conscious purpose at the time of the generation of the work of art, and if the artistic process is a result of vast number of ‘unconscious’ forces and impulses, then could we say that the computer would ever be able to ‘generate’ or ‘create’ a work of art?" In what capacity and what role would the computer be a part of the generative process of art? Would a computer be able to ‘generate’ and ‘know’ a work of art, which, according to Bateson, requires the abandonment of conscious purpose? The ultimate goal of the paper is to unearth and examine the potential of the computers to be a part of the generative process of what Bateson has called "total self as a cybernetic model". On another plane of discourse, Deleuze and Guattari have added a critical dimension to the discourse of cybernetics and models of human mind and the global computer networks. Their notion of ‘rhizome’ has its roots in Batesonian cybernetics and the cybernetic couplings between the ‘complex systems’ such as human mind, biological and computational systems. Deleuze and Guattari call such systems as human brain and the neural networks as rhizomatic. Given the fact that the computer is the first known cybernetic machine to lay claims to artificial intelligence, the aforementioned questions become even more significant. The paper will explore how, cybernetically, the computer could be ‘coupled’ with ‘self’ and the artistic process — the ultimate expression of human condition. These philosophical and artistic explorations will take place through a series of generative artistic projects (See the figure below for an example) that aim at understanding the couplings and ‘ecology’ of digital technology and the cybernetics of self.
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	4b48
authors	Dourish, P.
year	1999
title	Where the Footprints Lead: Tracking down other roles for social navigation
source	Social Navigation of Information Space, eds. A. Munro, K. H. and D Benyon. London: Springer-Verlag, pp 15-34
summary	Collaborative Filtering was proposed in the early 1990's as a means of managing access to large information spaces by capturing and exploiting aspects of the experiences of previous users of the same information. Social navigation is a more general form of this style of interaction, and with the widening scope of the Internet as an information provider, systems of this sort have rapidly moved from early research prototypes to deployed services in everyday use. On the other hand, to most of the HCI community, the term social navigation" is largely synonymous with "recommendation systems": systems that match your interests to those of others and, on that basis, provide recommendations about such things as music, books, articles and films that you might enjoy. The challenge for social navigation, as an area of research and development endeavour, is to move beyond this rather limited view of the role of social navigation; and to do this, we must try to take a broader view of both our remit and our opportunities. This chapter will revisit the original motivations, and chart something of the path that recent developments have taken. Based on reflections on the original concerns that motivated research into social navigation, it will explore some new avenues of research. In particular, it will focus on two. The first is social navigation within the framework of "awareness" provisions in collaborative systems generally; and the second is the relationship of social navigation systems to spatial models and the ideas of "space" and "place" in collaborative settings. By exploring these two ideas, two related goals can be achieved. The first is to draw attention to ways in which current research into social navigation can be made relevant to other areas of research endeavour; and the second is to re-motivate the idea of "social navigation" as a fundamental model for collaboration in information-seeking."
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:50

_id	5cba
authors	Anders, Peter
year	1999
title	Beyond Y2k: A Look at Acadia's Present and Future
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1999.x.o3r
source	ACADIA Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 1, p. 10
summary	The sky may not be falling, but it sure is getting closer. Where will you when the last three zeros of our millennial odometer click into place? Computer scientists tell us that Y2K will bring the world’s computer infrastructure to its knees. Maybe, maybe not. But it is interesting that Y2K is an issue at all. Speculating on the future is simultaneously a magnifying glass for examining our technologies and a looking glass for what we become through them. "The future" is nothing new. Orwell's vision of totalitarian mass media did come true, if only as Madison Avenue rather than Big Brother. Futureboosters of the '50s were convinced that each garage would house a private airplane by the year 2000. But world citizens of the 60's and 70's feared a nuclear catastrophe that would replace the earth with a smoking crater. Others - perhaps more optimistically -predicted that computers were going to drive all our activities by the year 2000. And, in fact, theymay not be far off... The year 2000 is symbolic marker, a point of reflection and assessment. And - as this date is approaching rapidly - this may be a good time to come to grips with who we are and where we want to be.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:49

_id	6480
authors	Asanowicz, Aleksander
year	1999
title	Computer in Creation of Architectural Form
source	AVOCAAD Second International Conference [AVOCAAD Conference Proceedings / ISBN 90-76101-02-07] Brussels (Belgium) 8-10 April 1999,pp. 131-142
summary	This paper considers graphic methods of presentation of ideas 'in the creation of architectural forms' and evolution of these methods, determined by the implementations of information technology. Drawings have been the main medium of expression since Leonardo da Vinci to the present-day. Graphic communication has always been treated as a main design tool, both - at the ending stage of design and at the early design stage. Implementation of computers in design doe not change this situation. The entire design process proceeds in a traditional way. While searching for the idea we use hand sketches and, after this, technical drawings are draught on a plotter, which replaces a drawing pen. Using computers at the early design stages encounters serious difficulties. The main thesis of this paper is that hardware and software inadequacy is not the problem, the problem is in the inadequacy of the design methods. This problem is to be reconceived as what a person can do with a program, rather than what is the capacity of a program. Contemporary computer techniques allow us to put an equation mark between the searching for idea, visualisation and its realisation in virtual space. This paper presents Sketching by scanning - an experimental method of using computer hardware and software for stimulating of searching of architectural's form.
series	AVOCAAD
email
last changed	2005/09/09 10:48

_id	48a7
authors	Brooks
year	1999
title	What's Real About Virtual Reality
source	IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol. 19, no. 6, Nov/Dec, 27
summary	As is usual with infant technologies, the realization of the early dreams for VR and harnessing it to real work has taken longer than the wild hype predicted, but it is now happening. I assess the current state of the art, addressing the perennial questions of technology and applications. By 1994, one could honestly say that VR "almost works." Many workers at many centers could doe quite exciting demos. Nevertheless, the enabling technologies had limitations that seriously impeded building VR systems for any real work except entertainment and vehicle simulators. Some of the worst problems were end-to-end system latencies, low-resolution head-mounted displays, limited tracker range and accuracy, and costs. The technologies have made great strides. Today one can get satisfying VR experiences with commercial off-the-shelf equipment. Moreover, technical advances have been accompanied by dropping costs, so it is both technically and economically feasible to do significant application. VR really works. That is not to say that all the technological problems and limitations have been solved. VR technology today "barely works." Nevertheless, coming over the mountain pass from "almost works" to "barely works" is a major transition for the discipline. I have sought out applications that are now in daily productive use, in order to find out exactly what is real. Separating these from prototype systems and feasibility demos is not always easy. People doing daily production applications have been forthcoming about lessons learned and surprises encountered. As one would expect, the initial production applications are those offering high value over alternate approaches. These applications fall into a few classes. I estimate that there are about a hundred installations in daily productive use worldwide.
series	journal paper
email
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	aef9
id	aef9
authors	Brown, A., Knight, M. and Berridge, P. (Eds.)
year	1999
title	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [Conference Proceedings]
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999
source	eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7 / Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, 773 p.
summary	The core theme of this book is the idea of looking forward to where research and development in Computer Aided Architectural Design might be heading. The contention is that we can do so most effectively by using the developments that have taken place over the past three or four decades in Computing and Architectural Computing as our reference point; the past informing the future. The genesis of this theme is the fact that a new millennium is about to arrive. If we are ruthlessly objective the year 2000 holds no more significance than any other year; perhaps we should, instead, be preparing for the year 2048 (2k). In fact, whatever the justification, it is now timely to review where we stand in terms of the development of Architectural Computing. This book aims to do that. It is salutary to look back at what writers and researchers have said in the past about where they thought that the developments in computing were taking us. One of the common themes picked up in the sections of this book is the developments that have been spawned by the global linkup that the worldwide web offers us. In the past decade the scale and application of this new medium of communication has grown at a remarkable rate. There are few technological developments that have become so ubiquitous, so quickly. As a consequence there are particular sections in this book on Communication and the Virtual Design Studio which reflect the prominence of this new area, but examples of its application are scattered throughout the book. In 'Computer-Aided Architectural Design' (1977), Bill Mitchell did suggest that computer network accessibility from expensive centralised locations to affordable common, decentralised computing facilities would become more commonplace. But most pundits have been taken by surprise by just how powerful the explosive cocktail of networks, email and hypertext has proven to be. Each of the ingredients is interesting in its own right but together they have presented us with genuinely new ways of working. Perhaps, with foresight we can see what the next new explosive cocktail might be.
series	eCAADe
email
more	http://www.ecaade.org
last changed	2022/06/07 07:49

_id	1206
authors	Cabezas, M., Mariano, C., Mitolo, S. and Oliva, S.
year	1999
title	Transformaciones en el Proceso Enseñanza-Aprendizaje de la Geometría Descriptiva con la Apliacación de los Medios Digitales (Transformations in the Teaching/Learning Process of Descriptive Geometry with the Aplplication of Digital Media)
source	III Congreso Iberoamericano de Grafico Digital [SIGRADI Conference Proceedings] Montevideo (Uruguay) September 29th - October 1st 1999, pp. 347-348
summary	The insert of the digital technologies in the atmosphere Áulico has left generalizing in a significant way. An example constitutes it the high percentage of students that they manifested general knowledge in the software handling in the introductory course of visual communication, as well as the voluntary presentation of practical works developed with digital means. The necessity of an answer to the requirements that arise of the students sinks to the certainty of a pedagogic compatibility among the matter to try and the teaching attended by the personal computer that would increase the Iconidad and the understanding of a topic of certain complexity like it is the geometry of the space. An educational program designed for the teaching of the Sistema Monge whose general characteristics were presented in the II Ibero-American Seminar of Digital Graph and that it will be applied as experience pilot in the course 2000, it will allow us to respond to the following queries: what place it will be given to the educational program in the formation process in connection with the other pedagogic means.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 09:47

_id	d0aa
authors	Colajanni, Benedetto, Concialdi, Salvatore and Pellitteri, Giuseppe
year	1999
title	CoCoMa: a Collaborative Constraint Management System for the Collaborative Design
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.364
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 364-369
summary	Collaborative Design is a topic of particular current interest. Existing software allows a multiplicity of designers to work on the same project. What the software really allows is accessing to a part of the information of the project and changing it. Sometimes there is a hierarchical distribution of the power of change: some participants can be permitted to operate only on some limited layers of the object representation. In this case the changes they propose are to be accepted by a general manager of the design process. What is lacking in this kind of software is the explicit management on the reciprocal constraints posed by different participants. In this paper, an elementary Collaborative Design System is presented whose main concern is just the management of constraints. Each participant designs the part of the project of his/her concern instantiating objects comprised of geometric description, alphanumeric variables and constraints on both. Constraints can be of two types: absolute or defined by a range of allowed values of the constrained variable. A participant intervening later can accept the constraint, choosing a value in the permitted range, or decide to violate it. In this case the proposed violation is signalled to whom posed it.
keywords	Collaborative Design, Design Process, Management System, Participant Designs, Constraints Violation
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

_id	85ab
authors	Corrao, Rossella and Fulantelli, Giovanni
year	1999
title	Architects in the Information Society: The Role of New Technologies
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.665
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 665-671
summary	New Technologies (NTs) offer us tools with which to deal with the new challenges that a changing society or workplace presents. In particular, new design strategies and approaches are required by the emerging Information Society, and NTs offer effective solutions to the designers in the different stages of their professional life, and in different working situations. In this paper some meaningful scenarios of the use of the NTs in Architecture and Urban Design are introduced; the scenarios have been selected in order to understand how the role of architects in the Information Society is changing, and what new opportunities NTs offer them. It will be underlined how the telematic networks play an essential role in the activation of virtual studios that are able to compete in an increasingly global market; examples will be given of the use of the Web to support activities related to Urban Planning and Management; it will be shown how the Internet may be used to access strategic resources for education and training, and sustain lifelong learning. The aforesaid considerations derive from a Web-Based Instruction system we have developed to support University students in the definition of projects that can concern either single buildings or whole parts of a city. The system can easily be adopted in the other scenarios introduced.
keywords	Architecture, Urban Planning , New Technologies, World Wide Web, Education
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

_id	1121
authors	Kalay, Yehuda E.
year	1999
title	The Future of CAAD: From Computer-aided Design to Computer-aided Collaboration
source	Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures [ISBN 0-7923-8536-5] Atlanta, 7-8 June 1999, pp. 14-30
summary	The primary uses of computers in the construction industry have been shifting, over the past four decades, from the evaluation of proposed design solutions, to their graphical (and other) representation, and more recently to facilitating collaboration among the various professionals who are involved in the design process. The paper argues that what may appear to be shifts in emphasis actually represents convergence on a single, original goal: the use of computers to help designers assess the quality, desirability, and the implications of their creations. The paper shows how the formerly independent components can be joined into an integrated collaborative design environment, where they build upon and strengthen each other. Moreover, the paper argues that this convergence represents the future of CAAD research and development, providing the appropriate answer to the upcoming needs of the construction industry, whose products have become too complex and must abide by too many requirements for any one professional to handle all by himself. The paper argues that further improvements in the overall quality of the products, and the process of their design, will only accrue when the heretofore separate solutions are considered together, as integral parts of an overall solution. The paper describes the efforts that have been made by the CAD Research Group in Berkeley over the past six years in developing an integrated collaborative design environment that can facilitate multidisciplinary, a- synchronous design of buildings. The environment includes several semantically-rich, shared product representations, a network of distributed evaluators, and graphically enhanced collaboration and negotiation tools.
keywords	Collaborative Design, Distributed Design Environment, Product Modeling, Performance Modeling, Process Modeling, Negotiation, Integration
series	CAAD Futures
email
last changed	2006/11/07 07:22

_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	2c63
authors	QaQish, Ra'Ed and Tarazi, Khaled
year	1999
title	Formulating a Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) Program Model in Distance Education (DE) at Open Universities (OU)
source	AVOCAAD Second International Conference [AVOCAAD Conference Proceedings / ISBN 90-76101-02-07] Brussels (Belgium) 8-10 April 1999, pp. 189-204
summary	This paper reports on a project that aims to formulate a CAAD program model in Distance Education (Learning/Teaching) framework, to be applied and implemented in future settings at Open Universities worldwide. The methodology used to establish the CAAD program model consisted of a worldwide literature review on the subject of Distance Education and Open Universities. It also involved an assessment of the methods and means used in the delivery of materials to students enrolled at Open Universities, together with an analysis of the current program of study and subject related courses. The methods of this investigation consisted of a comparative analysis between the existing models of teaching process at Open Universities and how it relates to CAAD in architecture schools. The study endeavored to examine several issues that were found to be key factors in any Open University system, namely: the methods of study, program of study, student type/body, academic/degree requirements, and residency/academic calendars. While attempting to establish a conceptual CAAD program model, this study investigated several questions concerning the efficiency of CAAD teaching in Distance Education. One of the study objectives was to determine which factors were mostly needed to effectively integrate CAAD in DE as a new program in Open Universities. In addition, how would these factors affect the design of CAAD courses in OU systems as a new DE program area? And what structural elements would be most affected by these factors? Another objective of this study was to determine to what extent the new CAAD program model in tandem with staff, learning environment, and administered materials would be effective in generating supplementary strategies in the virtual design studio. A third objective was to evaluate the personal computer station as an alternative design studio space in future settings of schools of architecture. Consequently, the principle objective of this study was to develop and establish a CAAD program model to be adopted by Open Universities as a new subject area in DE. Mainly, the study attempted to locate the areas where CAAD teaching excels in the context of virtual design studio of OU system.
series	AVOCAAD
last changed	2005/09/09 10:48

_id	36dc
authors	Reffat, Rabee M. and Gero, John S.
year	1999
title	Situatedness: A New Dimension for Learning Systems in Design
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.252
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 252-261
summary	In this paper we adopt the approach that designing is a series of situated acts, ie designing cannot be pre-planned to completion. This is based on ideas from situated cognition theory that claims that what people perceive, how they conceive and what they do develop together and are adapted to the environment. For a system to be useful for human designers it must have the ability to associate what is learned to its environment. In order for a system to do that such a system must be able to acquire knowledge of the environment that a design constructs. Therefore, acknowledging the notion of situatedness is of importance to provide a system with such capability and add on a new dimension to existing learning systems in design. We will call such a learning system within the design domain a Situated Learning Design System (SLDS). A SLDS should be able to create its own situational categories from its perceptual experiences and modify them if encountered again to link the learned knowledge to its corresponding situation. We have chosen architectural shapes as the vehicle to demonstrate our ideas and used multiple representations to build a platform for a SLDS to learn from. In this paper the notion of situatedness and its role in both designing and learning is discussed. The overall architecture of a SLDS is introduced and how the potential outcome of such a system will support human designers while designing is discussed.
keywords	Designing, Situated Knowledge, Multiple Representations, Situated Learning
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 08:00

_id	cf6b
authors	Smith, S.
year	1999
title	Document Management: Solutions for AutoCAD Workgroups
source	Cadalyst, vol 16, No.4, April, 42-50
summary	The volume of documents handled by companies today is about twice what it was ten years ago. Electronic files, plus the sea of paper you wade through on a daily basis, reach Mt. Everest proportions for everyone in a company. Productivity suffers from this overload-often documents are overwritten or lost just because there are so many of them. Also, when companies downsize to become more efficient, they may lose key people who manage the ever-growing mountain of information. Business cycles are shorter, technology keeps changing, and all this is managed by a smaller staff.
series	journal paper
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	1419
authors	Spitz, Rejane
year	1999
title	Dirty Hands on the Keyboard: In Search of Less Aseptic Computer Graphics Teaching for Art & Design
source	III Congreso Iberoamericano de Grafico Digital [SIGRADI Conference Proceedings] Montevideo (Uruguay) September 29th - October 1st 1999, pp. 13-18
summary	In recent decades our society has witnessed a level of technological development that has not been matched by that of educational development. Far from the forefront in the process of social change, education has been trailing behind transformations occurring in industrial sectors, passively and sluggishly assimilating their technological innovations. Worse yet, educators have taken the technology and logic of innovations deriving predominantly from industry and attempted to transpose them directly into the classroom, without either analyzing them in terms of demands from the educational context or adjusting them to the specificities of the teaching/learning process. In the 1970s - marked by the effervescence of Educational Technology - society witnessed the extensive proliferation of audio-visual resources for use in education, yet with limited development in teaching theories and educational methods and procedures. In the 1980s, when Computers in Education emerged as a new area, the discussion focused predominantly on the issue of how the available computer technology could be used in the school, rather than tackling the question of how it could be developed in such a way as to meet the needs of the educational proposal. What, then, will the educational legacy of the 1990s be? In this article we focus on the issue from the perspective of undergraduate and graduate courses in Arts and Design. Computer Graphics slowly but surely has gained ground and consolidated as part of the Art & Design curricula in recent years, but in most cases as a subject in the curriculum that is not linked to the others. Computers are usually allocated in special laboratories, inside and outside Departments, but invariably isolated from the dust, clay, varnish, and paint and other wastes, materials, and odors impregnating - and characterizing - other labs in Arts and Design courses.In spite of its isolation, computer technology coexists with centuries-old practices and traditions in Art & Design courses. This interesting meeting of tradition and innovation has led to daring educational ideas and experiments in the Arts and Design which have had a ripple effect in other fields of knowledge. We analyze these issues focusing on the pioneering experience of the Núcleo de Arte Eletrônica – a multidisciplinary space at the Arts Department at PUC-Rio, where undergraduate and graduate students of technological and human areas meet to think, discuss, create and produce Art & Design projects, and which constitutes a locus for the oxygenation of learning and for preparing students to face the challenges of an interdisciplinary and interconnected society.
series	SIGRADI
email
last changed	2016/03/10 10:01

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