Cumincad : CUMINCAD Papers : Search Results

CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
supported by the sibling associations ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD and CAAD futures

PDF papers
References

Hits 1 to 20 of 740

Reformat results as: short short into frame detailed detailed into frame

_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	avocaad_2001_16
id	avocaad_2001_16
authors	Yu-Ying Chang, Yu-Tung Liu, Chien-Hui Wong
year	2001
title	Some Phenomena of Spatial Characteristics of Cyberspace
source	AVOCAAD - ADDED VALUE OF COMPUTER AIDED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Nys Koenraad, Provoost Tom, Verbeke Johan, Verleye Johan (Eds.), (2001) Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst - Departement Architectuur Sint-Lucas, Campus Brussel, ISBN 80-76101-05-1
summary	"Space," which has long been an important concept in architecture (Bloomer & Moore, 1977; Mitchell, 1995, 1999), has attracted interest of researchers from various academic disciplines in recent years (Agnew, 1993; Benko & Strohmayer, 1996; Chang, 1999; Foucault, 1982; Gould, 1998). Researchers from disciplines such as anthropology, geography, sociology, philosophy, and linguistics regard it as the basis of the discussion of various theories in social sciences and humanities (Chen, 1999). On the other hand, since the invention of Internet, Internet users have been experiencing a new and magic "world." According to the definitions in traditional architecture theories, "space" is generated whenever people define a finite void by some physical elements (Zevi, 1985). However, although Internet is a virtual, immense, invisible and intangible world, navigating in it, we can still sense the very presence of ourselves and others in a wonderland. This sense could be testified by our naming of Internet as Cyberspace -- an exotic kind of space. Therefore, as people nowadays rely more and more on the Internet in their daily life, and as more and more architectural scholars and designers begin to invest their efforts in the design of virtual places online (e.g., Maher, 1999; Li & Maher, 2000), we cannot help but ask whether there are indeed sensible spaces in Internet. And if yes, these spaces exist in terms of what forms and created by what ways?To join the current interdisciplinary discussion on the issue of space, and to obtain new definition as well as insightful understanding of "space", this study explores the spatial phenomena in Internet. We hope that our findings would ultimately be also useful for contemporary architectural designers and scholars in their designs in the real world.As a preliminary exploration, the main objective of this study is to discover the elements involved in the creation/construction of Internet spaces and to examine the relationship between human participants and Internet spaces. In addition, this study also attempts to investigate whether participants from different academic disciplines define or experience Internet spaces in different ways, and to find what spatial elements of Internet they emphasize the most.In order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the spatial phenomena in Internet and to overcome the subjectivity of the members of the research team, the research design of this study was divided into two stages. At the first stage, we conducted literature review to study existing theories of space (which are based on observations and investigations of the physical world). At the second stage of this study, we recruited 8 Internet regular users to approach this topic from different point of views, and to see whether people with different academic training would define and experience Internet spaces differently.The results of this study reveal that the relationship between human participants and Internet spaces is different from that between human participants and physical spaces. In the physical world, physical elements of space must be established first; it then begins to be regarded as a place after interaction between/among human participants or interaction between human participants and the physical environment. In contrast, in Internet, a sense of place is first created through human interactions (or activities), Internet participants then begin to sense the existence of a space. Therefore, it seems that, among the many spatial elements of Internet we found, "interaction/reciprocity" Ñ either between/among human participants or between human participants and the computer interface Ð seems to be the most crucial element.In addition, another interesting result of this study is that verbal (linguistic) elements could provoke a sense of space in a degree higher than 2D visual representation and no less than 3D visual simulations. Nevertheless, verbal and 3D visual elements seem to work in different ways in terms of cognitive behaviors: Verbal elements provoke visual imagery and other sensory perceptions by "imagining" and then excite personal experiences of space; visual elements, on the other hand, provoke and excite visual experiences of space directly by "mapping".Finally, it was found that participants with different academic training did experience and define space differently. For example, when experiencing and analyzing Internet spaces, architecture designers, the creators of the physical world, emphasize the design of circulation and orientation, while participants with linguistics training focus more on subtle language usage. Visual designers tend to analyze the graphical elements of virtual spaces based on traditional painting theories; industrial designers, on the other hand, tend to treat these spaces as industrial products, emphasizing concept of user-center and the control of the computer interface.The findings of this study seem to add new information to our understanding of virtual space. It would be interesting for future studies to investigate how this information influences architectural designers in their real-world practices in this digital age. In addition, to obtain a fuller picture of Internet space, further research is needed to study the same issue by examining more Internet participants who have no formal linguistics and graphical training.
series	AVOCAAD
email
last changed	2005/09/09 10:48

_id	ddssar0023
id	ddssar0023
authors	Jens Pohl, Art Chapman, and Kym Jason Pohl
year	2000
title	Computer-aided design systems for the 21st century: some design guidelines
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fifth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning - Part one: Architecture Proceedings (Nijkerk, the Netherlands)
summary	This paper proposes nine design principles for a new generation of computer-aided design (CAD) systems that actively support the decision making and problem solving activities of environmental design. Foremost among these are: a meaningful internal object-based representation of the artifact being designed within its environmental context; a collaborative problem solving paradigm in which the human designer and the computer form a complementary partnership; and, the notion of decision-support tools rather than predefined solutions. Two prototype computer-aided design systems implemented by the CAD Research Center that embody most of these concepts are described. ICADS (Intelligent Computer-Aided Design System) incorporates multiple expert agents in domains such as natural and artificial lighting, noise control, structural system selection, climatic determinants, and energy conservation. Given a particular building design context, the agents in ICADS draw upon their own expertise and several knowledgebases as they monitor the actions of the human designer and collaborate opportunistically. KOALA (Knowledge-Based Object-Agent Collaboration) builds on the multi-agent concepts embodied in ICADS by the addition of two kinds of agents. Mentor agents represent the interests of selected objects within the ontology of the design environment. In the implemented KOALA system building spaces are represented by agents capable of collaborating with each other, with domain agents for the provision of expert services, and with the human designer. Facilitator agents listen in on the communications among mentor agents to detect conflicts and moderate arguments. While both of these prototype systems are limited in scope by focussing on the earliest design stages and restricted in their understanding of the inherent complexity of a design state, they nevertheless promise a paradigm shift in computer-aided design.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	ddssar0009
id	ddssar0009
authors	Findlay, Robert A. and Haugen, S. Lee
year	2000
title	From individual inquiry and attention to cohorts to a "collaborative critique": the use of student groups to support individual designers
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fifth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning - Part one: Architecture Proceedings (Nijkerk, the Netherlands)
summary	This study explores learning settings and strategies related to design collaboration and critical thinking. To this end, theories of education and of cognitive learning were assembled to describe learning design collaboration. Student perceptions of their learning experiences were then gathered in structured interviews and focus groups, and were analyzed qualitatively for concepts, tendencies, and trends. The study also concerns the effects of collaboration on individual learning. An emphasis of the investigation has been on the context in which a person's mind learns. The activity of learning has been enriched by being in a context in which students can participate in the social construction of knowledge, in this way enhancing the processes of developing knowledge, decision-making, and design. We discovered that a "collaborative critique" evolves during the course of activity of groups of students as they shift from the protective behavior of individual competition, through bargaining away ideas in compromise or subduing differences in consensus building, to critical ideation and the constructive behavior of the "collaborative critique".
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	3fb8
authors	Monedero, Javier
year	1999
title	Can a Machine Design? A Disturbing Recreation of Turing's Test for the Use of Architects
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.589
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 589-594
summary	In 1950, fifty years ago, Alan Turing published a much-quoted paper that has given rise to a long list of articles and books. It presented, perhaps for the first time, in a clever and somehow sarcastic way, what has become one of the main big questions raised by the use of computers in human societies. The title of that paper was "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" (Mind, Vol. LIX, No. 236, October 1950) and the game proposed in it, called by Turing "the imitation game" has come to be known as "Turing's Test". The paper presented here is a rather simple adaptation of Turing's Test. It may, I hope, present in a, perhaps, not too serious a way, some central points related to the way that computers have integrated themselves in architect's, engineer's and building enterprises and, through them, in the way that architecture evolves in our times and adapts itself to modern societies.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:58

_id	3cd1
authors	Friedman, Asaf
year	2000
title	Language and Movement in CAD Application
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2000.423
source	CAADRIA 2000 [Proceedings of the Fifth Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 981-04-2491-4] Singapore 18-19 May 2000, pp. 423-432
summary	The paper attempts to explain some of the fundamental concepts as they relate to the experience of movement in space and the representation of walking-through or fly-over in architectural space. My goal is towards improving existing movement-in-architectural-space representation tolls. This study involves current research in cognitive science, in the domain of vision and spatial reasoning, in which we attempt to built a rudimentary model of the apparatus through which people experience space, and, in particular, architectural space. These conceptions necessitated the analysis of language. From the studies we can draw up a small number of critical qualities that have to be present in an improved version of a new movement-in-space representation tool. As opposed to existing computational tools representing movement in space navigation, the tool we build can offer a more immersive interactive experience for evaluating design solution alternatives and predicting moving-in-space experience.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:50

_id	ga0004
id	ga0004
authors	Lund, Andreas
year	2000
title	Evolving the Shape of Things to Come - A Comparison of Interactive Evolution and Direct Manipulation for Creative Tasks
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	This paper is concerned with differences between direct manipulation and interactive evolutionary design as two fundamentally different interaction styles for creative tasks. Its main contribution to the field of generative design is the treatment of interactive evolutionary design as a general interaction style that can be used to support users in creative tasks. Direct manipulation interfaces, a term coined by Ben Shneiderman in the mid-seventies, are the kind of interface that is characteristic of most modern personal computer application user interfaces. Typically, direct manipulation interfaces incorporate a model of a context (such as a desktop environment) supposedly familiar to users. Rather than giving textual commands (i.e. "remove file.txt", "copy file1.txt file2.txt") to an imagined intermediary between the user and the computer, the user acts directly on the objects of interest to complete a task. Undoubtedly, direct manipulation has played an important role in making computers accessible to non-computer experts. Less certain are the reasons why direct manipulation interfaces are so successful. It has been suggested that this kind of interaction style caters for a sense of directness, control and engagement in the interaction with the computer. Also, the possibilities of incremental action with continuous feedback are believed to be an important factor of the attractiveness of direct manipulation. However, direct manipulation is also associated with a number of problems that make it a less than ideal interaction style in some situations. Recently, new interaction paradigms have emerged that address the shortcomings of direct manipulation in various ways. One example is so-called software agents that, quite the contrary to direct manipulation, act on behalf of the user and alleviate the user from some of the attention and cognitive load traditionally involved in the interaction with large quantities of information. However, this relief comes at the cost of lost user control and requires the user to put trust into a pseudo-autonomous piece of software. Another emerging style of human-computer interaction of special interest for creative tasks is that of interactive evolutionary design (sometimes referred to as aesthetic selection). Interactive evolutionary design is inspired by notions from biological evolution and may be described as a way of exploring a large – potentially infinite – space of possible design configurations based on the judgement of the user. Rather than, as is the case with direct manipulation, directly influencing the features of an object, the user influences the design by means of expressing her judgement of design examples. Variations of interactive evolutionary design have been employed to support design and creation of a variety of objects. Examples of such objects include artistic images, web advertising banners and facial expressions. In order to make an empirical investigation possible, two functional prototypes have been designed and implemented. Both prototypes are targeted at typeface design. The first prototype allows a user to directly manipulate a set of predefined attributes that govern the design of a typeface. The second prototype allows a user to iteratively influence the design of a typeface by means of expressing her judgement of typeface examples. Initially, these examples are randomly generated but will, during the course of interaction, converge upon design configurations that reflect the user’s expressed subjective judgement. In the evaluation of the prototypes, I am specifically interested in users’ sense of control, convergence and surprise. Is it possible to maintain a sense of control and convergence without sacrificing the possibilities of the unexpected in a design process? The empirical findings seem to suggest that direct manipulation caters for a high degree of control and convergence, but with a small amount of surprise and sense of novelty. The interactive evolutionary design prototype supported a lower degree of experienced control, but seems to provide both a sense of surprise and convergence. One plausible interpretation of this is that, on the one hand, direct manipulation is a good interaction style for realizing the user’s intentions. On the other hand, interactive evolutionary design has a potential to actually change the user’s intentions and pre-conceptions of that which is being designed and, in doing so, adds an important factor to the creative process. Based on the empirical findings, the paper discusses situations when interactive evolutionary design may be a serious contender with direct manipulation as the principal interaction style and also how a combination of both styles can be applied.
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	fdb8
authors	Montagu, A., Rodriguez Barros, D. and Chernobilsky, L.
year	2000
title	The New Reality through Virtuality
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2000.225
source	Promise and Reality: State of the Art versus State of Practice in Computing for the Design and Planning Process [18th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-6-5] Weimar (Germany) 22-24 June 2000, pp. 225-229
summary	In this paper we want to develop some conceptual reflections of the processes of virtualization procedures with the aim to indicate a series of misfits and mutations as byproducts of the “digital-graphic culture” (DGC) when we are dealing with the perception of the “digital space”. Considering the present situation, a bit chaotic from a pedagogical point of view, we also want to propose a set of “virtual space parameters” in order to organize in a systemic way the teaching procedures of architectural design when using digital technology. Nowadays there is a great variety of computer graphics applications comprising practically all the fields of “science & technology”, “architecture, design & urbanism”, “video & film”, “sound” and the massive amount of information technology protocols. This fact obliges us to have an overall view about the meaning of “the new reality through virtuality”. The paper is divided in two sections and one appendix. In the first section we recognise the relationships among the sensory apparatus, the cognitive structures of perception and the cultural models involved in the process of understanding the reality. In the second section, as architects, we use to have “a global set of social and technical responsabilities” to organize the physical space, but now we must also be able to organize the “virtual space” obtained from a multidimensional set of computer simulations. There are certain features that can be used as “sensory parameters” when we are dealing with architectural design in the “virtual world”, taking into consideration the differences between “immersive virtual reality” and “non inmersive virtual reality”. In the appendix we present a summary of some conclusions based on a set of pedagogical applications analysing the positive and the negative consequences of working exclusively in a “virtual world”.
keywords	Virtualisation Processes, Simulation, Philosophy, Space, Design, Cyberspace
series	eCAADe
email
more	http://www.uni-weimar.de/ecaade/
last changed	2022/06/07 07:58

_id	ga0013
id	ga0013
authors	Annunziato, Mauro and Pierucci, Piero
year	2000
title	Artificial Worlds, Virtual Generations
source	International Conference on Generative Art
summary	The progress in the scientific understanding/simulation of the evolution mechanisms and the first technological realizations (artificial life environments, robots, intelligent toys, self reproducing machines, agents on the web) are creating the base of a new age: the coming of the artificial beings and artificial societies. Although this aspect could seems a technological conquest, by our point of view it represent the foundation of a new step in the human evolution. The anticipation of this change is the development of a new cultural paradigm inherited from the theories of evolution and complexity: a new way to think to the culture, aesthetics and intelligence seen as emergent self-organizing qualities of a collectivity evolved along the time through genetic and language evolution. For these reasons artificial life is going to be an anticipatory and incredibly creative area for the artistic expression and imagination. In this paper we try to correlate some elements of the present research in the field of artificial life, art and technological grow up in order to trace a path of development for the creation of digital worlds where the artificial beings are able to evolve own culture, language and aesthetics and they are able to interact con the human people.Finally we report our experience in the realization of an interactive audio-visual art installation based on two connected virtual worlds realized with artificial life environments. In these worlds,the digital individuals can interact, reproduce and evolve through the mechanisms of genetic mutations. The real people can interact with the artificial individuals creating an hybrid ecosystem and generating emergent shapes, colors, sound architectures and metaphors for imaginary societies, virtual reflections of the real worlds.
series	other
email
more	http://www.generativeart.com/
last changed	2003/08/07 17:25

_id	9bc4
authors	Bhavnani, S.K. and John, B.E.
year	2000
title	The Strategic Use of Complex Computer Systems
source	Human-Computer Interaction 15 (2000), 107-137
summary	Several studies show that despite experience, many users with basic command knowledge do not progress to an efficient use of complex computer applications. These studies suggest that knowledge of tasks and knowledge of tools are insufficient to lead users to become efficient. To address this problem, we argue that users also need to learn strategies in the intermediate layers of knowledge lying between tasks and tools. These strategies are (a) efficient because they exploit specific powers of computers, (b) difficult to acquire because they are suggested by neither tasks nor tools, and (c) general in nature having wide applicability. The above characteristics are first demonstrated in the context of aggregation strategies that exploit the iterative power of computers.Acognitive analysis of a real-world task reveals that even though such aggregation strategies can have large effects on task time, errors, and on the quality of the final product, they are not often used by even experienced users. We identify other strategies beyond aggregation that can be efficient and useful across computer applications and show how they were used to develop a new approach to training with promising results.We conclude by suggesting that a systematic analysis of strategies in the intermediate layers of knowledge can lead not only to more effective ways to design training but also to more principled approaches to design systems. These advances should lead users to make more efficient use of complex computer systems.
series	other
email
last changed	2003/11/21 15:16

_id	aa7f
authors	Bollinger, Elizabeth and Hill, Pamela
year	1993
title	Virtual Reality: Technology of the Future or Playground of the Cyberpunk?
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.1993.121
source	Education and Practice: The Critical Interface [ACADIA Conference Proceedings / ISBN 1-880250-02-0] Texas (Texas / USA) 1993, pp. 121-129
summary	Jaron Lanier is a major spokesperson of our society's hottest new technology: VR or virtual reality. He expressed his faith in the VR movement in this quote which appears in The User's Guide to the New Edge published by Mondo 2000. In its most technical sense, VR has attracted the attention of politicians in Washington who wonder if yet another technology developed in the United States will find its application across the globe in Asia. In its most human element, an entire "cyberpunk movement" has appealed to young minds everywhere as a seemingly safe form of hallucination. As architecture students, educators, and practitioners around the world are becoming attracted to the possibilities of VR technology as an extension of 3D modeling, visualization, and animation, it is appropriate to consider an overview of virtual reality. In virtual reality a user encounters a computersimulated environment through the use of a physical interface. The user can interact with the environment to the point of becoming a part of the experience, and the experience becomes reality. Natural and instinctive body movements are translated by the interface into computer commands. The quest for perfection in this human-computer relationship seems to be the essence of virtual reality technology. To begin to capture the essence of virtual reality without first-hand experience, it is helpful to understand two important terms: presence and immersion. The sense of presence can be defined as the degree to which the user feels a part of the actual environment. The more reality the experience provides, the more presence it has. Immersion can be defined as the degree of other simulation a virtual reality interface provides for the viewer. A highly immersive system might provide more than just visual stimuli; for example, it may additionally provide simulated sound and motion, and simultaneously prevent distractions from being present.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:52

_id	ddssar0030
id	ddssar0030
authors	Wilsing, Markus and Sonkan, Tijen
year	2000
title	Rediscovering communication through representation
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fifth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning - Part one: Architecture Proceedings (Nijkerk, the Netherlands)
summary	Design is created or taught in the first step by the “internal” world of human beings, which is afterwards visualised or represented in the “external” one. The “external” world is a representation of the “internal” world, and the “internal world” is a representation of the “external” world. They both depend on each other and influence each other, and can be seen as an instrument of visual communication within and between domains. Man throughout the time stored information in his “inside” which can give us probably an answer to how the representation of our environment came out, and how it guides our lives, our behaviour and health. Many sciences have tried and are still trying to explore the “inside” of man to provide him with health, better satisfaction for his needs and desires. But although all sciences have the well being of human beings as a common aim they have also isolated themselves from each other. Due to this, it can be said that there is a lack of exchange of knowledge and it only shows that an interdisciplinary movement is necessary. In this paper, a research that was conducted at Bilkent University in the year 2000 will be utilised to clarify these statements about the perception and representation of space by the help of colours and forms.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

_id	8d90
authors	Johnson, Brian R.
year	2000
title	Between Friends: Support of Workgroup Communications
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.acadia.2000.041
source	Eternity, Infinity and Virtuality in Architecture [Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture / 1-880250-09-8] Washington D.C. 19-22 October 2000, pp. 41-49
summary	The web offers both business and academic users potential benefits from on-line collaboration. Online education presents universities with a means of handling the “baby boom echo” without expanding physical campuses (Carnevale 2000). Business “extranets” allow greater coordination amongst team members on projects where the cast of players involves experts in different locations. Both involve substituting computer-mediated communications (CMC) for traditionally face-to-face communications. Over the past several years, the author has deployed several of the available CMC technologies in support of small group interaction in academic and administrative settings. These technologies include email, video conferencing, web publication, web bulletin boards, web databases, mailing lists, and hybrid web BBS/email combinations. This paper reflects on aspects of embodied human interaction and the affordances of current CMC technology, identifying opportunities for both exploitation and additional development. One important but under-supported aspect of work group behavior is workspace awareness, or peripheral monitoring. The Compadres web-based system, which was developed to support workspace awareness among distributed workgroup members, is described. These findings are relevant to those seeking to create online communities: virtual design studios, community groups, distributed governance organizations, and workgroups formed as parts of virtual offices.
series	ACADIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:52

_id	f73b
authors	Brady, Darlene A.
year	2000
title	Percept vs. Precept: Digital Media & the Creative Process
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2000.261
source	Promise and Reality: State of the Art versus State of Practice in Computing for the Design and Planning Process [18th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-6-5] Weimar (Germany) 22-24 June 2000, pp. 261-264
summary	The design of architecture, as well as all of the arts, is a creative act concerned with the expression of ideas through culturally significant and relevant form. In order for the creative act to transcend the authority or dictates of precedents or trends, it must be informed and guided by a process and not a product; one which reveals, but does not dictate, expressive, functional form. The initial impact of digital media on architectural design has been the ability to render the look of a final project or to create shapes that reflect the facility of the tool. Digital media also enables the composition and structure of space and form to be discovered simultaneously and relationally with the phenomena of color and kinetics, to generate and visualize an idea as form, and to represent form as experience. This requires interweaving computing with a creative process in which percept, rather than precept, is the driving force of the investigation. This paper explores the role of ideation, tectonic color and kinetics as an intentional design strategy and formgiver for architecture. The role of the computer is to enable the designer to generate meaningful architecture beyond precepts of image and style. Design as a making in the mind uses our rational and imaginative faculties. Complete freedom is not a necessity for inventiveness. Research on creativity indicates that "constraining options and focusing thought in a specific, rigorous and discerning direction" play an important role. The key is a balance of structured and discursive inquiry that encourages a speculative, free association of ideas. Tim Berners-Lee, one of the creators of the World Wide Web, likened creativity to a weblike process that is nonlinear but also not random; which when placed in an environment rich with information will float ideas so the mind "can jiggle them into an insight." Geoffrey Vickers in his essay, "Rationality and Intuition" described this symbiotic relationship as "...two functions which in practice are never wholly separated but which are, nonetheless, logically distinct as two reciprocating phases in a recurrent process of mental activity." The rational is formative and intuition is generative; both are essential to creativity.
keywords	Percept, Creativity, Ideation, Tectonic Color, Kinetics
series	eCAADe
email
more	http://www.uni-weimar.de/ecaade/
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	8a18
authors	Loose, Duane
year	2000
title	3D Studio Max 3.0 Workshop
source	Hayden Books
summary	3D Studio MAX 3.0 Workshop focuses on developing the skills of beginning and intermediate 31) Studio MAX users by teaching them how to take advantage of 3the first object-oriented animation system designed for Microsoft Windows NT . Written from the point of view of a professional industrial designer, art director, animator, and design educator, this book uses a single holistic project, composed of interrelated tutorials to guide you through a professional project development process. By beginning with the end in mind, this workshop will show you how to structure your use of MAX to create professional-quality imagery using the basic tools provided in MAX. 3D Studio MAX 3.0 Workshop boosts the beginning to intermediate user to a higher level of MAX proficiency in the shortest time possible. The workshop focuses on basic principles, elements, and tools used in MAX to create models, materials, lighting, special effects, and animation; and you will learn how professionals develop CGI shots in MAX by using layers and compositing.
series	other
last changed	2003/02/26 18:58

_id	17ae
authors	McCullogh, M.
year	2000
title	Abstracting Craft: The Practised Digital Hand
source	MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.
summary	Can designing for computers be a craft? This is the question this book sets out to answer. At first sight, the situation is unpromising: craft is the work of hands, and "hands are underrated," in modern life; especially as computers are seen as abstract, conceptual, creations of pure mind. Yet since computation has become a medium, rather than just a tool kit, the correspondence between digital work and traditional craft is increasing. Modern software products, though immaterial, are nevertheless the creation of "practised hands" and eyes, as well as minds. Moreover, to craft is to care: humane values can - and should - inform a software designer's work just as a potter's or carpenter's. McCullough gives all those who work with code the chance to proclaim: "I am not a programmer! I am a digital craftsperson!"
series	other
email
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	8d64
authors	Penttilä, Hannu
year	1999
title	Top 5 Themes to Promote Architectural Information Technology and Top 5 Obstacles to Decelerate it
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1999.006
source	Architectural Computing from Turing to 2000 [eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9523687-5-7] Liverpool (UK) 15-17 September 1999, pp. 6-10
summary	The objective of this paper is to scan a few interesting themes, features and ideas of current information and communication technology (ICT) to promote their wise use within the fields of architectural practice and architectural education. The core idea is to prepare for the future by understanding the future relevance of the dominating themes. The meaning and significance of the selected and presented common ideas is evaluated to strengthen a realistic future basis for the design discipline. The author finds organizing, structuring and sharing architectural design data with digital tools the most future-relevant ICT-theme, that should be supported with R&D-activities and taught in architectural ICT-education. The obstacles of digitalization to produce negative impacts to architectural profession seem to be of mental nature rather than technical. The human mind, juridical agreements and long-lived design traditions are possibly the most threatening and restrictive obstacles in the future. The selected top 5 methods in evaluating existing trends and features has been used for instance in futures studies as one systematical approach to chart history and current times as informants of the future (Bell, 1996). A pragmatic and personal approach has been used in selecting the themes.
keywords	Architectural Information and Communication Technology (ICT), ICT-trends, Future Studies, Future Relevance
series	eCAADe
type	normal paper
email
last changed	2022/06/07 08:00

_id	5ba3
authors	Tan, M., Tan, B.K. and Ngahtemin, J.
year	2000
title	By Rhyme or Reason. Rapid Design Thinking by Digital Cross Referencing
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2000.399
source	CAADRIA 2000 [Proceedings of the Fifth Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 981-04-2491-4] Singapore 18-19 May 2000, pp. 399-410
summary	A prime objective of a visual database for design thinking is to support trains of thought. The game of "Rhyme or Reason" provides a clue for the cognitive basis for mind racing. In particular, it shows why in creative design speed matters, why we need memory cues, why reasoning by lateral association and conceptual positioning are as important as logical pattern matching. Unlike a conventional database, such as a banking system, which is concerned with the correct convergence on specific records, visual databases for design thinking need to support divergent exploration. The paper presents a method of "multivalent" tagging of discrete items in the database. It provides for knowledge of relations. This achieves two things. Firstly, it enables the search engine to return a specific database item in different exploratory contexts because of the multiple ways it can meet the search criteria. Secondly, the different tagged aspects of the item can be used to trigger new exploratory routes. The user can explore other tagged aspects whose relationship to the original search criteria need not exist in the indexing system. Short of this, a search is dependent on direct literal or other variants of pattern matching to retrieve only parts of a database. The strategies for sustainable input-output, and for search-storage of a visual database demand high modularity and generic structures which are not dependent on specific software or computer system. The paper specifies its open structure and its transparent and re-configurable methods. These are non-trivial design issues.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

_id	35d4
authors	Tzonis, Alexander
year	2000
title	Community in the Mind. A Model for Personal and Collaborative Design
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2000.001
source	CAADRIA 2000 [Proceedings of the Fifth Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 981-04-2491-4] Singapore 18-19 May 2000, pp. 1-14
summary	The present paper will discuss a landmark historical change that occurred during the last decade redefining architecture from an insular, solitary, and private activity into a distributed, cooperative, and community-based one. It will inquire into the reasons for this shift and explore the need to develop a new framework for personal and collaborative design and the opportunities resulting from it. How do we reason together in design? What are the criteria for selecting the technology to be used? How is knowledge acquired in such interactive framework? What are the new problems that emerge out of Collaborative Design? What are the new criteria to be applied when evaluating new design methods in the new context of Design Community? The paper will also examine some ideas related to a model for Personal and Collaborative Design and explore cognitive aspects of Community in the Mind. It will raise some basic question concerning new directions for research: The relation between Collaborative Design model to the cross-cultural design practice and the relation between cognitive organization of the Design Mind and the social organization of the Design Community.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:57

_id	ddssar0031
id	ddssar0031
authors	Witt, Tom
year	2000
title	Indecision in quest of design
source	Timmermans, Harry (Ed.), Fifth Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and Urban Planning - Part one: Architecture Proceedings (Nijkerk, the Netherlands)
summary	Designers all start with a solution (Darke, 1984), with what is known (Rittel, 1969, 1970). Hans Menghol, Svein Gusrud and Peter Opvik did so with the chair in the 1970s. Not content with the knowledge of the chair, however, they walked backward to the ignorance of the question that has always elicited the solution of chair and asked themselves the improbable question, “What is a chair?” Their answer was the Balans chair. “Until the introduction of the Norwegian Balans (balance) chair, the multi-billion dollar international chair industry had been surprisingly homogeneous. This chair is the most radical of the twentieth century and probably since the invention of the chair-throne itself (Cranz 1998). Design theorists have tried to understand in a measurable way what is not measurable: the way that designers think. Rather than attempt to analyze something that cannot be taken apart, I attempt to illuminate methods for generating new knowledge through ways of seeing connections that are not logical, and in fact are sometimes ironic. Among the possibilities discussed in this dialogue are the methodological power of language in the form of metaphor, the power of the imagination in mind experiments, the power of mythological story telling, and the power of immeasurable intangibles in the generation of the new knowledge needed to design.
series	DDSS
last changed	2003/08/07 16:36

For more results click below: