Exercise_1.1a Dillon_Brady

From Object to Field:

The first part of the reading made me think of machines. The idea that there are multiple parts that make up the whole, but each part is their own individual. The way it made me think about it through architecture is the idea of the whole building design that flows together as one, but that each individual part is it’s distinct own. Another challenge that architects have is having people interact with the whole, Each person is individual but is a part of the bigger machine, and it’s our job to be able to incorporate it all. 

Geometric and Algebraic Combination:

The second part included the idea of algebraic versus geometric shapes and designs. The idea that algebraic designs are where one part is added after the next in a mathematical and logical sense. And geometric design, the idea that everything is planned at once within an order to characterize a bigger whole. Both include rigid shapes that have little to no organic shapes that are included in the overall design. Algebraic designs seem to be created in a succession, one piece after the next, with each part individually designed but added to the whole. Geometric design seems to be designed and planned all at once to make it coherent. 

Walking out of Cubism:

Cubism ruled a period of art and design that made the flourish after be even more important. The period that followed seemed to flourish with ideas and concepts that broke the mold of strict lines and hard corners. The idea of breaking cubism was to break the mold, to bring in american ideas that went against the historically strict European cubism. Minimalism is the idea to interpret these new ideas, but represent them in their most simple form. 

Thick 2D:

Figure and ground are not two different things, the figure and ground are one in the same. The figure is always the focus of the art or design, but the ground should not fade away into the background, it too is a part of the piece. In some cases it is the art or design itself, the ground can be the area the designer creates by manipulating the figure. Figure can be a simple design that portrays a more complex idea, the figure and ground will still be shown, but the designer uses simple techniques. 

Flocks, Schools, Swarms, Crowds:

The idea was to show the flight patterns of birds and how they group and fly together. In order to do this they ran a simulation with three stipulations: The first being a constant minimum distance between all of the “boids”. The second fixed variable was that all of the “boids” were going to be flying at the same speed as one another. The last variable that all of the “boids” had to follow was that they would all move towards the center mass of each other at all times. They ran this multiple times, and every single time that they did, the birds or “boids” would always come together into a flock. This represents that not only birds, but people are naturally wired to come together.