The Image Made

One of the Keeper+Instigator shells. The problem lies in surfacing the point clouds of the tentacles, massive cleaning.

Scratch that and Bake it Again: a Revision

 

This structure inherent everywhere becomes the all-consuming drive of the organism; to collect, compile an addendum of surroundings, a DNA database. This organism would be the lab assistant of Carl Linnaeus or Ernst Haeckel. Without any database the organism is limited to its seed volume. Only through the acquisition of DNA from others does it have a method of defense, feeding or survival. Within its own system, the hierarchy of information would determine what form it would take in any given situation. The organism is now a Keeper. It becomes the guardian of life itself, storing elemental data in preparation for nature's eventual obsolescence. Its brain is a hybrid of a left/right brain capability and that of an octopus. An octopus actually has two brains, one that controls its motor skills, directing the eight extremeties. While its second brain directs its survival.
  

Transmittance would occur with touch. Through a two-way osmosis, the Keeper releases nano particles into the organism as a tracking device, this link serving to transmit new skills the organism would be constantly acquiring. In return the Keeper collects both a DNA sample and a steady stream of data referencing the organism's fight for survival. Information is stored closest to the seed within. Layers of DNA are fused in thin films of mother of pearl [twice as strong as any high tech ceramic]. A product of self-assembly, the shells around the seed are formed in a sac of sea water. Surrounding the sac of water is the malleable body of the Keeper, shedding and appropriating the various forms found within the surrounding environment.  Its tentacles allow for efficient travel on both land and water. A hierarchy of exterior shells is shed or appropriated in definition to each enviromnet. A wet swamp will preclude a fin extrusion, etc.

As part of any environment, the Keeper cannot simply exist without a consequence upon its context. Like Cerebrus, the two headed guardian of Hades, the Keeper communicates with the Instigator. The Instigator operates on a nano-scale by accelerating evolution. It does so by injecting a mutation within an organism's DNA, thus constantly altering the environment. The same method of transmittance is used by the Keeper. By brushing up against or touch, mutations are disseminated into the expecting organism altering its genetic code. The Instigator reads the same stored data as the Keeper, the end result to modify the data and modify the organism. The environment is altered positively or negatively. Trees grow knobbly brances, Lily pads turn flourescent, Banyans grapple with each other to extremes.

 The organism is in constant flux to suit its environment, it is a hybrid of a hybrid of a hybrid...  Hence the shape has been a sticking point. I always imagined it form-less. The everything and nothing of Universality. However for the purpose now, the above form is how the Keeper and the Instigator are conjoined; sharing a unit of data, reading the seed differently. 

 

Image from RampantBycicle

The Image Maker

New Technologies/Methods [and learning them] is perhaps my favorite aspect of Architectural Education. Last week I got in touch with the individual that runs the Arius 3D scanner at UCL. Mainly used for Archaeological and Art History conservation purposes, he sometimes gets the random Bartlett student in for a scan. The last being scans of chicken bones. He informed me that the DAS clay model was perfect because white or off white was the ideal surface for working with. I have a few pictures below of the scanning process, sans flash and on my camera.















It is a rather large machine essentially directing light into a mirror triangulated with light passing through a lens. If both streams to not connect then the scanner reads nothing, as in spots with shadow or pitch black. The end result is a point cloud model. I was hoping to have a 3d model ready in a couple of days however the files are so incredibly heavy due to the data per sq cm that Rhino kept crashing.

Connecting the points to form a surface is proving to be difficult as well. However i have found that with a point reconstruction set, a Delauny Triangulation will work to form a mesh that needs further cleaning.

Will post renders in the future.