Flock Wall Mock-up

Flockbot Collapse Position 1

Using a lever arm to push against a taunt guide wire to project flockbot 90 degrees out. This option provides the ability to push out at anytime during moment along the guide wire.













Two cable system. One taunt guide wire and one pull cable attached to the far end of the flockbot. As flockbot approaches structure a "stop" prevents one end from rising and the second wire continues to pull on opposite end until horizontal with structure.

Splines

V8

Flcok Wall Version 2

Density Study

Flock On!

Mechanics Model

The diamond shape travels back and forth along a fixed metal rod. Pulleys at each end are connected with a string that is fixed to the diamond shape. When the pulleys are turned the diamond shape moves and rotates 90-degrees.

Bird Concepts

Collectively each element contributes to randomize density.

Each element consists on two parts so that top and bottom create different geometries.

Flock Wall Concept

Scheme A
The installation is no longer about a wall, rather the disturbance of space created by a random density of abstract bird forms.

Scheme B
This alternative focuses on the nocturnal experience. A canvas of lights is stretched across a series of robotic arms that react to motion. In the dormant state the arms are in a vertical position. Motion triggers the illumination and the arms to curl inward so the flock can grace over the observers.

Flock Wall Locations

The impressiveness of a flock of birds is the seemingly chaotic and random assembly that is governed by instinct, communication, and group interaction, along with four distinct flocking conditions: dormancy, departure, flight, and arrival.

Dormancy is the condition that best represents the birds while on the ground. Departure is a momentary condition prior to flight as a reaction to fear or surprise. Flight is the density that shapes space and arrival is the dissolution of density.

In selecting the locations it was paramount that the sites provide the opportunity for each flocking condition in order for the Flock Wall to be as reactive and interactive with the immediate context.

The Santa Monica Board Walk south of the pier provides this opportunity as pedestrian density is constantly fluctuating, allowing the flock wall to be in a state of dormancy, departure, flight, and arrival.

Black Rock Desert, venue to the Burning Man festival, provides a platform of contrast between the lifeless context of the desert and surrealism of constructed nature.

Ideas

Check out this interactive/reactive wall.

Theo Jansen, Kinetic Sculptor

www.strandbeest.com

Interactive Mutant Vehicle

In 2006, myself and a few other passionate friends of the arts conceived our first interactive mutant vehicle. Built on a 1987 Nissan pick-up truck, the mutant vehicle is a complex arrangement of hand operated mechanics, audio systems, and electroluminescent lighting. The mutant vehicle is designed to be completely disassembled and driven six-hundred miles to its destination and reassembled on site.

Each aspect of the mutant vehicle is engineered to express a specific attitude. The paws extend out and can open and close by means of simple mechanics. The twenty-foot tail rises and lowers by means of a winch. A high pressure water pump pulls water from a reservoir and sprays from the rear of the truck. The head of the cat is the command center: operating eye and eyebrow movement, the mouth, and audio controls powered by an on board computer.

It takes five people to operate and can transport up to ten people in its belly. The alley cat maneuvers through crowds, exhibiting various alley cat personalities and hisses, sprays, and claws at those that dare to escape it.

The inspiration is drawn from a simple alley cat, which scavenges for food, hisses at its nemeses, marks its territory, and claws its ways through the thick of society’s leftovers. Boo Boo Kitty is born.

Boo Boo Kitty in action....
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1052606/boo_boo_kitty_car/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLY3-C9VBik