Hylozoic Soil

Again, a post on physically transforming structures. And again, featuring an artist/architect who was featured at MoMA's exhibition ' Design and the Elastic Mind'.  Philip Beesley makes organic installations that seem to make spaces come alive.

A recent work, Hylozoic soil, is based on hylozoism, the philosophical view that all matter contains life. It is an interactive space that exhibits complex behaviour as you walk through it, as if it wants to absorb you. There are nitinol-activated arms which gently move in reaction to people's behaviour, and pillars that seem to breathe, thus creating an intimate connection between man and machine, rendering the whole a seemingly hybrid organism.

What I like about Philip Beesley is his multisidedness; he integrates an artistic vision, high technology, and unique aesthetics, while also using analytical, rational processes towards the design of his structures, inspired by for example Buckminster Fuller and Chuck Hoberman. What could be expanded upon a lot is the extent of this integration; the behaviour is still quite minimal and seems dictated by technical constraints, as does the visual appearance. The materials used in his structures seem still quite mechanical and hard, much like a frozen spider web. For me it would be a brilliant piece if he would work on a structure that has a seamless soft skin, with an entire decentralized sensor network embedded into it, making for a richly responsive system that could give you really the experience you were part of the digestive system of a technological organism. But maybe that's a little too direct for him. I can also see his structures grow autonomously, perhaps fed by, metaphorically speaking, the empathy the structure gets from the people interacting with it, so the effect is a cross-nurturing of man and machine.

To make this happen of course many disciplines will need to join hands intensively. Especially I'm thinking of genetic engineering for this stuff. Let the great convergence begin!

Make sure to check out his Youtube page if you want to see the installations in action:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pbeesley1234

Environmentally responsive textiles

Staying on the topic of structural work, I'd like to mention the work of Rachel Wingfield together with Mathias Gmachl, who I both met last week in London where I was doing a workshop with Philips Design. Their website is www.loop.ph, for the hyperlink buffs among you.

Rachel designs and builds lightweight woven structures, which are in turn inspired by natural growth patterns. Her explorations led her for example to structures that can be packed flat and then expand again if you for example throw them away, which is quite stunning to see. I love her practical, explorative approach guided by nature; great discoveries aren't made by looking for them! And I'd love to see a physically adaptive structure once, which could adapt to people or the weather conditions...

Here is a little movie about a recent project of hers for the Royal Botanical Garden in London:

http://www.artisancam.org.uk/pages/artists/loop.ph/timelapse.php?mnbtn=2&icn=1