MacBlog

FOCUS

What are you exploring?
For my thesis I plan to explore different ways of integrating sustainable technologies and practices into my sculptures to give them a functionality beyond the aesthetic.

What are you trying to solve?
I am trying to solve the technical intricacies of building a sculpture that incorporates sustainable technologies and practices.

DIRECTION

How do you plan to do this?
I plan on recreating one of my sculptures using solar cells as a “skin” to capture and store sunlight (see graphic below).

What will you build?
I will build a sculpture that can harness the suns energy during daylight hours, store it, and later use the stored energy to light the sculpture from within when there is no light (at night).

With what tools?
At the moment I am still putting together a design plan.

Illuminated sculpture explainer graphic

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Why do you want to do this?
Two reasons: My interest in sustainability and wanting to take my sculptures and designs to another level by introducing a utilitarian functionality.

Why is it important to you?
This is important to me because I think there is an opportunity for artists and designers to have an active role in how we approach sustainability. I am not going to solve the worlds energy problems but I think that there is substantial value in looking at sustainability challenges through the lense of a designer/artist. I want to provide creative/clever solutions to integrating sustainability into our everyday lives through sculpture and design.

What experiences in your life have led you to this project?
At times it feels like everything in my life has brought me to this point. My education (ITP), location in the world (NYC), timing (pivotal point in worlds climate/resources), skills and interests (sculpture/design/sustainability).

What/who has inspired you?
Is saying nature too generic? More specifically, I am very interested in bio-mimicry. A lot of the the sustainability problems we have been trying to solve has already been dealt with in nature.

Someone who really fascinates and inspires me is the Spanish architect and sculptor Santiago Calatrava.

Past works/experiments:

http://itp.nyu.edu/~mc3496/wordpress/2010/02/26/sustainable-energy-pendulum-generator/

http://itp.nyu.edu/~mc3496/wordpress/category/sustainable_energy/

http://itp.nyu.edu/~mc3496/wordpress/2010/04/29/mechanisms-final-rocking-arc/

Let me explain …

Interpretive Exhibition Design museum visit:

The entry way worked well to lure visitors into all that was inside. Who is going to pass up skeletons sitting on top of internally lit orange stands?

Having not been to this part of the museum in some time I was immediately impressed with the presentation of the exhibit. I brought my wife along with me on this visit and I begun by pointing out some of the tools/tricks/technology used to display the information as and asked her to give me her impressions when she finished the tour. By the time I had finished the my tour she had already left and was waiting outside for me. After a while she found that there was just too much information to absorb and was happy to end her trip short having been able to walk away with learning  a few new things. So overall she had a good experience in the hall but felt there was excessive use of technology and wished that there was more use of some of the more, old-fashioned displays that are predominantly used at the museum.

Some of my observations:

I would have to agree with her about the more traditional displays and would have like to have seen more of them but I though there was a sufficient balance of the more tech-heavy displays and the glass encasements. In the beginning part of the Hall (entering from the skeletons) I really enjoyed the displays that showed the process behind gathering a lot of the fossils and how they actually re-created what a skull would look like once muscle and flesh were added. Now, I can’t get enough of that stuff but I am sure there are people who would have wondered why there were so many displays showing the work going on behind the scenes. Too much of a good thing?

Actually, I found myself wondering of there was overuse of some of the more technology-based displays. The thing about some of the more old-school displays is that they really let you take the time to absorb information at your own pace. Some of the “interactive” displays and projections often instigated some sense of urgency and put some pressure on the viewer to engage with them or run the risk of not getting all the information.

One of the interactive displays towards the beginning of the exhibit invited people to “join the hunt” on a dig and gain some insight into what anthropologists were up to at different points. The experience proved to be somewhat frustrating due to the fact that there was so much of a lag time for the video and audio to play. At some point I got frustrated and just walked away. The interactive display had the potential to provide a lot of information in a small amount of space but a glitch like bad playback made me give up. Maybe the designers were aware of this and figured it was not too much of an issue but I wonder what the reaction is when a diorama has too little light, or something crucial to the visual narrative is obstructed. I am willing to bet something like that would be remedied pretty quickly.

By the end of my visit I found myself feeling a bit overloaded by all of the interactive screens, projected images and videos that I eventually cut my visit short. The places where I found myself able to focus and process information was at the more traditional displays. I really enjoyed studying the History of Human Evolution dioramas where they showed how life would have been for early man. There is something about a real, three-dimensional space that cannot be replicated on a screen.

Another display that I really liked was the acrylic display case that showed the different brain sizes of a variety of mammals. I probably spent more time studying this case than most of the interactive cases. Graphically, I just thought it was beautifully done and was well designed. It was really successful at showing the different brain sizes and explain why some areas of the brain were more developed than others.

Overall I would say that I enjoyed the exhibit. Aesthetically, it was well designed and laid out but I did feel that the way in which the information was shared was a little overwhelming. While there seemed to be equal use of the interactive displays and more traditional displays the interactive displays seemed to dominate the space and unfortunately, some of the other static displays faded into the background.

I can’t remember ever taking part in a school or class science fair but I do remember growing sugar crystals as part of a class experiment.

First off, what a fail! I remember doing this when I was younger with total success but I was unable to recreate the process.

I did everything correctly.

I gathered the materials. Water, sugar and more sugar.

I let the jar sit undisturbed .

And promptly went to Puerto Rico.

And when I returned nothing happened! My best guess is that there either was not enough evaporation or not enough sugar if you can believe that. While it was certainly a failed experiment it got me thinking about how I could potentially use sugar crystals as a material to “grow” one of my sculptures. I would have to build some sort of framework to encourage the crystals to grow in a certain way to create the shell and also build the structure to suspend the framework in the water/sugar mixture.

But before I get too far ahead of myself I took a quick peek online to see if this is something that others have tried. Sure enough, there are examples of “sugar sculptures” that people have attempted but nothing very complex and, uh, interesting.

Some examples:

So maybe there is something to explore here.

But before I set some lofty ambitions I would need to get some crystals to just grow in a jar for starters!

What is exhibition design?

It would seem to me that it is the attempt to cram as much as possible into one space at one time, all the while maintaining the viewers attention and making the information as digestible as possible. The rich did it in the past while entertaining guests and trying to impress upon them their amazing travels and acquisitions. Modern art museums take a stab at it telling us which art movement and artists we should be paying attention to now. Science museums are constantly trying to keep us informed as to how this world keeps spinning in the void. And lastly, historical museums keep reminding us not to forget.

At the end of the day exhibition designers are all doing the same thing: educating us using all the tricks of the trade. By knowing us, the designers designers are better able to deliver information to their target audience. After doing the first reading for the Interpretive Exhibition Design class I think I am more aware, for the first time, of the designers of these spaces … which sounds ridiculous since I have been going to museums my entire life. Now, I have been aware of how successful I thought an exhibition was, and was aware of whether or not I thought it was well designed or structured but I never looked past the actual physical design and thought about the strategies used by the designer that I felt either failed or were successful.

Just yesterday I found my self walking through the visitors center for El Yunque National Rain Forest in Puerto Rico and was immediately analyzing the layout of the space and took stock of the different educational “tools” that they were using. Some observations:

• The majority of the “interactive” displays were geared towards smaller children (in both age and size). I found that nearly all the points for interaction were at my waist and I had to stoop down to see the information. A bit of a “fail” in my book but they did redeem themselves by providing a wonderful video tour in the theater narrated by Benicio del Toro (a nice touch).

• Curiously, the structure itself was laid out using the same classical architectural design used in cathedrals and formed a cross. Are they hinting that the rain forest should be worshiped and seen as a spiritual place? Maybe I’m reaching a bit but I found it interesting.

• The structure was also elevated to place the visitors in the space of the canopy of the rain forest. A real successful attempt to fully immerse us in the forest. They placed right there with the chirping frogs and wide variety of ferns. How did I know they were frogs and ferns? Along the walkway to the center there were information signs pointing out the different wildlife and plant life.

I found the reading to be a good way to jump start my awareness of exhibition design and get me thinking more critically on what makes an exhibition a success or failure … or just, ok.

Adib and I took to the whiteboard to begin designing the structure for ITP WC. What do you get when you combine two visual people to tackle over-sized water bottles? See for yourself:

One of the things we addressed was the need for a new racking system. Since we are going to be orienting the bottles in a different way we needed to come up with a design that was a lot better looking and could accommodate new bottles if we need to expand the system. We decided to only have one bottle per each segment of the aquaponic system but in the event we need more plants or fish we can stack another bottle on top of the structure. We also wanted to utilize gravity as much as possible for the circulation of the water. There will be only one pump in the system to help with circulation. (For now anyway.)

We also went in to the men’s bathroom to re-stack the bottles and their crates to get a sense of how this would all come together.

RUST – The Radical Urban Sustainability Training – an intensive weekend workshop of skills for building ecologically resilient communities in today’s cities.

Aquaponics system. Hard to believe it but beneath all of that duck weed (in larger tank) there are a dozen or so tilapia.

Having spent the first few weeks of our Designing Living Systems class talking about the different sustainable design techniques and technologies it was time to see it in action. That’s what RUST was for me. A get your hands dirty introduction on how to live a regenerative lifestyle. From duck weed to chickens, we covered a lot of ground … literally. The workshop took place in the heart of downtown Albany, N.Y. and operated out of the Albany Free School. From there we toured the neighborhood and visited the different sites that hosted everything from the goats to aquaponics.

The R.U.S.T. course is designed for anyone interested in learning specialized techniques for small-scale sustainable design in cities. Topics and hands-on projects included:

• Low-tech bioremediation (cleaning contaminated soils using plants, fungi and bacteria)
• Rainwater harvesting
• Aquaculture: ponds, plants, fish, algae
• Constructed wetlands/greywater
• Autonomous technologies:wind turbines & passive solar
• Worm composting and soldier flies
• Raised bed gardening and soil alchemy
• City chickens and micro-livestock
• Struggles for land and gentrification
• Brownfield restoration
• Biofuels: methane digesters, wood gas and veggie oil vehicles
• Mycoscaping:edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation
• Energy depletion and climate justice
• Sustainable and efficient wood burning

Hot compost bin.

Click here for more photos from the R.U.S.T. workshop.

Activity description and objectives:
The aim of this tutorial is to identify simple buttons/switches in everyday products and explain how they work. Students will break apart toys/electronics to identify the buttons/switches and discuss how they work. In groups, the students will make their own buttons to create a game controller to play old NES games online.

Other resources:
All About Circuits
Ultimarc iPac

Project team: Macaulay Campbell • Adib Dada • Julio Terra

Water bottles in the mens bathroom to be used for ITPWC

Project description: A bathroom intervention that brings awareness to water waste and air quality issues in our public spaces. We are designing a natural system that captures and remediates grey water from the ITP bathroom sink, feeds it into a plant-based aquaponic air remediation system, and uses the remaining water for the toilet flushing system. Water and air quality information will be communicated to bathroom users so that they continue to choose this bathroom over other options available on the ITP bathroom.

The ITP WC project can be broken down into a few major components. Each component will have a different lead, though everyone will be expected to contribute across all aspects of the project. (1) water remediation system, led by Adib; (2) aquaponic air remediation system, led by Macaulay; (3) sensor systems (air quality sensors and water usage sensors), led by Julio Terra; (4) data visualization component, led by Julio Terra.

To bring this project to life we have developed a multi-phase implementation plan. We are currently in the research and needs assessment phase, which will last for another 2-weeks. During this phase we will research how to build each of the system components listed above, select the plants for the aquaponics system, request access to appropriate resources from ITP, and identify appropriate sensors.

Next, we will begin the prototyping phase. During this phase we will create initial versions of the sensor circuits and install them in the bathroom to create initial reading benchmarks; we will also build working versions of the water and air remediation systems to test that they work properly independently. Once we have built the initial prototypes we will adjust our design to address issues that arise. This phase will last for 3-weeks.

The last phase will be the integration phase. At this point we will integrate the systems, run final tests, and make any final adjustments to get things to work properly. This final phase will last about 2- to 3-weeks.

It is important to note that we may not be able to implement all aspects of this concept. However, we hope that we can implement enough elements to be able to create a compelling proof of concept. Here is a more detailed overview of the work we are carrying out in the current phase.

It didn’t take long to come up with the idea to revisit the Miller Solar Engine for my first assignment for Design for GreenFab. I had actually attempted to do this project in my Sustanable Energy class at ITP last semester with not a lot of luck. In fact, everyone was having trouble with it. What is a Miller Solar Engine?

“As the solar cell charges the (4700 uF) storage capacitor, the voltage across the capacitor increases with time. Eventually it reaches the 1381′s trip point, and the 1381 applies voltage to the base of the 2N3904. Since this is an NPN transistor, it “trips” and applies current to the motor. This state of affairs will continue until the 1381 sees a voltage that looks like its trip point less 0.3 V, at which point the 2N3904 goes “quiescent,” and the solar cell resumes charging the storage capacitor.”

Got that? Can’t say it was crystal clear the first time I read it. The is the definition of the MSE posted on the Solarbotics website. Conceptually I understood it. Solar cell powers up the capacitor which at a certain point would have enough of a charge to trigger a switch to power an led, motor or whatever. At some point the power would be drained and the activity (lighting of led or moving motor) would stop. The process would repeat itself as long as there was a source of light on the solar cell giving you a pulsing effect.

In addition to the description on the Solarbotics site there was also a diagram of the circuit. I am still not the worlds best reader of circuit diagrams so it was only slightly helpful. Much more helpful was the link at the bottom of the page that led me to a Insectroides website that gave a step-by-step tutorial on how to wire the circuit on a breadboard. Incredibly clear but my one criticism was that it was only step-by-step images. No caption to walk you through what was actually going on. So what I would like to do for my first project is to take some of the technical information from the Solarbotics website and combine it with a more visual step-by-step tutorial similar to the Insectroides site. My plan is to create the equivalent of an IKEA instruction diagram with text.