geometric death frequency-141

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Unit 23 operates as a critical practice to establish and evolve the agendas, methods, attitudes and directions its graduates will take beyond the institution. We approach the subject and discipline of architectural production as a broad and curious field that oscillates between meaning and means, representation and realisation, experience and expertise. We investigate and experiment within the operations, protocols, roles, deceptions and tales of making experimental architecture. Students are expected to take possession of their work as critical research in developing their knowledge, skill and ideas.

Federico Diaz: Geometric Death Frequency-141-spot from federico diaz on Vimeo.

running from october 23 until the end of march 2012, MASS MoCA will be exhibiting geometry death frequency – an external sculpture by frederico díaz. the scuplture is an aggregation of 420,000 black spheres – precisely milled glued and assembled by a team of robots and mechanical assembly lines (of which process can be seen below in the clip).

visually, geometric death frequency-141 combines diaz’s interest in the built environment, deep natural forces such as cellular growth, physics and fluid dynamics to create a massive wave confined within an invisible 50 by 20-foot tank that penetrates the wall of MASS MoCA’s lobby from the exterior of the museum’s main entrance courtyard. as the wave hits imaginary boundaries, it splashes back and up as high as the second storey galleries of the museum,

architecture critic and curator jeff kipnis calls diaz’s work “re-origination,” comparing it to the making of a book into a film. in one sense the film represents the book, yet does so in an entirely new medium, and through this becomes something completely different.i n the case of geometric death frequency-141, the “book” is a digital photograph of the museum’s clocktower entry courtyard as taken by the artist, which the artist then transforms into pure data, and modulates using analytical and fluid dynamic modeling techniques, finally rendering the data stream into a three-dimensional sculpture using state-of-the-art computer-aided manufacturing methodologies. the new work thus combines elements of photographic manipulation, data analysis, and computer programming, utilizing new techniques to produce a sculpture completely untouched by human hands.

check the wired site for further slides and the geometric death frequency-141 page @MASS MoCA