We caught a brilliant exhibition of prints by Piranesi at the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, supplemented by some fantastic three dimensional representations of his designs courtesy of Factum Arte and a sub-exhibition of Gabriele Basilico's comparative photography.
Brief Guardian article about the simultaneous evolution of tools and language, based on research using digital capture of analogue modes of making. Original research paper here.
Hands at the Wellcome too.
Looking forward to checking this at the V&A.
"FABRICATE is an International Peer Reviewed Conference with supporting publication and exhibition to be held at The Building Centre in London from 15-16 April 2011. Discussing the progressive integration of digital design with manufacturing processes, and its impact on design and making in the 21st century, FABRICATE will bring together pioneers in design and making within architecture, construction, engineering, manufacturing, materials technology and computation.
Discussion on key themes will include: how digital fabrication technologies are enabling new creative and construction opportunities, the difficult gap that exists between digital modeling and its realization, material performance and manipulation, off-site and on-site construction, interdisciplinary education, economic and sustainable contexts."
Plenty more info here: http://www.fabricate2011.org/
How far can material limits be pushed? Here a crazy guy in France has built a working boat out of chocolate..
Should be worth a check, from 8th September 2010. [cheers A]
Summer reading? Tom McCarthy writes about representation of the machine in literature...
The Architectural Review selected Unit 23 as one of its top ten london architecture units.
Unit 23 article here.
Some fresh making by Orawee Choedamphai
"Airborne lasers have "stripped" away thick rain forests to reveal new images of an ancient Maya metropolis that's far bigger than anyone had thought."
Click here to read more
"an excavation in the non retinal order of architecture"; incredible archive of projects by James Cathcart, Frank Fantauzzi and Terence Van Elslander..
They always say its never great to do welding in a hurry, but just sometimes you have to..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8659398.stm
Posted on
May 4, 2010
Comparison of 3D scanning technologies from the perspective of conservators of the Naum Gabo collection at the Tate (Spiral Theme, 1941 shown above).
The sculptures posed difficulties being reflective and complex, which meant that haptic means were necessary in addition to laser scanning and photogrammetry. Such documentation allows the rapidly degrading sculptures to be reverse-engineered into a kit of parts which allow their recreation or restoration.