denny Architectural Art & Design

This work attempts to further develop the Inflatables technology while creating a new dialogue between man, machine, and architecture. In this work, I am modeling nature on a microscopic, fractal level. It comprises a system of plug-and-play, inflatable, musculoskeletal modules which allow me to design a series of transformative organic structures influenced by the exhibition space. The modular components can be freely connected and rearranged to produce sculptures of varied size, form, complexity and interactive possibility. The "live" sections of the form are equipped with a simple sensing system that forces the sculpture into action. Your bodys motion in passing through the space functions as a type of force field that pushes the sculptures bones away from you as you are sensed, keeping the sculpture at a constant distance from you. Each bone can be selectively animated by the viewers movements allowing for endless interactive possibilities. If you are so inclined, your motion enables you to open it up, creating portals in that let you in and close behind you, giving an extremely different vantage point: life from the inside. In this way, the work is influenced by the nature of the environment—the space—as well as by the audience participants, who are engaged both physically and aesthetically with the constantly transforming structure.

RESPONSIVE KINEMATICS This is an architectural design project that began through conversations with Ron Resch in December 2008 regarding kinetic and kinematic structural systems. The goal was to create a mutable structural surface out of rigid bodies that can be controlled to adapt to changing conditions and parameters. Unlike much parametric design that is pre-adapted to a given desire, this system offers the potential for continual adjustment. While much kinetic architecture relies on elastic membranes to provide for deformation between bodies, Responsive Kinematics can maintain a constant seal throughout its transformation due to its geometric integrity. For this reason it is an ideal modular system of form, order and control with many architectural and construction process capacities. Prototyping commenced at the California College of the Arts in Virginia San Fratello's "Digital Poetics" class in the spring of 2009. Then the idea was to create an adaptive concrete formwork that could be morphed between castings. The prescriptive yet variable concept was focused on the surface as a tool to produce complex architectural assemblies. It was seen as a means create static parametric forms through accretion. The project revealed that more control over the hinging surface was needed. Development continued and actuation was realized in Jason Johnson's "Robotic Ecologies" class at CCA in the fall of 2009. Arduino provided the control interface. At this point with the addition ...

Reef investigates the role emerging material technology can play in the sensitive reprogramming of architectural and public space. Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs), a category of metals that change shape according to temperature, offer the possibility of efficient, fluid movement without the mechanized motion of earlier technologies. Operating at a molecular level, this motion parallels that of plants and lower level organisms that are considered responsive but not conscious. A field of sunflowers as they track the sun across the sky or a reef covered with sea anemones, offer images of the type of responsive motion this technology affords. Its use in practical applications has been limited to the medical and aerospace fields as well as novelty toys - the super exclusive vs. the trite. Despite the potential of this technology, there have been few serious attempts to test its possibilities at the scale of architectural environments. Reef's unique exploration of technology shifts from the biomimetic to the biokinetic while liberating and extending architectures capacity to produce a sense of willfulness. www.urbanaarch.com www.radical-craft.com