The Dynamic Performance of Nature is a solar-powered installation designed to sense the animate natural environment of the world and interactively communicate it to the visitors of the Leonardo through an intelligent, dynamic wall. It’s inspired by the concept that sustainability for the 21st century should be crafted to evolve beyond conventional application of green techniques into something alive and integrated with the environment, conditioning the most sophisticated forms of creativity for the preservation of life. This dynamic and interactive installation will invite curious inquisition as well as detached contemplation of the synthesis between light, material, space, and global environmental information.

2011 Core Tutors: Evan Greenberg (AA), Christina Doumpioti (AA), Jason Kelly Johnson (FCL/CCA), Andrew Kudless (Matsys/CCA)
Studio Tutors: Andrew Payne (Harvard/Lift), Ronnie Parsons (Mode/Pratt), Gil Akos (Mode/Pratt)
AA Visiting Tutors: Michael Weinstock (AA), Toni Kotnik (AA/ETH)
Workshop Tutors: Rip DeLeon, Ben Golder, David Shook (SOM), Scott Minneman, Michael Shiloh, Nick Riddle
2011 Guest Lecturers: Thom Faulders (CCA), David Gissen (CCA), Mark Sarkisian and David Shook (SOM), Bill Kreysler

2011 Sponsors: McNeel & Associates (Seattle, WA); SOM (Skidmore Owings and Merrill); Kreysler & Associates Digital Fabrication.
Special Thanks: CCA Fabrication Lab and Workshop Staff and Students; Andrew Sparks

Software Links: Rhino/Grasshopper, Firefly, Arduino, Kangaroo, Karamba

The Sun Cutter Project by Markus Kayser explores the potential of harnessing sunlight directly to produce objects. The machine is a low-tech, low energy version of a laser cutter. It uses pure sunlight,
focused by a ball lens, to repeatedly cut programmed shapes in up to 0.4mm thick plywood as well as paper and card.
The project also explores the merit of analogue mechanized production that draws on the machine technology found in pre-digital machinery and automaton. It uses a cam system, moving an X & Y- board to control the shape of the cut. The cams are set into synchronized motion by a small solar-powered motor driving a timing belt.
Each pair of sunglasses made, even though very similar in shape, is still unique, creating a juxtaposition between the machine-made, repetitive and individual, unique object.

Markus Kayser – Sun Cutter Project from Markus Kayser on Vimeo.

Arduino The Documentary (2010) English HD from gnd on Vimeo.

Transensing is a collection of interactive objects created by Christina Biliouri, the goal of this project is to shift inclusive design from being merely a problem solving process to an emotional approach, this project mainly focuses in the implication blind people has in everyday social transactions ,the handcrafted glasses utilize arduinos + processing, piezo electric transducers, accelerometers and wireless communication ass tools to help blind people interact with their social enviorment.

Transensing intends to raise awareness by introducing objects which provoke and invite people to immerse themselves in a new experience where touch and sound are celebrated. The series of glassware, designed with Dick G. as a lead user, work as communication tools on various levels within social occasions. Above all, it is a demonstration of how design can become a tool to tackle social exclusion.

The series of objects are all to be used in social occasions and they work on different levels.

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“Where am I?” is a set of objects designed to be used by others in order to help the visually impaired understand where you are standing in a conversation. Simply by fiddling with your drink, the glass works as sound signifier.

“In between bubbles” can provide visually impaired people with the ability to keep in touch with their partner in a social occasion. By placing the glass on your ear you can listen to the other person’s drink.

“The Sound of Memories” What if you could capture the sounds of a whole night simply by drinking? This glass works as a time capsule; by turning it upside down you can listen and share the memories with friends.

Glad to see the Firefly initiative is taking a more serious shape today @ale2x72 tweeted about its new version which I have to say looks great they have created a hole bunch of new components also they have moved the project to this this Firefly Experiments website , Something good to share with all of you who are interested in the development of Grasshopper and Arduino.

Description (from the sit)
Firefly is a set of comprehensive software tools dedicated to bridging the gap between Grasshopper (a free plug-in for Rhino), the Arduino micro-controller, the internet and beyond. It allows near real-time data flow between the digital and physical worlds, and will read/write data to/from internet feeds, remote sensors and more. It also includes a Pachube reader.

Firefly Developers:
Andy Payne [LIFT Architects; Harvard GSD - Cambridge, MA]
Jason K Johnson [Future-Cities-Lab; CCA - San Francisco, CA]

Using Grasshopper to Control a Pan / Tilt Servo from Andy Payne on Vimeo.

Among his collection of works I found two I liked the most the first one is called Daily Stack ,  I really need to get one of these organizing my work flow has become a bit difficult with so many distractions and activities to do and this seems to be a fun and effective way to solve this situation.

Daily Stack is a playful tool that helps you become more aware of your daily work-flow and time management. By creating a physical representation of your tasks, Daily Stack speaks subtly to your conscience and helps you manage your time through unobtrusive ambient feedback.
It consists of a base device and a collection of wooden bricks in different shapes and colours. The bricks represent different kinds of tasks and time-intervals. By adding a brick to the base you commit yourself to the task and time span that the selected brick represents. Daily Stack communicates with an desktop widget on your computer that enables you to keep track of your time and tasks in progress. It also enables you to browse through your past and and compare your days in a colourful informative pattern.

Daily Stack from Anders Højmose on Vimeo.

The other project would be Pong that Beat wich is a project made in collaboration with Sebastian Thielke and Jonas Maanson ,it is an interactive Pong table that when you play , the camera register where the ball is when it hits the table, and a new sound is added to that location. While playing the step sequencer is continuously running. In that way you create a beat while playing. If you drop the ball on the floor, you are game over.

PongThatBeat! from Sebastian Thielke on Vimeo.

Some weeks ago Andy Payne from Lift Architects announced the release of his first version plugin Firefly which is a specialized set of tools dedicated to bridging the gap between the Arduino interface and Grasshopper , currently the plugin has two components one for receiving data coming from sensors and the other to send parametric data from grasshopper to some sort of actuator via Arduino.

I think Firefly is a great tool for prototyping projects that involve sensors and actuators , because before you actually build it, with this tool you can first model a digital muck up to see how your project elements will behave with real sensor data, so then you can port that same logic to build your real project.

Here is an experiment I made sending data from a photoresistor to Grasshopper to create a Responsive Structure that reacts to the degree of light of a physical space in real time.
What you need:
-Arduino Board
-1K Resistor
-Photoresistor
-LED

(sorry about the crappy picture I had to use my webcam)
You have to start by making your Arduino Hookup and writing a code in the Arduino environment so you can retrieve the value of the photoresistor which measures the amount of light in a room and then send it to the board , in this case I wanted that when the amount of light is low an LED started to turn on and that the intensity of it also varies depending the amount of light .

So for the hookup the photoresistor and 1K resistor are hooked up in series. Arduino +5V goes to the photoresistor and ground goes to the 1K resistor. The junction where the photoresistor and the 1K meet is where Arduino pin #5 goes (picture Above).

Next step is write a code in the Arduino environment were we take an analog reading being send from the photoresistor to our board and then send that value to our output which in this case is digital pin11 which is the position of our LED , I made some annotations to the Arduino code to make it more easy to understand.

Arduino Test from Rodrigo Medina on Vimeo.

The last part would be porting the data from arduino to Grasshopper , here is were Firefly comes into action , actually is very easy to use once you install the plugin you´ll se two more components added which are the Serial Read and Serial Write.

In this case as we want to import data from Arduino we are going to use the Serial Read component which has three inputs , the first one is to define if we want the port that transfer data open or closed, you will like to have an integer slider that goes from 0 to 1 to control this easily, remember to have it always at cero before yo start the timer, the second input is for indicating the computer the serial port you are working on which in my case was  COM3 but it depends on the serial USB ports of each computer you can check with which port you are working by opening your Arduino code , then going to the menu Tools and were it says Serial Port you´ll see the one that the Arduino board is using , the last input of the component is the Baud Rate which controls the speed and it should match the one you are using in Arduino apparently the standard is 9600 so I used that one.

Besides that the rest goes pretty straight forward using the common tools of Grasshopper , have I also included some notes in the definition to help you out.

Arduino + Grasshopper & Firefly from Rodrigo Medina on Vimeo.

As always let me know if you have any problems the best way to catch me is by twitter @Rodrigo_Medina

Files Names
Arduino Code:GH3D_FireflyExperiment.pde
Grasshopper Definition:Arduino + Firefly experiment.ghx

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Adaptive Fa[ca]de by Marilena Skavara

Adaptive fa[CA]de from marilena on Vimeo.

Adaptive Fa[ca]de explores the functional possibilities and performative characteristics of cellular automata (CA). In addition to the unique emergent behaviour of CA, a neural network enables a further computational layer to evolve CA behaviour to the context of its surrounding environment. Building upon the early work of Conway’s ‘Game of life’ and Stephen Wolfram’s extensive research on the wider implementation of CA, ‘Adaptive Fa[ca]de’ becomes a living adapting skin, constantly training itself from the history of its own errors and achievements.

FINE COLLECTION OF CURIOUS SOUND OBJECTS  by Georg Reil

FINE COLLECTION OF CURIOUS SOUND OBJECTS from Georg Reil on Vimeo.

The arrangement includes six exceptional exhibits from the world of sounds and acoustics. At first sight looking trivial, each object incorporates a very unique ability.

The magical character of each object is accompanied with a little story, almost completely concealing the existence of technical components such as speakers or sensors. Only small connection ports as well as the uniform black finishing point to their unusual abilities.
Processing is used for recording live audio input, modifying the playback and generating digital sound according to sensor data.
In form and functionality all these exhibits pursue John Maeda’s „Simplicity“. They are enjoying to use, they are surprising and one wants to explore and investigate them.