872a Model Based Design

Assignment 6, due Halloween:
Desire

Submissions are to be posted to the web before class.


  
 

Note: If you have not completed Assignment 5, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Do it first. And also do this one:

This week's assignment is very personal. I am asking you to inquire within. What is important to you? How can this class be relevant to that?

 

What we decided on Friday:
On Friday in class we loosened the class' methodology a little bit. I was later asked if this means you have to throw out your old systems and start over. No! It does not mean that. What it means, though, is that if you are more interested in starting with a formal or algorithmic system as a starting point you are free to do so. The methodology I have been promoting so far (properties of interest discovered in a found system -> model -> design) I still believe is a good one (and a valid one). But now you have some more freedom to ceate a methodology of your own and to connect it to a design project of your own (perhaps a piece of your studio work). This also means you will become responsible to argue the validity of your methodology, which I'm sure will be worthwhile.

 

 

1. State your desire

Building on the thinking you did in class, augment your web site for this class. Organize it clearly so that the following is clear: what we have been doing so far are experiments in technique. Make clear up front with images, words, applets, movies, sound, whatever it takes:

1) What is your system (found in nature, found algorithmically, you name it.)?

2) What are the properties of interest you locate in that system?

3) What is your design problem? (More important than what you pick is that you pick one. Applying your findings from your system research will be interesting no matter what concrete problem you apply it to. But we'll be floating in space until you select a very specific problem.)

4) What is your desire? That is, what do you want to achieve?

 
 

2. Methodology

Now you've stated your desire, and to be responsible to it, you will need to develop a methodology. What are the specific steps you need to take to achieve your goal? This includes what you are going to model, how you are going to do it. What kinds of parameters it needs to have, what kind of visualization you will be producing? How do you intend to use computation in a way that nothing else could replace?

Argue for the validity of your process. If you don't buy it yourself, we won't either. Start over. Identify steps in the process with which you will need technical assistance from me. Identify them clearly because we are going to set up meetings in order to get them done.

The results of this will be a short piece of text. This text goes on your site. It is something you are bound to.

 
 

3. Sketching

  

You have at your disposal all of the templates we have used so far plus all the work of your classmates plus all of the fantastic other work available from sources like www.proce55ing.net (particularly in the Discourse section). Produce at least one sketch in Processing that moves you into the process you have outlined in your methodology. This may be one of the steps you would like help from me to complete. If so, let's set up a meeting. Things are getting serious.