MA Architecture and Digital Media

MA Architecture and Digital Media update: This year, the Applied Animation module, directed by Nick Puckett, examined the opportunities presented by making movement capture devices. Using the Arduino board and standard sensors, custom-designed analogue devices were used to drive animations in Maya. This approach allows the complex data derived from physical devices to be reflected in the animations. Also, in keeping with Nick’s wider research interests, these mechanisms suggest the possibility of employing hardware devices as design tools.

The students present their finished pieces:

Arthi Manohar and Oonagh Crotty

Maria Lardi, Mayank Mehta and Alejandro Vicente Soto

Tom Lowndes and Anisur Rahman

Mark Steedman, Paul Maguire and Richard Almond

Nima Vossoughi and Zahra Mohammadi Hoseinieh

Nikoletta Kostopoulou

From the archive-
A selection of animations from the Applied Animation module have now been added to madam.org’s main pages:

Antonio Passaro, 2006

Steve Karski, 2003

On Monday 23rd March 2009, students and staff of the MA Architecture and Digital Media were joined by guest critics Joel Gethin Lewis  and Yonca Ersen for a day of “crits”. Work in progress was presented and discussed. There are still several weeks of development ahead but already some exciting work is beginning to take shape:

Alejandro Vicente Soto

Oonagh Crotty

Nikoletta Kostopoulou

Work under development by students of the MA Architecture and Digital Media is gradually taking shape on various blogs and flickr pages. This fascinating example is courtesy of Richard Almond:

http://rafolio.tumblr.com/page/2

Last week, students from UCL, the University of Westminster and other institutions came together for a collaborative Generative Components workshop organized by Sean Hanna from the Bartlett School of Graduate Studies. The event, which was hosted by Westminster, included presentations and instruction by various contributors and explored the opportunities presented by scripting in GC. The event was a great success and was a fantastic introduction to this approach.

Some links to further GC information:

www.generativecomponents.com

www.smartgeometry.org

For All Seasons:
http://www.hahakid.net/forallseasons/forallseasons.html

Hana download link:
http://flickr.com/photos/hahakid/3178763223/

OpenFrameworks download link:
http://www.openframeworks.cc/download/

The computer vision source files:
www.nanikawa.com/fotb.zip
OpenCV (included in OF though)
opencvlibrary.sourceforge.net

Follow this link for a preview of pages from annual exhibition catalogue for the

MA Architecture and Digital Media

Image: E. Paul Evans

The 2008 Exhibition catalogue showcasing work from across the University of Westminster Architecture department will be available in print form from Thursday 19th June.