Saturation

A Design 5 Production: Daniel Barry, Adam Laskowitz, in association w/ Jordan Geiger

The environment is saturated with the emission of electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). Although invisible, these EMFs are tangible atmospheric elements within both the environment and our bodies. As with light and air, the manipulation of their physical characteristics may be brought about through design.

This installation indexes the physical attributes of FM radio broadcasts. The aluminum enclosure acts as a faraday cage, preventing the radio from receiving a signal. Because EMFs are absorbed by the body, the radio may connect to the signal through close physical proximity while remaining within the enclosure. Through simultaneously releasing each of the radios with a single motion, the dense saturation of the environment is exposed through an eruption of sound.

Cloud Busking

*Shortlisted Finalist in Fujitsu Design Competition 2011

Project By Daniel Barry and Adam Laskowitz

Cloud Busking serves two mobile users of the near future: nomadic street musicians in developing countries and their metropolitan listener-donors.  Globally-conscious citizens of metropolitan streets are provided with performances of indigenous neo-nomads through a holographic tele-presence.  This immersive experience provides excitement and joy within the audience while global awareness and sensations of fulfillment are attained through directly assisting individuals of impoverished nations.  Donations made through mobile devices and gesture recognition establishes a line of microcredit through the promotion of old musical, urban traditions within contemporary societies.

 

Invisible Orchestra

Android Application

Invisible Orchestra is an aurally responsive mapping system which exposes the spatial qualities of WiFi networks through their translation into musical elements. As multiple signals begin to overlap with one another, the generated audio reflects this shift in densities through recursively adding and subtracting elements from the track. Through simultaneously generating mental models of space and time, Invisible Orchestra seeks to provide orientation within the invisible landscape of WiFi.

Gravity Screens

*Reflexive Architecture Machines Exhibition

Research Project By Omar Khan

Project Role : Research/ Design Assistant

Gravity Screens are elastomer constructions that can change their form in response to environmental sensing. They instrumentalize the force of gravity across their elastic weaves to alter their shape and permeability. When this is tied to real time sensing of environmental data, the screens become an adaptable architecture capable of exploring different spatial configurations and environmental effects. 

Gravity Screens is part of a research project exploring computationally inspired and augmented materials for responsive architecture. 

Emission

*Diep International Arts Festival 2011

Research Project By Jordan Geiger, Daniel Barry, and Adam Laskowitz

“Emission” is a title that refers to both radiation and broadcast in the word’s French usage. This word identifies an important relation between electromagnetic frequency radiations and new technologies, especially communications technologies, in our world now.

Generated through an analysis of contemporary events concerning the Electromagnetic Spectrum, a series of speculative narratives and 'found objects' from a near distant future envision a world in which EMFs have fundamentally altered our biological relationship with the environment.

 

 

Posthuman Landscapes

Posthuman Landscapes is the working title of my dual thesis at the University of Buffalo's Departments of Architecture and Media Study. In the fall of 2011, I completed Directed Research in the Department of Architecture under the guidance of Jordan Geiger (thesis chair) and Omar Khan. Thesis production within the Department of Architecture will be continued this semester while beginning work under the guidance of Teri Rueb and Erik Conrad in the Department of Media Study.  

Intersight

Editor and Designer : Daniel Barry

(FW Brunkow Fellow: Fall 2010-Spring 2012)

Intersight is an annual publication that highlights the work of students at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo. The intent of this journal is to record current design preoccupations and scholarship. This issue reveals courses and work completed throughout 2010. Intersight V14.11 seeks to provide meaningful insights into design, ideas, and the life of the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo.

Intersight V14.11(published June 2011)

Website: intersight.ap.buffalo.edu
(launched March 2012)

Intersight V15.12 (publication coming soon)

 

Fresh Coast, Fresh Customs

Published Article in 3rd Coast Atlas 2011

Border Crossing Study By Jordan Geiger, Graphics By Daniel Barry

Toll crossings and pass control stations are last century’s familiar polyps in road development, the ubiquitous spots where two lanes expand to ten. Inverse diagrams of automotive speed on the ground, these add up to surprisingly vast tracts of sacrificial lands at the gateways of cities and, indeed, of nations. Yet thanks to the gradual introduction of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, Nexus Cards and other electronics for toll payment and border services, these lands are now open to being rethought.  Their redevelopment can open potential for new bi-national zones, new forms of land use for new kinds of public interaction. These sites - each a hybrid architectural/landscape object enabled by a sensory and database infrastructure - are suggestive of new forms of public space that might replace them.

Fre[e]quencies

On January 24, 2008, the FCC auctioned off the rights to broadcast on the 700 MHz spectrum to various mobile communications companies for a total of 19.8 billion dollars. While new licenses are to be utilized for the broadcasting of [private] cell phone signals, the channels were previously used for the broadcasting of [free] analog television signals. Justifying the privatization of an open, free communication network, the FCC claimed that the switch to digital television has made the frequencies "NO LONGER NECESSARY FOR TELEVISION," and therefore may be more appropriately utilized for the broadcasting of cellular phone signals.

Fre[e]quencies critiques this practice through providing direct links to online counterparts to these services in which comparable communication systems are offered at little to no cost to the customer, entitling them to a freedom to communication.

Torsion Textiles

Explorations in reflexive textiles developed several possibilities for the potential application of a thermal negotiation. Initial investigations began as a variety of armatures which would react to the exchange of body heat. Rather than using a temperature sensor, perspiration generated through the body was indexed through moisture sensors located across the body. Perspiration is the body’s natural response to negotiate the exchange of body heat; therefore it is utilized as a primary signifier within the reflexive garments.
Two primary strategies were initially utilized as a means of developing a reflexive armature; a ‘looping’ weave which could be actuated through a simple directional pull of a thread, and a secondary system which relies on pre-tensioned members expanding outward through a rotary motion. Once actuated, the system distances itself from the body, allowing for the exchange of heat. Upon these investigations, the ability for a reflexive textile was explored through a solar shading device.

 

Talk to the Hand

Talk to the Hand is a satirical critique on social networking and its potential futures. As these online networks become more advanced, they continue to gain significance within the very social structure which it is reflecting.  Syncing with individual’s Facebook pages and personal websites, these barcode watches allow individuals to have their digital social or professional counterparts become a physical part of their entity.  While the wristwatch remains removable, the project probes to question a potential near future in which the two entities become inseparable through the acceptance of biological computational implants such as TCR (tooth chip radio) technologies already under research and development.

 

 

refrACTION

Project By Daniel Barry and Adam Laskowitz

refrACTION is an early experiment with physical computing and material investigation.  Mediating the threshold of LAB246, the LED panel is actuated through a series of activities on either side of the door.   As people walk past the room, a series of sonar sensors triangulate their position within the hall and translate the generated data to the responsive LED panel.  As people move towards the window, the LEDs grow brighter and more densely populated, causing the etching on the bubbled plexi-glass to refract light and impede a visual connection with the space.  From within the room, ‘parasitic’ photocells attach to a secondary students project which detects minor alterations to the electro-magnetic fields within the space.  This allows for the sensing of the slightest electric and biological activity within the space and equally influences the response of the LED panel.

ConEd City

Harnessing the resources of ConEdison Steam Company, ConEd City provides an array of public amenities throughout the streets of New York City. The system remains reconfigureable to new designs, amenities, and aggregations through the provision of a simple 'plug-in' interface at the level of the street via the juncture of manholes. The access provided here to the receding utilized resource of steam encourages the accommodation of existing street amenities while also promoting the potentials for the growth and development of new public services through the utilization of a clean energy source.

 

Music Hall

Music Hall is an early experimental media installation which transposes movements through space into chromatic movements through sound. As a didactic system, each footstep is registered through a customized floor tiling system. As each new footstep is registered, there is a shift across the entire surface indexing the movements of the people over an extended period of time. This extended source of crowding begins to directly engage the user in questioning their paths of movement through the negotiation of space through an aural composition. Beginning at a net frequency, the aural landscape is manipulated through the indexing of its inhabitants. As each tile increases in value, the frequency of the aural projection is equally increased through a chromatic scale. In an attempt to maintain equilibrium, each increase in tonal value generates a gradation effect in values across the rest of the floor, creating a sloped landscape of peaks and valleys. Here, the specific movements of the user enable them to act as both composer and listener.

 

 

Undergraduate Works

Undergraduate Portfolio Coming Soon....