mycorrhizal midi controllers

Wald Spaziergang Energie tanken Biophelia Arvay Gesundheit

“The Wood Wide Web”

I had this idea in my ceramics class, when Mary told me about Damien Hirst and his coral sculptures.

I really liked the idea of Fungi “hacking” a computer as they as a social network themselves. I went to the IT department to ask if they had any old computers, and I couldn’t believe my luck! I got both a monitor and computer.

I used polymer clay, modelling clay, wire and superglue. I loved the vibrancy of colour, and the playful nature of the material.

These Fungi are imaginary, as I wanted to keep exploring the idea that so many species are still unidentified but I took inspiration from pictures of Fungi and also artist Stephanie Kilgast.

This piece was very rushed, the polymer clay was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be. If I had the time, I would have liked to completely cover the computer and the monitor, and also apply some more detail to the Fungi.

Studio Day 12/11/20

Today in studio I created a lino print based on the collection of burlap plant forms I had created and photographed. I am interested in the idea of the reproduction of imagery and so I decided to create a print. I also thought that the different shapes and textures formed on the leaves of the burlap would make a good print. I cut out the print and made a few prints of the piece. I really liked the results of the print and I believe it printed really well.

After I had created the lino print, I photocopied it a number of times at different brightness levels. I then attempted to create an effect mimicking risograph by layering a piece of fabric over the photocopies of the print. I found the image on the top left corner of my sketchbook to be the most successful version of this.

I wanted to try just sitting down amd doodling and I came up thw the concept of humans depicted thorough nature. This is of course a lot more abstract but the bark-like texture which is distorting the features of a face was incredibly fun to draw.

Learned how to make gifs during the week, so have been messing around with a few pictures (and a selfie) to see what kind of effects i can get. The 2nd picture is of the dried up Aral sea and an abandoned fishing boat, I love the eerie type effect i was able to achieve. I have a few photos from a shoot that id like to try this with and see what i can come up with

Next in Sustainable Design: Bringing the Weather Indoors 

Content sourced from The Conversation. 

A building’s primary purpose may be to keep the weather out, but most do such an effective job of this that they also inadvertently deprive us of contact with two key requirements for our well-being and effectiveness: nature and change.

In the 1950s Donald Hebb’s Arousal Theory established that people need a degree of changing sensory stimulation in order to remain fully attentive. And 30 years later, landmark research by health care designer Roger Ulrich showed that hospital patients in rooms with views of nature had lower stress levels and recovered more quickly than patients whose rooms looked out at a brick wall.

Unfortunately, many buildings – especially in cities – are not blessed with green surroundings. I am part of a group of architects and psychologists at the University of Oregon that has been examining ways to overcome this problem using an aspect of nature available anywhere: the weather. Think of rippling sunlight reflecting from water onto the underside of a boat, or the dappled shadows from foliage swaying in a breeze. Other examples can be seen at vitalarchitecture.org.

When we brought these kinds of natural movements indoors, we found that they reduced heart rates and were less distracting than similar, artificially generated movement. Early results suggest that seeing live natural movement of this kind in an indoor space may be more beneficial than viewing outdoor nature through a window, and could not only help to keep us calm but also improve our attention.live natural movement of this kind in an indoor space may be more beneficial than viewing outdoor nature through a window, and could not only help to keep us calm but also improve our attention.

These findings are consistent with the Attention Restoration Theory proposed by University of Michigan psychologists psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan. Among other things, their work suggests that familiar natural movement patterns of this kind have the capacity to keep us alert without being distracting.

Beyond green building

Over the last two decades architects and engineers have developed approaches to building design that greatly reduce the impact of buildings on the natural environment (“green” buildings) and their human occupants (“healthy” buildings). But these movements focus primarily on new buildings, which benefit only a relatively small number of people compared to the many who could be helped by making existing structures more habitable.

Moreover, most people – including many of those responsible for ordering the construction and remodeling of buildings – are not aware of these advances. Many key features of green buildings, such as energy and water conservation, for example, are not immediately noticeable, and as a result, these simple but important practices are significantly underused.

Several leading commentators on sustainable design, including Judith Heerwegan and the late Stephen Kellert, have suggested that in order to have any meaningful impact on the daunting environmental problems we now face, green buildings can no longer simply “do no harm.” Rather, they argue that buildings need to actively demonstrate ways of living in harmony with nature. Our work suggests that bringing the movements of sunlight, wind and rain indoors could make passive energy-saving features in buildings more obvious to the people who order and occupy them, and so greatly increase their usage.

Bringing the weather indoors

Light shelves, for example, are devices that are commonly retrofitted to the windows of existing buildings to reflect daylight deeper into an interior. Former University of Oregon master’s degree student Aaron Weiss and I have shown that when a shallow layer of water is added to the top of a light shelf and is disturbed by the wind, the shelf reflects moving sunlight patterns onto the ceiling inside.

In controlled experiments using a windowless room, with a fan and powerful light to represent the wind and sun, we found that this kind of wind-animated light not only lowered occupants’ heart rates but was also less distracting than similar, artificially generated moving patterns. Importantly, adding wind movement did not reduce the amount of light the shelves transmitted. However, it did make the shelves much more visible to people using the space.

We found the same was true of a range of other key passive energy-saving techniques, including solar heating, shading and natural ventilation. Adding sun, wind or rain-generated movement did not reduce their environmental performance, and in many cases it revealed their operation to those using the building.

The calming effects of natural indoor animation could be particularly helpful in stressful locations, such as hospitals and doctors’ offices – especially in places where people experience the additional stress of waiting. Aquariums are often used in medical waiting rooms, for example, because they have been found to have a calming effect on patients. The stress reduction can be even greater, however, when indoor movement comes from uncontrolled nature such as the weather.

But how can we invite the movements of the elements indoors without undermining a building’s first task – sheltering us from the weather? There are three simple ways. We can enclose weather-generated movement in glass courtyards; use sunlight to project movement from outdoors onto interior surfaces; or project it onto the outside of translucent materials, such as obscured glass.

No real substitute for live nature

There are many kinds of recorded natural phenomena available today. We can watch videos of gently rolling ocean waves, or fall asleep to the recorded sounds of falling rain. There are even sophisticated software programs that can generate these effects digitally. So why go to the trouble of redesigning buildings to bring these effects indoors?

To answer this question, former University of Oregon graduate student Jeffrey Stattler and I projected a digital tree shadow onto the wall of a windowless room and tested whether there was any difference in people’s responses depending on whether the electronic tree moved with live changes in the wind outside, or according to a computer program.

Most people could not tell whether the tree movements were generated by the wind or by computer. But when they believed the movement was wind-generated, their assessments of its beneficial effects were significantly higher in all categories.

In other words, indoor sensory change is likely to have a much greater beneficial effect on us when we think it is natural and live. So unless we are prepared to mislead people, there is no real substitute for using the real thing.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, most people in the United States now spend more than 90 percent of their lives inside buildings. Features that make us more relaxed and productive in those indoor environments, then, could have significant positive effects on a great many lives.

Lighting, heating and cooling those buildings accounts for almost 40 percent of U.S. energy consumption. The same natural indoor animation effects could also help to reduce that figure by increasing public awareness of passive energy-saving in buildings.

In addition to its practical benefits for people and the environment, weather-generated indoor animation also shows us that, while separating us from its extremes, buildings can also reconnect us with nature.

Content sourced from The Conversation.

★ my writing (06/06/23) ★

★ wow wow! i used to have a wip list but honestly, i’m pretty inconsistent with fics i start! so i figured having a general... list of couples i like and maybe the big universes i write for would be a better idea. very much always down to talk about these things as well as other things not listed here, particularly if we’ve talked about them before! ★ ★ i post on ao3 at: mybelovedagnes ★ ★ i mainly write fic for: the marvel universe (particularly aos), the magnus archives, wolf 359, blaseball, spies are forever ★ my main universes for these fandoms include: ✩ blaseball crossover (aos/blaseball | blidleo, fitzsimmons, tillsendec, others) ✩ unholy matrimony (aos | idleo) ✩ throssover (aos/blaseball/tma | blideo, fs, tilsendec, lonelyeyes, blidleolonelyeyes) ✩ national anthem (aos | bioleophelia) ✩ [UNNAMED WTNV/AOS CROSSOVER] (aos/wtnv | id/leo/kevin/2xOCs, bioquake) ✩ stalker (wolf 359 | kepcobi, platonic jacobi+maxwell) ✩ college au (wolf 359 | hereiffel, kepcobi, kepcobeiffel, herawell, minlace, pryce/cutter) ✩ femme fatale (spies are forever | curtwen) ✩ misc others that are less developed i don’t want this to get too long! ★ the main muses for these fandoms are: id + jemma simmons, leopold fitz (both of them), daisy johnson, agnes kitsworth, holden radcliffe, aida, ophelia (aos) | the maximoff family (wanda, vision, tommy, billy, viv, pietro, lorna, nina, erik, charles, magda. i do what i fucking want), ava starr, stephen strange, the parkers, victor von doom, loki, steve rogers, bucky + becca barnes (marvel) | kevin, charles the theologist, donovan, cecil, carlos the scientist, various ocs (wtnv) | warren kepler, daniel jacobi, alana maxwell, hera, doug eiffel (wolf 359) 

★ i have also been known to write fic for: the umbrella academy, overlord (2018), arcane (2021), time:bombs, house  ★ my main universes for these fandoms include: ✩ freelancing (tua/aos, slight overlord | doctorconductor, biophelia, vague tibbetchase)  ✩ highschool au (overlord, tibbetchase) ✩ love in the big city (tua/aos | leo/leonard, idviktor) ✩ don’t worry, baby (tua/aos | kitscliffe, leo/leonard) ✩ happy family (modern au!arcane | silco/marcus, prev. silco/vander, caitvi, jinx/happiness, jayvik) ★ the main muses for this fandom are: viktor hargreeves, klaus hargreeves, leonard peabody (au, all au, please do not kill me) (the umbrella academy) | lyle tibbet, morton chase, chloe laurent (overlord 2018) | jinx, vi, cait, ekko, jayce, viktor, silco, vander, marcus (arcane) | house, wilson, cuddy (house)

★ tags under the cut! ★

swing batter batter: blaseball crossover  stargirl: blaseball id simmons (blid because i am lazy) stargirl and the astronaut: blaseball id simmons/leopold fitz (blidleo because i am lazy) unholy matrimony: canon idleo, my fic of the same name 190 days: tma teachers  face your fears: the magnus archives magic hands: wanda maximoff  wonder twins: wanda + pietro biochem: jemma simmons  unstoppable forever: fitzsimmons scientific beauty: kitscliffe unlucky seven: the umbrella academy  sweet melody: viktor hargreeves and now the weather: welcome to night vale oh the misery: arcane hate crimes md: house  hand grenade heart: kepcobi 

This is something that I just started and just kept going with,

I like it but trying to tie it into biophelia just ain't it,

Maybe replacing one of the veiny bits with bark from a tree could be interesting.......

Oh well at least I put my heart and soul into it ☺️

Synopsis for My Project:

Currently I'm exploring the theme of Biophelia in relation to my surroundings and how objects and places decay over time.

I began my project by looking at fungi and moulds and the effect they have on they're surroundings, I later ventured to buildings through photography, mainly run down or derelict places found in Limerick and at home in Laois. Then I looked into mirroring images I had taken of buildings through using filters to completely change how they were perceived making them look like patterns and shapes, in a way and I feel its like looking at something but in an alternate universe, I hope to explore this further in the coming month. I like how it completely changes the atmosphere of a picture.

I'm fascinated by the rust and how the land can reclaim buildings turning something that was new into something old and completely changing it's exterior, I'm particularly interested in ivy and moss and the effect it can have on buildings, especially how it strangles and stretches out to cover a surface. I want to explore the spreading of the ivy and growth changes in the vines and leafs, which could be effective through sculpture or to create an animation(stop motion) based on the growth of its vines and how the leaves cover and claim a surface.

I decided after the peer reviews to mainly focus on using different mediums and techniques to develop my project, I took a step back and returned to some of my photos/ideas to develop them more. I really began enjoying what I was doing working from the photographs I had taken of run down buildings and carparks. My motivation was lacking as you can probably tell from the beginning of my work but ideas began to flow once I talked with the tutors and discussed how I could further develop my project.

How I got from biophelia to childhood fears aswell as ideas I plan to connect into my project

Biophelia statement

I was inspired by the immortal jellyfish. The jellyfish constantly regenerates its body. The jellyfish never dies its literally immortal which blows my mind. I find it fascinating that their is an eternal creature on the planet.

Trees feed off of the nutrients in dead bodies to make their lives last thousands of years and when a tree dies and falls over it’s called a nurse tree in a forest all the creatures can feed of the dead trees nutriance so basically the life of trees are an entire eco-system within itself. The similarities age wise beetween the jellyfish and trees are astounding.

This personally connects to me for a lot of reasons mostly because I was raised in the forests and in the tropics being around animals and plants my entire life. Having spent time learning to live in the forest I learned how trees live in their own separate communities. They are such an important part of modern life and not many people notice that.

It’s like a mystical magical creature inhabiting the earth that has the “ability” to never die bringing wonder and fascination to my life.

Studio Day 10th December

Today I set up my exhibition of the work which I had completed on my Biophelia project. I am really happy with the work I completed this semester and I believe I developed in many ways as an artist while working on this project. I displayed some of the work I completed up against the window. This is because I liked the effects that colour, reflection and shadow had on these pieces (e.g. the way the light looked on the etching and through my wire sculpture). 

This is a painting I've been working on that represents the relation ship between thw wild versus thw domestic, with humans being the in-between.

Risograph workshop, focusing on Biophelia and more in depth on how the humans are actively destroying the plant with things like everyday plastics. I portrayed the destructive plastic through and an every day item like toothpaste. My final print will have the toothpaste as the first layer and my images and text will layer over it.