Attended a talk called BioLogic and Generative Fabrication:

Arthur Elsenaar, from Nottingham Trent University, did the Facial hacking videos which I had seen in the gallery. He showed and discussed performances that reminded me of a real-life version of Tim Hawkinson’s Emotor. I asked him if he could make new faces now as a result of the repeated muscle action created by the electric stimulator, even without it. He said that he could but seemed shy about showing off his new skills.

Philip Beesley, from the University of Waterloo, talked about his giant synthetic plant installation as if it were alive: “It stirs up the air, navigates its own relationship with you. At first the reactions are gentle, later it may view you as a food source.” He is an architect and describes architecture as a mediator for forming relationships with the physical environment.

Jenny Sabin of CabinStudio+, and Sabin+Jones LabStudio, is from the University of Pennsylvania. She believes in open collaborations- especially between architects and cell biologists. “These collaborations create new modes of thinking in design and bio-medicine.  To understand how genetic development and disease work, you need to know (and be able to visualize) how context and environment specify form.”

Gautam Rangan from UCLA presented his group’s installation, One. For this piece, the aesthetic had to be just right. The group was inspired by early microscope investigations as well as Eric Oh’s animation style seen here in “Symphony” which aslo screened at Siggraph ‘09.

Next, I had a date with Eric LaBlanc and MaryJo on the roof of the convention center to do a 360 with the Gigipan. GigaPan was developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics institute in collaboration with NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group, with support from Google.  GINOURMOUS images to follow.