icecoladrink:

From The Creators Project: Artist Candas Sisman Reinvents Reality By Shifting The Way We Think About Digital Data

What about your interest in visualizing data?

My interest in data visualization stems from my wish to convert physically imperceptible phenomena and situations into perceptible ones. As we know, human biology can only perceive certain frequency intervals in nature. So, there is a lot that we cannot perceive around us. One of the reasons that makes data visualization important is because it goes beyond that. Another reason is that it can show us events in an objective way just like looking at a picture as a whole. I think this is very important, because events or situations can be better understood only from a wide perspective. Data visualization is a nice tool for that.

I also have a criticism about data visualization. It is nice to show what exists, but to me, this method is too scientific. At this point, I prefer to present data after I interpret it according to my own viewpoint. I want to add my own input as an artist. It is a delicate matter to balance whether data visualization is more of an art than science. 

My research topics and data usually have a vague start. I try to leave it open-ended so that it finds its own form in time rather than determining a goal or theme at the start and go from there. That is to say, my creative process starts without a specific destination, as is the case with an engineer or positivist scientist. First, the language I want to use materializes in my mind. Then, this language generates its own conceptual infrastructure. I see forming the language and then meaning around it as more organic than creating sense first to fit the language later. The vagueness I mentioned earlier involves a lot of subconscious data that I accumulated over time. They exist in a nebula anyway. What I evolve into is determined by my instantaneous choices. 

Your work stretches across digital art, animation, performing arts, and motion graphics. What do multi-disciplinary practices add to your work?

One of my priorities is to manipulate people’s perception, and produce work that appeals to different ways of perceiving at the same time. Therefore, one of the most important reasons for me to use different disciplines is to be able to address different senses. Just like in synesthesia, I wonder  how sound feels as a visual or how a visual can be perceived as the wind. Using different disciplines enables this kind of exploration. 

Another reason is that I also wish to remain in the limbo as far as disciplines are concerned. This way, I can make many different disciplines interact with each other, which presents a vital opportunity in my search for a new language. Actually, why I use different disciplines is also related to the times we live in. We live amidst a chaos of very intense information and possibilities.  We have a very eclectic lifestyle in our creative processes and our lifestyle. What we basically do is to combine different possibilities to produce mixed varieties, that is to mix or make them up. Now, only our choices, that is, which colors we want to use matter. I don’t believe in creating something from scratch. At this point, the fact that contemporary artists use different disciplines is actually quite related to the society and the age we live in. 

(Source: darklyeuphoric)

spaceplasma:

Solar Slinky

A major solar flare produced an arcade resembling a slinky. That flare has been featured here before, but this time we are showing a set of composite images that shows the thermal evolution of the material. The X5.7 flare occurred at 10:03UT on 14 July 2000, in Active Region 9077, and was observed by TRACE in three colors: the red image shows the ultraviolet continuum, generally characteristic of cool, dense gas; the blue image shows the 171Å pass band, characteristic of material around 1 million degrees; the green channel shows material hotter than about 1.5 million degrees up to approximately 10 million degrees.

The top image is a collage of six images. Frame 1, right after the onset of the flare, shows very bright, rapidly evolving flare kernels and the beginning formation of ridges, or ribbons, that give this “two-ribbon flare” its name. Frame 2 shows an image around 10:25UT, 22 minutes later, when the ribbons have developed along much of their length, and loops connecting them are showing up on the right-hand side of the arcade. Frame 3 shows a bright ridge between the ribbons; this is presumably very hot material, but it remains unclear whether that lies below or above the now cooling loops connecting the ribbons. Frame 4 shows green loops forming on the left-hand side, that cool to blue in frame 5. In Frame 6 most of the arcade loops have cooled to around 1 million degrees.

Because TRACE observes gas of very different pass bands, it allows us in principle to perform a very detailed study of the thermal evolution of this flare, which was very large, and caused the largest particle storm of the cycle thus far.

Credit: TRACE, Stanford-Lockheed ISR, NASA

(via icecoladrink)

staceythinx:

The Beauty of Scientific Diagrams is a typography set by Khyati Trehan that “integrates the initial of scientists with the diagrams they were responsible for”.  

(Source: behance.net, via icecoladrink)

ucresearch:

Jellyfish flames in space

fuckyeahfluiddynamics:

The jellyfish-like light show in the animations above shows the life and death of a flame in microgravity. The work is part of the Flame Extinguishment Experiment 2 (FLEX-2) currently flying aboard the International Space Station.

When ignited, the fuel droplet creates a blue spherical shell of flame about 15 mm in diameter. The spherical shape is typical of flames in microgravity; on Earth, flames are shaped like teardrops due to the effects of buoyancy, which exists only in a gravitational field.

The bright yellow spots and streaks that appear after ignition are soot, which consists mainly of hot-burning carbon. The uneven distribution of soot is what causes the pulsating bursts seen in the middle animation. When soot products drift back onto the fuel droplet, it causes uneven burning and flame pulses. The final burst of flame in the last animation is the soot igniting and extinguishing the flame.

Fires are a major hazard in microgravity, where oxygen supplies are limited and evacuating is not always an option. Scientists hope that experiments like FLEX-2 will shed light on how fires spread and can be fought aboard spacecraft. For more, check out NASA’s ScienceCast on microgravity flames. (Image credits: NASA, source video; submitted by jshoer)

The lead researcher on the project is UC San Diego’s Forman Williams and has been studying combustion physics for decades.  He explains:

“Combustion in microgravity is both strange and wonderful. We first saw these disruptive burning events in labs and microgravity drop towers more than 40 years ago. The space station is great because the orbiting lab allows us to study them in great detail.”

Read more about his experiment here.

(via icecoladrink)

futurist-foresight:

Zoobotics produces a modular robotics kit worth watching.

futurescope:

Zoobotics is developing modular animal-like robots made from paper, wood or plastics that can be assembled with a few tools

A startup from Hamburg (Germany) is experimenting with tetra- and hexapods, made from cardboard and paper. All technical functions are controlled by an Arduino Uno. Estimated base price incl all parts and reusable components atm around 300 €. They’re aiming for a crowdfunding release at the end of 2014. Count me in.

Description of Zuri 01:

ZURI is a programmable robot made from paper and grey cardboard. This motion machine, conceived of as a kit, can be assembled with a few tools (cutter, ruler, cutting mat, bone folder, glue and screwdriver). In addition to a distance sensor, the Paper Robot has servo motors, servo controllers and a Bluetooth module for wireless control via PC or smartphone.

ZURI is a modular robotic system. It is based on two leg variants (2DOF / 3DOF) and two different body modules (1M / 2M). The combination of leg and body modules allows for a lot of robot variations. This results in different degrees of difficulty regarding programming and coordination of the running gaits.

The ZURI-PAPERBOT-SYSTEM combines disciplines such as modeling, the use of electronics and programming. It is perfect for use in the classroom.

[Zoobotics] [long feature in german on golem] [all pictures by zoobotics]

(Source: futurescope, via icecoladrink)

futurist-foresight:

The Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall is a building constructed using robotic fabrication. (wonderful!)

fuckyeahfutureshock:cted

Soon to be fully automatic.

ryanpanos:

Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall | ICD/ITKE/IIGS University of Stuttgart | Via

The Landesgartenschau Exhibition Hall is an architectural prototype building and a showcase for the current developments in computational design and robotic fabrication for lightweight timber construction. Funded by the European Union and the state of Baden‐Württemberg, the building is the first to have its primary structure entirely made of robotically prefabricated beech plywood plates. The newly developed timber construction offers not only innovative architectural possibilities; it is also highly resource efficient, with the load bearing plate structure being just 50mm thin. This is made possible through integrative computational design, simulation, fabrication and surveying methods.

(via icecoladrink)