Another short week but not due to UK holidays but my own, I took Friday off too spend with my sister. Doing this broke the routine up a bit, maybe hence the late post.

Games & AI Networking Evening

Still for another short week a lot was packed in, starting with the AI  & Games Research Network evening on Monday night. This was an event organised by the Creative Industries Technology and Innovation Network (CITIN) a great fit with the Design London focus. We were there in Imperial’s Senior common room with a portable back projection set up showing some of the portfolio of stereoscopic projects we have under taken. This was a great opportunity for us to show what sort of thing we can do and discuss how 3D visualisation is being used in different fields. The people there all seemed very interested in the capability we have and many of them were pleased to have an opportunity to play with the controller and manipulate the images we were showing. Over all it was a good evening for all involved and it was good to see it was continuing as a successful event this year.

Work by Rhys Himsworth at RCA Show 1

As well as this display we have been getting ready for the second part of the RCA degree shows where we will be displaying the creations of the vehicle design students. This year we will have a great location as you enter the show from the Stevens building side, the screen will be visible as you enter and I hope this will attract attention from internal groups as well as the public. The first show has just completed so I took an opportunity to have a look round. There were a great deal of interesting exhibits with a huge amount of effort going into the whole presentation. Several caught my eye, particularly the work by Rhys Himsworth who had created two works that used an integration of technology and art. I was lucky enough to chat with him and  discovered that there was generally a lot of interest in the fine arts and print making arena in this space where technology and art meet, especially where technology misbehaves and something unexpected is created. This had led to his works in which a plotter attempted to follow the flight of birds (above) and where a plotter painted acid onto a metal sheet pre printed with other metals, creating the image of a hand (see title image). Another piece that Nick Leon brought to my attention was a beautiful piece called Dreamcatcher by Marilene Oliver, again this was a piece that had utilised technology. Here she had scanned he body in 3D and printed or cut ‘slices’ of herself in perspex. These were suspended to re-create her recumbent form over a layer of feathers suspended below. A final mention must go to the work of Patrick Sieroslawski, a jeweller all of whose pieces were computer generated then printed at RapidformRCA, I suspect using the wax based printer. These resulted in incredibly complex geometric pieces and two very large mechanical looking headpieces inspired by car and bike parts. These will be featuring again in the fashion show so I hope to see them in our 3D film. These are just a tiny selection of the pieces that were on show, and looking at the items I picked out I’m still an engineer at heart.

By the way, although it may be short notice we are holding another STIR lecture at Imperial, open to anyone who reserves a place:

Self-Made Things: shapes and forms in nature

Tuesday 9th of June 2009, 7:00pm

In this lecture Sir Jonathan Miller will reflect on the biology of design – why do we have faces, what are the forces that shape our symmetry and the patterns we see in nature?

Do join us there.