MACHINIC PROTOCOLS

SAND PENDULUM - A TEMPORARY COMMUNITY EXPERIMENT

Investigating the perpetual unknowns with Edouard Cabay and Rodrigo Aguirre at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.

A paper pendulum hangs above a platform, moving in a controlled swing perpetrated by four fans that are programmed by an Arduino code. The release of sand from the pendulum creates a pattern. Two light sensors embedded in a blackboard feedback information to the Arduino to alter the speed of the fans and therefore manipulate the sand pattern. Changing the placement of the fans, the wind speed and the light sensitivity of the sensors, creates a machine that can output various patterns. From above, a live video of the sand movement and pattern is fed back to a grasshopper code that reads the information as an architectural landscape over a period of time, in our case a desert settlement. Taking reference from the organization of Burning Man this new data is input into our architectural protocol, and this machine is now an instrumental method of understanding and predicting the organization of a modern desert settlement, which only bases itself on primary resources.

This project was showcased at the Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion.

Project by: Olivia Alvarez - Design / Fabrication / 3D modeling / photography, Filippo Testa - Grasshopper / 3D Modeling | Axel Van Der Vegte - Arduino