Our perception of the world is shaped by forces -- forces that we exert on objects as well as forces that objects exert on us. New technologies are making it easier for us to measure those forces, and programming environments like Processing and Grasshopper are enabling designers to harness this data in real-time. The kind of questions we'll be asking in this studio include: once we have access to this data, how can we use it to inform a design process? Can we interpret the data to drive parameters in our design? How do we make design decisions in a data-driven process? Can we say that this kind of a design process gives us quantifiably better results? 

This studio will combine programming, 3D design and electronics. The electronics can be quite minimal; essentially we'll be working with just one kind of circuit, which uses a change in resistance to measure force. Students will be tasked with designing and creating sensors using this circuit and various flexible semi-conductive materials. In groups of 3, students will brainstorm ideas for design projects that could be informed by this kind of data -- this could include shoe or apparel design, architecture, furniture, interactive art pieces, etc. We'll then fabricate sensors, which can be arranged in flexible and customized ways. Simultaneously, we'll be thinking of how to re-map the sensor data into meaningful parameters for our designs. We'll document our process over multiple iterations, showing how the changing data is reflected in possible design outcomes, and finally analyze the performance of our final designs through digital simulation or physical prototypes.

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Focus Skills/Subjects/Technologies:

  Design

  Architecture + Urban Design

  Physics (Electricity, Magnetism)

  Engineering

  Programming

  Electronics

   Robotics (Arduino, Sensors, Actuators)

   Digital Fabrication (Laser-cutting, 3d Printing)

   3d Modeling

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