040 Swarms

Swarms

Definitions

Swarm ‘move somewhere in large numbers.’

Emergent ‘in the process of coming into being or becoming prominent.’

Source: Google Search

Proposal

In order to sense, analyze and communicate the Architecture of anything it must be modeled, fixed in a time frame and examined.

Nothing exists in isolation. Any process; any Architecture; is always the responses of a process to the external and internal; environmental conditions.

Some of these processes are repetitive and can be examined over a long period of time. Others are emergent and cause a unique, transient sensory experience.

In order to allow this transient form of Architectural process to be studied the following method is proposed to create a model of an emergent swarm process.

Method

Using a CAD system re-create the paths of the swarm using splines.

Create sphere components at the origin of the splines the same diameter as the distance between the components of the swarm.

Array the sphere components along each spline at equal intervals.

Set up scenes equal to the total number of spheres created.

Set up layers equal to the total number of spheres created.

Set up the scenes and layers so that only the current and previous layers are visible for each sphere in the array.

As each scene changes the active layers change and so an animation sequence is produced.

Add more detail to the array by isolating the original sphere component and adding other spheres or data around it linked to the original swarm pattern. This information is then copied through the array automatically since all the components in the array are identical.

To add unique data into the animation model add it to each scene and its corresponding layer.

In this manner all of the Architecture of the original swarm can be examined against a repeatable timeframe.

Results

The results are displayed in the following animation sequence.

The animations can be used in virtual reality systems to utilize each model as an environment.

References

Google Sketchup 8 2010 Original Google Product Free version.

Plugins for Sketchup 8 2010 Original Google Product Free version.as listed with relevant authors from http://www.crai.archi.fr/rld/plugins_list_az.php

Ian K Whittaker

14/04/2016

365 words over 1 page

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