Even if you already know (almost) everything about Complex Systems, don’t miss the opportunity to watch online The Secret Life of Chaos, an excellent BBC documentary.
The documentary starts from Alan Turing and his research on morphogenesis, it then explains chaos (“one of the most unwelcome discovery in science”), feedback loops, fractals, flocks, evolution, self-organization. The documentary ends with evolutionary and genetic algorithms for solving problems and designing, showing how simplicity evolves into complexity, starting from simple rules repeated over and over. After watching this documentary, it should be very clear why design could (and should) learn how to deal with complex systems, even though we should update our idea of designer:

One of the things that makes people so uncomfortable, about this idea of, if you will, spontaneous pattern formation is that somehow or other you don’t need a creator. But perhaps a really clever designer, what he would do, is to kind of treat the universe like a giant simulation where you set some initial condition and just let the whole thing spontaneously happen, in all of it’s wonder, and all of it’s beauty.

And then if you go on and read Linux: A Bazaar at the Edge of Chaos by Ko Kuwabara (and this article as well), you will understand why I think that open source is a great strategy for dealing with complex problem and systems.

(Just a note about complexity and pop culture: after watching this, I bet it is easier for you now to understand that Tron:Legacy is about the dualism chaos vs. order, and why the movie prefers the former).

After the post about code_swarm, here’s another post about the visualization of Open Source communities, and this time I’m going to introduce you the other important software for this task: Gource. code_swarm and Gource are the most complete softwares rigth now for visualizing activities in a repository (and both are open source); there are of course other scripts or strategies, but less important, so I will cover them in the future.

But while with code_swarm it’s easier to see how the community grows and change shape, with Gource we can have a better look at what the users are actually working on. Instead of focusing on the form of the community (be it a social network or another visual metaphor), Gource focuses on the form of the software being developed, analysing it as network of interacting pieces of code. We can then see where the users actually work and we can also see them in a better way than with code_swarm (Gource supports the use of Gravatars for visualizing the users).
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For my first post on openp2pdesign.org, I decided to announce you an event I’m organizing together with Dr. Teresa Baptista (Advisor of the Zoological Museum) and Prof. José Fernando Gonçalves (CEARQ Coordinator), the third edition of Arquibio (June 14-18, Coimbra, Portugal).
Arquibio is jointly organized by the Zoological Museum, University of Coimbra, Center for the Study of Architecture, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Coimbra (CEARQ) and collaborators linked to several European and American universities.
Even though it’s not a project born directly from openp2pdesign.org, we decided to put in our projects page as it fits with the Design for Complex Systems issue (and in this case, it’s about designing Complex Architectures learning from Complex Natural Systems).

Arquibio 2010 is a series of international lectures and workshops on topics connecting architecture and design with the “bio-logics”. It is intended that the lecturers and visiting scholars allow a consistent connection between current biological and architectural knowledge bringing light of recent technological advances.

The premise is that the fusion between biological and technological world is now a reality that cannot be ignored. Computers and robotics prove to be capable of releasing the architects and designers of a catalog architecture, based on still images, teaching us new fields of interaction in which complex processes similar to those that occur in nature, take center stage and allow a more consistent connection with the living environment.

The event consists of lectures and three workshops:

1. Bio-Modeling
   Introduction to develop biomorphic models using advance modeling software.
2. Bio-Parametrics
   Advance modeling and explicit programing of parametric and generative models. Production of design and architectonic genotypes.
3. Bio-Machining
   Processes of materialization with CNC machines, relating robotics with architecture and bionic design. Production of phenotypes or physical models.

The aim of its workshops is to study and practice how the complex scientific concepts provided by the observation of biological processes may be connected to architecture professional practice by the creative use of digital technologies. Rhino, Grasshopperand RhinoCAM will be the software used during the workshops.

You can still register for it and attend the workshops and the conference here.

See you there!

01. Net-Map: a social network analysis toolbox

Net-Map is a visualization and facilitation tool developed by Eva Schiffer that can be very useful for design processes for/with Community/Locality Systems.

Net-Map is an interview-based mapping tool that helps people understand, visualize, discuss, and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes. By creating Influence Network Maps, individuals and groups can clarify their own view of a situation, foster discussion, and develop a strategic approach to their networking activities. More specifically, Net-Map helps players to determine

• what actors are involved in a given network,
• how they are linked,
• how influential they are, and
• what their goals are.

Determining linkages, levels of influence, and goals allows users to be more strategic about how they act in these complex situations. It helps users to answer questions such as: Do you need to strengthen the links to an influential potential supporter (high influence, same goals)? Do you have to be aware of an influential actor who doesn’t share your goals? Can increased networking help empower your dis-empowered beneficiaries?

Basically, Net-Map is low-tech tool for developing social network analysis within communities. It is a tool that: (more…)

C.STEM 2008 explores a scenario where the designer ability of writing custom software becomes the tool to connect the potential of digital fabrication to an ever growing demand of mass customized goods. Infinite variations, generated by open projects/processes, enquire the role and creative thinking of post-industrial designers.

The event featured an exhibition and two days of conferences presenting new forms, technologies and design processes.

Exhibition presented projects and works by:
Ammar Eloueini, Ebru Kurbak & Mahir Yavuz, Adrian Bowyer, Nervous System, Michael Meredith, Cait Reas, FLUID FORMS, Susanne Stauch, THEVERYMANY.

C.STEM 2008 – BREEDING OBJECTS – September 2008, Torino, Italy from todo.to.it on Vimeo.

via | Network Weaving

Neon Organic 0052 (sketch) from watz on Vimeo.

Here is an interview wih Marius Watz from Generator.x and Code&Form about Generative Art.

It is interesting for us because it is closely related to complexity, software and design as the generative system could follow genetic and evolutionary rules or using open source software or code (but consider that it does not happen always).

From Wikipedia:

Generative art is a system oriented art practice where the common denominator is the use of systems as a production method. To meet the definition of generative art, an artwork must be self-contained and operate with some degree of autonomy. The workings of systems in generative art might resemble, or rely on, various scientific theories such as Complexity science and Information theory. The systems of generative artworks have many similarities with systems found in various areas of science. Such systems may exhibit order and/or disorder, as well as a varying degree of complexity, making behavioral prediction difficult. However, such systems still contain a defined relationship between cause and effect. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s “Musikalisches Würfelspiel” (Musical Dice Game) 1757 is an early example of a generative system based on randomness. The structure was based on an element of order on one hand, and disorder on the other.

An artist or creator will usually set down certain ground-rules or formulae and/or templates materials, and will then set a random or semi-random process to work on those elements. The results will remain somewhat within set limits, but may also be subject to subtle or even startling mutations. The idea of putting the art making process in the place of a pre-generated artwork is a key feature in generative art, highlighting the process-orientation as an essential characteristic. Generative artists such as Hans Haacke have explored processes of physical and biological systems in artistic context.

Generative art describes a strategy for artistic practice, not a style or genre of work. The artist describes a rule-based system external to him/herself that either produces works of art or is itself a work of art.

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I’m very happy to share with you this documentary about Complex Networks and Network Theory. It is the firt one about complexity and networks that I have found so far, it is very well structured and narrated, and it’s nice to see
Steven Strogatz, Duncan J. Watts, Alessandro Vespignani, Albert-László Barabási after reading their papers and books.

It is called “How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer” (after the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game).
Here is the official website (and here (300 Mb) you can find the whole movie, if you don’t want to watch it on the videos below on Vimeo).

How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer – Part 1 from gephi on Vimeo.

How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer – Part 2 from gephi on Vimeo.

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Max Barret,
Social Circles

Everyone

A Venn diagram, drawn with light, showing
the 5 different sets of social databases I use:
Hotmail.com contacts, Facebook.com friends,
Myspace.com friends, MSN messenger
contacts and those in my mobile phonebook.
A total of 259 people.

via | manystuff.org

After the post where I wrote about flocking algorithms used in a site-specific art/design installation by Todo Design, I ‘d like here to write about another experiment with such algorithms.

While surfing on Vimeo I found this video by Aaron Westre from Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA), where he explains very well his master’s degree thesis on using flocking algorithms in order to design 3D architectures; here’s the video:

Introduction to Complexity Machine 1 from Aaron Westre on Vimeo.

Moving between design, science and computation Aaron Westre developed his his own software (you can download it here), “Complexity Machine 1” using the open source software Processing, where he runs his behavioral simulation describing the rules of the agents.

What is interesting in this project, is that the complexity of a system is not used as just inspiration or decoration, but as whole different way to design a structure, as if it were designed or modeled by a flock of birds.
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