DESIGNING PERSEPHONE _THE FIRST WORLDSHIP

Persephone is a design module of the DARPA funded 100YSS (one hundred year star ship) project with Icarus Interstellar. Its aim is to assess the requirements and design living environments for worldships.  Persephone is a real project. It is unusual as its deliverable is the design and development of a living interior for a worldship constructed in orbit in a hundred years time.

NEW CITY _A NEW VIRTUAL WORLD

Greg Lynn, Peter Frankfurt, Alex McDowell and Imaginary Forces collaborated to bring New City to MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition. New City featured an architecturally-scaled immersive media environment that served as the trailer to the concept of a living virtual world that is parallel and simultaneous to ours.

Greg Lynn takes into context the planets, stars and outer space as part of our built environment. His New City project explores how colonies in space would work through 3-D prints and computer renderings.

DESIGNING PERSEPHONE _THE FIRST WORLDSHIP

M.KAKU _WILL MANKIND DESTROY ITSELF?

PETER DIAMANDIS _ABUNDANCE IS OUR FUTURE

Peter Diamandis runs the X Prize Foundation, which offers large cash incentive prizes to inventors who can solve grand challenges like space flight, low-cost mobile medical diagnostics and oil spill cleanup. He is the chair of Singularity University, which teaches executives and grad students about exponentially growing technologies.

SCIENCE CASTS _INSPIRING FACTS

SCIENCE FICTION _INSPIRING VIDEO ART WORKS

    POSTPANIC [MADE FOR OFFF] _

    MAXIM ZHESTKOV _

    AARON TAM _

THE FOUNTAIN _A BEAUTIFULLY INSPIRING (ROMANCE/SCI-FI) FILM

Drama Romance Sci-Fi]

Overview:

Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Starring Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Sean Patrick Thomas.

SCIENCE CASTS _INSPIRING FACTS RELATED TO PROJECT PERSEPHONE

TOMORROWLAND _THESIS DIAGRAM

PLANET DLR _SPACE-TIME ANALYSIS CHRONOGRAM

SCIENCE FICTION LAND _THE UNTOLD SAGA BEHIND BEN AFFLECK'S ARGO

In the winter of 1979, after more than a year's preliminary development and over $500,000 in pre-production fund-raising, spanning potential sites from Reno, Nevada, to Toronto, Canada, then Mirabel, Quebec -- 1000 acres were finally leased for a Theme Park called ScienceFictionLand, set to be built in Aurora Country just outside of Denver, Colorado. The Park's buildings were to be based upon the production designs and sets of the film, Lord of Light, designed by Jack Kirby and Barry Ira Geller, brilliantly drawn by Jack Kirby.

The Producer's vision (in 1979) was to bring together the greatest scientific minds, artists, and businessmen of his generation. This vision was to include computer-controlled rides, magneticaly levitating cars operated by voice command, billboard-sized Holography, a bullet-train from Japan, and many other venues for children to envision the future. The park was heralded in the press as the first theme park ever to become a center for new technologies invented, developed, and presented to the public solely on an entertainment basis. Commercial applications of new technologies would further act as continuing revenue for scientific, educational, and research foundations set up by the parent company. The creation of the Theme Park ScienceFictionLand was also the Producer's plan for the funding of the film, Lord of Light.

Fortune 500 companies around the world had been contacted to act as sponsors. Internationally acclaimed scientists, architects, and engineers were intrigued and several had begun work on Research and Development. Future Technologists like Buckminster Fuller, Paolo Soleri, and Ray Bradbury were enlisted to come in as consultants. Even 3M had already expressed interest in building a 1/2 mile high Floating Heated Dome (based upon Buckminster Fuller's original designs for air-conditioning NYC during its 1960s World Fair) over the entire park. The film's financing was contingent upon the development of the theme park.

PLANET DLR ANIMATIC _SPACE-TIME ANALYSIS 

PLANET DLR _UNLEASH YOUR CHILD WITHIN

Down below is the revised space-time analysis animatic I will be presenting at crit tomorrow.  Planet DLR depicts the current DLR system as an adventure theme park that unleashes the child within all of us.  As an automated service the DLR doesn't have a driver, meaning one can sit in the first row of the first carriage and experience a journey resemblant to that of a roller coaster; making the notion of the DLR as an adventure theme park not too far fetched.  Planet DLR is made from an assemblage of footage and images I felt best related to the journey I would like one to experience whilst on the DLR. My apologies for there being no sound on the animatic- I am currently in the process of creating sound effects for it.

VIRGIN GALACTIC/SPACEPORT AMERICA/FOSTER + PARTNERS / 2006-2012

In 2005, Virgin Galactic and the State of New Mexico announced that they had reached an historic agreement which would see the building of a state funded $200m spaceport on a 27 square mile area of land in the southern part of the New Mexico "the Land of Enchantment".

Virgin Galactic will establish its headquarters and operate its space flights from Spaceport America, the world's first purpose built commercial spaceport which is now under construction. Spaceport America will provide cutting edge facilities and a wonderful location for fledgling astronauts to realise their dreams. Construction is now well under way and the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) recently dedicated the newly completed nearly two-mile long "Governor Bill Richardson Spaceway" at Spaceport America, representing significant progress towards launching commercial customers into space from the desert of New Mexico.

The facility has been designed by world renowned, UK based Foster + Partners who won an international competition to build the first private spaceport in the world.  The Spaceport lies low within the desert-like landscape of the site in New Mexico and seen from the historic El Camino Real trail, the organic form of the terminal resembles a rise in the landscape. Using local materials and regional construction techniques, it is both sustainable and sensitive to its surroundings.

PLANET DLR  _ ANIMATIC [Edit 01]

PLANET DLR  _ REVISED

In this revised Planet DLR collage, I attempt to depict the notion of the DLR as a adventure theme park.  I am currently working on the video tableau of this piece, and should be able to upload later today.

PLANET DLR [REVISED]  _ INSPIRATIONS

Down below are the works of two artists/ flimmakers I have found of great inspiration and influence  in developing my short 'Planet DLR' animatic this week.  I will post the revised animatic later tomorrow.

Marco Brambilla-Kanye West's Power Video, 2010

Director Marco Brambilla depicts the concept of Power in the form of a video tableau (a moving painting that slowly reveals itself to the viewer with a continuous camera movement)

Je Baak-The Structure Of, 2010

Je Baak explores two artificially generated extreme emotions - Fear & Pleasure - through a collage of different thrill rides.  They look beautiful and scary, enjoyable and painful at the same time.

PLANET DLR _ SPACE-TIME ANALYSIS

A
 space 
exists
 when
 one 
takes 
into 
consideration 
vectors 
of 
direction,
 velocities,
and 
time
 variables.
  Thus 
space 
is
 composed 
of 
intersections of
 mobile 
elements.  
It
 is
 in 
a
 sense 
actuated 
by 
the 
ensemble 
of movements
 deployed
 within 
it.  _ Michel
 De
Certeau, 
The
 Practice 
Of
 Everyday
 Life


The task for this week has been to make
 a 
space‐time
 analysis 
of 
our
 visit on the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) ,identifying 

interests
 both 
thematically 
and
 representationally.

The piece I've titled Planet DLR is my interpretation of that.  It is an assemblage of footage and images I recorded and artefacts collected in relation to the DLR over the years, I felt best represented and expressed the journey one takes on the DLR. As the DLR is an automated service and doesn’t have a driver, one can sit in the first row of the first carriage and experience a journey resemblant to that of a roller coaster, however, without the dips, fast turns, high speed, but a thrill all the same.  This is what my piece attempts to evoke.

STAR GUITAR CHRONOGRAM:  [Descriptive text soon to follow]

TIME SQUARE:  This quick edit is set in a near future.  The floating Orb is a modern day sculpture intended to record & reflect societies behaviour over a period of time.  It is my personal interpretation of a time capsule.

Render: Cinema 4D (R13)

Compositing/Re-Lighting: After Effects CS5

Footage: Time Square New York (Stock Footage)

Editing: Adobe Premiere CS5

QUICK TOON TEST:  

Render: Cinema 4D (R13)

Compositing: After Effects CS5

Footage: City Camera Work (Stock Footage)
Editing: Adobe Premiere CS5

DISPLACE REPLACE (SHORT FILM):  Above is the short science fiction film I made during summer.  The plot follows the explorations of a student who has recently gained telekinetic abilities. Many thanks to Alfred who not only helped me film Displace-Replace, but also plays the leading role in this epic nano film.  I hope you enjoy.

Render: Cinema 4D (R13)

Compositing/Re-Lighting: After Effects CS5

Footage: University of East London (UEL) Campus

Editing: Adobe Premiere CS5

 FUSION-THING _ CULTURE OF ARTS  SCHEMATIC COLLAGE

This collage titled Fusion Thing, perhaps describes the energy of my scheme better than any detailed model could. I have used a fusion of images relating to the existing and proposed site to create a collage full of the energy and vibrancy of what I hope the Culture & Arts' centre to have.

Down below are a selection of what I feel are my strongest images to be considered to go in the Greenwich end-of-year catalogue.

Above, is the most recent edit of my conceptual short film titled Rebirth (destruct.abstract.construct).  I am yet to complete the final few scenes which interpret the conceptual birth (construct) of the new site, but I hope the film as it stands provides a notion of the concept I'm aiming to achieve.  The film is captured in 3D Anaglyph so if possible get hold of a pair of 3D anaglyph glasses to maximise viewing.

Admittedly, slightly inspired by the Aygo by Toyota advert I modelled this conceptual nuclei of the existing site with the help of the displace function in cinema 4D.  the form will be at the centre of the existing site as it expands/explodes out spirally before its transition into its new form.  The song accompanying the video which I will play in the film is the intro to a remix titled Monday by The Glitch Mob.