Chris Yu Final: welcome to New Jack City

NJC_2010

original_Jacks in the Park

the catalog_NJC fabrics

NEW JACK CITY_1 (click to enhance)

New Jack City_5 (click to enhance)






to be continued .......

New Jack City

Fabrics in JAX
New York City_1

New York City_2

LA_1

LA_2

Tokyo_1

Tokyo_2

Three Dial Fabrics

The fabric is still a work in progress. Essentially several combinations of fabric will be created based upon the amplitude of the dials. The start was a field of jax. The first dial demonstrates interconnection of curves and surfaces. As a surface is created from pframes traveling along a curve, a subsequent lines are created from between multiple curves based upon rotation and scaling.

origin_field of jax

exploding surfaces

first dial_loft from pframes along curve (created from extruded surfaces of jax)

first dial_rotating + scaling lofted curves

first dial_dialing it up more

first dial_dial up some more

first dial_dialing it all up

second dial_density of cubes (work in progress)

second dial_deletion of density (work in progress)

The second dial will deal with density, as it flies inward or outwards another reaction will be triggered demonstrating density.

The third dial will demonstrate verticality, hopfully all three can work independently as well as a whole to create various urban fabrics ready to be injected with the hopeful monster procedures.

currently feeling a bit....

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

The Last Stand_
(or just my thoughts running like several Usain Bolts)

The City of Hopeful Monster is a catalog of enhancing procedures ready to be deployed upon any existing urban fabric. These procedures are so extreme in enhancement; they are classified as mutations. Consequentially through these mutations/enhancements, a sporadic reaction is created within the existing fabric. Once the procedure is deployed upon a city, the city’s lineage can no longer be traced through a gradual transformation or evolution, instead it has become a new specie altogether. If one were to try, they would see a steady line, then a sudden leap into the monstrosity we know as The City of Hopeful Monsters.


Fabric is_

The chosen fabric is not a static object or simply figureground/ foreground and facades of a city’s physicality. Instead, these fabrics include the speed, programs, colors, density, and vitality of the space. Thus to deploy a procedure upon such specific condition is not just a result of a disfigured shape or mutated object. Rather, the dramatic leap of mutation creates a super situation of a combination of several enhanced characteristics.

Fabric in reality:
- New York City
- Tokyo
- Los Angeles

New York_

Tokyo_

Fabric in fantasy:

- Pandora, from Avatar
- Waterworld, from Waterworld
- Arus, from Voltron
- Vulcan, from Star Trek
- Zion, from Matrix
- Akira, from Akira

Waterworld_


Zion, Matrix_


Arus, Voltron_

Planet Vulcon, Star Trek_


Pure Grasshopper Fabric:
- Static field of conditions
- Simple operative system

Hopeful. Monster is_

So why exactly are these monsters “hopeful?”

“For example a mutation that produces two eyes on one side of the head of a fish of the most common morphology (such as tuna) is a monster; a mutation to a flatfish that produces two eyes on the upper surface of the head, with better scanning of the surrounding as a lucky result, is a “hopeful monster.”

- Steven Jay Gould


“To be hopeful, the monster must be fully functional, and it must have the means and opportunity of reproducing and propagating itself.”
- Michael Weinstock

In essence, the hopefulness comes from the sporadic mutation through the procedures.
previous. This new “species” then is able to utilize its new enhanced conditions/systems and demonstrate it through the analysis of its inhabitants within. Whether it is super smooth, super fast, or super relaxed it is a species that has mutated not just to survive, but to survive very well.

Hopeful Monster = Procedure is_

The procedures itself is incredibly vague at this point. However, a source of inspiration has been discovered today. Daft Punk’s song “Harder, better, faster, stronger,” gives a perfect description of the attitude of the described hopeful monsters. Even better is the music video that is set in a futuristic mechanical system, which enhances/suppresses the character’s attributes. Certain questions were sparked after analyzing the process of this machine.

- Superficial vs. the Internal
- Deletion vs. Addition (in biology mutation are generally negative due to deletion process of genes, however, to use references such as micro biology and comics there is additive process)

Screen shots_

harder, better, faster, stronger_

THE CITY OF HOPEFUL MONSTERS

Cities are like any other creatures, wishing for something to increase certain attribute(s) within their system. Whether it is an overnight growth spurt that separates itself above the rest, an injection of absurd speed that allows it to hunt more than it needs to eat, or acquiring global fame that gains instant access to any party in the world; these desires are all independent enhancements that creates situations of extremes.

The effects of enhancing anything generally starts off as an over indulgence of itself, a rapid beneficial condition that cannot yet be criticized. This state of euphoria rarely stabilizes or continues in a consistent manner. Instead, the enhancement declines and vanishes through three varieties of terminations. (1. super-saturation 2. self implosion 3. boredom) Through each of the enhancements, one of three response emerges. (1. adaptive 2. purgatory 3. rebellious)

Regardless of typology, all three of these responses have one thing in common; they all evolved without traditional evolution. Their growth cannot be traced linearly like normal species. They emerged from a freak and advantageous mutation which allows them to survive or even counter the situation of the enhancement/extreme. The colloquial term, “hopeful monsters” perfectly describes these products. A hopeful monster is a term that rebuts Darwin’s theory of gradualism and evolution. Instead, these hopeful monsters are instantaneous specification or systemized mutations.

Agenda:

The city of hopeful monsters creates and analyzes the moments of instantaneous, systemized mutations due to an enhanced condition. Through analysis and the intrigue with enhancements, two catalogs of typologies were created. The First catalog deals with the typologies of an enhancement’s termination. The second is called the catalog of responses aka. the catalog of hopeful monsters. This catalog ultimately becomes a manual for the creation of or protection of cities.

atmosphere drawing 1_

atmosphere drawing 2_

pseudo code_

monster catalog_

decomposing enhancement_

detail perspective_

enhance experiment ... boredom?

The Enhancement

Cities are like any other creatures, wishing for something to increase a certain attribute(s) within their system. Whether it is an overnight growth spurt that separates itself above the rest, an injection of absurd speed that allows it to hunt more than it needs to eat, or acquiring global fame that gains instant access to any party in the world; these desires are all independent enhancements that creates situations of extremes. However, what happens with these enhancements? What are the effects and products? What then is the result of several combinations of independent enchantments?

The effects of enhancing anything generally starts off as an over indulgence of itself, a rapid beneficial condition that cannot yet be criticized. This state of euphoria rarely stabilizes or continues in a consistent manner. Instead, the enhancement declines and vanishes through three varieties of terminations. One type is the “super-saturation,” this condition occurs when it reaches its full potential and can no longer perform beyond a certain point and simply exists statically at its peak. Another type of termination is the “self-implosion,” this occurs when the enhancement becomes so rapid and extreme that it self-terminates and begins to reverse in performance or simply vanishes into thin air. The last type is “boredom,” this occurs when the enhancement ceases to impress anyone and anything regardless of how much more/longer/bigger/sharper/denser/rounder it gets. Understanding the life of enhancements is rather interesting, but so what? What else occurs from these enhancements?

During every process of enhancement, a new condition or product emerges. In many sense, the determination of the enhancement lies within what new product emerges. Coincidentally, there are also three types of product that emerges. The first type of product is the “adaptive” product; this new offspring takes full advantage and collaborates/encourages the process. For instance, the birth of fast-food restaurant chains can be seen as an “adaptive” product that emerged from enhancing the speed and fluidity of a city. Ironically, this speed enhancement’s termination was later identified as traffic, an example of “self-implosion.”

The second type of product is the “purgatory.” This occurs when the enhancing process creates a situation where a new and chaotic/frozen condition emerges. For instance, during the race to break Hank Aaron’s home run record, several MLB players utilized performance enhancement drugs such as steroids and HGH. Due to this disadvantage and uncertainty, all of the players who later confessed or were suspected of, got an asterisk placed next to their career records. This created a new category and situation in MLB history that still to this day can find no answer or conclusion. Thus these players and more importantly these statistical records are at a standstill, temporarily and maybe even permanently placed on the list marked with an asterisk. Not legitimate but also too significant to be eradicated.

The last type of product is the “rebellious,” product. This occurs when an enhancement is so obnoxious or maybe even so successful, that the reaction or emerging product does exactly the opposite. For example, pop music and mainstream culture has exploded to a point of “boredom.” The emerging reaction to this enhancement is the indie culture of today. The recent desirability of residing in satellite sub-cultural hubs such as Williamsburg, Fort Green, and Clinton are all “rebellious” products grown from the enhancement of Manhattan’s popularity.

Regardless of typology, all three of these products have one thing in common, they all evolve without evolution. Their growth cannot be traced linearly like normal species. They emerged from a freak and advantageous mutation which allows them to survive through the existing extreme conditions. The colloquial term, “hopeful monsters” perfectly describes these products. A hopeful monster is a term that rebuts Darwin’s theory of gradualism and evolution. Instead, these hopeful monsters are instantaneous specification or systemized mutations.

Enhancement

Videos by artist Max Zhestkov

http://vimeo.com/5000098

http://vimeo.com/11486791

Centralizing Conditions + Shedding Identities

Creating a Field of Centers

Synopsis:

My current exploration is creating a field that allows me to extract centers (open for interpretation/analysis). Going along with the concept of constraints = characteristics; I started out with one singular cube.

- The cube then travels through a combination of 3 types of "moves" (3d rotate, shift, mirror); each move is given a numerical value which must then equal to a given total value, thus the move combinations are limited within a numerical constraint.

- From each move, the I boolean subtracted the intersections and collected the "static" or "dynamic" fragments.

- Now that I have this collection of fragments, I shall analyze, extract, and translate it. I have already started by looking at the fragmented prism's centroids (2nd image below).

Captures:

(everything together)

(centers of framents)

(exploded fragmentation)

Concerns:

- need to link it back to beginning to express the cause and reactions.

- Because I am working in 3d, I am having problems with my grasshopper file being too heavy and am forced to bake almost every step and brep-ing it in a new file. How can I lighten the load?

- Need to extract/analyze surfaces of fragments.

- All of this took less than 5 seconds on paper, but took almost 2 days in Grasshopper!