MMVII
BUBBLE gum 

How do the materials you and your colleagues selected help tell this story?

The project presented in Venice uses virtual materials. The physical installation has been presented in various instances: as a triangulated artifact using a virtual sheet material, reinterpreted with a marching cube algorithm and texture mapped with a variety of patterns, which allude to the initial inspiration drawn from two seemingly different yet intertwined sources: Islamic geometries and soap bubbles.

Text:   Excerpt from an interview with Michele Ralston for University of Cincinnati; full access here. 

Image: BUBBLEgum; Ming Tang, Mara Marcu, Adam Schueler

Explain how your exhibit  examines conflicting attitudes.

Given the ubiquitous proliferation of digital techniques, “Optical Illusions of Volume” prompts an exploration of the many misalignments inherent in the design and manufacturing process. Through computation and augmented reality, a physical artifact is brought to life in Venice at Palazzo Bembo.

For this event, we have also incorporated augmented reality through the use of a mobile device. Visitors can visualize, interact, change textures, modify placement in space and walk through a virtual representation of our physical installation exhibited at the University of Cincinnati. While in reality certain decisions are frozen and limited to the selected material, spatial or budgetary constraints, in an augmented reality environment these considerations can be left open-ended.



September 2018

What advice do you have for current and future architecture students?

To embrace collaboration and exploit the accidental.