i am starting my thesis project about highrises and paranoia.i want to start collecting information about the topics: swarm theory,camouflage and escape behaviours.
does anyone know some good books or links about the topics?
i just saw leach lecture recently and the title of his talk was "swarm tactics"....it was somewhat disappointing to find out what this means for architecture. the difficulty of using organic analogs is that they are so dynamic. after a lengthy discussion on organic forms and their ability to adapt (including a video of a school of fish shifting w/ water currents), he went on to show projects that seamed very static to me. granted, they were of the sinuous, computer-derived forms, but they never 'swarmed'. i guess what he failed to announce is that much of swarm tactics is in the process of design, not so much the built object.
anyway, i don't know if this helps w/ your thesis, but along these lines (group behavior, paranoia, etc.), i would HIGHLY suggest 'crowds and power' by elias canetti. i dealt w/ some similar aspects in my own thesis and this book came in very handy.
best of luck.
Oct 10, 05 12:07 pm ·
·
From the back cover of The Anaesthetics of Architecture (which really has nothing to do with "swarm theory, camouflage and escape behaviours" except superficially):
"In this culture of aesthetic consumption, this "culture of the cocktail," meaningful discourse gives way to strategies of seduction, and architectural design is reduced to the superficial play of empty, seductive forms."
Wow, that sounds a lot like what weave just wrote about Leach's recent talk on "swarm tactics."
The Anaesthetics of Architecture (especially chapter one: "Saturation of the Image") would be a whole lot more meaningful if the notion of reenactionary architecturism had been incorporated with Leach's other borrowed (mostly from Baudrillard) thinking.
not sure what you mean by swarming, but asuming you mean emergent group behavior...
critical mass by phillip ball is a slightly layified and broad look at complexity theory, including how it is reflected in urban planning and group behavior in simple environments, but (for me) more interesting for its look at economics and sociology. it is ultimately about social dynamics and very nearly zero to do with form but a good way to understand some of the basic ideas that underly the mathematics you might use.
if you want pop complexity EMERGENCE, by steven johnson is very accessible.
Somebody in my class at Sciarc had a thesis about swarms and highrises. He suggested that high rises are like Bee-hives or ant hills, and that the people who worked in them were mindless drones. His interventions were called "ant eaters" and "venus fly traps." They were meant to confuse and disorient the people so they would become aware of their folly.
Or the Bible has something about Locust Reigns... Or is that Converge?
Awaken from the bliss of sleep
The daybreak haunts you in such a subtle light
I hear them, they tell me these roads we have travelled fork up beyond the bend
Beneath the flutter of desperate wings
they sing a song of reclamation
Where tomorrows hanging horizon
interupts the hum of electrical towers
Here, there are the shallow graves, the shallower romances
and the shallowest of words still to be spoken
and there you are with open ears
Locust reign on your parade
Look back at the late 90's. There were tons of things about this, chaos theory, strange attractors, this and that.
Look at Stan Allen's stuff. But really, it was everywhere. In the end, it became nothing more than theoretical bs. Even Holl jumped on the bandwagon. Fun readings, though.
And Wiscombe was right in the middle (he was the class before mine at UCLA). Always good work.
swarm theory in architecture
hello everyone,
i am starting my thesis project about highrises and paranoia.i want to start collecting information about the topics: swarm theory,camouflage and escape behaviours.
does anyone know some good books or links about the topics?
thanks a lot....
Try Kevin Kelly's "Hive Mind" in Out of Control
or
Branden Hookway's Pandemonium: The Rise of Predatory Locales in the Postwar World
I think these will help
Try Kevin Kelly's "Hive Mind" in Out of Control
or
Branden Hookway's Pandemonium: The Rise of Predatory Locales in the Postwar World
or
Anthony Vidler's Warped Space: Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture
or
Nan Ellin's Architecture of Fear
I think these will help
"Anasthetics of Architecture" by Neil Leach is a good one. Also, his fourthcoming book, "Camoflage" would probably be directly relevant.
-andrew
i just saw leach lecture recently and the title of his talk was "swarm tactics"....it was somewhat disappointing to find out what this means for architecture. the difficulty of using organic analogs is that they are so dynamic. after a lengthy discussion on organic forms and their ability to adapt (including a video of a school of fish shifting w/ water currents), he went on to show projects that seamed very static to me. granted, they were of the sinuous, computer-derived forms, but they never 'swarmed'. i guess what he failed to announce is that much of swarm tactics is in the process of design, not so much the built object.
anyway, i don't know if this helps w/ your thesis, but along these lines (group behavior, paranoia, etc.), i would HIGHLY suggest 'crowds and power' by elias canetti. i dealt w/ some similar aspects in my own thesis and this book came in very handy.
best of luck.
From the back cover of The Anaesthetics of Architecture (which really has nothing to do with "swarm theory, camouflage and escape behaviours" except superficially):
"In this culture of aesthetic consumption, this "culture of the cocktail," meaningful discourse gives way to strategies of seduction, and architectural design is reduced to the superficial play of empty, seductive forms."
Wow, that sounds a lot like what weave just wrote about Leach's recent talk on "swarm tactics."
The Anaesthetics of Architecture (especially chapter one: "Saturation of the Image") would be a whole lot more meaningful if the notion of reenactionary architecturism had been incorporated with Leach's other borrowed (mostly from Baudrillard) thinking.
not sure what you mean by swarming, but asuming you mean emergent group behavior...
critical mass by phillip ball is a slightly layified and broad look at complexity theory, including how it is reflected in urban planning and group behavior in simple environments, but (for me) more interesting for its look at economics and sociology. it is ultimately about social dynamics and very nearly zero to do with form but a good way to understand some of the basic ideas that underly the mathematics you might use.
if you want pop complexity EMERGENCE, by steven johnson is very accessible.
de soja is my fav for paranoia
forget the theory .. read the behavior.
Somebody in my class at Sciarc had a thesis about swarms and highrises. He suggested that high rises are like Bee-hives or ant hills, and that the people who worked in them were mindless drones. His interventions were called "ant eaters" and "venus fly traps." They were meant to confuse and disorient the people so they would become aware of their folly.
Check out Tom Wiscombe and what he has done with 'Emergent'.
Or the Bible has something about Locust Reigns... Or is that Converge?
Awaken from the bliss of sleepThe daybreak haunts you in such a subtle light
I hear them, they tell me these roads we have travelled fork up beyond the bend
Beneath the flutter of desperate wings
they sing a song of reclamation
Where tomorrows hanging horizon
interupts the hum of electrical towers
Here, there are the shallow graves, the shallower romances
and the shallowest of words still to be spoken
and there you are with open ears
Locust reign on your parade
mmmmmm.... Converge....
second that ballard nomination - check out "super-cannes" by ballard for
some interesting behavior via a multinational office park
ballard is genius
Look back at the late 90's. There were tons of things about this, chaos theory, strange attractors, this and that.
Look at Stan Allen's stuff. But really, it was everywhere. In the end, it became nothing more than theoretical bs. Even Holl jumped on the bandwagon. Fun readings, though.
And Wiscombe was right in the middle (he was the class before mine at UCLA). Always good work.
Wow. Thanks for that. Made my day.
Here's a Norma Jeanvideo back at you. It also has some swarming behavior in it, though it isn't live.
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