"Programming Natural Affect" was one of the collaborative workshops during the Media and Architecture Bienniale 2014 last month in Aarhus, Denmark. Organized by Anna Ulak and Philipp Rahlenbeck of openconstructs, the workshop focused on fusing the organic properties of nature and the built urban environment through new media and architecture.

Participants learned about combining analog and digital production methods as they worked with each other and the organizers in building a small prefabricated pavilion. At the end of the workshop, the pavilion was displayed in the Main Exhibition during the Bienniale.

Ulak shared further project details below:

"Rather than trying to fully control/manage the relationship between the natural and built environment with computation (and its metaphors), this proposal sets out to augment the natural world. Thus creating artificial environments that evokes the organic. An architecture that artificially amplifies the experiences of nature that is diminishing in the urban context.

This is to be done by reproducing the affect of nature in a new abstract manner and projecting this onto a public pavilion. Here the affect produced and its experiential qualities is the goal of the project, resulting in a new type of public pavilion/infrastructure for cities."

"Participants put together the blocks to shape the pavilion as they wanted. Pathways throughout the pavilion were created to offer a variety of ways to circulate and experience the spatial qualities of the pavilion and its projections. Participants also programmed their own affects that were projected onto the pavilion."

Credits:

Team Lead: Anna Ulak, Philipp Rahlenbeck
Team: Alya Grishko, Marcus Foth, Cristina R.Maier, Piotr Celewicz, Meletis Stathis, Urs Basteck, Giulia Panadisi, Michelangelo Vallicelli, Jeanette Falk Olesen, Flores Thomas, Lloyd Emelle, Ana Moutinho, Winnie Soon, Hanna Schneider

Check out the video below to see the final installation.