Abstract
This chapter examines aspects of unconventional computing from a design perspective through the practice of architecture. It reflects on how non-scientific forms of investigation may help develop cultural and economic frameworks for design thinking and scientific innovation, by building public and commercial interest in the field.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
The ‘cyberplasm’ robot is an example of the kind of projects that have arisen from the NBIC ‘sandpits’, which is a melange of biological and mechanical systems [19].
- 2.
Fictionalism is the philosophical view that a serious intellectual inquiry need not aim at truth [32].
- 3.
Such platforms may have soft bodies, be recyclable or use completely different kinds of resources than modern industrial systems.
- 4.
This video can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB6MKMqbLIM.
References
Adamatzky, A., De Lacy Costello, B.: Reaction-diffusion path planning in a hybrid chemical and cellular-automaton processors. Chaos, Solitons Fract. 16, 727–736 (2003)
Adamatzky, A.De, Lacy Costello, B., Asai, T.: Reaction-Diffusion Computers. Elsevier Science, London (2005)
Adamatzky, A., Armstrong, R., Jones, J., Gunji, Y.K.: On creativity of slime mould. Int. J. Gen. Syst. 42(5), 441–457 (2013)
Adams, T.: The chemputer that could print out any drug. The Observer (2012). www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/21/chemputer-that-prints-out-drugs. Accessed 19 Feb 2015
Armstrong, R.: 3D printing will destroy the world unless it tackles the issue of materiality. Architectural Review (2014). www.architectural-review.com/home/products/3d-printing-will-destroy-the-world/8658346.article. Accessed 28 Feb 2015
Armstrong, R.: Designing with protocells: applications of a novel technical platform. Life 4(3), 457–490 (2014)
Armstrong, R.: Vibrant Architecture: Material Realm as a Codesigner of Living Spaces. De Gruyter Open, Berlin (2015)
Armstrong, R., Beesley, P.: Soil and protoplasm: the Hylozoic ground project. Archit. Des. 81(2), 78–89 (2011)
Armstrong, R., Hanczyc, M.M.: Bütschli dynamic droplet system. Artif. Life J. 19(3–4), 331–346 (2013)
Batty, M.: Building a science of cities, Working papers series. 170 (2011). www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/casa/pdf/paper170.pdf. Accessed 10 Feb 2015
Berger, P., Adelman, N.B., Beckman, K.J., Campbell, D.J., Ellis, A.B., Lisensky, G.C.: Preparation and properties of an aqueous ferrofluid. J. Chem. Educ. 76, 943–948 (1999)
Beynus, J.: Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by Nature. William Morrow, New York (1997)
Bütschli, O.: Untersuchungen ueber microscopische Schaume und das Protoplasma, Leipzig (1892)
Centre for Nonlinear Studies. Unconventional Computing Conference, Los Alamos (2007). http://cnls.lanl.gov/uc07/. Accessed 29 Oct 2015
Chatelin, F.: Qualitative computing: A computational journey into nonlinearity. World Scientific, Singapore (2012)
Cook, P.: Experimental Architecture. Universe Books, New York (1970)
Corbusier, L.: (C.E. Jeanneret) Toward an Architecture. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (1923, reprint 2007)
Crutzen, P.J., Stoermer, E.F.: The anthropocene. Glob. Change Newsl. 41, 17–18 (2000)
Cyberplasm Team. Cyberplasm: a micro-scale biohybrid robot developed using principles of synthetic biology (2010). http://cyberplasm.net/. Accessed 18 Feb 2015
Davies, K., Vercruysse, E.: Incisions in the haze. In: Sheil, B. (ed.) Manufacturing the Bespoke: Making and prototyping architecture AD reader, pp. 162–174. Wiley, London (2012)
Dean, P.J.: Delivery without Discipline: Architecture in the age of design. Ann Arbor: proquest, Umi Dissertation Publishing (2011)
Doctorow, C.: Game of Life with floating point operations: beautiful SmoothLife. Boing Boing (11 Oct 2012). http://boingboing.net/2012/10/11/game-of-life-with-floating-poi.html. Accessed 20 Feb 2015
Else, L.: From STEM to STEAM. Culture Lab, New Scientist (8 Aug 2012). www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/08/john-maeda-steam.html. Accessed 19 Feb 2015
Evans, D.: Black Sky Think. Lib. 3, 22–25 (2013)
Fuller, S.: Humanity 2.0. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2011)
Funtowicz, S.O., Ravetz, J.R.: Three types of risk assessment and the emergence of post-normal science. In: Krimsky, S., Golding, D. (eds.) Social Theories of Risk, pp. 251–273. Praeger, Westport (1992)
Gould, S.J., Lewontin, R.C.: The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptionist programme. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. B 205(1161), 581–598 (1979)
Green Building Council. Not dated. Buildings and climate change. www.eesi.org/files/climate.pdf. Accessed 29 Oct 2015
Hanczyc, M.M., Ikegami, T.: Protocells as smart agents for architectural design. Techno. Arts 7(2), 117–120 (2009)
Hanczyc, M.M., Toyota, T., Ikegami, T., Packard, N.H., Sugawara, T.: Fatty acid chemistry at the oil-water interface: self-propelled oil droplets. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129(30), 9386–9391 (2007)
Jarzynski, C.: Nonequilibrium equality for free energy differences. Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2690–2693 (1997)
Kalderon, M.E.: Fictionalism in Metaphysics. Clarendon Press, Broadbridge (2005)
Kauffman, S.A.: Reinventing the Sacred: A new view of science, reason, and religion. First trade, paper edn. Basic Books, New York (2008)
Lehn, J.M.: Perspectives in supramolecular chemistry-from molecular recognition towards molecular information processing and self-organization. Angewandte Chem. Int. Ed. 27(11), 89–121 (1988)
McGuirk, J.: Philips microbial home takes kitchen design back to the future. Art and Design, The Guardian (21 November 2011). www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/nov/21/philips-kitchen-design-microbial-home. Accessed 19 Feb 2015
Myers, W., Antonelli, P.: Bio Design: Nature, Science, Creativity. London: Thames & Hudson/New York: MOMA (2013)
Olguin, C.: Programming matter across domains and scales. J. B. Interplanet. Soc. 67(7,8,9), 354–358 (2014)
Prigogine, I., Stengers, I.: Order Out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature. Heinemann, London (1984)
Resnick, L.B.: Introduction. In: Resnick, L.B. (ed.) Knowing, Learning and Instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser, pp. 1–24. Erlbaum, Hillsdale (1989)
Roco, M.C., Bainbridge, W.S.: Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance, Nanotechnology, Biotechnology. Information Technology and Cognitive Science. NSF/DOC-sponsored report. Springer, Dordrecht (2003)
Schirber, M.: Cities cover more of earth than realized. Live Science (11 Mar 2005). www.livescience.com/6893-cities-cover-earth-realized.html. Accessed 8 Jan 2015
Schrödinger, E.: What is life? The physical aspect of the living cell. Based on lectures delivered under the auspices of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at Trinity College, Dublin, in February 1943 (1944). http://whatislife.stanford.edu/LoCo_files/What-is-Life.pdf. Accessed 16 Feb 2015
Stengers, I.: God’s heart and the stuff of life. Pli 9, 86–118 (2000)
Sterling, B.: Design fiction: Growth assembly. Sascha Pohflepp and Daisy Ginsberg. Beyond the Beyond. Wired (3 Jan 2012). www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2012/01/design-fiction-sascha-pohflepp-daisy-ginsberg-growth-assembly/. Accessed 18 Feb 2015
Teatini, P., Castelletto, N., Ferronato, M., Gambolati, G., Tosi, L.: A new hydrogeologic model to predict anthropogenic uplift of Venice. Water Resour. Res. 47(12), W12507 (2011)
Toyota, T., Maru, N., Hanczyc, M.M., Ikegami, T., Sugawara, T.: Self-propelled oil droplets consuming fuel surfactant. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131(14), 5012–5013 (2009)
Turing, A.M.: The chemical basis of morphogenesis. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. B, Biolog. Sci. 237(641), 37–72 (1952)
Turney, J.: Imagining Technology. NESTA working paper (2013). www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/Imagining_Technology.pdf. Accessed 19 Feb 2015
Tyson, J.T.: What everyone should know about the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction. In: Levin, S.A. (ed.) Frontiers in Mathematical Biology, pp. 569–587. Springer, New York (1994)
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. US$6.7 billion floodgates to protect Venice in 2014 (21 Dec 2012). www.unisdr.org/archive/30174. Accessed 19 Feb 2015
Vladimirescu, A.: Can We Re-build a Cell? Bryopsis- An Experimental Model! Artificial Life XI. MIT Press, Cambridge (2008)
WETFab : Event booklet. School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow (24–25 Jan 2011). http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/files/news/WETFAB.pdf. Accessed 26 Feb 2015
World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. Published as Annex to General Assembly document A/42/427 (1987). www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf. Accessed 25 Feb 2015
Wolchover, N.: A new physics theory of life. Quanta (22 Jan 2014). www.quantamagazine.org/20140122-a-new-physics-theory-of-life/. Accessed 10 Feb 2015
Woods, L.: War and Architecture. Princeton Architectural Press, New York (1996)
Youde, K.: Unilever employees get taste of the future at Royal Society event (5 Nov 2013). www.citmagazine.com/article/1219480/unilever-employees-taste-future-royal-society-event. Accessed 28 Feb 2015
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Armstrong, R. (2017). Experimental Architecture and Unconventional Computing. In: Adamatzky, A. (eds) Advances in Unconventional Computing. Emergence, Complexity and Computation, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33921-4_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33921-4_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-33920-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-33921-4
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)