The Kusudama Experiment

Check out the details about my TDS: Beautiful Networks project based on the Kusudama, a traditional modular Japanese origami design. I wanted a way to visualize a complex system using origami to explorepaper with old map graphics printed on the blank side.

An Abstraction of LA

business cards of restaurants around L.A. Hmm, where to eat, where to eat…

Today our Beautiful Networks class worked outdoors on an abstraction of Los Angeles. Last week, each of us scoured a part of Los Angeles on foot that we considered unfamiliar. People visited places such as MacArthur Park, Altadena, West Los Angeles, and Eagle Rock. We documented and collected artifacts of our areas and presented visualizations in the form of film, photography, sound and even rubbings.

We took our experiences and decided to push our visualizations into something more cohesive for the class. Each of us contributed materials – some of brought found artifacts from our walks, some brought basic supplies, some brought found objects from around campus, while others brought their own models, illustrations and photographs. We worked from about 8am until noon and utilized an outdoor space behind the school to construct our interpretation of L.A.

There were several interesting phenomenas that occurred amidst the building and making. We all started off working on separate parts of the construct. As time passed, we started to naturally merge all the various aspects of the project to form a more networked and relative form. It was interesting to see how the cohesiveness of the project emerged in a natural and almost unspoken way. Some things were formed with intention while other things emerged from mistakes, ah-ha moments and serendipitous discussions.

When we came together to discuss the results of our work, we realized that as abstract as our materials and formations seemed, we were interacting in a subconscious and metaphoric way to represent our experiences of L.A. It wasn’t just the end results that revealed our understanding of this place, but also the act of having to build together that helped us realize the complicated and self-emergent networks of this metropolis.

We will be attempting to further our interpretations of this project and have already begun to brainstorm how we can push this project further over the course of the next few weeks. Keep checking out our blog for our latest updates. If you are interested in seeing more photos of today’s work, visit my Flickr site.

the set up has begun! a network made of pipe cleaners.

smog being represented by found garbage bags

plastic bags representing LA smog juxtaposing the nature around us

The City of Angels…big city of dreams. “Everyday in LA ain’t always what it seems.”

Beautiful Networks

This term, I’m taking a transdisciplinary (TDS) studio course called “Beautiful Networks.” The aim of the course is to bring students up to date in their respective creative practices by introducing the new models and strategies of observation and problem solving used by “systems” thinkers across fields and throughout the globe. It’s a timey course in that I believe we are at a stage where issues of sustainability and systems thinking is coming to the forefront and is necessary in our endeavors to strengthen and preserve our global society.

We are currently in the midst of compiling our research on tract homes and wildfires. Over the next few weeks, we will be making connections between our research work as well as brainstorming how we intend to create a coherent endpoint around the issue.

Check out the blog: http://beautifulnetworks.wordpress.com/

My main role in the course right now is to research and visualize the socio-cultural aspects of a tract home community. My group is brainstorming not only ideal (but of course very possible) ways of transforming tract homes to be more sustainable (in the context of wildfires), but also pressing the need to have a strong socio-cultural network in a community.