The Langauge of computation
February 29, 2012 in Compuational Design by Sivam
Trying here to build an understanding as to how engineers and computer scientists see design in computational terms.
Open publication - Free publishing
Feel free to download and ask questions.
Finally, this week we’ve got some semblance of normality in our lives after the big move. Consequently, I’m raring to start some discussion on DDA regarding ‘The Language of Computation’.
I must say that while reading chapter-2, for the 1st time I felt that I do belong here, as it did not seem like a jigsaw puzzle or a design theory that made your head weigh 10 tons. This was possible only because of chapter one and with so much of patience you answered my queries, which to you might have seemed naïve, may be!!!
However, I do have some annoying and/or amusing queries and some interesting debate for this chapter.
1)Under the sub-heading – Design Representation – ‘A design representation for example in nature consists of…, but also the organisms evolutionary past. Could you please explain this statement further or give example?
2)Under the sub-heading ‘Computational Media’ – you have given the analogy of cell’s nucleus. Just want a clarification on the point it makes – Cell’s nucleus is the biological design media, similarly computer / hardware and software are our design media…is that correct??
3)While reading last para of ‘Strategies for authoring & interacting’ I could not help myself but go back to chapter-1 – Nature does not design , lack of metaphor and nature’s de-centralised design process (chapter – 2). I reckon in all the above mentioned theory, are we making a dangerous assumption that nature does-not have any power of intuition.
As per the theory, every element involved in design code does its job in de-centralised fashion, not knowing what task was done by the previous element and what task will be done by subsequent element. In that case -I hate to say this – The design (production) process of nature could be compared to the production process of robots used for mass production of any commodity, in terms of non-existence of intuition
It is hard for me to fathom that the nature does not have any intuition power…how will you explain evolution and adaptation without intuition?
4)CAD language – “Visual scripting…drag and drop boxes that the designers can directly manipulate…” did it imply using grasshopper?
5)Computational Concepts: why Geometric and Performance spaces are not part of parametric space? Isn’t geometry and performance part of design parameters that will have an effect on output??? Or does it mean that geometry and performance can fall in parametric space, while rest of the parameters will never fall in geometric and performance spaces?
6)Design Representation: I want to understand the term ‘Design representation’ within the context of generative design. According to me ‘Design representation’ is identifying all the parameters of design before starting to explore and then optimise design solutions. Is that correct interpretation?
Design is complex and design theory is more complex. I have tried to simplify things without disregarding the complexity and the diversity of opinions. Glad to hear that your head ways less not.
Too many people want to jump into generative design – without bothering to understand the context. If the do – their head will weigh a couple of tons more. Whats worse is that it will then take a crane to unload that weight. So we build set by step an overall frame work before we jump in. It has taken longer than I thought. But we will get there.
questions :
1) You may not believe this, but you carry the genes of spinach, because long long time one of your ancestors was spinach. So your genes carry parts of your evolutionary story.
2) Correct, by Media here we refer to the environment in which designs are created.
3) Ok, one of the important development of biology was the discover that there “is no talk back” that is an organisms life experience does not influence the genes that it carries. Say you throw some grass in a dessert and the grass cannot make its genes create drought resistant offspring. A guy called Larmarck (before Darwin) thought it could. It has been disproved. So in this sense nature has no intuition.
There is knowledge in nature that is passed on through genes. This knowledge is about what solutions will work. So knowledge is embed into the build process.
4) Grasshopper uses visual scripting that was invented much before grasshopper.You may read more on : http://www.nzarchitecture.com/blog/?s=grasshopper
5)These issues are discussed in the next lecture notes
6) Design representation in generative design is a “variable CAD model”, so it includes build history, build functions and parameters.
Hope I have helped remove a few more Kgs ?
Yes! the explaination perfectly fits into my head…especially 1 & 3, which i was struggling to reason out…you made the concepts very clear. It is the Knowledge that is passed on and hence adaptability and evolution!…now my head weighs much lighter
5 & even 6, i reckon will get more clearer in subsequent lecture notes…so be prepared for series of queries then!!! ha ha ha
Last but not the least…i would like to thank you geneuinely, as it is a very valuabe knowledge base and education that we are acquring for free.