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My last semester... for now.

Funny how the rate of posts seems to decrease exponentially with the amount of work... For the last semester had truly an unprecedented workload. I actually just finished it's final submission a week ago, and then begun the next semester the day after. The joys of architecture!

As my last semester of the 3-year BA-degree, I'm expecting plenty of challenges this time round as well. I'm also in an (almost) entirely new class of returning 4th-years as all my former classmates have left for their placement period.

So far so good, with an interesting new project on fire escape regulations (at least opportunity) as an approach to invitation - combining the technical and the poetic in a way I'm quite enjoying.

At least I hope so, thinking it would be a very useful introduction to the practical experience I hope to catch up on next year - when I'll be graduated and returning back home to Norway.

Studies | No comments »

2nd year in a nutshell

Hello again! My personal blogging got lost for a while there, after many posts with emphasis on the Digital Spaces elective. I concluded it with a simple Facebook application and a cool animated exhibition, which is still available if you'd like to try it out!

I did other things that semester too! The design project was for a Museum of Chairs, located along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh - as surveyed by the group. My concept explored the integration of a "path through time" of selected chairs, with the existing history of the site and a neighbouring city museum.

Semester two actually started before Christmas as we left for a site survey of Barcelona and the Poblenou district. Thankfully, it was so much more than just work - lots of fun, sightseeing and spanish "revision".

My proposal for a dance centre seeks to be a cultural catalyst in the current redevelopment of the industrial area. Its social ambitions are metaphorically expressed by the four stages of Boléro (or indeed any dance?): promenade, crossing/steps, interaction and gesture.

All in all, I think it's been a successful year with lots of both fun and work, most of the time blending into what one may call Architecture.

Studies | No comments »

Hello, Facebook!

Traditional as it may be to programmers, "Hello, World" does not seem appropriate to my new experiment. I am saying hello to Facebook and its Social Graph of objects (people, events, photos and pages) and the connections (friends, likes, tags and shared content) between them.

To describe my upcoming application, I'll start with what I don't want it to be like based on my social graph competitors:

• Solely provide a representation of the interrelationships of friends.
• Retain the geographical locations of social networks.
• View my social graph as the sum of key connecting friends.

I believe they all fail to investigate what really matters: the social proximity and how the digital space has altered its configuration.

An interesting perspective to explore proximity is through privacy. On different levels of disclosure, the application will gradually map your proximity to others in the digital space:

1. As an Internet user, you are constantly leaving traces and providing information about yourself - even before logging onto a social network. My Digital Skins project gathered IP-addresses that revealed an approximate geographical location.
2. Parts of your Facebook profile is publicly available, and that listing's content will already give an idea of your proximity to the social graph. For example, the default settings of Facebook will share wall posts, friends, likes and photos with the entire Internet!
3. By permitting the application to access your extended profile information not available publicly, and even mailbox, stream and friend lists, further assumptions can be made.
4. Finally, there is no social graph without human interaction and therefore the final variable will in itself create new proximities through your own input. As an example, you may be asked to identify who you last spoke with in person.

All of the data collected through these steps of the application can hopefully be able to produce some image of your proximity to friends within your social reach.

How do you imagine the landscape of your proximities will look?

Digital Spaces, Studies | 2 comments »

Finally finished group site survey!

The last weeks of Architectural Design have been spent shifting the focus from the Body/Seat to the Site, in which the final project will be situated.

Each tutorial group with different sites along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh Old Town, we did a range of different surveys - myself considering the historical context of the site.

However, at the review last Friday it was apparent by the tutors grimaces that our efforts were insufficient. In fact it was the collation of surveys to a presentable standard, including proper technical drawings and a thought through model that was lacking!

In other words, it was back to the drawing boards (actually still haven't seen one in the studio this year) for another week. Slightly more organised and with invaluable help of NoddlePod, we've finally completed the survey - and this time, I would say, with success.

And now, we're thrown back into reality/freedom of individual design for a "room" and later museum. More on that later!

Edinburgh, Studies | No comments yet »

My social graph (competitors)

Studies, Digital Spaces | No comments yet »

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