#CRAFT 2014

CRAFT presents an extensive pedagogy of education with concentration on new design tools and techniques, digital fabrication technologies and related design-research methodologies. While presenting the basic knowledge, CRAFT would try to utilize the theory in application through the realization of ideas in one to one scale projects. In response to the changing parameters of the discipline and to qualify creative designers, CRAFT would try to Computationally Rethink Architecture and Fabrication Technologies.

MEHRAN DAVARI, [DIRECTOR]

MEHRAN DAVARI, [DIRECTOR] is an Architect and writer, studied Master of Emergent Territories at Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IaaC). He has taught in various workshops and institutions including Global Summer School of IaaC (Productive City) in Barcelona. He also is co-founder of the Tehran Factory.

RAMTIN TAHERIAN, [ASSISTANT TUTOR]

Expanded Reality

To be and stay in a surreal painting was all I ever wanted from this project in the beginning. This led me to get the idea of reconstructing paintings by Belgian painter Rene Magritte. Observing and experiencing these paintings in a virtual world pushes the audience one more step away from the “reality” that Magritte imagined in his works.In this presentation I’ll explain in detail the different aspects this project such as idea, design and technicalities. I will also speak about the problems that Copyright laws caused me and the development process, after I published a demo video of the project.

Ali Eslami

Ali Eslami (born 1991) is a Visual Artist Based in Tehran Iran . He's been Spanning through varied fields in Visual art mostly Focused on 3D environments . He started Self Learning 3D for Architectural Visualizations since 2005 and softly changed his focus to varied fields like Animation , Computer Graphics , Creative Coding , Interactive Prototypes and Data Visualization .He uses his laptop as an "Experimental Lab", where he recently tends to create Real-time 3d prototypes to visualize his Innovative Ideas.

Let's Think Generative

Creating Complex Geometry is the main idea of this presentation which is illustrated in some small projects .This geometry is designed with generative algorithms inspired from nature or routine events around us .

Ali Reza Memarian

-BA in Architectural Engineering [2007—2012] Shahid Beheshti University (SBU) – Tehran
-D3 Housing Tomorrow - Special Mention, Directors’ Choice: Swarm Housing (Exhibited in Houston University, Sep.2014) (Published in Arch Daily)
-FYDA (Fenn Young Designers Awards). A New learning Environment: Honorable Mention Cybernetics and The evolution of complex adaptive library
-TADAEX 04 ( Tehran Annual Digital Art Exhibition ) Lotus Flower - An interactive installation exhibited at SAM Center

Self-reference as an artistic creation mechanism

This presentation examines the role of self-reference as a trans-disciplinary concept and its connection with feedback loops. We are focusing in artistic domain and we develop a link between the ideas of cybernetics and experiments with image and sound. In this presentation i present theoretical and applied examples concerning the simplicity and the complexity of self-reference. In this context, i show how we can use this abstract concept in order to create an artistic experience, the Ouroboros : “Self Reference Apparatus” by feeding back cerebral electroencephalography signals from a brain to computer interface into the audiovisual perception system of a subject with a virtual reality interface.

John Bardakos

John Bardakos is an artist, technologist, director and researcher. John was born in Athens, Greece in 1976. After studying Mathematics and Art he got involved in animation production for film and commercial projects. He is currently involved in academic research in Fine Arts, Mathematics and Virtual Reality.

Reflections and Interventions of the Body in Media Intensive Performance

Mark Coniglio is one of the acknowledged pioneers in the field of dance and technology. In this talk, he will compare and contrast two models for integrating the body with technology on stage: the Digital Reflection and the Digital Intervention. The former, which is more commonly seen, offers us with an often beautiful, sometimes spectacular mirror of the body; but he will argue that the latter can opens new pathways of creating, rehearsing and performing.

Mark Coniglio

Composer and media artist Mark Coniglio is recognized as a pioneering force in the field of interactive performance. With Dawn Stoppiello, he co-founded the media intensive dance group Troika Ranch in 1994. As a result of this artistic practice, he created the software Isadora® – a software tool that provides deep interactive control over digital media. Isadora has become the tool of choice for thousands worldwide, including such notables as Francis Ford Coppola, The Wooster Group, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Coniglio has received a “Bessie” award, a prize from Prix Ars Electronica, and the World Technology Award, which recognized his long-term legacy in art and technology.

Periscope

Through their maximal influence upon other aspects of a work of art, Digital Media constantly challenge the border between tool and concept and bring this question to the mind of the audience: Are they presented with an interactive piece of art or a presentation of some weird implementation of cutting-edge technology? Considering the ever-increasing use of ‘interactive’ and ‘generative’ phenomena in various artistic fields, being aware of the potentials in the said medium, whether from a technical perspective or artistic, can help avoid being mesmerized by technology and create unique experiments.

Sina Shoaei / Arman Moghadam

Sina Shoaei, sound designer born in 1986 has been working on brain waves , binaural frequencies and researching on body biochemistry. Arman Moghadam, front end developer and system analyzer born in 1983 has been working on interactions based on human's cognitive behavior and UI development. Their collaboration started when they both came up with the idea of effectiveness of environment over the human brain functionality.

Crosstalk body and technology laboratory Tehran

Crosstalk is an experimental laboratory set up to investigate collaborative techniques between creative practices; focusing on body, imagery and technology. The laboratory is coordinated by Setareh Fatehi and Frederick Rodrigues who have collaboration making performance with technology. Crosstalk was developed as a space to play with technology and explore new ideas, it is not a place to produce performances but a place for experimentation. In this edition of Re-Shape we will see some of these experiments and have an opportunity to talk to the participants and laboratory creators.
The participants in Crosstalk Laboratory are: Hesam Ohadi, Arash Akbari, Kaveh Sattari, Negin Sa’ed, Toktam Yousefi, Nazanin Mehrayin, Saba Nazienjileh, Mohammad Sepahi, Anita Esfandiari, Afshin Chizari, Behnam Darabi.
Frederick and Setareh will introduce the idea behind the laboratory and what it hopes to achieve. We will discuss the idea of non outcome based research as well as the difficulties involved in cross artform collaboration. The participants in Crosstalk will then open their laboratory doors for us to take a look at some of the work and process they engaged with. We will then have an opportunity to ask the participants questions about the laboratory and their experiences inside this collaboration.

Frederick Rodrigues

Frederick Rodrigues is an Australian/British artist that works with technology. His tools are code, video, audio and interaction: he has applied these across a number of mediums including performance, dance, installation and online work.

Setareh Fatehi

Setareh Fatehi works on and with body in performative context.In her work she explores the quality of an autobiographical body and physicality of the society she has lived in.

Biomodd

Biomodd is a multifaceted socially engaged art installation that finds meaningful relationships between biology, computers and people. On the most basic level, Biomodd creates symbiotic relationships between plants and computers, and ignites conversations among the community around them. Different iterations of this project have sprouted all over the globe. In this presentation we focus on a specific aspect of the project called entangled reality in which sensors, actuators, robotics and plants are intertwined.

Pieter Steyaert

Biomodd is part of SEAD, an interplanetary network of multidisciplinary individuals working in art, science, engineering and advocacy. The presentation will be given by Pieter Steyaert, a participant of the projects since 2010. Pieter Steyaert graduated as a master in Fine arts at Sint-Lucas Ghent (Belgium) and has studied design computing at the university of Sydney. He is a member of the global Biomodd- and Seeker-community and currently studies Computer Science at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels (Belgium). Furthermore he is the co-founder of Dorids, a collective with a passion for interactivity, art, design and code.

Designing the space between our bodies and the environment

How can we design the space between our bodies and the physical surrounding environment? How might we imagine a space that can develop an understanding of its participants and respond accordingly? In other words, how might we envision a genuinely interactive space whose form and physical configuration can respond to and learn from its participants? This presentation addresses the potential of a reciprocal transformation between the user and surrounding environment through series of my interactive projects, whereby the environment can influence the user, but equally the user can also influence the environment. The scope of the projects varies from body scale to architectural scale.

Behnaz Farahi

Behnaz Farahi is an architect, interaction designer and designer who is interested in exploring the potential of interactive environments and their relationship to the human body. In particular she is interested in the integrated application of material behavior, and the implementation of emerging technologies in contemporary art/architecture practice. Application areas include architectural design, fashion, Kinetic interaction design and digital fabrication. She also specializes in additive manufacturing and robotic technologies. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Autodesk, Pier 9. She also is an Annenberg Fellow and PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Media Arts and Practice at the USC, School of Cinematic Arts. She has an Undergraduate and two Masters degrees in Architecture from USC and SBU.

Remembrance Project

We remember one another, be it enemy or friend. The Remembrance, however, is now mechanical or electrical in nature. Our friends send us a text by simply touching a pad or tagging a picture now and then. For enemies, we push a button or touch a pad and pour a shower of bombs and missiles on other people. In this project we want to remember one another away from the concerns of mechanical life. Relying upon the facilities the virtual world puts at our disposal, we turn our virtual sentiments into bubbles and send it to anyone anywhere.

Mehrdad Khoddami

Mehrdad Khoddami is studying a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence at Qazvin Azad University and has Bachelor degree in Software Engineering. He started programming when he was 12 years old. Since early days he has been interested in new technologies, computer and creating new things to improve human life. Ideation, Includer, Futurist, Communication and Intellection are his top themes. Currently he is a freelancer and works on various IT related projects including the Remembrance project.

Shervin Gharib

Notesaaz

Notesaaz is both a new physical interface meant for musical performance and a proposal for a three-stage process where the physical controller is used to navigate within a dynamic graphical score that on its turn controls the sound generation. By showing the dynamic score to the performer and the audience, Notesaaz shows new possibilities for staging the performer instrument relationship, inviting the audience to engage more in what is played and to anticipate on what happens next. In this presentation Erfan Abdi will describe the design process, and will discuss the research questions that lead to the creation of Notesaaz.

Erfan Abdi

Erfan Abdi (1983 – Tehran) is an artist, designer and performer based in The Hague, the Netherlands since 2009. He graduated from the Masters program at the Artscience Interfaculty, Royal Conservatoire The Hague in 2011. Holding a Bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the University of Tehran (2006) he has a background in visual art and design, while he has also experimented with electronic music, video, computer programming and physical computing. Erfan Abdi has presented his works in several venues and places including Todaysart, Arselectronica, STRP, NIME, Logos and Steim.

An approach to composing vocalisation in electronic music

This presentation will cover: sound processing methods in Aso`s electronic music pieces, new approaches to sound in contemporary music composition and the possibilities offered by new technologies to the contemporary composer. These topics will be shown and related to samples of Aso’s past works and compositions.

Aso Kohzadi

Aso Kohzadi, Born in 1982 received a Bachelor's degree in music from Sooreh University, a Masters in music composition from Tehran Art University and a Masters in Electronic Music from the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague the Netherlands.

Playing with Music Through Code and Visuals

Music predates speech as part of how we all experience the world. But our innate musicality is often suppressed by the way music is taught in schools and obfuscated by notation or code. I’ll describe some of my interactive, open source projects that invite the exploration of music through code and visuals. I’m particularly excited about the Web Audio API, which makes the building blocks of digital audio accessible to all through the web. Through visualization, I strive to make digital signal theory more tangible, illustrate music theory concepts, and show the process through code. I’ll share what I’ve learned along the way, and invite discussion.

Jason Sigal

Jason Sigal is a musician, sound designer and creative technologist. He develops tools that make audio more accessible for artists and educators. Jason is the creator of p5.sound, a JavaScript library that brings the Processing approach to Web Audio. Through his work at NYU's Music Experience Design Lab and Brooklyn's Beam Center, Jason reimagines music pedagogy for the digital era. In 2009, Jason co-founded the Free Music Archive, a curated mp3 website inspired by the open source movement. He directed the project from radio station WFMU, where he is also a DJ. Jason is currently a research resident at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program.