Young Designers 2011

		Young Designers 2011
Home \| Messages \| Design Faculty Chairman’s Message Director, NID Activity Chairperson Communication Design I.T. Integrated Design Interdisciplinary Design Industrial Design Textile Design

Annapurna Banerjee | annapurna04@gmail.com

ILLUMINATUS

New Media Design | PGDPD
Guide: P Rama Krishna Rao
Sponsor: dplay, New Delhi

Keywords
Modular
Bottom-up design
Evolutionary architecture
Play of lights

The project involved designing a modular system based on the theory of cellular automata, Bottom-up Design Approach and Evolutionary Architecture. The idea was to use simple tactile interaction to build a complex structure. A simple form can be translated into a large system that can self-organize and interact with the user in the form of play.

The design process started with the theoretical research on the various areas that were mentioned in the design brief. Building of the mind map that linked these areas together was followed by conceptualization and then the prototype of the proposed concept was built. Construction of the prototype helped sort out the functional errors and problems.

The project dealt with designing the atomic level of a system in such a way that its design unfolds and grows into an emergent form, as the user plays with it. This co-evolutionary structure takes the input from the user and translates it into a play light. The addition of the module triggers transformation in the system, based on the rules set in the modules, leading to a complex structure and play of lights. These modules are similar to building blocks and have a form that has been derived from the periodic Penrose tiling. The system is homogenous, where each module consists of the microprocessor, sensors and magnets. The sensors enable the modules to identify their neighbours and their configurations. The lights also react to the change of the form.

The concept proof had two versions: a physical scaled version and through software. Physical modelling helped me find the functional problems in the model and improve it. As a designer, the theoretical knowledge I gained via research brought depth and a better understanding of the concept.