Projects

You may find these Lab projects useful for your proposals. This selection includes exhibitions, design experiments, and research papers. While most are beyond the scope of work expected for this course, they follow the structure for academic research.

Prosthetic Nests for the Powerful Owl

Dan Parker developed this project using his Thesis project. The goal aims to develop design and fabrication workflows for prosthetic habitats for the Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua). The project uses the scientific experiment framework to justify design, fabrication and monitoring activities.

The research team establishes the project's significance, identifying the need to replace degraded natural habitats with prosthetic ones. They support this with references from ecology, urban planning, design, animal studies, etc. A lack of shared knowledge between designers and ecologists represents a gap. Parker suggests that interspecies design can fill this gap (the opportunity). For their methods, the research team uses design experiments to test workflows. Data from monitoring (results) informs subsequent iterations and research.

The work has informed research papers and presentations, collaborations with institutions and other disciplines, and Dan's PhD. Appearances in news articles, radio, and television generated public interest and opportunities.

Prosthetic Nests video

Prosthetic Nests for the Powerful Owl: Excerpt from video showing installation of prototype in System Garden at the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia. Video by the authors.

Contributors: Dan Parker; Stanislav Roudavski.

Architectural installation at System Garden at the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia.

The Last of their Kind

Alexander Holland, Julian Rutten, and Stanislav Roudavski produced this virtual exhibit for the SIGGRAPH 2022 conference. The project aims to tell stories about nonhumans without using anthropocentric narrative techniques. Instead of language, data representations capture the richness of nonhuman lives.

Analysis of the effectiveness of technologies at conveying multispecies narratives represents an outcome of a design experiment. Using an experimental framework, data generated by artworks can inform further research.

The Last of their Kind

The Last of their Kind: The Last Giants. Image depicting point-cloud analysis of large old trees. Image by the authors.

Contributors: Alexander Holland; Julian Rutten; Stanislav Roudavski.

Part of the The Special Interest Group in Computer Graphis (SIGGRAPH), Digital Arts Community (DAC) exhibition The Earth, Our Home: Art, Technology and Critical Action, available online from January 28, 2022.

Intelligent Lighting Networks

Intelligent Lighting Networks

Intelligent Lighting Networks: Screenshot from virtual reality game. Image by Tony Yu.

Contributors: Tony Yu; Stanislav Roudavski.

Presented at the Future Implied Media Architecture Biennale event held at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht University in Utrecht, Netherlands and others from 24 June to 2 July 2021.

PocketPedal

PocketPedal

PocketPedal: Excerpt from a video demonstrating use of the PocketPedal game. Video and game by Alexander Holland.

Contributors: Alexander Holland; Stanislav Roudavski.

Presented at TRANSnational STS: Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Conference and Exhibition, Sydney, Australia.