Michele Brody

About the workshop:
The main one is to work out the kinks in my Seed Posts concept. This would entail researching a sustainable material to replace the polyester lace that I have used in the past, which can be used in a more permanent installation. To establish a hydroponic growing medium that can hold up to supporting the growth of plants in a tight cylindrical vertical environment. To choose various native plants suitable to this growing environment. How to set up the most economical and sustainable method for watering and recycling the water for these posts when they are in a very public environment like on the street as Seed Posts: AIG was. And to develop a practical, economical, simple and sleek method for installing Seed Posts on and in such locations as existing fences, construction scaffolding, interior walls, structural columns, and in public parks to stand alone. Also how lighting can be incorporated. Also how to control the growth of mold, mildew, bugs and how to be able to easily replant when needed. Basically to create a viable maintenance plan.

This is the main project to work on, a smaller and more immediate project that I have is to design a series of head dresses and staffs for an Ecological Pageant that I will be designing costumes for this Spring. I would like to incorporate miniature solar panels, water fountain, steam machine and fans into 4 costumes that represent the spirits of the 4 natural forms of energy, Water, Solar, Geo-Thermal and Wind.

Rebar

Seat the Street, novel tactics for occupation of outdoor public space
American cities have been systematically removing the comforts from public spaces in an effort to make them less attractive to loitering, drug dealing and homelessness. While benches and pay phones disappear, military-like barriers crop up around our public buildings, shopping centers and gathering places, projecting an attitude of desolate inhospitality, fear and defensiveness. The truism that Americans are shunning actual public spaces for safer, virtual worlds becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as public space itself expels citizens from its midst.

Widely known for their seminal project Park(ing), the worldwide takeover of metered parking spaces for temporary parks, the San Francisco-based collective Rebar has been remixing landscapes around the country since 2004. In an effort to counter the prevailing trend of street furniture removal from public space, in 2008, Rebar introduced Bushwaffle--inflatable street furniture that creates comfort and provides opportunities for play through flash-mob style aggregation.

Rebar artists John Bela and Blaine Merker will lead an 8-day workshop at Texas A & M to design and develop modular DIY street furniture. Starting from the spirit of Rebar’s recent Bushwaffle prototype, we will explore the potential of mass-producible design objects and develop alternate approaches to creating DIY street furniture. Experimentation and gratuitous prototyping will be encouraged as we test our designs out around the campus and College Station.

Jenny Sabin

About the workshop:
In a broad sense, this workshop explores new design techniques from a number of sources including advances in digital technology, natural models, advanced geometry and material practices in allied arts, crafts and design disciplines. More specifically, the workshop will focus on algorithmic design techniques, craft and fabricated material assemblies for the production of fiber structures at a range of scales and applications. The workshop considers historical and architectural connections between computation and textile fabrication and contemporary applications in scripting and generative models. Case studies will be used to explore subjects from responsive surface architectures in biology and buildings to diagrid structures at the scale of skyscrapers. The workshop will introduce scripting techniques in a parametric and associative environment with feedback derived from material constraints as well as performance assessments.