Hierarchy

Hierarchy

A hierarchy can be established in so many different ways, and can take so many different forms. Hierarchy is simply any system of persons or things ranked one above another. An example of this would be the Roman Catholic Church. At the top of this hierarchy is the Pope, and below him the cardinals, then the arch-bishops, bishops and priests. In general hierarchy in this form has a tier system where the highest rung of the ladder is the leader and working down the tiers, there are more and more members, forming a triangular shape.

Government is another example of a solid hierarchy. There is the Prime Minister of Australia, then his cabinet, then his back-benchers. One of the inherent traits of hierarchy is a feeling of authority by being “above” someone else. This authority does not necessarily need to be practiced, sometimes it just needs to be respect but sometimes it does.

As a collaborative group, there can be conflict that arises as a result of differing views or methods. Having a leader can quell such conflict because there is a recognized order that is commonly respected by the group.

Human hierarchy is just one of the applications of hierarchy within our collaborative project. Prioritization goes hand in hand with hierarchy, and within our project one of our first actions was to prioritize tasks. This took on an image of the human hierarchy in that the overall goal was to produce a model together. Sub goals that fell lower in the hierarchy included building the model, fabricating a site, developing textures. Further still were buying necessary programs, keeping process blogs and researching.

Hierarchy has yet another application in our project in that our building, Harry Seidler’s courthouse, has a strong dependence on hierarchy which we need to convey in our model. A courthouse implies authority and order, two things which I have alluded to in previously discussing hierarchy.

When looking at the overall nature of this task, hierarchy not presents itself in various forms, it is also established by us as without it, it is much harder to be organized and ordered.

Intent

Intent

It could be assumed that intent is the same as goal, objective or purpose. In some ways it is. Intent outlines what needs to be done. For example, in terms of architecture, design intent is the direction in which an architect will lead a project, like following a brief to satisfy certain needs or specifications.

For our purpose, intent is what we want to achieve not only as an end result in our collaborative project, but also as a process by which we achieve that end product. Each decision is born of a problem, or an issue that needs to be resolved. Each of these decisions requires some form of intent, whether that intention is to resolve a conflict, produce a model or even simply establish a schedule for meeting times.

Intent flows from reason. An objective is merely an objective until one reasons out how to head in the right direction. Of course what one intends can be different to the outcome, thus why intent can be considered to be directional. An intention is influenced by many variables, many of which we consider obstacles when addressing a problem, such as timeframe, skill level, group members and availability of information.

Knowing this, it only takes a bit of further reading to get to the real crux of what intent is. Its etymological roots give a much clearer idea of what intent means. Intent, to intend, intention. These words all derive from the old French word intendre which means “to direct one’s attention” as well as the Latin word intendere which means “turn one’s attention to, strain” or specifically in, “toward” + tendere, “to stretch”. To stretch toward.

Intent now draws its differences from mere goal, objective or purpose. In essence it is the vector form of these words. Intent does not just entail having a goal, it means to stretch out toward achieving a goal. Its driving force is one’s own capabilities and their acknowledgement of the best possible way of achieving something.

Knowledge

Knowledge

It is a well known saying, knowledge is power.

Why is that the case? When one breaks down the benefits of possessing knowledge of whatever kind, it becomes clearer that knowledge gives you a better understanding of situation and response.

Knowledge can be considered the justified form of perception, based on investigation of fact. In simpler terms, knowledge is proven. Whatever knowledge you possess is the result of a combination of learning and experience. Learning is usually the study of what has been previously learnt and published by people before you, and they learnt from the knowledge passed on by people before them. Experience is what you gain from your own practice of utilizing what you have learnt.

Although this vast concept of knowledge seems irrelevant, when put into the context of a collaborative project such as the one we are undertaking, an understanding of knowledge makes it easier to present its importance.

Each of our tasks requires some form of skill to undertake. 3DSMax for example is not a basic program, and has hundreds of tools to understand. Possessing the knowledge, i.e. the “familiarity or conversance” with the program can make the task much easier. Experience in practicing what you have previously learnt in the program helps you understand which tools to use to model different parts of your building. Conversely without prior experience in the program, you will need to learn it to acquire the necessary knowledge to produce the building.

Whatever the program, and whatever the skill level one possesses, knowledge can always be acquired through learning, which is why this project is so effective in passing on knowledge. There are so many programs that are vital to this project, and especially with a new program to learn, it becomes clear that all of us in the group need to learn from our group members, peers and tutors, as well as share our experience with them, so that each of us comes out with more knowledge. Knowledge will give us the power to complete this task, and the relevant knowledge will help us overcome any hurdle in the future as well.

Record

Record

The term record, in a general sense, is used so extensively. Audio records have been around for decades in the form of vinyls, CDs, cassette tapes and other various forms, and they serve many purposes such as recording music, press conferences and accounts.

Similarly, visual records also come in different forms. Paper records are very common but are being widely replaced by soft copy records stored in computer databases all over the world. The coming of the digital age has made virtual record archives so much more practical and effective.

However this is not quite the record that relates to our group’s collaborative project. Taking the noun form of the word, according to Dictionary.com Unabridged, record is defined as:

“An account in writing or the like preserving the memory of knowledge of facts or events.”

As mentioned before, records come in both hard and soft copy, and in the case of our collaborative studio project, each passing week proves to surface more records in the form of notes, emails, handouts etc. as well as emphasizing the need for other forms of records including work charts, timetables, tables and recordings.

Record-keeping is a task in itself, as records inherently need to be organized into a coherent form to be more effective. An example of this would be in a library, where there can be hundreds of thousands of records in the form of books, journals, microfilms and other resources. Without effective record-keeping, it would be almost impossible to find what you are looking for. In the same way, notes we take in class, emails we send to each other, work we do, all must be organized in some way.

By definition, records preserve the memory of knowledge of facts or events so they not only form the backbone of the body of work, but in their other form they can also provide a direction in which the body of works can grow efficiently and effectively. In our group, some of our key records are documents outlining designated tasks, emails outlining projected outcome timetables and screenshots/videos of all of our progressive work.

References:

record. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/record (accessed: April 14, 2008).

Discipline

Disciplines within a group collaborative project are good indications of who is suited to what task within a project.

One of Discipline's definitions in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language is:
A branch of knowledge or teaching.

The implications of this being that each discipine offers different expertise and skill to the greater collaborative group. In an architectural project, there are many disciplines that are involved, depending on the scale of the project. Some of these disciplines include architecture, civil/mechanical/structural engineering, planning, surveying and landscape architecture, but also other disciplines such as project management, law and Information technology.

It is evident that pretty much no matter what project you take on, you will need to collaborate with others.

For our Collaborative Studio project, we have established that there are the following tasks:

-> Texture mapping of building
-> Texture mapping interior/objects
-> Texture mapping of surrounding landscape
-> Video presentation
-> Modelling external
-> Modelling interior
-> Lighting
-> Animation
-> Building/sourroundings research
-> Image manipulation
-> Sound

And my tasks are animation and image manipulation.

Animation in a general sense can be anything from cartoon animation to textual scrolling. Basically anything that changes shape, size, form, etc. In the context of this project, animation could be trees swaying, fireplaces burning, doors opening, in fact the animation aspect comes down to however far we want to go with it. These animations can then me imported into UT3 to really add atmosphere to the overall project.

The Image manipulation task really applies to textures, sprites, everything that turns the 3d model into an inhabitable space. Using photoshop and various other tools, I can create textures that can then be imported to revit, 3ds max and UT3, and applied to the 3d models that my colleagues will be creating.

My skills, along with the others, form a collaborative group, as we all possess different skills, and we can all learn to specialize in our discipline to contribute more fully to the group.


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved April 08, 2008

Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds; Second Life, Sony at Home

Virtual worlds are vast and varied, ranging from mini-game based children’s worlds such as Disney’s Toontown to more advanced worlds such as Second Life. They are so broad that there are hundreds of different worlds online. The objectives in each of these worlds are different, but all share one characteristic. They enable you to interact with people around the world in various different ways.

I’ve studied (first hand) two cases, Second Life and World of Warcraft. Both of these are MMO (massively multiplayer online).

Second Life is exactly what it presents itself to be; A second life. In this world not only do you interact with other players within the online world, you design and build, you buy and sell, you work and socialize, you in essence establish a life in this virtual world. Not only do you have the potential to build wealth in this virtual world, but virtual wealth can be made into real life wealth.

World of Warcraft is someone different. It is a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) and is one of the most popular ones around. The objectives in WoW are different. You form groups which you level up in to develop your character, execute raids and complete quests, and in these groups you often play a specific role to ensure your group works well together.

In the above examples, although the resulting objectives are different, and the specific ways in which these objectives are completed are different, the collaborative process is essentially the same. Each person, or player, bring something to the other players in the virtual world, and when people can offer services (or items, or designs) that can help other people, then they can collaborate with each other to achieve a goal. Sometimes in these games you are forced to collaborate to progress further into the world.

Although it may seem that these virtual worlds are designed for recreational use, the purpose for these worlds is slowly expanding its horizons. Once upon a time they were used as an escape from reality, but nowadays they are also being used more widely as extensions, or predictions of reality.

Its educational benefits are slowly being utilized, making learning fun and more effective. Educators can explore alternate ways of presenting curriculum design, new concepts and learning theories, and essentially cultivate the idea of social learning.

Even beyond commercial gaming, social networking and education, virtual worlds have even found a place in the military. America’s Army is a first person shooting game that puts the player into a war environment where he or she fights alongside other players, as well as actual military soldiers. Not only is this realistic and good training, but it is used as a way of identifying potential army recruits. When the American army first started utilizing this technology, army recruitment jumped significantly.

Although it may seem that virtual worlds only function as a collaborative tool for a given purpose in that specific environment – for example World of Warcraft will only allow you to collaborate to complete quests or gain experience, it won’t be useful as a collaborative tool to help build a house – the beauty of these virtual worlds is that they can be adapted to better suit whatever purpose they are required for. They can potentially provide and environment better suited to achieve a specific purpose than the real world. Take for example America’s Army. It would not be practical to run a whole bunch of civilians around with army personnel and get them to mimic a modern warfare exercise. This is where the virtual world can be so powerful.

Jack Balkin puts it nicely:

As multiplayer game platforms become increasingly powerful and lifelike, they will inevitably be used for more than storytelling and entertainment. In the future, virtual worlds platforms will be adopted for commerce, for education, for professional, military, and vocational training, for medical consultation and psychotherapy, and even for social and economic experimentation to test how social norms develop. Although most virtual worlds today are currently an outgrowth of the gaming industry, they will become much more than that in time

Balkin, Jack. "Virtual Liberty: Freedom to Design and Freedom to Play in Virtual Worlds." Virginia Law Review, 2005 http://ssrn.com/abstract=555683


Oh, and here is a well known World of Warcraft example of BAD collaboration hahaha =P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU