Conflict

One may think that conflict is best avoided, and that peace will always be more beneficial. It is my belief that this is not the case. This does not mean that there should be fights amongst group members, disagreements, threats or anything of the sort. Conflict is defined as “to come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition; clash”. The most important part of understanding conflict is acknowledging conflict in its different forms.

None of the above necessarily means violence or even assumes negativity. They simply mean that there are two opposing views. In the context of our collaborative project, opposing views have always been healthy. In our first decision making process as a group, a conflict had already arisen. Were we to choose the difficult, organic-looking Zaha Hadid building? Or were we to choose the much more geometric Harry Seidler building? This may have caused our group problems, but our methods of conflict resolution ensured that we dealt with the situation in the most productive way. One could go so far as to say that the conflict was more beneficial to our group than if we had not discussed this clash at all.

William Ellery Channing said “Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.” This is an excellent quote for our group to remember whenever a conflict arises, because it means we do not fear conflict, we welcome it knowing that we will learn and grow from every conflict that arises, provided we deal with it with open minds and a responsible attitude.

Planning

In the words of Winston Churchill, “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.”

Plans are simply lists of objectives towards fulfillment and completion. Planning. It is the thinking ahead, the anticipation of what’s to come and the willingness to adapt as circumstances change. It is maintaining a plan, ensuring that one stays relatively on course towards completion. It is the organization (and often re-organisation), prioritization and fulfillment of minor tasks culminating in the fulfillment of the endeavour and as such is essential in collaborative or individual pursuits in any line of work.

Planning is quite flexible and ever-changing as it adapts to progress, or lack of progress, towards completion. Good planning is indicative of this fluidity; the progression from one task flows into the next while it is swerves along with the ever changing currents.

Our group developed an overall plan that outlines our goals throughout the semester. Given that the plan defined which tasks each person had to accomplish and by what date, we were all able to gain a full enough understanding to develop our own individual plans to manage our time effectively. As mentioned before plans are adaptable, and whether the adaptation is a result of poor time management or a change in circumstance, a good plan can be revised. This re-iterative process is a key function of a plan, and what sets it apart from a mere direction, and giving it a role more along the lines of a steering wheel.

Good planning reaps rewards, poor planning impends failure. It is very important to plan all along the way during a collaborative project like ours.

Remuneration

Remuneration can come in many shapes and forms. First impressions imply that one is being paid, and in general this is true. In the workplace of an architect for example, any services or goods, be they design drawings, council approvals or mere opinions, there is a dollar amount required to entitle the client to this.

Remuneration comes from the Latin word remunerationem which means “a repaying, recompense” and repayment can often be in the form of funds. “Recompense” leads us on to another form of remuneration, a form of remuneration more applicable to our course, and in the context of design collaboration studio. It is said that one good deed deserves another. It is ironic that as a student, our deed as that we pay the university. The resultant remuneration from the university is that it provides is with a learning environment and an education. As Confucius said, “Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness”.

Most of the time remuneration is earned, often with the performance directly affecting the amount of remuneration. A solid effort from our group in producing a model that is superior to the Falling Water model will be amply remunerated with an HD+, provided those providing the remuneration are happy. A poor effort remunerated with an F. This is not always the case, and the act of remuneration is a common place for conflict to arise, due to differing views in the appropriate amount of remuneration for a given piece of work. Records, in the form of contracts, are a good way of settling the remuneration process well before conflict arises.

In some way or another, all actions we take return some form of remuneration, if not in the form of physical remuneration of money or other tangible rewards, then at the very least in experience and knowledge gained. This is the most significant remuneration of participating in this collaborative project.

Context

When working in a collaborative group it helps to look outside the box, or so to speak. In a project such as ours, one may think that the crux of the task is to build a model that betters the Half-Life 2 Falling Water model. This may indeed be the case, but a thorough understanding of context can really help to achieve this goal.

Context is defined as “the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc”. When applied to our course, context has a few applications that stand out. Firstly there is the context of the brief. We are working in groups of 4 or 5, in a university environment. Having established this, the context is an atmosphere of learning, co-operation and exploration. When approaching the production of the UT3 model, we know this is an educational exercise; one that encourages us to try new things, ask for help, push our boundaries.

The model itself has a context. The physical context, or the site, plays a major role in the perception of the space. It is extremely clear that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water is heavily reliant on its context to provide the intended feeling of the space. The name itself is a reference to the river and waterfall that runs beneath the dwelling. The experience of the space in Half-Life 2 is heavily impacted by both the visual imagery of the water, as well as the inherent sound of falling water. Rocks, trees and sky really put this building in its place.

Context is nothing with the “particular event, situation, etc” that it surrounds, but this surrounding provides a deeper understanding of anything it touches.

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

Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre, Zaha Hadid

Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre

When it comes to architects that have wonderful, but un-built work, Zaha Hadid has to be one of the most well known. Knowing this, a further look into her projects uncovers various wonderful designs.

The Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi takes up a very organic form. It’s sleek, curved design adds much depth to the cultural district. More intriguing is that Hadid’s proposed Performing Arts Centre would be amongst buildings designed by other big names such as Frank Gehry and Tadao Ando. This fact means that her work not only has to be strong to suit the brief, but also to hold it’s own in such a rich context.

As seen in the images, the centre possesses a very natural feel, combining flowing curves with loose geometry. Zaha Hadid describes the design as “a structural form that emerges from a linear intersection of pedestrian paths within the cultural district, gradually developing into a growing organism that sprouts a network of successive branches”. She also describes the structure as a “biological analogy whose primary components are then transformed from these abstract diagrams into architectonic design”.

The importance of this building is that it would contribute so intensely in a cultural sense. The building itself would not physically leave as big an impact as the life it would bring to its context. Abu Dhabi is the second most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is actively trying to shift its economy from oil to tourism. Such a building would be so significant in promoting the arts, seeing as it would boast five theatres, a music hall, a concert hall, opera house, drama theatre and a flexible theatre. Mind you architecturally, it’s quite a marvel too. In saying so this building would be important in more ways than one might think just looking at the images of it.

For this project this would be extremely difficult to model, and currently out of realistic view of this assignment. But further discussion with colleagues is probably required before making that assumption.

References:

Yanko Design Website, Posted by Yanko Design in Architecture February 2, 2007 10:46 pm, http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2007/02/02/abu-dhabi-performing-arts-centre-by-zaha-hadid/

Inhabitant Website, Posted by Emily Pilloton March 7, 2007, http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/03/07/zaha-hadids-performing-arts-centre-in-abu-dhabi/

Image References:

Image 1: http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2007/02/02/abu-dhabi-performing-arts-centre-by-zaha-hadid/

Image 2: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/03/07/zaha-hadids-performing-arts-centre-in-abu-dhabi/

Image 3: http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2007/02/02/abu-dhabi-performing-arts-centre-by-zaha-hadid/

Image 4: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/03/07/zaha-hadids-performing-arts-centre-in-abu-dhabi/

Creation

So this is a blog. Just testing it out, so here's my introductory post. Jeremy Tagle, or just Jez, of Matt's group. Account created. Joyous.