George Michael Brower » software

mosCells

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:15:34 +0000

MOS Architecture

In the summer of 2009 Michael Meredith of MOS Architecture approached me to develop an application that would allow him to explore the permutations of a certain type of structure he was prototyping on paper: folded circles that create elevated surfaces.

Michael refers to the structures as “pads,” “lillies,” or “cells.” Each cell may have two or more “legs.” A leg is creating by folding. If the “length” of the leg passes the “floor height,” the leg is folded again, creating a surface that rests on the floor.

Cell Applet

The applet begins with a single unfolded cell. Dragging the edge of a cell towards its center begins a fold. Right clicking and dragging an edge attaches a new cell. The applet is aware of an invisible “floor,” that causes legs to fold twice past a certain length.

You’ll see legs turning blue once they’re folded twice. Right clicking an “edge” causes that leg to become fixed, so that it is always perfectly tangent to the ground, even if the floor height changes in the future. This application was built with Processing

“The first thing to know about MOS is that we are a collective of designers, architects, thinkers, and state-of-the-art weirdoes. The two principals, Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample, teach at Harvard University and Yale University while maintaining the practice. We work all over the world, designing private houses, institutional buildings, urban strategies, research, books, installations, and other projects that are less easily categorized.”

— mos-office.net

Pink legs don’t touch the floor.

Yellow legs just kiss the floor.

Blue legs fold at the floor.

Floor height & Fixed Legs

A variable floorHeight determines the point at which legs fold. Low floor heights make for larger surfaces, while high floor heights make for longer legs. As the floorHeight value changes, the arcs that make “yellow” legs stay tangent to the ground.

Finger Wag Applet

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:14:21 +0000

This browser does not have a Java Plug-in.
Get the latest Java Plug-in here.

An application I wrote for George & Jonathan.
Just trying to make the perfect finger wag. Tweak some numbers, see how much attitude you can squeeze out.

Origami

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:04:08 +0000

Origami is a lettering tool. It also systematically improves the quality of your cursive.

Anamorphic Type

admin — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:15:55 +0000

Anamorphic Type Engine. A two dimensional image is “dissected,” its parts extruded on the z-axis. The size of the parts is a function of their position on the z-axis, so that from a given point, the image appears to be sitting on a two-dimensional plane.

The structures are conceived as hanging sculptures. The image above shows what a given “plot,” or the application’s output, might look like. Each piece of the structure is tethered to the ceiling by two wires. The application can produce an image of the ceiling showing the point at which each wire should be connected. A to-scale blueprint of the entire composition also dictates the length of each given wire.

More Anamorphic Type on Vimeo

The editing environment allows users to manipulate the position of pieces, as well as the the “focal point” that the illusion respects. As users drag pieces back and forth along the z-axis, their scale is automatically compensated to maintain the anamorphic illusion.