Keystone Bouchard, building community with prims

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

If I were to commission the design of a building - whether commercial or residential - I would vastly prefer the opportunity to walk in and around it before brick and mortar were employed, over looking at CAD animations and illustrations, a flat screen, or even a 3D printout. Wouldn't you? It is such an inexpensive step and so basic to our senses (including common sense!). Using virtual worlds to bring blueprints to life is not only possible but a daily reality in Second Life®.

To me, it looks like the body of an acoustic guitar, or maybe a key hole, or perhaps it is a musical note. When I met with him just hours before the Metanomics studio he had created was about to have its public debut, I completely forgot to ask Keystone Bouchard (aka Jon Brouchoud) if he had implemented Feng Shui techniques in the design. My guess is that he did, whether he is aware of it or not. The thing just flows.



Unless you’ve been living under a rock or are very new to Second Life, then you know that the secret sauce over at Metanomics - the talk show that explores the serious uses of virtual worlds – is its community of suits and geeks who are there to mobilize mostly biz and tech ideas through conversation, together with the occasional sprinkling of left brainers, a smattering of educators and hard-core scientists, and a dash of memes. It’s a hale and hearty concoction.


Le Corbusier defined architecture as the “magnificent play of volumes brought together under light”

Keystone and I had been chatting for well over an hour, with just one interruption (he had to step away from the computer to say goodbye to his grandmother who was visiting his Real Life home – a real family man!), when it occurred to him to share with me that he’d been notified minutes before our meeting that his Studio Wikitecture, which he co-founded along with Theory Shaw (aka Ryan Schultz), had just won the Linden Prize: $10,000 USD for developing an “innovative in-world project that improves the way people work, learn and communicate in their daily lives outside of the virtual world.” And that should give you an inkling of the kind of fellow we’re talking about here.



Fast facts about Keystone Bouchard

• Architect, urban planner and artist; Master of Architecture, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.Co-founder of Crescendo Design, a residential design studio located in Madison, Wisconsin (Real Life)
• Creator of Autodesk Island, the virtual U.S. House of Representatives, Linden Lab’s Virtual Headquarters, a build-out for a TED conference event, and many other edifices and islands. (Second Life)
• Co-founder of Studio Wikitecture, an open group composed of a diverse range of individuals from varying disciplines, interested in exploring the application of an open-source paradigm to the design and production of both real and virtual architecture and urban planning. (Virtual worlds)

Early Keystone Bouchard video, dating back to January 2007

• Founder of the ARCH Network, a community resource for architecture and virtual worlds, including consultation, training, virtual design, BIM/CAD model import, and hosted Virtual Project Spaces.
• He created the Reflexive Architecture installation, where I first discovered and fell head over heels for virtual architecture.

This photo by Keystone Bouchard

Keystone began the design process for the Metanomics building in February, and it had its unveiling on May 6, 2009. Here is the transcript of our conversation just before the opening.

Would you say that this was the most complex project you've taken on?

Keystone Bouchard: It wasn't terribly complicated from a functional perspective, since the intended use of the space was very clear. As far as complexity, I would say the Linden Lab HQ 4-sim project I worked on in 2007 while I was working with Clear Ink was quite a bit more so - given the magnitude of different program elements it had to accommodate, and the functional goals were much more difficult to quantify.



The biggest difference, I think, was in openness. The Linden Lab headquarters had to remain confidential, and it was harder to gain access or feedback from most of the people who would actually be using it, whereas with Metanomics, I was able to more fully engage the community of people who will actually end up using this space. Everyone was invited to stop by at any time and provide feedback. I think the incorporation of that feedback ended up making it a much stronger design than I could have come up with on my own

Who was on the Metanomics team to create this space?

Keystone Bouchard: Discord Schism, Metaverse Engineer, and Dusan Writer were the main collaborators. I was responsible for conceptual design, Dusan designed the set, Metaverse Engineer did all of the landscaping and various detail elements, and Discord Schism built out the event partner hub and other detail elements. Joel Savard was the Project Manager. I also did 99% of the construction on the main building shell and most of the texturing.

What was the plan?

Keystone Bouchard: My brief was to provide an event space for Metanomics that would span 2 regions - the set on one (to help resolve lag issues), and audience on the other, and also to provide space to display additional content - material from past shows - and design for the site to scale over time, with additional buildings to be added later. My goal was to design something that everyone could feel comfortable with, and to invite community wide feedback throughout the design process. We had regular community forums, where we solicited feedback, and presented the design's progress.

One of the things I observed before starting this project was that Metanomics can be as much about the back-chat as it is about the show itself. So many people expressing so many different ideas and opinions, yet, they're all coming together at that moment - around this show. I wanted to design something that was a visual metaphor for the coming together of ideas – the coming together of the community - so, the early conceptual designs were very literal. There were lots of building pieces coming together from all different angles - to create the auditorium.

In the final manifestation, that visual metaphor was represented with structural columns, while earlier on it had been more literal. It became a much more subtle expression, as though there are many individual pieces that are working together. None of them could visually support the structure alone.



How was this experience different from designing in Real Life, other than taking backchats into consideration (although nowadays twitter IS the equivalent of backchat in Real Life)?

Keystone Bouchard: It was much easier to express the idea here. In Real Life - conveying a design is a very abstract experience. You're sharing 2D plans, or sketches, and trying to imagine what it will look like - and trying to help the client imagine what it will be like, so, you're always trying to build a portal into that dimension - and show them that world - like from the outside looking in.

That’s similar to how it went down for DB Bailey (aka David Denton, AIA, in Real Life) and his Egyptian client recently. Once the client saw it in Second Life, it was something palpable. He could walk around it. He had a sense of perspective. In Real Life, the best you can do is create an illustration - which is static - and it is only one view. Animations (via CAD) get closer, but they're time consuming and expensive and still very prescriptive. The viewer has no control, and creating that illustration is an 'event.'

So how does the experience compare directly with CAD?

Keystone Bouchard: You decide, at some moment in time, to take a look at what the design will actually look like; whereas here, it’s always there… constantly. You're always in real-time 3D. There's never a moment when you have to stop and say, “Ok, let’s look at it in 3D.” It’s always 3D.

How often do those moments come up in a Real Life situation?

Keystone Bouchard: That's the other part of it. The client only gets to see your progress at bi-weekly meetings. Here, the client can make an appearance at any given moment. And that is just the design process. Some designers might consider that unnerving - but I find it to be invaluable. I like sharing the burden! If I'm stuck on something, I love being able to bounce ideas off of people. It becomes much more efficient because I’m not working in some direction for two weeks and then showing it to the client.

At what point in the design process did you introduce the stretched canvas texture? Did you originally think in terms of canvas? I'm reminded of Franklin Lloyd Wright and also Paul Klee. It seems organic, like a skin.

Keystone Bouchard: Yes, I've always been a fan of the idea of translucent marble that is cut so thin that light can permeate. It is possible to do in real life, but incredibly expensive. The idea with the outer shell was for it to be 'skinnable.' This is just one possible solution, but I hope in the future that it can be re-skinned with other textures: perhaps dynamic, maybe reflexive, or maybe (it) changes color based on concurrency or the mood of the community - like a visual display.

Or seasonal?

Keystone Bouchard: Yes, maybe something about the upcoming show; maybe competitions to design the best skin. Whatever the result, the goal was to make it very flexible.

What was the stickiest point?

Keystone Bouchard: Scale. It is still a challenge. I think the seats are too far away from the set, for example, because I wanted it to feel intimate, yet, it has to accommodate a large and growing audience.

Is that for purposes of the studio cameras? What percentage of the design discussions took the camera into account?

Keystone Bouchard: Camera had a lot to do with it. I was told 'no alpha' early on. I designed an inner shell where the camera is, for the lion's share of the show - with no alpha - so I could get away with having an alpha outer shell.

The spiraling swirls above the building...

Keystone Bouchard: NPIRL ;-) (Not Possible IRL). At one point, the idea was for the build to start very “Real Life” at the base - where it meets the ground - as though there were already this kind of historical archeology - and building over the top of that as it rises in the Z-axis, it becomes increasingly NPRIL. The idea of NPRIL came up dozens of times in design iterations. At one point, I was talking to Scope Cleaver (another virtual architect) about this. I pinged him often during the course of design development, and he said, “Wouldn't it be cool if the building were actually rising up out of the ground - as though the community were a kind of current - and this building was picking up on that, and crystallizing around it?” A brilliant idea, but as I thought about it, it’s more like something that zips around and orbits.

Later in the conversation I learned of Studio Wikitecture's Linden Prize win, and of course, I had to ask about it.

Keystone Bouchard: When we first started brainstorming the idea of applying principles of open source, and Wikipedia-style collaboration to architecture and the built environment, we knew that Second Life was exactly what we needed to make this work. The ability to customize and program elements within this platform was huge. We were able to build the Wiki-tree here, using this platform, and do lots of unique things with it, like being able to tie it in with a website. The diversity and size of the community is requisite in collaboration like this. Also, prims - believe it or not, prims! - are an important part of why Wikitecture works in Second Life. They're granular, so individual parts of the design can be modified, and the building tools are easy to learn.

That's why Second Life became a platform for experimenting with an augmented form of architectural collaboration that I sincerely believe could be an improved design methodology - and a more effective means of harnessing the collective wisdom of communities - the people who actually use architecture and the built environment. Buildings are just too big, and too complicated for a single firm or individual to fully comprehend and, ultimately, the urban fabric is a lot like one vast operating system upon which we run our lives. Linux was developed by many, many people - maybe architecture can be, too.

How radical is this thinking in the architectural community today?

Keystone Bouchard: O'Reilly called it 'Radical Collaboration' - so - I guess it is radical.

There is no other platform that offers this combination of features - the simple building tools, the immersive, realtime, multi-user experience - the ability to program a technology plug-in into it - and more - because of the fact that this combination doesn't really exist in other software applications. There isn't anything quite like it.

About a year ago... at least that is how I recall it... you seemed to be going through a period of real disenchantment with Second Life and virtual worlds. I felt as though you were... disengaging. Is this true and what happened that changed that?

Keystone Bouchard: When I started using Second Life, I was most impressed by what I assumed it was 'about to become' - not necessarily for what it was. I saw it as a tool. A platform. I knew an environment like this could be powerful in architectural and AEC practice, and I couldn't wait until X, Y and Z feature were implemented. I kept saying, “Imagine what this will be like in a few years!” After two years, it started to feel like nothing had changed and nothing was really getting any better, but that's when a kind of transition occurred and I started to think of it more like a place than a tool. It was then when I began to appreciate it for what it is - not for what I hope it will someday be. I think the fact that it has this 'real life' association - the land, the sky, the human avatars - is why we get disappointed with it when it isn't Real Life. We're comparing it with the physical world, when it really is a place, a context, and an environment all its own.

You can teleport to the Metanomics building directly from here.

See also:

• New York Times, T-Magazine: "Original Sim" by Sam Lubell - Dec. 2008
• Architectural Record, "Wikitecture: From clicks to bricks, avatars to architects" by David Sokol - Oct. 2008
• Business Week, SmallBiz: "Business, and Startups, in Second Life" - Aug. 2008
• NPIRL: The Impossible Made Possible: A Panel on the Future of Architecture
• NPIRL: Reflexive Architecture by Keystone Bouchard at 2nd Live
• NPIRL: Wikisonic to get Real at the Tech Virtual Museum
• NPIRL: Winner of the 2007 AMD Open Architecture Network's Founders Award
• New World Notes: Top Ten Art Installations of Second Life
• Keystone Bouchard’s Flickr stream
• Studio Wikitecture Flickr stream

The Impossible Made Possible - A Panel on the Future of Architecture

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Most Real Life architects who join Second Life® do so because they are seeking a new tool. In the beginning, there is much confusion as they acquaint themselves with the interface and become a part of one or more communities.

And then they begin to build recreations of Real Life buildings.

And then...

This Friday and on the occasion of Second Life's sixth birthday, hear the stories of seasoned Real Life architects who arrived in the metaverse to explore the possibilities and discovered that their path was not at all what they expected to be. Walk through a visual history of their trajectory, as they explain how one thing lead to another, culminating with them learning that the impossible is possible in virtual worlds. Cut short your own learning curve and advance your understanding of how virtual architecture can - and already is - richly benefiting Real Life architecture.


Event chair DB Bailey landed an important commercial contract thanks to his work in virtual worlds. Seen here in front of a building he created in Second Life for Stanford University

WHEN: Friday, June 26, 2009, 10am SLT - 90 minutes
WHERE: Cetus Gallery District, teleport directly from here

PANELISTS:

* DB Bailey (aka David Denton), Architect, urban planner and artist, event chair
* Keystone Bouchard (aka Jon Brouchoud), Architect, urban planner and artist
* Lou Tones, multi-media producer and founder of Green Islands
* Bettina Tizzy - Introduction from the founder of the Not Possible IRL group

DB Bailey is designing a Real Life project (for Cairo, Egypt) in Second Life. He will be giving a tour of the commercial building and discussing the meaningfulness of this venue for architectural design in the future.

DB Bailey and Keystone Bouchard have both gone full circle in Second Life, starting off in Second Life by recreating Real Life architecture as do most when first starting to build virtually. Then they both discovered the truest potential of this technology: to produce environments they would never have conceived in Real Life.


Multi-award winner and the creator of Reflexive Architecture, Keystone Bouchard has benefited Real Life with his virtual work in ways he never could have imagined

DB, Keystone and Lou Tones are all seeing the wall between the two worlds disappear as Second Life becomes more of a tool - but not how they originally expected it to be - in their Real Life work.

Lou has been observing for many years the evolution of the virtual world. He will discuss the ecological advantages of Second Life and the importance of Real Life buildings designed in Second Life.

Feel free to contact Bettina Tizzy should you have any questions. Please be punctual as the presentation will get underway at precisely 10am SLT/PDT.

Something wicked good this way comes, and it is happening today

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

All those survey numbers and spreadsheets are beginning to register what most Residents of the bustling city that is our Second Life® already know firsthand: Virtual worlds for more than games are popping with potential for the serious stuff… business, education, science, and the arts. The naysayers are still out there, Twittering about how they don’t even have enough time for their first life, etc., etc., but they are off-world. They aren’t here to witness how this 3D world is getting stickier than molasses.

While the Real World is staggering in a recession economy, this virtual world is humming merrily to the tune of $120M in user-to-user transactions during the 1st Quarter of 2009, up 65% from the same quarter last year. Moreover, according to a recent in-world business study, 20% of Second Life’s businesses earn all their income in Second Life, with approximately 2,000 full time businesses in operation.

At the very heart of this bubbling stew is an organization called Metanomics that explores the serious uses of virtual worlds in the company of tout le monde: the executives, educators and artists that are making it all happen. It’s a virtual talk show. It’s a forum for hundreds of conversations going on simultaneously at a dizzying rate of speed, both in voice and in text chat. In fact, I defy you to attend any of these sessions without perceiving… without recognizing that something really important is going on: potential and yes, even success.


The new set and studio for Metanomics - Photo by Keystone Bouchard

Something wicked good this way comes today, and it’s big. For as long as I can recall (and I rezzed in January of 2007), the leadership of Linden Lab, the company that owns and operates the platform of Second Life - and governs it, too – has gone into hiding whenever the Residents of the world they created convene. But changes are afoot, and the citizens have been in agreement lately… dare I say it? Linden Lab is starting to step out. The Lindens are actually becoming involved with, and becoming a part of the Second Life community.

Oh, they still infuriate us with unsurprising regularity over one thing or another, but I can’t begin to tell you how welcome their participation is. The more we communicate, the better things get… and stickier… and more fun. And successful.

So it is with mild astonishment that I find myself typing the following words: Today, May 6th at 1:00pm SLT, a real first… M Linden (aka Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Lab), will join host Beyers Sellers (aka Robert Bloomfield) for the kick-off of Metanomics' new season at its sparkling new studio and set created by acclaimed award winner and architect Keystone Bouchard (much more on that structure soon).

Something wicked good this way comes, indeed.

Teleport to it directly from here.

Exhibiting Art in Virtual Spaces

Posted by Alpha Auer, with a very big thank you to the curator of Avatrait, Stephen Venkman who alerted us to the opening of Avatrait Island.

The new island of Avatrait was launched back at the end of November, so I am somewhat late in posting this piece. However, I wanted to give the matter some thought prior to doing so. I also co-authored a paper for an academic conference on virtual architecture in the interim, and that too has made me hold off and gather all of my thoughts on the subject. I also have to add a disclaimer here and state that I am not an architect but an artist/designer/Second Life® builder, so all of what I write on the subject is based upon mere gut instinct and a general knowledge of architectural concerns as far as they touch upon the basic design considerations common to all visual art and design practices.





What I saw at Avatrait is extremely well conceived, well designed, meticulously modeled and textured; tasteful, functional, user friendly Real Life architecture, which in many ways reminded me of the work of Eero Saarinen (particularly the convex white pavilion shown above), who is possibly my favorite architect of the 20th century. Thus, likening architectural output to Saarinen's is not a compliment I pay lightly and here I do so. Indeed I cannot find fault with the work and were these buildings to be found anywhere in Real Life they would doubtless be the pride of whichever municipality it was that they were constructed in. In fact so pristine are they, that they gave me a strong sense of being in a walkthrough presentation modeled in AutoCad, which a high caliber architectural firm had prepared for a high budget, high maintenance client. So the architects Corbett Howard and Prad Prathivi have done the project proud in many ways.



Then, why am I not completely won over? I believe the answer is already concealed in the word "Real Life" stated twice in the paragraph above. The fact that the structures are rezzed upon huge flipped sculpty rock cones may be an attempt at taking into account the affordances of the virtual, but it is not enough: I am of the tendency to believe that what constitutes the manifestation of the "virtual" in architecture has more to do with imagination than material. Thus, the sculpty rocks may not be possible in Real Life as such, however I suspect that the intention behind them is. While the peripheral pavilions have been rezed by Corbett Howard, the spheroid main exhibition hall is a build by Prad Prathivi - and it is particularly this central edifice that for me is problematic in terms of its virtual attributes. But all in all, none of these buildings seem to leave much to the imagination, do not carry concealed surprises, nothing about them is unexpected. They are very much what they are: Beautiful and functional constructs; built out of brick, mortar and marble, rezzed upon a mini archipelago of islets. The fact that the islands themselves are floating rocks is then neither here nor there.
...

Ouvroir, the Second Life annex of the Gestaltungsmuseum Zurich, dedicated to the work of Chris Marker, was built by MosMax Hax in the spring of 2008. Avatrait island has propelled me towards a comparative examination between Ouvroir and Avatrait: It is not only the fact that both sims are dedicated to the display of (predominantly 2 dimensional) art work or that at both places the central constructs are spherical, which are leading me to this comparison. Indeed it is not the similarities but the differences that seem to me to be decisive here: While Ouvroir is every bit as well conceived, well designed and well built as Avatrait Island (much to his credit Mr. Hax has refrained from using Real Life building textures, thereby greatly heightening the virtual "feel" of the construct); the huge addition that the artist/architect has managed to bring into his work at Ouvroir is the usage of the imaginative element as a design component, particularly in the navigation system of the building.



While at Avatrait you walk up and down highly predictable staircases complete with banisters around the stairwell, at Ouvroir your only way of seeing the exhibit, which is spread out over a number of floors is by "falling down" to the next level through the designated phantom segments marked out in a semi transparent red. And to come back to the banisters at Avatrait: Why? Are the directors of Avatrait concerned about falling avatars creating liability issues? Health and safety regulations? Really, why?



While at Avatrait all that is there to see is plainly visible almost at first sight, Ouvroir is concealed, revealing itself bit by bit to its visitors. While Avatrait is complete as it is (I cannot for the life of me imagine how a single prim could be rezzed next to what is already there without becoming a major disruption of the whole system); Ouvroir allows for emergence and indeed seems to steadily be growing through the interventions of the members of its group who are continuously rezzing additions to the sim. And such is the mastery of the core red sphere which houses the actual Chris Marker collection at Ouvroir, that every addition seems to fit in, seems to be able to weave its way into the overall design tapestry. In short, while Avatrait is an endeavor to be admired respectfully and from a distance, Ouvroir invites you to be imaginative, to become involved and to play. Both are 3D, you can walk into both of them to an equal degree, but in a very bizarre kind of way Ouvroir is immersive while Avatrait remains aloof.



Keystone Bouchard needs to be taken very much to heart when he states that "architectural fabric created is still largely driven by very literal parallels to the physical world. This happens for good reason, as we have learned to visually organize the world around us, real or virtual, based on familiar cues and patterns. A roof may not need to protect us from the elements in virtual space, but it organizes a space. Even though you can fly, a ramp is still a strong way finding mechanism. While we import these visual cues from physical reality with good cause, I think we also need to consider the native, inherent characteristics of this environment and build a new language of virtual architecture based on those characteristics". Bouchard, is of course, referring to the dynamic element in virtual architecture in this text, to what he continues in the next line to describe as "virtual architecture has the capacity to become far more dynamic; behaving more like a liquid than a static and passive artifact".

I am going to do something quite improper here and use this quote out of the original context in which Bouchard has intended it. In other words, I will make it suit my own needs. Does a building need to be coded and dynamic to become virtual? Or is it more the underlying intention of usage, the very spirit in which it has been conceived of that really makes the difference between what is possible and not possible in Real Life?


Emergent interventions at Ouvroir: This infovis-like structure featuring a selection of photographs by Chris Marker was rezed in close proximity to the red sphere by Ouvroir group member Lucien Bookmite. Photograph courtesy of Barbara Binder.

Both buildings make usage of Real Life architectural metaphor, such as floors and ceilings and ramps, for the purposes of way finding. And as a construct Ouvroir is as static as Avatrait is. And yet as far as I can see, there is a huge difference and to me that difference lies in the ultimate approach of the architect, the spirit in which the whole enterprise has been undertaken: The one that emphasizes imagination and play over realism. Involvement over spectatorship. Intervention over consumption. Making a noteworthy immersive virtual experience out of Ouvroir and a beautiful receptacle for art work out of Avatrait Island. Thus, to each his due...

You can teleport to Avatrait Island from here, and to Ouvroir from here. You can see a collection of larger sized photographs of Ouvroir here and Avatrait Island here.

Reflexive Architecture by Keystone Bouchard at 2nd Live

Posted by Alpha Auer

I shall take the huge liberty of quoting the text from Keystone Bouchard's notecard related to his project at 2nd Live more or less in its entirety, with few omissions and no additions from me, since I feel that I cannot present this more cohesively than the architect himself:

"The Project: In physical reality, the architectural shell is a relatively static and motionless artifact. The occupant plays a passive role, observing but rarely impacting its composition. Winston Churchill's statement, 'We shape our buildings and afterwards, our buildings shape us,' illustrates this point well. However, in a virtual environment, the architecture is capable of transcending the limitations of static buildings, and can become as fluid and dynamic as the communities of people it hopes to serve. The topic of this installation, 'Reflexive Architecture' is just one vector suggesting the emergence of a new language of virtual architecture, free from the habit of pure physical replication.

I believe we can shape our virtual buildings, and afterwards we keep shaping them...





The Theory: There is a polarizing tension emerging between virtual architecture primarily focused on replicating elements of physical reality, in contrast with architecture that explores purely virtual concepts not possible in any other medium. In an environment where avatars are free to create anything they can imagine, the vast majority of the architectural fabric created is still largely driven by very literal parallels to the physical world. This happens for good reason, as we have learned to visually organize the world around us, real or virtual, based on familiar cues and patterns. A roof may not need to protect us from the elements in virtual space, but it organizes a space. Even though you can fly, a ramp is still a strong wayfinding mechanism.




(It did my graphic designer's heart good to see such beautiful and refined usage of typography within such an apt context. A.A ;-)

While we import these visual cues from physical reality with good cause, I think we also need to consider the native, inherent characteristics of this environment and build a new language of virtual architecture based on those characteristics. New architectural technologies such as steel, glass, elevators, and electricity have traditionally challenged architects and designers to explore new and unprecedented forms of architectural creation. The same will be true of virtual environments. What can we do in virtual space that could never have been done before?

In examining the differences between real and virtual environments, it becomes clear that physical architecture is relatively static and unchanging, whereas virtual architecture has the capacity to become far more dynamic; behaving more like a liquid than a static and passive artifact. I believe this seemingly simple distinction could serve as a core ingredient and driving force behind a new language of virtual architecture. In this way, the idea of reflexive architecture is not a new language of virtual design, but only a simple diagram that exists within a much larger community-wide exploration of dynamic new forms of virtual architecture.

Many thanks to the 2nd Live series, and to Drifter Rhodes for his time and energy setting this all up. Also, many thanks to Annabelle Fanshaw and Vicki Brandenburg for all of their outstanding work with the reflexive landscape architecture!"

More about Jon Brouchoud / Keystone Bouchard can be found here. More about the concepts behind this project can be found at these links:
http://archsl.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/
http://archsl.wordpress.com/2007/07/18/
http://archsl.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/
...

This very beautiful as well as thought provoking structure can be seen by teleporting directly from here. Larger sizes of the photos I took can be viewed here.

Kudos, Studio Wikitecture - Winner of the 2007 AMD Open Architecture Network Challenge's Founders Award

Our very own Keystone Bouchard (aka Jon Brouchard) continues to trailblaze. He and his team at Studio Wikitecture - a group he co-founded on the principles of Web 2.0-based architectural collaboration methodologies - have taken the Open Architecture Network's Founders Award for their entry and design of the Nyaya Tele-Medicine facility in Western Nepal. The goal was to design a wired medical clinic in the Himalayan foothills that will connect 250,000 people to doctors around the world via the Internet.

Why did you decide to enter this when there is no cash award?
Keystone Bouchard: Since the 'Open Architecture Network' mission is all about open sourcing architecture for humanitarian purposes, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to submit an entry for this competition, composed in the same collaborative and open-source fashion.

The bottom line: this is about connecting architecture and technology with communities in need. As Turk Pipkin points out in this video, the winners don't actually win a prize; rather, they win an opportunity to help change the world.



Here's a time lapse video of Studio Wikitecture's evolving design:



The Wiki-Tree is a version tracking system that - instead of tracking text documents in a linear history like Wikipedia - tracks versions of 3-dimensional models and saves them within a continually evolving 3-dimensional digital tree 'canopy'. Like Wikipedia, this 3D-Wiki allows a loose, self-organized group of contributors to share ideas, edit the contributions of others, and vote on which design iterations should be considered for further refinement.

What's next, Keystone?
Keystone Bouchard: Our top priority, at this point, is to build more awareness of Wikitecture's potential, recruit more 'Wikitects' and find our next project. Ideally, we would like to take on a paid project that will actually be built in Real Life, but we are open to other possibilities as well. We still have a lot to learn, but we have gathered a tremendous amount of qualified and diverse talent within the Wikitecture community from around the world, and are confident we can meet or exceed the level of service offered by a traditional architectural practice model.

We're also hoping to find some investment, financing or sponsorship to help develop the Wikitecture technology into Phase 2. We have a long list of improvements we want to make, but primarily we need to simplify the interface and improve the web-side technology.

The competition was announced at the 2007 TED Conference and launched at the 2007 World Economic Forum in Africa in June.

Keystone Bouchard's "Wikisonic" to get Real at the Tech Virtual Museum

"Turns out, I guess, that it actually is possible in Real Life. Go figure!" said Keystone Bouchard (aka Jon Brouchoud). Gasp! He was referring to his Wikisonic project, an instrument for collaborative musical composition that he created in-world with the technical assistance of Annie Obscure, and the scripting assistance of Dirty McLean, and that I blogged about back in early November.



Keystone is the founder of Architecture Islands, an incubator for architects and designers in virtual worlds, and also leads the Architecture in Second Life community group. He is co-founder of Studio Wikitecture, a Web 2.0 based architectural collaboration methodology, and founder of Crescendo Design, a studio specialized in developing sustainable design concepts. His ‘Nutrihouse’ design was chosen for construction in the Cradle-to-Cradle Home competition from over 625 entries worldwide. And I could go on for quite a while longer here, but let me hurry on to tell you the news...


In early February, Keystone got it into his head to submit Wikisonic to the Tech Virtual Museum Workshop in San Jose, California. "The main idea of the project was to invite collaboration, virtual and otherwise, toward the design of museum exhibits for The Tech museum. By submitting the concept, I had essentially open sourced the Wikisonic idea," explained Keystone, and like so many of the concepts that he conceives, it is now licensed under a Creative Commons license, and can be reused as long as Keystone is given credit.

In the Real Life version of Wikisonic, for which Keystone won a cash prize of $5,000 US, visitors will see a series of notes arranged on a wall similar to the notes on a musical staff. Each note will have a switch, with activates and de-activates both a light and an audible tone (each note in a scale in the key of C) contained within each note/switch. A trigger perpetually circulates through the score. As it passes by, it will play only the notes that have been activated by visitors.

The Second Life version, which Theory Shaw and I had the privilege to try out in this video with Keystone, can be seen here. When you active or de-activate a note, the installation changes - in real time - and a collective "song" emerges.



You can play with Wikisonic in Second Life, by teleporting directly from here to Keystone's Gallery of Reflexive Architecture. The Real Life exhibit in San Jose will open in June, and Keystone will be there.

A few morsels of art - four installations and the body electric

Here are four quick stops worth making to see what's new in the way of interactive art on the grid. Interestingly, all working from the basic sphere...

Wikisonic
Keystone Bouchard, founder of the RL Architects in SL group and a force behind some of the most interesting and thoughtful activities surrounding architecture in-world, recently completed a musical instrument of sorts with the scripting assistance of Dirty McLean. Stand in the middle and touch the balls in each column you wish to activate to induce a musical note. Touch several in a same column and you will hear several notes from it. Keystone invited Theory Shaw and me to play with it while he made this demo vid.



Keystone has since added another full circle of columns to enhance the sound. Thank you, Amalthea Blanc, for turning us onto this guy.
Teleport directly from here to Wikisonic, at his Gallery of Reflexive Architecture.



"Force Sun to Midnight"
Daruma Picnic wowed us with his A Cappella installation not too long ago. Now he is more playful, and he tells us, "Keystone (Bouchard) encouraged me to play with his scripts and develop new prim movement work. These scripts put a "capital I" on the word Interactive." Walk through the elements to activate sound and movement. It usually takes a couple of minutes for the sound to play in real time. Click on smaller floating elements to change color. The music is inspired by a Ravi Shankar Peace Mantra. His music files were generated with Garage Band and further edited with Audacity.

NPIRLers, the landmark I gave you in-world was borked. Please use this SLURL: Force Sun to Midnight Once there, look for the a TP ball and off you go.



The Aurora Room
Juria Yoshikawa recently set up his own sim, the Garden of Memespelunk, featuring several pieces we had hoped - but never expected - to see again, as well as a few new items, including this very immersive Aurora Room that chatters and makes noises.

Teleport from here to the: Aurora Room



The Lotus
Mark my words... DB Bailey - another RL architect - is going to amaze us all. This jewel box of a build encloses a meditation room (touch the inner bloom). DB has only been around since February, and he is really coming into his own. Douglas Story spotted him first and we are grateful.

See it here: DB Bailey's Lotus Once teleported, cross the ramp.



Miki Gymnast's Body Electric (that's my name for it anyway)

I was wearing Miki Gymnast's sensational 1,400 scripted prim outfit when I dropped in to check out DB's Lotus. Here are just a couple of the color sets it turned into. Sadly, Miki won't be putting these on the market. They are so highly customized that she doesn't have time to work with each customer. I hardly ever gawk at my avatar, but on this occasion, I (practically) only had eyes for me. :P

Top 10 Art Installations of Second Life, and more

Make no mistake. We are on the prowl for all the greatest Not Possible IRL builds, and if someone beats us to the punch on something truly splendid, then we will hand them to you on a silver platter, as we must today.

NPIRL'er and New World Notes' scribe, Amalthea Blanc, blogged the very fine and challenging article Top 10 Art Installations of Second Life yesterday, featuring several of our members and a couple of tremendous people we've missed along the way.

Tayzia Abattoir... (insert hand wringing here) you were so right! DanCoyote Antonelli's new show is... is... Well, I missed the boat and cannot justifiably blame it on absent LMs. Everyone, get thee over there and do as DanCoyote recommends: change ALL your settings with wild abandon and discover this vertical masterpiece.
DanCoyote Antonelli's Arts and Letters show

More than one of the individuals featured in Thea's piece are artists-PLUS. They stand for something even greater than their own art work. Case in point: Keystone Bouchard. His Gallery of Reflexive Architecture is at the apex of of the NPIRL experience and invites the avatar to move through, over and under his undulating, interactive sculptures.
Gallery of Reflexive Architecture



But perhaps even more exciting is his use of Second Life to plumb what he calls the "3D Internet" to virtually and collaboratively design via Open Source Architecture, or Wikitecture 2.0.

And get this... if ever there was an activity that underscores our collective shout that SL "is NOT a game," Keystone's RL architectural firm constructs buildings in-world first, allowing their RL clients to log in and experience the build before brick meets mortar.