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Mark24688m

Architecture project involving skydiving

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Hey guys. So I'm an architecture student at Temple University, and I could use a little help with some things for my project (which incorporates skydiving!) The design studio is based off of the concept of risk and is set primarily in the Indian Ocean. The site for the project is Diego Garcia, an island I'm sure some of you have probably heard of considering its current use by the US as a military/naval base. So far into the project we have spent time individually studying the Indian ocean and businesses, resources, groups, processes, etc involving risk which are located there. I specifically studied oil and everything having to do with oil. Next we built sectional models of a specific slice of the island, which will later function as our individual sites. The most recent part of the project involves the idea of antagonism and agonistic space. What is the antagonistic aspect within architecture, how can architecture be constructed antagonistically, can space be violent, what does violent space appear to be? what is the relationship between violent space and the body? The idea is to take an image of agonistic conflict, along with images of boats/ships, and create a set of poetically abstract drawings which depict specific goals. As far as ships go, the drawings needs to show the 1. past 2. present and 3. future of a specific ship/image, and the possible processes which could be preformed on the image ie. extrusion, rotation, scaling, shearing, slicing, repetition, etc, to express the past, present, and future qualities/stories/themes/materiality of the ship.

The second part aside from the ship aspect (ships will used as the primary building material for creating space later on in the project), is the aspect of agonistic conflict and antagonism. One of the definitions i found for antagonism states "Opposition of a conflicting force tendency, or principle" Now, the majority of students in the studio have chosen images involving traditional games, sports, fights, etc. I decided to take it a bit further and pick out the types of conflict which could be considered antagonistic, and this is what I came up with:

-physical combat
-for self defense
-for protection
-for retaliation
-verbal combat
-competition
-mental combat
-political combat
-war
-world war
-competition between life forces (man vs time)
-competition between a life force and a sequencing element (man vs time, man vs distance, man vs quantity)
-competition between a life force and another element (man vs gravity, man vs temperature, man vs pressure)
-competition between non-organism life forces (earthquakes, avalanches, volcanic eruptions, floods, cyclonic storms, etc)
-competition between a life force and another non life force natural disaster (famine, disease)


I decided to look at competition between a life force and a sequencing element, and in a discussion with my professor today I brought up my ideas about skydiving and how it can looked at as an "antagonistic battle". I explained how it can tie in very closely with the study of ships, seeing as both work with the concepts of risk (the Indian ocean and anything happening on the Indian ocean involves varying degrees of risk) I also spoke about the comparison of movement through water and movement through air, along with the connection between flight-gravity-and sailing. the process of deploying a sail and deploying a parachute, the process of catching wind. So, here is where I need help. She wants to she lots of images of process, movement, sequence, etc. involving skydiving. Anything you guys have will be helpful, along with any thoughts ideas comments etc. Some images of deployment sequences, landing sequences, exit sequences, formation sequences would be great. Any other thoughts ideas comments questions would be awesome. Thanks for reading this massive book I wrote, I hope this makes some sense. Ps I also attached my first stab at boards depicting my oil research, along with the pictures of the ship I chose to use, and an example of a sequence which Im looking for.

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Here are a couple links from a buddies site. Please contact him for rights of use. But seems to be the landing sequences you are looking for.

http://danosworld.smugmug.com/Skydiving/2007/Skydiving-2007-Best-of/4888460_wfGCs#291653018_fBX5S

http://danosworld.smugmug.com/Skydiving/2007/Skydiving-2007-Best-of/4888460_wfGCs#295531946_nwcDJ

Chris
It's Jimmy Time!!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Fast-As-Fuck/6099474213

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Do us a favour and include window-washing gantries that are hinged at the corners of the building and can be swung out 135 degrees from the corner (assuming that outside corners are right angles). That should eliminate most of the risk of off-heading openings.

To complete the project, surround it with open fields ... golf course?

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Ok...listen. You're trying way too hard to tie skydiving into what you're doing. Not gonna quash your creative juices but think about your motivations. Tits have more to do with ships than skydiving does. That's correct...tits.

Velvet, I look forward to using those phrases on the Architect I wake up with every morning along with the ones I work with daily. Most of them know enough art school architects to get the punchline.
"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

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Thanks for the posts!

-DJL- Thats the purpose of the project. Along with architecture in general...to draw links and ideas from things seemingly unrelated or incomparable. If we only worked with what seemed to work at first glance, nothing new or creative would ever appear. Look towards the impossible.

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Doug, just today I had a "sense of arrival" as I entered an "outdoor room". Makes you want some of what they're smoking, no?

Mark, please ask permission to use photos in your project and then credit them appropriately. You'd be surprised how much better of a response it elicits. Also, I agree with Doug that you're stretching this analogy pretty far...but what do I know, I'm just an engineer. :P

Lance

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Thanks for the posts!

-DJL- Thats the purpose of the project. Along with architecture in general...to draw links and ideas from things seemingly unrelated or incomparable. If we only worked with what seemed to work at first glance, nothing new or creative would ever appear. Look towards the impossible.



I actually do understand what you're trying to do. But I do think you should look at your motivations. Remember that you're starting with a site that has people, geography, climate, history and scale. In this setting, what is your antagonist?

When an architect doesn't think about what is motivating them then we end up with glassy ultra-corporate buildings in historical towns or a neighborhood full of repetitive Tudor houses.

You don't have to leave skydiving out, in the same sense that you shouldn't have a structure that looks literally like the sequence of a landing you also shouldn't ignore what it is about this landing that excites you. This is called being self aware. What you're doing here is taking a personal experience and applying it to this project; this will be part of your presentation that you show to relate you and your life to what you're doing. Take this landing sequence photo as block 1 and then create/build/draw something that represents it. Next, now that you've explained what it is that motivates you look for something relevant to the site, people, geography, climate, history, and scale that mimics this form or equally excites your imagination. If you've done your research you know that the Indian Ocean is a very, very, violent place. it shouldn't be hard to find an antagonist there.

Also, why this project and what purpose does this structure serve? Again, back to rule #Zero that the point of any structure is to house people. So here you have and extremely violent setting and you need to house people in it. So, how do you meet violence and in the same breath make people comfortable. Hmmm, funny that your prof wants ships or boats, the very things that given mankind a feeling of comfort against the power of the sea.
"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

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Velvetjo- If anyone appreciates their work being credited, its architecture students. All images will be credited. what were smoking...well smoking is just plain unhealthy ;)

DJL- Thanks for the response! I really appreciate the interest. We studied the indian ocean in detail for weeks before reaching this stage of the project, we even had an Australian pilot who spends many hours flying from australia to south africa talk to us about his experience with the indian ocean. very interesting. anyway, we had a pin up of our work wednesday. It was fun explaining how human flight works to a group of people that ALL saw skydiving as jumping, falling straight down, and opening a parachute that you weren't even sure would work. "that roller coaster feeling!?" ha. so when it comes down to my actual work... i made a detailed list of a typical skydive and every action associated, picked out the most important moments to map (packing, exit, freefall, deployment, canopy flight, landing) and used sequential screenshots of each stage (in a top to bottom linear fashion-for now), then used lines to map out TIME, and how time simply as an element compares in each of these sequences-basically to make clear the speed at which each of these processes happens.

Im now thinking about breaking down these individual freefall sequence shots and using a coded system of points, mapping the detail of "points of wind resistance" all over the body. It needs to be clearly understood to others how a body is controlled in space. and this individual "battle" between gravity (the relative wind in this case) meets the body, and what exactly happens there to displace the body in space. I also want to develop a way to notate speed and direction of the body in space, especially during specific body transitions of the body within space. some other ideas being depicting the body from multiple points of view in different freefall positions, possibly the void the body creates as it "violates" space.


My friend is working with basketball for her project. She is currently mapping a basketball game, working with each second individually. She came up with a system of notation for each action within the game (pass, shot, goal, turnover, body movement, etc) to map the game in a plan (above) view. What Im essentially doing is mapping a skydive, however as you can imagine its completely different. Theres a third dimension to the sport, the speeds are insanely different, the scale of the game is completely different, and the opposition isn't an opposing life force-although it is an opposing force which has energy.

So. If anyone knows of any useful images/videos of specific body positions, specific freefall-exit-deployment-canopy flight/landing, etc, please let me know! Thanks again for reading!

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