scholarly journals Algorithmic Toolmaking: Parameter Thinking in Landscape Architecture

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kadin Hegglun

<p>This thesis interrogates the contentious integration of digital technologies into the field of landscape architecture. Identifying that an application of computational technique is largely unknown, the research delves into the scripting of geometry relationships with the use of the tool ‘Grasshopper’ in the context of landscape architecture.  The discourse surrounding the appropriation of digital technology in assistance to landscape architecture is seemingly controversial with an apparent resistance in favour of traditional methodologies of site design.  It is commonly stated that, digital software tends to be ‘too architectural’ and therefore less tailored to the open systems that landscape architects contend with. The tendency of contemporary software is to mimic the analogue process and while useful in representation and drawing production - these programs are scale-less and detached from reality. It is affirmed by academics such as Bradley Cantrell and Caroline Westort that landscape architecture needs more algorithmic attention. Stressing the construction of relationships between design-move and site condition.   Parameter thinking infers a method of rule setting and dedication to the settling of boundaries in which the potentials of site intervention has room to shift. Geometries, points, curves and planes provide such palette.  Abstraction is a primary conceptual driver of any drawing convention yet Grasshopper offers a more dynamic and animated process of conceptual development. The abstraction of site into such geometries grants a dynamic, shifting and generative paradigm to design and toolmaking.   This thesis is to unfold the paradigm of operating within such a toolset adopting the use of Grasshopper almost exclusively as a way of engaging with conceptual development. Such an interface allows this thesis to note the performance of an algorithmic toolset and adopt an algorithmic mind set.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kadin Hegglun

<p>This thesis interrogates the contentious integration of digital technologies into the field of landscape architecture. Identifying that an application of computational technique is largely unknown, the research delves into the scripting of geometry relationships with the use of the tool ‘Grasshopper’ in the context of landscape architecture.  The discourse surrounding the appropriation of digital technology in assistance to landscape architecture is seemingly controversial with an apparent resistance in favour of traditional methodologies of site design.  It is commonly stated that, digital software tends to be ‘too architectural’ and therefore less tailored to the open systems that landscape architects contend with. The tendency of contemporary software is to mimic the analogue process and while useful in representation and drawing production - these programs are scale-less and detached from reality. It is affirmed by academics such as Bradley Cantrell and Caroline Westort that landscape architecture needs more algorithmic attention. Stressing the construction of relationships between design-move and site condition.   Parameter thinking infers a method of rule setting and dedication to the settling of boundaries in which the potentials of site intervention has room to shift. Geometries, points, curves and planes provide such palette.  Abstraction is a primary conceptual driver of any drawing convention yet Grasshopper offers a more dynamic and animated process of conceptual development. The abstraction of site into such geometries grants a dynamic, shifting and generative paradigm to design and toolmaking.   This thesis is to unfold the paradigm of operating within such a toolset adopting the use of Grasshopper almost exclusively as a way of engaging with conceptual development. Such an interface allows this thesis to note the performance of an algorithmic toolset and adopt an algorithmic mind set.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6612
Author(s):  
Peter Jones ◽  
Martin Wynn

The increasingly stellar attraction of the digital technologies and the growing, though not universal, consensus of the need to build a sustainable future, are two powerful trends within society. The aim of this article is to offer an exploratory review of how the leading companies within the digital transformation market have addressed sustainable development. As such, the article’s originality and value lie in offering a review of current corporate thinking within that market. The study adopts an inductive, qualitative approach based on an examination of published company reports, and identifies six major sustainability themes being actively promoted and supported. The article concludes that the current sustainability objectives of the technology companies are driven as much by commercial reality as any altruistic motives, and that support and promotion of the circular economy may offer the best opportunity for digital technologies to meaningfully impact sustainable development.


Author(s):  
Zhuo Zhao ◽  
Yangmyung Ma ◽  
Adeel Mushtaq ◽  
Abdul M. Azam Rajper ◽  
Mahmoud Shehab ◽  
...  

Abstract Many countries have enacted a quick response to the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing existing technologies. For example, robotics, artificial intelligence, and digital technology have been deployed in hospitals and public areas for maintaining social distancing, reducing person-to-person contact, enabling rapid diagnosis, tracking virus spread, and providing sanitation. In this paper, 163 news articles and scientific reports on COVID-19-related technology adoption were screened, shortlisted, categorized by application scenario, and reviewed for functionality. Technologies related to robots, artificial intelligence, and digital technology were selected from the pool of candidates, yielding a total of 50 applications for review. Each case was analyzed for its engineering characteristics and potential impact on the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, challenges and future directions regarding the response to this pandemic and future pandemics were summarized and discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (12) ◽  
pp. 33-33
Author(s):  
Chris Carpenter

The final afternoon of the 2020 ATCE saw a wide-ranging virtual special session that covered an important but often overlooked facet of the unfolding digitalization revolution. While the rising wave of digital technology usually has been associated with production optimization and cost savings, panelists emphasized that it can also positively influence the global perception of the industry and enhance the lives of its employees. Chaired by Weatherford’s Dimitrios Pirovolou and moderated by John Clegg, J.M. Clegg Ltd., the session, “The Impact of Digital Technologies on Upstream Operations To Improve Stakeholder Perception, Business Models, and Work-Life Balance,” highlighted expertise taken from professionals across the industry. Panelists included petroleum engineering professor Linda Battalora and graduate research assistant Kirt McKenna, both from the Colorado School of Mines; former SPE President Darcy Spady of Carbon Connect International; and Dirk McDermott of Altira Group, an industry-centered venture-capital company. Battalora described the complex ways in which digital technology and the goal of sustainability might interact, highlighting recent SPE and other industry initiatives such as the GAIA Sustainability Program and reviewing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). McKenna, representing the perspective of the Millennial generation, described the importance of “agile development,” in which the industry uses new techniques not only to improve production but also to manage its employees in a way that heightens engagement while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Addressing the fact that greater commitment will be required to remove the “tougher two-thirds” of the world’s hydrocarbons that remain unexploited, Spady explained that digital sophistication will allow heightened productivity for professionals without a sacrifice in quality of life. Finally, McDermott stressed the importance of acknowledging that the industry often has not rewarded shareholders adequately, but pointed to growing digital components of oil and gas portfolios as an encouraging sign. After the initial presentations, Clegg moderated a discussion of questions sourced from the virtual audience. While the questions spanned a range of concerns, three central themes included the pursuit of sustainability, with an emphasis on carbon capture; the shape that future work environments might take; and how digital technologies power industry innovation and thus affect public perception. In addressing the first of these, Battalora identified major projects involving society-wide stakeholder involvement in pursuit of a regenerative “circular economy” model, such as Scotland’s Zero Waste Plan, while McKenna cited the positives of CO2-injection approaches, which he said would involve “partnering with the world” to achieve both economic and sustainability goals. While recognizing the importance of the UN SDGs in providing a global template for sustainability, McDermott said that the industry must address the fact that many investors fear rigid guidelines, which to them can represent limitations for growth or worse.


Author(s):  
Jama Shelton ◽  
Kel Kroehle ◽  
Emilie K. Clark ◽  
Kristie Seelman ◽  
SJ Dodd

The enforcement of the gender binary is a root cause of gender-based violence (GBV) for trans people. Disrupting GBV requires that we ensure that ‘gender’ is not presumed synonymous with White cisgender womanhood. Transfeminists suggest that attaining gender equity requires confronting all forms of oppression that police people and their bodies, including White supremacy, colonialism and capitalism (Silva and Ornat, 2016; Simpkins, 2016). Part of this project, we argue, includes confronting the structures of GBV embedded within digital technologies that are increasingly part of our everyday lives. Informed by transfeminist theory (Koyama, 2003; Stryker and Bettcher, 2016; Simpkins, 2016; Weerawardhana, 2018), we interrogate the ways in which digital technologies naturalise and reinforce GBV against bodies marked as divergent. We examine the subtler ways that digital technology can fortify binary gender as a mechanism of power and control. We highlight how gendered forms of data violence cannot be disentangled from digital technologies that surveil, police or punish on the basis of race, nationhood and citizenship, particularly in relation to predictive policing practices. We conclude with recommendations to guide technological development to reduce the violence enacted upon trans people and those whose gender presentations transgress society’s normative criteria for what constitutes a compliant (read: appropriately gendered) citizen.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Violence against trans people is inherently gender-based.</li><br /><li>A root cause of gender-based violence against trans people is the strict reinforcement of the gender binary.</li><br /><li>Digital technology and predictive policing can fortify binary gender as a mechanism of power and control.</li><br /><li>Designers of digital technologies and the policymakers regulating surveillance capitalism must interrogate the ways in which their work upholds the gender binary and gender-based violence against trans people.</li></ul>


2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-569
Author(s):  
Miriam Bessone ◽  
Ricardo Pérez Miró

Digital technology and knowledge integration between musicians and architects enable us to explore and redefine links between music and architecture. This paper describes the experience and results of the creative processes undertaken by music and architecture students and academics to achieve a hyper-medial composition. The processes embrace the simultaneous construction from music to visual form and vice-versa. This exploration is originated from electro-acoustic music works, written ad-hoc, and based on specific assignments especially designed and framed within two types of situations and links with digital technologies: independent actions and interrelated actions. The intention of this work is to obtain constants and/or variables capable of allowing a certain type of graphic conventionalization that will make possible the mathematic representation previously necessary to create specific software tools.


2021 ◽  
pp. 86-89
Author(s):  
Dmitry Aleksandrovich Solovyev ◽  
Viktor Vladislavovich Korsak ◽  
Galina Nikolaevna Kamyshova ◽  
Olga Nikolaevna Mityureva ◽  
Pavel Olegovich Terekhov

The article presents the results of the development of a digital technology for optimizing the parameters of moisture in the calculated soil layer. The introduction of precision irrigation technologies requires the development of new approaches to the development of decision support systems for their technical implementation in modern high-level programming languages. The developed computer program for determining the optimal moisture parameters of the calculated soil layer for the main irrigated crops of the Saratov region is easy to use and easily integrated into digital automated irrigation control systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-170
Author(s):  
Hario Bismo Kuntarto ◽  
Amit Prakash

The use of digital devices by children is on the rise and a better understanding of their usage behaviour can be helpful in designing better ways of imparting education. As per data from the Indonesia Internet Service Provider Association (APJII), in 2018, almost 50% of elementary school children were using the internet. However, an introduction to digital technologies is not included under the topics covered in state elementary schools in Indonesia. Field work involving teachers and children in state and non-state elementary schools, officials in ministries, ICT vendors, parents were conducted through interviews, observations and workshops related to the use of digital technology to better understand the digital behaviour of children. It was found that elementary school children get exposed to digital technology at a very early age and while the duration of use varies according to parental involvement and awareness, the content consumed by children is, in most cases, not appropriate for their age. This study illustrates that monitoring digital use among children is currently a challenge for parents, and digital literacy, which includes introduction to both positive and negative effects of digital devices as well as appropriate digital use behaviour, should become an important part of the theme of learning in elementary schools in Indonesia to ensure digital technologies help in the shaping of children's attitudes and character, in a manner that is valued and beneficial to the society. Kata Kunci: literasi digital, pemanfaatan digital oleh anak sekolah dasar, pengenalan digital pada anak   Abstract – Use of digital devices by children is on the rise and a better understanding of their usage behaviour can be helpful in designing better ways of imparting education. As per data from the Indonesia Internet Service Provider Association (APJII), in 2018, almost 50% of elementary school children were using the internet. However, an introduction to digital technologies is not included under the topics covered in state elementary schools in Indonesia. Field work involving teachers and children in state and non-state elementary schools, officials in ministries, ICT vendors, parents were conducted over a six-month study period to better understand the digital behaviour of children. It was found that elementary school children get exposed to digital technology at a very early age and while the duration of use varies according to parental involvement and awareness, the content consumed by children is, in most cases, not appropriate for their age. This study illustrates that monitoring digital use among children is currently a challenge for parents, and digital literacy, which includes introduction to both positive and negative effects of digital devices as well as appropriate digital use behaviour, should become an important part of the theme of learning in elementary schools in Indonesia to ensure digital technologies help in the shaping of children's attitudes and character, in a manner that is valued and beneficial to the society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Qiuxia Li

Background. With the continuous advancement of digital technology and the accelerated development of digital finance, the rise of digital finance has had a vital impact on the true evolution of SMEs. The digital economy has a significant positive impact on the productivity of SMEs. Method. This article first analyzes the digital level of SMEs, studies the incentive effect of digital finance on the level of technological revolution of SMEs, and analyzes the mitigation effect of digital finance evolution on the financing constraints of SMEs. At the same time, it also studies how to develop the digital economy and achieve high-quality business evolution. Result. The digital economy can promote the growth of enterprise productivity through four indirect ways: scale economy effect, scope economy effect, technological revolution effect, and management benefit effect. Conclusion. The Financial Technology Optimization program helps financial leaders adopt new digital technologies to optimize financial processes while minimizing disruption.


2018 ◽  
Vol 189 (4) ◽  
pp. 46-59
Author(s):  
Marian Kopczewski ◽  
Agnieszka Napieralska

The 21<sup>st</sup> century is undoubtedly a period of enormous progress in the field of digital technology, a period in which the boundary between the real world and the virtual world becomes less and less visible. The Internet has undeniably become a facilitation of everyday life, since it is a tool of work, communication or a way to spend free time for many users. The virtual world is present in almost all areas of our lives, and people spend more and more time in front of the computer screens, operating websites, e-mails or social networks. Highly developed digital technology is a boon of the 21st century, but despite its numerous advantages, negative aspects are also visible. Virtual knowledge displaces physical interpersonal contacts; physical activity is replaced by spending free time in front of a computer monitor. Various threats (social, psychological, psychological, ethical and moral) resulting from modern digital technologies and the increasing degree of dependence on them are extremely significant. The authors of this article present the results of own research, aiming at making the reader aware that there are both positive and negative aspects of the virtual world.


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