• Urban Drift • m-Learning with apps • Dennis Dollens

iOS & Andriod apps for urban mapping (MapMyRide) and sketching (Adobe SketchBook)

Sketch model (stick & leaves) located at the point in the Royal Botanic Garden where leaves (Populus szechuanica), with strong leatherlike properties, were falling — GPS mapped, documented, and sketched.

Basic sequence of Urban Drift generative sequence

This is a schematic look at steps in the process for Urban Drift Projects. From left: 1. Mobile app tracking, site research, and mapping; 2 & 3. Found natural or synthetic elements for model building/idea generation; 4. On site app drawing and documentation (here using Adobe’s SketchBook X for iOS or Android); 5 & 6. Biomimetic data used for later studio CAD and rendering.

Model location and scale

This was the first sketch model built during walks (drifts/dérives) through Edinburgh. Found objects, mostly leaves, seedpods, and branches are used, documented and drawn in smartphone apps. The models are left to decompose and the smartphone-captured information taken back to the studio for CAD input and (sometimes) STL fabrication. 8 October 2011.

Holly Leaf Shadow Drawing & Tower Model

Algorithmic growths based on holly-barbs and leaf edges

Dérive: “a technique of swift passage through varied environments.” Guy Debord

Using dérive as a generative act for designing on the street or in parks, I’ve been building a series of rapidly assembled, little structural models that have a life in the environment of a few minutes to a few hours. The materials are found sticks, seedpods, and leaves; sometimes pieces of industrial junk or trash. I like this model because the decaying holly leaf has temporarily created a veining superstructure that casts a shadow-drawing of itself morphed by the angle of the sun. The model went through various stacking incarnations looking at how the barbs along the leaf edge interlock when stacked on a central mast. The entire model was about 60cm tall. Built on Sunday, 12 November 2011.