Blurred Bodies

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Blurred Bodies is a prototype developed for the international Field Constructs Design Competition, which invited emerging designers, architects, landscape architects, and artists to create a temporary outdoor installation for exhibition at the Circle Acres Nature Preserve in Austin, Texas. Blurred Bodies hovers between the natural and the artificial. It shifts between camouflaging with its environment and reveling in its alienation. It is an experiment that is intended to be inhabited, or at least navigated. It sits between an installation and a pavilion, with ambitions of being proto-architectural. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The project was designed using behavioral-based algorithms in which a turbulent surface emerges from a swarm of agentBODIES. This process imbues the project with a natural or swarmlike character. While sculptural in nature, it is fundamentally an architectural prototype. It is part of an ongoing exploration into the synthesis of surface, structure, and ornament through complex systems. The work is part of Snooks' ongoing interest in developing a behavioural approach to architectural design that draws from the logic of swarm intelligence and draws on a new architectural paradigm developed out of complexity theory, computation and a focus on emergent phenomena. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: Out of the 82 total entries, 18 finalists were selected, with 4 winners subsequently awarded $5,000 to be used toward the realization of the project. The jury comprised of leading figures in architecture, design and art. The completed installations opened to the public at Circle Acres for a public event, which promoted design and community programming at the site. A concurrent exhibition showcasing the 18 finalist entries was held at the University of Texas at Austin (13-23 November 2015). The event and project were reviewed by Bustler, The Architect's Newspaper, Architectural Digest and Tribeza (Texas).

研究背景："模糊躯体（Blurred Bodies）"是为国际场域建构设计竞赛（Field Constructs Design Competition）开发的原型作品。该竞赛邀请新锐设计师、建筑师、景观建筑师与艺术家，为美国德克萨斯州奥斯汀的圆环牧场自然保护区（Circle Acres Nature Preserve）创作可临时展出的户外装置。"模糊躯体"介于自然与人工之间，既可以与周遭环境融为一体，又能凸显自身的疏离特质。它是一项可供人居、至少可供穿行体验的实验性作品，同时介于装置与展馆之间，兼具原型建筑的创作愿景。

研究贡献：本项目采用基于行为的算法进行设计，通过智能体群（agentBODIES）的协同运动生成动态起伏的表面形态，这一过程赋予作品自然的群集特质。尽管其外观兼具雕塑属性，但本质上仍是一座建筑原型。本项目属于对复杂系统下表面、结构与装饰融合的持续探索范畴。该作品亦是斯努克斯（Snooks）长期研究方向的一部分——其致力于借鉴群集智能逻辑，依托复杂理论、计算科学与涌现现象研究构建的新型建筑范式，开发建筑设计的行为化研究路径。

研究意义：本次竞赛共收到82份参赛作品，最终选出18份入围作品，随后从中评选出4名优胜者，各获得5000美元奖金用于作品落地。评审团由建筑、设计与艺术领域的领军人物组成。完成后的装置作品于圆环牧场自然保护区对公众开放，同期举办的公共活动推动了场地内的设计与社区项目开展。2015年11月13日至23日，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校同步举办展览，展出全部18份入围参赛作品。本次活动与项目均受到《Bustler》《The Architect's Newspaper》《Architectural Digest》以及《Tribeza（德克萨斯版）》等媒体的报道。