Comments on: Generating Flat-Pack Furniture http://www.creativesynthesis.net/blog/2008/07/11/generating-flat-pack-furniture/ The thoughts and works of the Creative Synthesis Collaborative. Wed, 7 Jan 2009 11:43:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: furniture http://www.creativesynthesis.net/blog/2008/07/11/generating-flat-pack-furniture/#comment-6430 furniture Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:32:14 +0000 http://hyperexperience.com/?p=1151#comment-6430 Very nice blog on furniture.... Very nice blog on furniture….

]]> By: Matthew Hockenberry http://www.creativesynthesis.net/blog/2008/07/11/generating-flat-pack-furniture/#comment-6359 Matthew Hockenberry Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:17:07 +0000 http://hyperexperience.com/?p=1151#comment-6359 While this isn't to my personal aesthetic tastes, that's not really the purpose of the table. The goal is to start with a design requirement (one sheet, make a table). I would argue that (while it is surely presented in part as art), the innovation has nothing to do with art. It is more about problem solving, and how genetic algorithms can be used to solve problems within certain constraints. Obviously a skilled human designer can make a more conventional looking table, but a computer sees things differently. If it's only requirement is that the table supports a flat surface evenly, the kinds of tables it will produce will be fairly varied in their support structure. What this is really about is a shift from 'product' design to process design. Instead of design 'a table', the designers want to use the GA to design a process for making tables. The implication here is that you could have computer crafters that (much like a human craftperson) you can hand a material to them and say, make me a table out of this. See newly embedded video as well. While this isn’t to my personal aesthetic tastes, that’s not really the purpose of the table. The goal is to start with a design requirement (one sheet, make a table). I would argue that (while it is surely presented in part as art), the innovation has nothing to do with art. It is more about problem solving, and how genetic algorithms can be used to solve problems within certain constraints. Obviously a skilled human designer can make a more conventional looking table, but a computer sees things differently. If it’s only requirement is that the table supports a flat surface evenly, the kinds of tables it will produce will be fairly varied in their support structure.

What this is really about is a shift from ‘product’ design to process design. Instead of design ‘a table’, the designers want to use the GA to design a process for making tables. The implication here is that you could have computer crafters that (much like a human craftperson) you can hand a material to them and say, make me a table out of this.

See newly embedded video as well.

]]> By: auntiegrav http://www.creativesynthesis.net/blog/2008/07/11/generating-flat-pack-furniture/#comment-6355 auntiegrav Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:07:42 +0000 http://hyperexperience.com/?p=1151#comment-6355 That's ugly. Why all the cutting and teeth on every part? If you want to make a table out of a single sheet of steel, then just cut half the sheet into strips and use the other half for the top. Weld the strips as legs and braces. What do you need the computer and complexity for? Art? With a little creative hinge placement, it WILL fold flat. Art is in the eye of the smallholder. - Paraphrased Wendell Berry That’s ugly. Why all the cutting and teeth on every part? If you want to make a table out of a single sheet of steel, then just cut half the sheet into strips and use the other half for the top. Weld the strips as legs and braces. What do you need the computer and complexity for? Art? With a little creative hinge placement, it WILL fold flat.
Art is in the eye of the smallholder. - Paraphrased Wendell Berry

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