Future conflicts

FLC is a loose, collective practice based in Belgium that attempts to not only rethink the way a design/ architectural practice might act, but also its very ambit of intervention. They consider the arena of future conflicts (in an extended sense) as the realm of (spatial) negotiation. Great stuff, particulary the "bittersweet projectile" which Marc Godts presented at the s.o.f conference. They have their blog.

Bonus points if you can guess what FLC stands for.

Flowing from the north

Just got back from the "space of flows" conference at the Culture Lab/ Newcastle University.
It was a great event.
I was able to meet an impressive number of both clever, talented and kind people (a rare combination), and to learn a lot from them.
The Culture Lab in itself is already quite a one-of-a-kind institution, to keep an eye on in the future.
In the next posts, I'll try to describe and link to some of the work that I was able to see there.

electroactive polymers

This is fascinating: making an airship's surface contract and expand so as to enable it to "swim" through the atmosphere. These artificial muscles are made of polymers which deform when subjected to an electrical field.

Wikipedia entry for electroactive polymers

Dynamic terrain

A kind of low-brow, but interesting, version of the Hyposurface, this time to roll over:
DYTE, by Janis Pönisch

911 attack simulation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cddIgb1nGJ8