Visionary designers and fiction writers speculate today about a future environment of nanotechnology and 'smart dust', able to create its form in response to external factors, or with an apparent will of its own. Although the manipulation of individual molecules on such a scale is still firmly in the realm of science fiction, this talk presents current research that makes this a reality at the millimetre, rather than the nanometre scale.

Author: Sean Hanna

Publication: Beesley P, Hirosue S, Ruxton J, Turner C and Trankle M (eds) Responsive Architectures: Subtle Technologies 2006, Riverside Architectural Press. ISBN: 0-9780978-0-7

Year: 2006

This paper explores creative design, social interaction and perception. It proposes that creativity at a social level is not a result of many individuals trying to be creative at a personal level, but occurs naturally in the social interaction between comparatively simple minds embodied in a complex world. Particle swarm algorithms can model group interaction in shared spaces, but design space is not necessarily one pre-defined space of set parameters on which everyone can agree, as individual minds are very different. A computational model is proposed that allows a similar swarm to occur between spaces of different description and even dimensionality.

Author: Sean Hanna

Publication: Gero JS and Maher ML (eds) Computational and Cognitive Models of Creative Design VI. | full text (PDF)

Year: 2005