Urban Toys v1.0 v2.0
Interface and Installation Design 2000-2003
servo in collaboration with Krets (v2.0)
Urbantoys v1.0 was a prototype commissioned by the Creative Room for Art and Computing in Stockholm and the on-line arts organization N2Art. It was Exhibited at the Liljevalchs Konsthall in Stockholm and the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York in 2000. The project was further developed, Urbantoys v2.0, as part of the ReShape! Exhibition curated by IASPIS (International Artist Studio Program in Sweden) at the 2003 Venice Art Biennale. Part of a larger speculation on the incorporation of the user into design and production processes through the emergence of new interactive technologies, Urbantoys v2.0 is an open-source interface through which outside authors customize a variety of generic design prototypes according to personal needs, interests, and constraints.
The Urbantoys v2.0 interface provides tools for the design of architectural and urban systems as well as toys and domestic objects through a series of manipulations of a digital model. Implicit in Urbantoys is a fluctuation between an architectural scale and program and the scale and program of a toy or hand held object. Urbantoys are digital components, a series of user-animated prototype geometries that can be assembled computationally as three-dimensional models. These digitally instantiated products and code for their fabrication are embedded in the interface, allowing for both viewing and extraction in the form of 3D print models. Designs are made available to other potential authors through submitting and sampling from a catalogue. Digitally catalogued urbantoys may be retrieved, fabricated and exhibited at a latter event, turning the exhibition venue into a dynamic index of the design process as it is distributed among various agents. The interface also enables the visitor to directly engage with a manufacturer by ordering a rapid prototype of a designed object, establishing a conversational terrain diffusing the conventional roles of manufacturer, architect/designer and client.
Interface / Installation Design (Urbantoys v1.0) - servo >> Design Partners - David Erdman, Marcelyn Gow, Ulrika Karlsson, Chris Perry >> Design Team - Jonas Runberger, Daniel Norell, Nina Lorber, Ulrika Wachtmeister, Alice Dietsch, Johan Bohlin, Oskar Jonsson, John Stäck >> Special Thanks CRAC-creative room for art and computing, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Prototal AB, Cycore >> Interface / Installation Design (Urbantoys v2.0) - servo >> Design Partners - David Erdman, Marcelyn Gow, Ulrika Karlsson, Chris Perry >> Programming / Interface Design – Krets - Jonas Runberger, Daniel Norell >> Special Thanks IASPIS (International Artists’ Studio Program in Sweden), AKAD (the Academy for Practice Based Research in Architecture and Design), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Prototal AB, SSARK, Johan Bohlin, Oskar Scheiwiller
