Panel Statement

Panel: Intelligent Architecture

The paper draws on the author’s experience of a collaboration leading to the development and manifestation of the i-500 Project. The i-500 project is a public art commission for Curtin University’s new Minerals and Chemistry Research and Education Precinct. The paper explores the potential for contemplation and reflection to be used as critical and enabling tools. The implementation of intelligent and responsive architectures will be used to transform the buildings scientific community into contemporary flâneurs.

The large-scale visual projections and the multiple auditory function of the artwork, reveal to the scientists and other occupants, a dialogue between their research community and an artistic translation of the dynamic data from physical and social interactions within the building into a volatile and evolving interactive artwork.

The i-500 system feeds off the activities of the research community, interpreting social flows of the occupants, whilst reading data supplied from the building’s technological infrastructure. The work itself will have its own autonomy and exist independently of the technologies used to make it seen and heard. The project team anticipates the i-500 generating subtle and emotive experiences that can transcend this text through the evolving, dynamic and interactive software and network.

• Paul Thomas, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia

Full text (PDF) p.  498-499