architectuREdefined

SP_ARC Exhibit

2012-01-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma's installation, "Boundaries" at SP_ARC's Gallery in Georgia is a 26' x 13' drawing of his trigonometric transformation: thickening. It was constructed out of 450 tiles.

ARCHITECTS AS ARTISTS

2012-01-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma is included in the exhibition "Architects as Artists" at the Swan Coach House Gallery in Atlanta.

Lecture + Exhibition

2012-01-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma will be exhibiting and lecturing at SP-ARC's Spring 2012 Lecture Series on January 23rd.

New York and San Jose

2011-11-15T18:34:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma has recently exhibited a memorial design at EFA in New York and at Works in San Jose.

TESTING TO FAILURE

2011-10-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma's work on digital fabrication included in the book, "Testing to Failure" by SA+P Press.

NEW WEBSITE

2011-08-18T01:34:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma has a new website for Design Topology Lab.
http://www.designtopology.com/

SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY

2011-08-01T17:11:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma is currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Southern Polytechnic State University, where he will direct the new Digital Fabrication Lab.

EMBEDDING SPACES

2011-07-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma algebraically embeds one space on top of another, while defining both within one equation.

CALCULATING WITH SHAPES

2011-05-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma uses sphere and cylinder parameters as inputs to generate and distort a mound.

TRIGONOMETRIC TRANSFORMATIONS

2011-04-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma has identified the most fundamental trigonometric transformations. By combining these basic transformations it is possible to make any shape.

MIT DCG 2011 Exhibition

2011-04-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

A sampling of Joseph Choma's research on trigonometric transformations is currently on display at MIT's Design and Computation Group's Exhibit: Things to think with. The models were funded by the Council for the Arts at MIT.

EDGE UNFOLDING

2011-01-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma draws correlations between polyhedron transformations to their flattened edge unfolding.

TRANSFORMATIONS

2010-12-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma uses trigonometric functions to peel and twist apart a sphere. The sphere is later pinched into a cube.

CHANGE ORDER

2010-11-17T10:19:00.000-08:00

The work of Joseph Choma and his pedagogical vision is currently on display at the Boston Architectural College's McCormick Gallery on Newbury Street in Boston, MA. The exhibit is titled CHANGE ORDER: The Futures of Design Learning and is part of Build Boston 2010.

SIGRADI 2010

2010-11-16T07:05:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma's paper "CONTESTED BOUNDARIES: Digital Fabrication and Hand Craft" was published in the SIGRADI 2010 Conference Proceedings.

Systems and Controls

2010-11-15T06:30:00.001-08:00

Joseph Choma uses differential equations to model damped dynamic systems.

BOUNDARY TRANSFORMATION

2010-11-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma utilizes mathematics as an instrument to transform the boundary of a complex geometry into a cube. A cube can have a smaller cube removed from its interior by having additional functions embedded inside each other.

ACADIA 2010

2010-10-25T13:26:00.001-07:00

Joseph Choma is currently on exhibit at the Pratt Institute for the ACADIA 2010 conference, LIFE in:formation. As a part of the conference Joseph also spoke on a panel discussion on October 23rd at The Cooper Union. His work is published within the conference catalog.

THE 4TH ARCHITECTURAL BIENNIAL BEIJING 2010

2010-10-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma is one of four representatives for MIT exhibited at the 4th Architectural Biennial Beijing 2010, Machinic Processes. The work will be on display from October 15 through 20th.

INPUT_OUTPUT SYMPOSIUM AND EXHIBITION

2010-10-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma presented and exhibited at the INPUT_OUTPUT: Adaptive Materials and Mediated Environments Symposium and Exhibition at Temple University. The work will be on exhibit from October 6 through 16th.

trans-FORM

2010-09-15T20:57:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma currently teaches an advanced workshop titled trans-FORM: Embodying Instrumentality / Embracing Uncertainty as an Adjunct Professor at the BAC.

This workshop is intended to demonstrate how algorithms can be manipulated in order to control formal distortions.

Topological Invariants

2010-05-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma transforms the topology of a sphere.

Homology

2010-05-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma algebraically transforms one function into another, while mapping one manifold inside another.

Joseph Choma's Exhibit at the MIT Museum

2010-04-25T21:45:00.001-07:00

Joseph Choma's Design for an Ideal Polling Booth is currently exhibited at the MIT Museum as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. The project was funded in part by the Council for the Arts at MIT.

CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL INTERVIEW

2010-04-22T04:31:00.000-07:00

Cambridge Science Festival Blog

Interview with an Artist

Joseph Choma is a student in Design and Computation at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. He will present a special exhibit, “Design for the Ideal Polling Booth,” at the second floor of the MIT Museum from Saturday, 4/24 to Sunday, 5/2. He will personally be available for discussion by his exhibit on the second floor of the MIT Museum on Sunday, April 25th, from 1PM to 3PM. I recently got the chance to have an e-mail interview with Joseph, and here’s some of what we talked about.

Christine: Tell me about your project.
Joseph: The project is called, Design for an Ideal Polling Booth.Its intent is to provoke thought and awareness on how easy it is for us to take seemingly little things like a "polling booth" for granted. The act of voting was once a fiercely aggressive act, which did not always take place within a polling booth but sometimes at a public polling place. During the 1800s, it was normal for violent disputes to ignite at these public events.Optimistically there is a hope that by expressing the polling booth's significance, people may walk away from the exhibit with a more serious stance on voting, and learn to appreciate their rights.
Christine: What are the best features of your polling booth?
Joseph: The best features resonates on the surface experience.A surface can have a texture, but at some point if that texture extends far enough out into space, it's depth is no longer perceived as a two dimensional, but rather it becomes a spatial threshold boundary. This polling booth defines a threshold boundary with quills or spikes that radiate around a common center point. This pushes a viewer to step away from the booth while increasing the personal space and comfort for the individual voting inside. Architecturally, it sets a bound between the viewer and the user.
Christine: What was the most frustrating part of working on this project?
Joseph: It was particularly difficult to translate my digital design into a physical structure. Parametric design software doesn't care how many unique modules your design has or what physical material the design is composed of. In the end I realized perhaps it is better not to just try to recreate what I have designed in the computer as accurately as possible but rather to re-look at the project through the lens of the physical material. MIT Professor George Stiny describes a design process where you can embed anything that you see without being constrained by memory or a fixed universe. I tried to limit my digital bias and memory, so instead, I asked the material: what can it do? what does it want to be? and how does it want to be formed? This led me to an unusual hybrid fabrication process which combined digital fabrication connection accuracies with handcraft material manipulations.
Christine: Where did you get your project idea from?
Joseph: When I began working on this project the polling booth concept wasn't even in my mind. I began by “playing” with a buckyball. I drew diagonal lines off the circle's center points, and then I suddenly tried extruding those curves to a point. I realized that I had created a form of volume packing structure, and this gave me the idea to try to embed other forms into the system. I went on to pack vaults into the structure, having them radiate around a common center point. By embedding vaults into the structure it redefined the exterior boundary with what appeared to be spikes or quills. When I began to translate the digital design into the physical world, the definition of vaults became dropped and instead it became about making literal spikes. At some point, when I was trying to understand what this strange space could be, I decided to reposition it as an art piece, calling it a "Polling Booth" brought new intellectual content to the piece – like when the artist Marcel Duchamp labeled a urinal as a fountain.
Christine: What lies ahead for this project?
Joseph: This piece began to spark a notion that the inner boundary and the outer boundary of a surface could each define their own formal figure due to the project's unique "spikes." By defining that formal figure not even within the depth of its own surface thickness but rather within the illusion of thickness by having geometric texture become spikes is still an interesting concept to me. The fabrication process of using digital technologies to help control hand crafted connection accuracies still excites me as well. I began the fabrication techniques at the object scale and now at the installation scale, and next I would like to prototype at the architectonic scale (e.g. create a larger-scale model). I am also interested in composite materials as well as partially fixed and flexible molds.
Christine: What is your favorite project that you've ever worked? Why was that your favorite project?
Joseph: My favorite project is always the project I am currently working on, because if it wasn't why would I be working on it? The next project I work on should be “better” than the last, or at least that's my hope.
Christine: What advice would you give for someone wanting to go into design?
Joseph: In order to design you need constraints. Tools influence the way in which we design. This influence should not be obsessed about but you should also be conscious of the limitations of the medium. An individual should use the constraints of a tool as a mechanism to generate new unpredictable ideas. Don't try to preconceive a vision in its entirety, have faith in the medium you are exploring, and stay open minded. Be patient, keeping making and looking.

First Prototype for Polling Booth

2010-03-11T17:58:00.001-08:00

The first prototype for the Ideal Polling Booth has just been completed. This is a simplified geometry which can be constructed with one repeating module. The next iteration will jump into a more complex composition at full scale.

Hybrid Process

2010-03-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma combines digital fabrication techniques with hand crafted material manipulations to transform flat acrylic sheets into three dimensional spikes.

Design for an Ideal Polling Booth

2010-01-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma's Ideal Polling Booth is evolving and is scheduled to be constructed and exhibited at full scale in the MIT Museum from April 24, 2010 to May 2, 2010. This exhibit is part of the Cambridge Science Festival and is funded (in part) by the Council for the Arts at MIT.

MUTATIONS

2010-01-01T11:23:00.000-08:00

Mutating a Klein Bottle while maintaining its topology.

Overlapping

2009-12-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma developed the geometry of the overlap zone of the reach of two arms for Ted Krueger's sensory research.

FOLDING

2009-11-04T23:15:00.000-08:00

A four legged deformed geodesic sphere constructed out of one folded sheet.

Contested Boundaries

2009-11-03T00:10:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma challenges the dialogue between the inner and outer boundaries.

EXPLODING

2009-10-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

The boundary of a cube is redefined with a volume packed geodesic order, which is embedded with fan vault modules.

Housing Concept Published by eVolo

2009-08-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma's design machine housing concept based on variations and mutations of the Klein Bottle topology was honored a Special Mention in the eVolo 07 Housing Competition. The competition entry was published in eVolo's first bi-annual magazine issue in 2009.

VISIONS: 9th International Beyond Media Festival in Florence, Italy

2009-08-15T21:59:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma | architectuREdefined was one of 21 emerging architectural practices included in the film Wide Eyed produced by Evidently in the VISIONS: 9th International Beyond Media Festival in Florence, Italy from July 9th-17th. Other 20 practices included in the film: Alex Haw | Atmos, Alisa Andrasek | Biothing, Carlos M Mediero & Gabriela Sanz | CG ARCHITECTS, Claudia Pasquero & Marco Poletto | ecoLogic Studio, Ed Keller | AUM Studio, Elif Erdine, Emmanuel Ruffo | R(e)thinking Architecture, Eva Christina Sommeregger, Florencia Pita | MOD, Jeroen van Ameijde | AA Digital LAB, Kawamura Ganjavian, Kristof Crolla, Lab[au], Lawrence Friesen, Open Systems, Oyler Wu Collaborative, Philip Beesley, Robert Mezquiti | Studio Autoforma ATX, Supermanoeuvre, Yiorgos Artopoulos.

The exhibit was published in the August 2009 Design Exchange Magazine. This September, Architectural Record will be publishing an article on the Wide Eyed exhibit.

Variations

2009-06-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma's animation composed of mathematical variations of a Klein Bottle topology.

Thought Experiment

2009-06-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

An inviting bench… when a person sits, the bench catches them, then as the mass of the person combined with gravity pushes down on the bench, the bench reacts as though it has been attacked. Its dynamic tessellation thrust up and wraps around them. They are no longer on the bench but rather within the bench. As they stand up, their mass is released, releasing the added tension on the bench, the bench releases them as it opens up and un-confines them.

Peri-personal Space

2009-05-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma developed the geometry of peripersonal space for Ted Krueger's sensory research.

Having a Conversation with Architecture

2009-04-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma's Thesis at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Reactive intelligent architecture which adapts and transforms in real time, has the ability to become an extension of one's body and can be shared with the embodiments of others. Architecture of this nature is not purely servile but also initiates the cybernetic conversation between man and machine and the rest of the world. Machine initiated conversations through responsive systems stimulate a less predictable, and more unconscious, and instinctive interaction. Epistemic analysis of these behaviors reveals new defining thresholds about individual embodiments of personal space.

The Porous City

2009-04-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma recently has been selected as a short-listed entry in the Porous City Competition in Bangalore, India. The competition asked participants to design a human powered mobile transformable cultural space.The project was included in the Spirited Caravans exhibition in Bangalore, India from July 12th-20th.

DATA

2009-03-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma and Ted Krueger collected data to help define the geometry of peri-personal space.

Iraq Memorial

2009-03-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma was a Top Juror's Selection for the Iraq Memorial.

Ann Wolfe, (Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Nevada Museum of Art) commented, "Metaphorical references to inflection, wind, and erosion are important to this artist’s interventionist mark making. Inflexion would be an elegant scar on the surface of the earth that recalls the land-based practices of Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Morris, and Robert Smithson. Inflexion refers to the power of man to effect change, while suggesting that such alteration is also subject to natural forces beyond human control."

eVolo 09 Skyscraper Competition

2009-01-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

Skyscraper designed by Joseph Choma (New York, USA), engineered by Andrea Mencharelli (Milan, Italy)

Fan Vault Packing

2008-11-10T09:57:00.001-08:00

Joseph Choma's design for the Ideal Polling Booth.

Eric Howeler commented, “Conceptually it acknowledges that the act of voting is a fiercely individual act, and the defensive structure serves to define a personal space/zone around the voter. I find the structure interesting from a formal and tectonic point view. Its center of gravity is high, and it necessarily ‘stands’ off the ground, on the thin support of tapered quills. I like the ‘bed of nails’ structural principle- whereby it stands because of the multiple improbable supports rather than a few obvious structural ones.”

2008 Collab Student Design Competition

2008-11-03T21:49:00.000-08:00

Joseph Choma took Third Place in the 2008 Collab Student Design Competition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Explosive

2008-10-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

Recent Plaster Sculpture by Joseph Choma

Second Prize in the 2008 Rensselaer Final Project Competition

2008-10-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

The intent of the project was to design a pediatric clinic for East Africa. This entry combined computation based algorithmic processes with local indigenous construction methods.

Design Team: Joseph Choma, Satoshi Kiyono, Eric Tan, Amy Latten, Josh Everard, Matt Gineo

EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER'S ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN EXHIBITION

2008-10-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma, Curator and Designer

The Translator

2008-05-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Sensing the Senses: Translating the experience of sound for those who can't hear. Recent Experiment Installation by Joseph Choma.

Design Development

2008-05-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma's Design Development Concept of Leeser Architecture's Mammoth Museum Competition Entry.

Wired Chair PROTOTYPE

2008-04-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

Inflection Surface

2008-03-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

The Totally Wired Chair Competition

2008-03-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

Joseph Choma recently won The Totally Wired Chair Competition. The constraint of the project was to design a chair using ethernet cables. The basic idea behind this proposal was inspired by basket weaving. As the winning entry, Joseph has been commissioned to build a full scale prototype for CXtech.

Skin Transitions

2008-03-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

Vision of the Future

2008-02-26T08:15:00.000-08:00

Volume Packing Structure

2008-02-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

Deformed buckyball structured by volume packing cones.

Plan Magazine September 2007 -recent publication of Joseph Choma

2007-12-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

Seductive

2007-12-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

architectuREdefined -recent sampling

2007-12-03T16:35:00.000-08:00

The following research projects have been completed by Joseph Choma, architectuREdefined, in an effort to push the boundaries of the emerging architectural practice. These projects stem away from the architect designing by hand and instead goes by the philosophy of the design machine. The design machine has various embedded scripted organism-like systems that create a constraint and a new freedom. The design machine is a relationship based computer science method, in that before one can even create a line one must make relationships between points in space. These flexible systems are able to adapt to various performative issues. These issues include; hollistic sustainability by means of biomimicry, redefining the prefab house for a mass customizable world and new emergent structural tectonic strategies. The research below is a mesh of work in progress that has been worked on over the last 18 months.

CATASTROPHE

2007-06-27T14:58:00.000-07:00