today's SPOTLIGHT at MIT

 Joseph Choma's Design for an Ideal Polling Booth featured as MIT's "today's STOPLIGHT."

 

First Prototype for Polling Booth

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

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

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

Mutating a Klein Bottle while maintaining its topology.

Overlapping

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

FOLDING

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

Contested Boundaries

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

EXPLODING

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

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

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

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

Thought Experiment

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

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

Having a Conversation with Architecture

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

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

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

Iraq Memorial

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

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

Fan Vault Packing

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

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

Explosive

Recent Plaster Sculpture by Joseph Choma

Second Prize in the 2008 Rensselaer Final Project Competition

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

Joseph Choma, Curator and Designer

The Translator

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