Modding Conceptual, Architectural Hard Drive Models

[dullonien]

With massive help from the members of this forum, I've been busy over recent weeks building a number of conceptual, architectural models for my Masters of Architecture degree. These models incorporate the internal workings of tens of old, or broken hard drives kindly donated in this wanted thread in the marketplace. Some members have requested updates on the progress, and until now I've been posting these updates in the thread linked above, but feel this really wasn't the correct place, hence the creation of this thread. Over time, I'll be updating this thread with new pictures as I complete and/or photograph these models.

KidMod-Southpaw enquired about the possibility of buying prints of any decent photo's, and as I said in that thread, anyone is free to use any photo's I upload here any way they want, if any are actually deemed good enough that is. I'm happy to send RAW files, or large 10MP JPEG's to anyone who wants them, just ask.

I'll start off with a couple of quickly taken shots. Better will follow I hope, especially the moving pic which didn't turn out as I wanted this time. Feel free to comment and suggest improvements to the photo's. Bear in mind these first two shots were taken at my computer desk, with a piece of grey card as a backdrop, and a cheap led torch for lighting, all set-up and shot in the space of 5min. I'll set up something a little better and take some more time to play with settings in the coming days. My project will be marked on the strength of the final portfolio, so good photographs are essential to the ultimate success of the project.

[asura]

Theo Jansen inspired by any chance?

It's looking really good, yes the "action shot" needs some work, but you're going in the right direction; I'll leave it to the more pro photographers to advise.

Interested to know/see their hidden motive force.

All in all awesome. May I ask how it ties into your MArch project, and would you be able to give us a peek at what you're doing generally?

[dullonien]

Originally Posted by asura

Theo Jansen inspired by any chance?

It's looking really good, yes the "action shot" needs some work, but you're going in the right direction; I'll leave it to the more pro photographers to advise.

Interested to know/see their hidden motive force.

All in all awesome. May I ask how it ties into your MArch project, and would you be able to give us a peek at what you're doing generally?

Another guy in my studio asked if it was inspired by Theo Jansen, and the answer is no. I hadn't come across Theo Jansen until then. I came up with the idea of having a series of the drive heads moving, and then gained inspiration from one of the projects I saw in the Bartlet Designs: Speculating with Architecture book, a project called Flotsam and Jetsam by Michael Garnett.

They are basically a development of my ideas, which helps me develop my design philosophy, which in turn influences my building design. At this level of study, every design decision needs to have a reason, and that reason needs to come from the exploration of the site/area/city. Whilst it may not be completely obvious how this model fits into my exploration into the city of Hull, it's developed over time from looking at the industrial parts of hull -> abandoned sites/buildings -> english heritage -> abandoned British Extracting Co. silo in Hull -> use technology to retain the history, storing digital copies of at risk buildings and sites -> large server farm required (installed within the existing British Exteacting silo) -> hard drives -> I propose transforming physical buildings and sites into digital media, so explore using the same components (hard drives) to transform digital signals into physical media (this model that scratches lines into plaster).

I'll expand on my project soon. I've got to transfer all my work into porfolio format over the next few weeks, so I'll upload them and link them here once I've got some done. I'm still designing the final building using these models as inspiration. I've got to get this done asap, along with a technology report by next Wed, and an entire dissertation by early next month,

[dunx]

Inspired in Hull, that's something I never managed... till I left after 40+ years !

LOL

dunx