I’ve just uploaded a new tutorial based around the grasshopper plug-in for rhino, Louver Tutorial.  For those who don’t know about grasshopper, visit this link (Grasshopper).  In short, grasshopper is a plug-in for rhino that is used to generate parametric objects.  Its more or less a playground for creating relationships between geometries.  In the tutorial, I explain by example how to decompose a surface in order to map points along it.  These points become the start of a louver system, in which all kinds of relationships could be created to organize their generation.

Note:Version of Grasshopper Needed-(Grasshopper 0.6.0019)

These are the iterations of the previously discussed grasshopper definition.  The system on the left has its ratios(see first article) set to change at each iteration starting at .3 moving towards .8 and then returning to .3 at even intervals.  The system on the right is used as a control it is permanently set to .5.

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Flocking is the subtle organization of part to part relationships. One of the most common examples of this is obviously flocks of birds, such as the starlings at Otmoor(see video after the break). Flocking in that case consists of a couple elements. The first being clustering of parts, so these parts are forming a spatial relationship of proximity. The next being a correspondence to average heading, each of those starlings not only react to the spatial field of the others, but also to the direction in which they are headed. The final element is a collection of average mass, this is almost a example of part to whole, except for the fact that it is less a reaction and more of a product generated by the first two rules. The starlings as a field of objects generate an emergent condition, the first two elements are a reaction, while the center of mass is something else entirely it is an emergent product generated through the complexity of the system.

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