HOW THE INSTALLATION WORKS

posted Nov 6, 2010, 7:30 PM by Diego S. Maranan   [ updated Mar 1, 2011, 4:43 PM ]
By the time the team was ready to exhibit the Biomodd [LBA2] installation, the components of the installation related to each other in various ways to form a complex network of relationships. It's a challenge to explain all these relationships, but here are two ways we did so.

Version 1 (Linear narrative)

This was the version that accompanied the installation when it was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design. The photos used in the diagram are of the version of the installation exhibited at UP Los Banos. Click the image to download a larger version of the (2.7 Mb):

Version 2 (Diagrammatic)

Here's a version that we drafted internally for the team (ca. July 8, 2009). It mentions a few things that never made it to the final version of the installation, notably the robotic arm. Click on the image below to enlarge it. 

Notes
  • All the local servers and local computers need not be unique. They could all be the same machine.
  • This image lists only data flows. Flows of water and energy are a different chart altogether.  :)
  • The reasons why we don't install our own webserver: 
    • We may not be able to handle the requests of hundreds of users around the world asking for our live video feed, our interactive data visualization tools, and the interactive interface for our robot zen garden arm. 
    • Hosting some of our things on the UPOU website draws traffic to UPOU. Nice instant PR. :)
    • We also can't host many of our interactive thingies (which are likely going to be Java applets) on our Google-based website
  • Details of how digitally data is generally used in Biomodd are in the Data Flows and Data Visualization Subteam Wiki