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Description:
Series 1, Workspace, 1995—2013, documents the administrative and design activities for the NSA Muscle project. It includes planning documentation, CAD files, and files generated or coordinated by Virtools, a 3D visualization software used to make the Muscle move, respond to users, and play sound. Major formats include Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, JPEG, TIFF, PDF, Maya, AutoCAD, STL, 3DStudio, WAV, and MP3.

Description:
This series contains records relating to Weaver, a software script developed by the Emergent Design Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and written in Maya Embedded Language (MEL) for Alias|Wavefront Maya. Weaver algorithmically generates woven strands and applies these strands to a surface within a 3D design model. The resulting weaves “can be complex, and depend on both the description of the weaver pattern and the topology of any user-defined surface or scaffolding in Maya on which Weaver is applied.”[1] The records in this series date from approximately 2001-2004 and include the script in Maya Executable Language (MEL) and standalone executable formats, annotated source code, tutorials, and file outputs such as images and Maya 3D models. Sources: [1] Testa, Peter and Devyn Weiser. “Material Agency,” in Network Practices: New Strategies in Architecture and Design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press (2007): 128.

Description:
Sub-series 3, Virtools files, 1995—2013, contains files generated and coordinated by Virtools, a 3D visualization software used to make the Muscle move, respond to users, and play sound. It includes Virtools files, HTML files, audiovisual files (MP3s, WAVs and MPEGs), JPEGs, and applications. There are also a small number of CAD files, including 3DS, Maya, and AutoCad formats. The Virtools proprietary formats include composition files (.cmo), player files (.vmo), object files (.nmo) and scripts files (.nms). Virtools object files and scripts files may be combined and saved as composition files using Virtools Dev, CAD-like software that also coordinates sound and movement. (Virtools Dev is located in file AP167.S1.SS3.002, Virtools software and NSA Muscle composition and player files.) From Virtools Dev, a composition file can be exported to HTML or a player file. The HTML exports no longer work due to a missing JavaScript plugin. Player files and composition files can be played back in the Virtools player; the player also allows the user to interact with player files and behaves much like a video game interface. See file AP167.S1.SS3.008, NSA Muscle interface. Of note, the Virtools player file containing the NSA Muscle interface used at the Architecture non standard exhibition at the Centre George Pompidou is located in this sub-series. See item muscle.bat in file AP167.S1.SS3.008, NSA Muscle interface. There are also a number of other Virtools player files that allow the user to alter and interact with a virtual representation of a structure, which demonstrate ONL’s experimentation with the intersection of architecture and video game design. See file AP 167.S1.SS3.001, Early Virtools experimentation and architecture games.

Synopsis:
The ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd] NSA Muscle project records, 1995-2013, contain approximately 5,000 digital working files for the NSA Muscle, a built prototype commissioned for the Non-Standard Architecture exhibition at the Centre George Pompidou in Paris in 2003. The NSA Muscle is a programmable structure that changes its shape and content in real time. The records are entirely digital, and include administrative files, CAD files, Virtools files, publicity materials and photographs. They document the planning, design development, construction and exhibition of the NSA Muscle and related projects.

Description:
File documents Generator, an unexecuted project for the Gilman Paper Company, at the White Oak Plantation, in Yulee, Florida. After an initial investigation Cedric Price proposed a complex that could accommodate company activities, cultural events, and artist residencies and would provide "a menu of items for individual and group demands of space, control, containment and delight. A place to work, create, think, and stare." ('Architectural Review', Jan. 1980, 16). The design called for timber-framed structures with variable infill panels and cladding, along with screens, to be placed on a grid of concrete pads by cranes with the help of computers in response to users' needs. Conceptual, schematic and design development drawings show grid placement, site layout, landscaping, designs for cubes and components, proposed activities, axonometric views, and design notes with sketches. Development sketches, site plans, and charts include site analysis examining future growth, activity charts, shadow study plans, and axonometric details. Drawings of the structures include: plans, elevations, details, and perspective views for cubes, screens, and cladding; shadow studies for cube variations; and axonometric views of cube arrangements. Other drawings include: site plans and sections; landscaping and parking layouts; plans for circulation patterns; drawings for boardwalks; and electrical and drainage plans. Charts study design validity, activities, networks, project feasibility, component life-cycle, and cube and component placement/construction sequencing. Computer generated printouts by John Frazer, et al show perspective views of cubes from various viewpoints. Two sets of annotated reprographic copies show details for a typical cube and the foundation. Presentation and publication materials include: photographs and reprographic copies of design models; coloured reprographic copies of computer parts and facilities; a coloured air-brushed rendering of cubes and screens by "Jeremie '77"; two perspective renderings; and reprographic copies made from published material. Some material in this file was published in 'Building Design', 23 February 1979; 'Building Design', 9 November 1979; 'Architectural Review' (January 1980), 16-17; 'L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui', December 1980; 'Techniques et Architecture', December 1980; 'Design', January 1981; 'New Scientist', 19 March 1981; 'Schemes: Cedric Price' (ex. cat.; London: Waddington Galleries, 1981); 'Cedric Price-Works II' (London: Architectural Press, 1984), 90, 92-97. Material in this file was produced between 1959 and 1995, but predominantly between 1976 and 1980. Main consultants for Generator in the United Kingdom include Felix J. Samuely & Partners, consulting engineers; Baker, Wilkins and Smith, quantity surveyors; John Frazer, computer modelling and systems; Sandy Brown Associates, acoustic consultants. Main consultants in the United States include Marvin Boutwell; Law Engineering Testing Company as consulting engineers; and WTCA; Robertson Ward Jr., as architects. Computer printouts in group DR1995:0280:538-552 in Generator (AP144.S2.D100) are attributed to John and Julia Frazer, Art and Design Research, Ulster Polytechnic and the Department of Architecture, Liverpool Polytechnic. Some material in group DR1995:0280:567-576 is attributed to Felix J. Samuely & Partners. File contains conceptual drawings, design, development drawings, presentation drawings, photographic materials, boxes, an artefact, models, and textual records.