News
UB professor helps Barbie find new career
By Nathan Fulk | Apr. 25, 2010Barbie is having a mid-life crisis. At the ripe old age of 51, Barbie is looking for something more in her life.
Nathan Fulk
News
UB hosts conference on childhood in ancient cultures
By Nathan Fulk | Apr. 25, 2010It turns out that not much has changed since the days when children were to be seen but not heard.
News
Dennis Black recognized with national award
By Nathan Fulk | Mar. 18, 2010Dennis Black, vice president of student affairs for UB, has been recognized by a national organization for his continued dedication to students' academic experience.
NEWS
Molding the future of virtual reality
By Nathan Fulk | Feb. 22, 2010Research conducted at the University at Buffalo has led to groundbreaking new software that literally puts the virtual world at our fingertips.
NEWS
New CFA exhibit to demonstrate transmutable architecture
By Nathan Fulk | Feb. 8, 2010A new exhibit opening this week at the CFA promises to challenge ideas about what a building can do. Reflexive Architecture Machines, to be presented Feb. 9 until Mar. 20 on the second floor of the UB Art Gallery, will display research conducted by the School of Architecture on how common building materials like wood, plastic and rubber can be adapted to respond to their environment. The exhibit centers around the development of 'responsive materials,' which change their shape based on certain environmental characteristics. Though this is expected to a small extent with most industrialized materials – for instance, when wood warps from water damage – Reflexive Architectural Machines takes advantage of familiar materials' natural responses. The gallery will display several prototypes of how this can work. This exhibition will include research by Omar Khan, assistant professor of architecture and co-director of the Center for Architecture and Situated Technologies. His project called 'Open Columns' is a series of non-structural columns made from flexible composite urethane elastomers that rise and fall according to the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air. These columns respond to an electronic CO2 sensor in the vicinity and change the level of enclosure in a room by altering ceiling height based on the number of people in that room. When CO2 levels are too high, the ceiling is lowered to encourage people to disperse. The exhibit will not only show 'Open Columns' in action in the UB Art Gallery, but will also offer two video feeds, one live and the other prerecorded, of the columns in different locations. The live feed will be from the Buffalo Arts Studio (BAS) in the downtown Buffalo Tri-Main Center, so that attendants can see the magnitude with which the columns can alter their shape. Also presented by Khan is what he calls a 'Gravity Screen,' an organized mesh of two different elastomers which stretches based upon the weights attached to the bottom. The screen is designed to remain strong while being stretched into an endless number of configurations. In architecture, such screens could be used to alter the acoustic quality of a concert hall, for example. 'Warped,' an experimental plywood partition by Matthew Hume, adjunct professor of architecture at UB, is another exhibit that will be included at Reflexive Architecture Machines. It is a series of walls, columns and arches made from plywood shingles that are manufactured so that they warp in a particular way when exposed to moisture. Water vapor twists and bends the wood, opening up gaps for ventilation. The plywood shingles must be riveted together in a specific way to maintain integrity during warping. These experimental configurations of relatively common materials threaten the understanding that buildings are nothing more than static containers by demonstrating an ability to sense human presence and respond to it. More information about Reflexive Architecture Machines can be found at the UB Art Gallery website www.ubartgalleries.org. E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
