Digital Analog Production, the class that built the hanging pods late last spring near the Duck Pond, is back with a project that lights up Central Avenue at night.
The installation, called “Oculus: 35,” is located in the south courtyard of the architecture building facing Central Avenue. The structure is occasionally illuminated from inside at night, making it visible from the Frontier Restaurant and for several blocks on Central Avenue.
Matthew Gines, who taught the class, said the lights in the structure inspire people to come to the courtyard for a closer look.
“It draws people over from Central, both during the week and on the weekend,” he said.
Gines said the structure was built as an escape pod for architecture students.
“The proposal was they had to design an escape pod. Our students are here, you know, 24 hours a day,” he said. “They really need a way to get away.”
The structure has a distinct feeling from inside to outside. The outer part of the structure consists of thin vertical boards, giving the appearance of an old-time shipping container. The inside is made of horizontal boards cut in vaguely circular shapes, tapering off to an opening (the oculus) at the top and has the look of something more in the sci-fi vein.
Windy Gay, one of the students that worked on the project, said the idea of contrast informed the design behind the installation.
“One of the major, driving concepts for us had to do with contrast and giving people an opportunity to occupy a space that was very different from the space that we normally occupy in the architecture building, which tends to be very concrete and in some ways cut and cold,” she said. “So we wanted to provide a space that was more curvilinear — that was softer, that was warmer. But, at the same time, we wanted to build an object that fit into its surroundings.”
The students felt it was important to have some idea of this contrast visible from the outside, Gines said.
“One of the big things is that as you approach it from any direction, you can see that there’s something inside and outside,” he said. “That was a big part of the project for the students. They wanted you to be able to see inside of it. And then if someone was inside of it, you’d be able to see their silhouette.”
Nikki Brown, another student involved in the production of “Oculus: 35,” said the installation is meant for student relaxation.
“You could come out here and think and relax, to get away from studio,” she said. “So that chair, you can lean back and chill, and the whole idea was to bring the sky in. And with the desk condition — yeah it’s a desk — but it’s almost big enough that you could lie on it.”
Gines said the students were given a month and a great degree of freedom in their assignment.
“It had to have a door condition, a window condition, a seating condition and a work-desk condition,” he said. “This was a month project, from design to build. So they really build the whole thing in a week and a half, two weeks.”
The Digital Analog Production class was offered once before at UNM, when the students built the pods. The class was originally offered as a spring-semester course, but is now offered only during the summers.
Gines said he doesn’t know what the next project the class will undertake.
“What we did the first time was we got our name out on campus … with this one we wanted to get our name in the community,” he said. “So the next one will be something different, something new.”
The class is distinct from other architecture classes because the students design their projects using three-dimensional modeling programs to design the structures and then makes use of the Fabrications Lab to build the models they have designed, Gines said.
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“The big overlying theme is that you have to go at some point from the digital world to the physical world. Students really have to realize how you make those negotiations,” he said. “There are always things we model in three-dimensional programs that you think are going to be perfect until you go to do it.”
Gines said he hopes the students can make use of the creativity they develop in Digital Analog Production in their future careers.
“In their careers as architects, they can design all these really crazy things. And that’s great,” he said. “We want them to do that. But at some point it has to be built. Crazy and buildable is kind of the goal.”
