Archives: Projects

Drawings created with the same data used to to make the Feathered Edge installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The drawings were exhibited in the same space as the installation.Drawings created with the same data used to to make the Feathered Edge installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The drawings were exhibited in the same space as the installation.

How do the tools we use affect our choices as designers and artists? Rather than just design with an off the shelf CNC device in mind, what does it mean to design your own CNC device . . . . your own robot? Where does the line between hand craft and machine craft get drawn? How do we escape the limits imposed by commercially available software and fabrication methods? How can tooling be an avenue to design? These are some of the questions we contemplated as we designed, manufactured, and tested the Insta-llator 1 with the Variable Information Atomizing Module over the course of eight months. We designed and fabricated this computer controlled machine. It became the technological backbone of our Feathered Edge installation commissioned by curators Brooke Hodge and Alma Ruiz at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the installation was one in a series of MOCA installations addressing the convergence of digital technology and craft. The Instal_lator enabled us to digitally automate the production of the installation while making it more intricate in form and color than would have been possible using human hands as the primary mode of production. The machine eliminated the mind boggling process of cutting by hand 3604 individual lengths of string, no two alike, that formed the spatial matrix of catenaries of Feathered Edge, while allowing us to precisely airbrush each string in discreet locations based on data input from a computer. The airbrush processes yield unique three dimensional “prints” of objects within the array of strings. The results of this proprietary process suggested holographic images floating in space.

As a software and hardware system, the Instal_latoreffortlessly performs and seamlessly unifies four distinct operations – measuring, cutting, and painting string, into one continuous sequence of procedures that would be extremely time consuming and tedious (impossible) for a human to accomplish.

The Insta-llator 1 greatly expands the potential of our projects that use cordage materials. We will continue to explore this potential in an ongoing series of projects loosely entitled “Suspensions”.

Principals in Charge: Gaston Nogues , Benjamin Ball
Project Team: Andrew Lyon, Nicole Kell, Eddy Sykes, Norma Silva, Jonathan Kitchens
Custom Software and Electronics Development: Sparce Studio

“According to the principle of Mr. Spock art, the artist presents the audience with an amazing riddle and then with a calculated solution, notable for its lack of ambiguity, which will make everyone say, ‘F-A-A-A-Scinating!'” — Diedrich Diederichsen

Diedrichsen’s quote comes from an article he wrote for Art Forum. After we read the article we were inspired to name our project Spock’s Blocks.

Spock’s Blocks is a tribute to the rationality and calm detachment of the First Science Officer of the Starship Enterprise, Star Trek (our apologies to Diedrich Diederichsen). Comprised only of strings and ink, we employed Spock-logic to construct the lightest wall imaginable – an ephemeral architecture that mirrors the modular units of stone at the Entrepôt.  The complex system of overlapping catenary curves were cut and printed by a computer-controlled machine—Instal_lator with Variable Information Atomizing Module— that we designed and fabricated to yield “printed” visual and spatial effects.

Principles in Charge: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues

Project Team Los Angeles: Rochelle Gomez, Jonathan Kitchens, James Jones, Norma Silva. Additional names to follow

Project Coordinator Bordeaux: Wen Wen Cai

Project Team Bordeaux: Boris Sauboy, Nicolas Grawitz, Claude Grace Moussoki, Celine Berra, Joy Demez, Eric Dordan, Brianna Gorton, Alexi Mennel, Milos Xiradakis, Eric Trousicot

Custom software:  Sparce Studio

Curators: Claire Petetin, Éric Troussicot, Michel Jacques, Francine Fort

What does it mean to create an architecturally scaled environment that has a potent sculptural presence but is made of almost no material? What does it mean when we modulate space with volumes that hover on the threshold of absence?

Long BeachEXPOSED is the sixth in a series of projects we refer to as “Suspensions.” Unseen Current (2008), exhibited at Extension Gallery for Architecture, Chicago, featured 2,500 suspended string catenaries, and Echoes Converge, exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2008 used string to create intricate patterns inspired by the baroque ceilings of the city’s buildings. These softly structural, open-air spaces encouraged social interaction, enveloping rather than obstructing viewers.

A constant desire to push the possibilities of our tools, materials and techniques has led us to develop the “Insta-llator 1 with the Variable-Information Atomizing Module,” a machine designed and manufactured by Ball-Nogues Studio especially for these installations. With the machine the strings may be precisely saturated with solvent-based inks using four digitally controlled airbrushes in discreet areas and then cut to to their varying lengths via computer control. The weight of the string creates a complex system of overlapping catenary curves on which cyan, magenta, yellow, and black segments are “printed” to yield the effect of ghostly three dimensional objects. Sometimes the objects are visible, at other times they blur to resemble a fluid-like vapor that floats and hovers in the gallery space.

Employing these advancements we created Feathered Edge, currently on exhibit at MOCA PDC and Spock’s Blocks, for the exhibit INSIDERS: practices, uses, and know-how, currently on exhibit at the Arc en Rêve Centre D’Architecture, Bordeaux. Functioning as an astigmatic lens, Long BeachEXPOSED seeks to absorb light and create a new point of focus in the room.

Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues

Project Team: Ayodh Kamath, Csaba Mester, James Jones, Jonathan Kitchens, Moushira Elamrawy, Sarah Riedmann, Norma Silva, Patrick Latona, Rochele Gomez

Custom Software Development: Sparce Studio

The Elastic Plastic Sponge was created by students from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) led by Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues and Andrew Lyon of the Ball-Nogues Studio. The Elastic Plastic Sponge was a large scale installation that could be twisted, arched and curled to form different types of space including a lounge, a theater, or a large sculptural Mobius strip. In the desert heat of Indio, the architectural installation provided a respite from the sun by making shade and mist while at night, each “cell” within the Elastic Plastic Sponge supported a fluorescent tube–the tubes shifted in orientation relative to each other to create the effect of sweeping motion. The motion effect was evident from close-up as well as impactful from across the vast festival grounds–an important asset in an environment of throngs of festival-goers and competing spectacles.

The Elastic Plastic Sponge was a unique structure. In architecture terminology, the phrase that describes a system whose form is derived from its material properties is “form active.” These types of structures are difficult to study using software. They often require architects to explore their designs by testing full-scale mock-ups, and using that empirical information to help inform the process of digital modeling, which is studied in the studio rather than in the field.

The Elastic Plastic Sponge was comprised of 250 cells, each fabricated using custom jigs designed by SCI-Arc students.  The cell module is a very effective way of constructing a temporary structure: each can be transported as a flat unit to the Festival and rapidly assembled on site; after the Festival is over, dismantling and transportation to a new site is easy.

From the Festival’s standpoint of an event spanning several days, the Elastic Plastic Sponge could be rapidly reconfigured to create unique spatial arrangements each day; its flexibility allows the designers to adapt to changing crowd, climate and site conditions. From a pedagogical standpoint, the Elastic Plastic Sponge’s mutability enabled students to examine its unique structure at full scale; working and reworking its shape as they would a digital model.

Project Team: Joanne Angeles, Benjamin Ball, Phil Blaine, Seyoung Choi, Dina Giordano, Benlloyd Goldstein, Monica  Gutierrez, James Jones, William Kim, Anthony Lagunay, Andrew Lyon, Jorge Miranda, Jeffery Morrical, Gaston Nogues, Mandana Ozlati, Tim Peeters

Lighting consultant: Chris Ball

Lighting equipment donated in kind by American Apparel.

Rock and Roll Fantasy: SCI-Arc at Coachella 
The studio, which began on January 19, 2009, required participants to study large-scale art installations, and devise one such structure as a class and then build the temporary architecture installation for the tenth annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Elastic Plastic Sponge, the result of this collaboration between SCI-Arc and Coachella, will debut at this year’s festival, April 17 through April 19 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.

The SCI-Arc studio class began the project by researching legendary rock ‘n’ roll gatherings including Woodstock, Glastonbury Festival and past Coachella installments. Students also spent time investigating other temporary constructions created for Burning Man, Serpentine Pavilion and the Venice Biennale, among others.

As the studio evolved, the class began to develop various designs in separate teams. Festival promoter Goldenvoice chose one of these designs, which will receive prominent placement at Coachella.

Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues and Andrew Lyon of Ball-Nogues Studio taught the studio with special direction from Coachella’s art curator, Philip Blaine.

About SCI-Arc
SCI-Arc, an independent, accredited degree-granting institution, offers undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. An educational laboratory, SCI-Arc tests the limits of architecture in order to transform existing conditions into the designs for the future. With its location in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the intensely urban Artist District in Downtown Los Angeles, SCI-Arc provides a uniquely inspiring environment in which to study architecture. It is distinguished by the vibrant atmosphere of its studios, where some 500 students and 80 faculty members—mostly practicing architects—work together in a fluid, non-hierarchical manner, re-examining assumptions and exploring and testing new ideas through making. The institution offers weekly lectures and ongoing exhibitions, which are free and open to the public.

SCI-Arc – Re-imagining the edge: Educating Architects to engage, speculate, innovate.

To learn more about SCI-Arc, visit www.sciarc.edu.

We designed this sculpture-like workspace for Edward Cella Art + Architecture (ECAA) gallery formerly located across from LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The undulating functional object was crafted by hand from assembled layers of industrially cut cardboard and Koskisen plywood. Seeking to affect the white cube space of the gallery with minimal use of materials, we utilized the surging repetition and pattern created by stacking two shapes of pre-cut cardboard designed and calibrated on computational software. Suggesting movement and vitality, the reception counter acts as a fluid yet intermediary object between the public space of the gallery and the gallery’s workspace. Fabricated by our collective team, the workstation reflects the gallery’s emphasis on craftsmanship and execution. Embracing the post-gilded age economy, the design’s humble materials do not shy from seeking new and dynamic forms.

Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues

Project Managers: Andrew Lyon, James Jones

Design Team: Andrew Lyon, James Jones

Project Construction Team: James Jones, Andrew Lyon, Nicole Semenova, Jonathan Kitchens, Elizabeth Timme, Gaston Nogues, Tim Peeters, Nicole Kell

The project is located in a new Se San Diego Hotel. The brief called for a sculptural wall map of the City of San Diego that also marked the location of the hotel.  Using software, we transformed an aerial photograph of the City into a three dimensional bas relief. The photographic image became the data set for the CNC milled wall sculpture finished in bronze and polymer resin.

Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues
Project Manager:  Ben Dean
Project Design and Development: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues, Ben Dean
Custom Software Development: Sparce Studio
Installation Team: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues, Andrew Lyon

Interior Design: Dodd Mitchell Design

Unseen Current is a navigable billow of fog flowing through Extension Gallery. Three thousand hanging strings or “catenaries” totaling 10 miles in length span between the walls of the gallery in precise arrangements. From a distance, this three dimensional array of catenaries suggests a surface or volume; upon moving to its center, it evokes a rolling fog. To this end, custom software was developed to explore the form of (and generate the plans for) the project. Like a pointillist painting in space inspired by the smoggy sky of Los Angeles, the color of the installation gradates from a rich orange to sky blue.

Architect Philip Johnson’s ethereal hanging-chain window treatments at the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York also served as inspiration for the project. Ball-Nogues “sample” what was essentially a two dimensional decorative motif for Johnson then reinterpret it for their three dimensional modulations in the gallery.

Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues

Project Team Los Angeles: Ben Dean, Mark Bowman, Michael Ferrante

Project Team Chicago: Christopher Bartek, Lindsay Grote, Jack Donoghue, Kasia Mielniczuk, Pei San Ng, Marine Manigault, Martina Dolejs, Cady Chintis, John Wolters, Ryan Johnson, Dana Andersen, Melodi, Zarakol, Sarah Forbes, Bryant Pitak, Kathryn McRay, Christina Halatsis, Vince Rivera, Kate Cain, Mariga Medic

Software Development: Sparce Studio

Curator: Paula Palombo

Unseen Current is sponsored by Extension Gallery, The Graham Foundation, with the designer’s support provided by United States Artists.

What does it mean to create an architecturally scaled environment that has a potent sculptural presence but is made of almost no material? What does it mean when we modulate space with volumes that hover on the threshold of absence?

This installation marries characteristics from two distinct ceiling traditions: the contemporary suspended ceiling (a system that is inexpensive, modular, and easy to install) and the Renaissance coffered ceiling (a province of exploration into both mathematical tiling systems and opulent visual effects).

In our continuing effort to resist the limiting presuppositions and economic flimflam embedded in commercial software and existing architectural fabrication techniques, we developed two new tools for Echoes Converge: a custom software design system and an automatic cutting apparatus. Using the software, we can explore the form of the installation, then send construction data to a digitally controlled mechanical apparatus — the Insta-Lator — which automates the mind-numbing process of cutting thousands of unique lengths of string. As a combined design and production system, these tools enable the installation to function as architecture but also as a made-to-order product that can be rapidly deployed by the designer or owner.

Partners in charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues

Development and FabricationTeam: Benjamin Ball, Gaston Nogues, Ben Dean, Andrew Lyon, William Trossell, Chris Lin, Martina Dolejsova, David Bant

Custom software:  Sparce Studio

Commissioned for the 2008 Coachella Valley Music Festival in California, Copper Droopscape floated over the expansive festival grounds for ten days, providing both visual spectacle and shelter from the harsh desert sun. Throughout the day, music fans sat, talked, and slept in the dappled pools of colored light and shadow produced by the canopy. At night, Copper Droopscape was lit from underneath–– a shimmering, fiery beacon drawing lovers and dancers from across the 90-acre concert grounds.

Unlike conventional fabric structures designed to resist the force of wind, Copper Droopscape actively engaged the breeze. The complex, 90-foot canopy translated wind energy into sensuous motions that festival goers compared to the sea, or a kelp forest undulating beneath the waves–– both delicious metaphors for a cool sanctuary, given the installation’s unforgiving desert site. The motion of the translucent canopy resulted in a hypnotic effect as light passed through and reflected off the Mylar network. In a light breeze, the canopy made a gentle rustling sound; during gusts, a pronounced clapping sound.

The canopy was supported by rapidly deployable tripods made of untreated California pine. After the festival, the tripods were repurposed by a local builder.

Copper Droopscape was a study in non-standard modularity. While it employed a uniform cell dimension, each of its 864 parts was unique. The standard cell made field assembly manageable, while each part’s non-uniform aspects–– the form and proportions of the hanging tendril–– yielded a rich visual and aural experience.

Ball-Nogues collaborated with Pylon Technical to create custom software to explore the form of Copper Droopscape, control the degree of openness in the canopy, and expedite fabrication. The software made formal exploration and revision fluid and effortless. Rather than drawing each of the unique mylar parts, Ball-Nogues sketched the qualities of the canopy in general terms, and the software automatically generated the hundreds of components making up the unified canopy system, labeled them, and prepared files to drive a computer-controlled cutting machine. The design and logistics were “front loaded” to reduce on-site management and fabrication complexity, which allowed Copper Droopscape to be assembled by a team of 12 people in just ten days.

Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues

Project Manager: Andrew Lyon

Project Design and Development Team: Ben Dean, Andrew Lyon

Project Construction Team: Benjamin Ball, Chris Ball, Jodie Bass, Mark Bowman, Ryan Davis, Ben Dean, Martina Dolejs, Melissa Sophia Drocles, Christine Eyer, Richie Garcia, Eddie Gonzales, Oliver Hess, Josh Levine, Andrew Lyon, Reid Maxwell, Pie San Ng, Gaston Nogues, Charon Nogues, Nick Paradowski, Michelle Paul, Sarah Peyton, Geoff Sedillo, Andy Summers, Elizabeth Tremante, William Trossell, Erica Urech, Johanna Zuckerman

Software Development:  Sparce Studios

Structural Consultants: Buro Happold, Los Angeles