Louis Jencka

Introduction

👋 Hi all. My name is Louis Jencka, and I’m a graduate student in the Computer Science department. I have a hobby interest in procedural art — 2D plotter art in particular! — which I’d like to broaden in this class. I’m also hoping to learn about 3D fabrication, for both creative and practical applications.

Inspiration

The project I’d like to showcase is one I saw in Owens Lake, CA, last year (https://oorscapes.com/LML-Owens-Lake-Field-Unit). Owens “Lake” is a drying lakebed, created by the diversion of the the Owens river into the Los Angeles aqueduct that has happened since the 1910s. By the early 2000s, Owens Lake had become the largest source of dust pollution in the US, and the LA water authority was compelled by a court to mitigate it. They’ve been working for the past decade on stabilizing the landscape with the minimum amount of water possible, creating artificial marshes, dunes, and a variety of engineered surfaces (think grids of concrete blocks).

Alexander Robinson et al at the USC dept. of Architecture are a group of landscape architects who collaborate on developing and researching high-performance multi-purpose landscapes, with a focus on environmental resilience. They installed an exhibit at the Owens “lakeside”, in which visitors can create speculative landscapes using various surface shapes, differing amounts of water, etc., and explore what the outcome might be. The simulator itself is a little arcade-like table with a top-down view of the topography, and a 3D rendering of the landscape with various metrics (amount of dust emitted, types of wildlife present, water used).

The topographical view is projection-mapped onto a physical 3D-printed surface, which visitors can select from several that are hanging on a wall. I found this combination of physical object, ecological simulation, and generated virtual space to be very compelling! And very pleasingly, the contraption will print out a physical postcard from the virtual landscape you’ve created.