Floater #01 - Wave Garden

#01 on Floatation / Floater Magazine suggests an inventory of floatation mechanisms within architecture; Without Stability, Without Foundation / Flip is an ocean research platform that capsizes in order to maintain its stability. Yannikos Vassiloulis presents the mechanism of this paradoxical stability / Armin Linke’s images of astronauts and divers project the realities of a utopian body equipped with prosthetics that provide the ability to exist in conditions of No Gravitation / Wave Garden by Yusuke Obuchi and Meduseabloo by b. are performative, highly intelligent environments capable of collecting and administrating data / In 1968, Takis invented Oscillation of the Sea; a device that translates the motion of the sea surface into kinetic energy / Dimitris Antonakakis describes the chronicle of an unusual project commissioned to Atelier66; redesigning the cruiser Libra Y the parameters of instability and non foundation demarcate a new territory for the architect / Louisa Adam explores architectural strategies and practices within contemporary cultural concerns, commenting on OMA’s Harbour of Ideas / Nikos Navridis cooperated with floater magazine for the production of a digital representation of his recent show Tomorrow will be a Wonderful Day... / Evi Sougara's interactive animation is based on J. Swift's Laputa; a mythical island from the novel Gulliver's Travels / Takis Zenetos’ Electronic Urban Planning Utopia is negotiated in juxtaposition with Maurizio Cattelan’s installation Mise-en-Scene. Nikos Tsimas declares floatation experiences as parameters that can provoke feelings of Pleasure and Awe / Micro-organisations, by Elysa Lozano, reflects the socio-political realities of Sealand's micronation, where the artist explores the potential of registering and developing a not for profit organization / in Floating and Sinking in Psychoanalysis Nikos Sideris analyses the mechanisms of floating and sinking in relation to both psychic structure and spatiality / Giorgos Lagoudakis suggests legal aspects of Floating Territories presenting specific archival cases along with the relative legal texts.

Floater #01 edited by Yannis Arvanitis, Elina Axioti, Yannis Papayannakis, Evi Sougara, Eleni Spiridaki, Yannikos Vassiloulis / Fall 2008.

Wave Garden
Yusuke Obuchi
Interview: Chrysostomos Tsimourdagkas

Wave Garden, designed by Yusuke Obuchi in 2001-2002, is a floating 480-acre artificial landscape consisting of 1,800 tiles of three-inch thick 'piezoelectric' membranes located off the San Luis Obispo coastline, California. Monday to Friday, it functions as an alternative power plant, oscillating with the ocean waves and generating energy. At weekends, it becomes a buoyant public park.

What is the conceptual core for the Wave Garden project?

The inspiration for the 'Wave Garden' project dates back to the late 90´s when I started explaining a territory of architecture beyond mere form. It started by questioning how to go beyond object and what to start engaging things with larger social-cultural issues that become the driving force for defining architecture. That was a very rough idea but the starting point of how you establish an architectural concept.

The second question was how you visualise measure of social-cultural movement. A unique way to do that is by measuring energy consumption. If you are doing something during the day or during the night, you are always using electricity. If you are watching TV, if you are cooking, if you are working on your computer, you are always consuming energy. So that´s exactly the best thing to measure. And, certainly, one should examine kinds of movement not only within the house or within the city, but globally.

And a third question was how you find different sources with which you can produce energy, how you invent alternative ways in which you can produce a power plant, how you design a architectural form, whatever it might be, that acts as a generator.

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