Instance of Uncertain Spaces
Our near future, whether or not we welcome it, is all about automation, artificial intelligence, smart infrastructure, urban intensification and climate change. Instance of Uncertain Spaces (IUS) was established in 2018 and is developing a new vector of enquiry through fundamental and applied research.
IUS’ academic research and consulting has been bringing art and science-based methodologies together to investigate human-centric and technology-centric space, co-existence with machines and spatial ambiguity. The projects IUS has been involved with are diverse. For example, IUS collaborated with master’s modules at Media X Design Lab, École Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne (EPFL) exploring the regeneration of a former inner city industrial district through new architectural typologies, modes of production and widespread use of drones entitled ‘Made in Glasgow’. Also, IUS was the only external collaborator with the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT designing concepts for a Future Energy and Advanced Technologies Campus in Japan. And, IUS’ interest in ‘Spatial Ambiguity,’ a recognition that non-cultural entities also shape our experience of the city, examining citizen perception of populated and unpopulated space led to an invitation from Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) where IUS investigated the potential for virtual and physical interventions engaging with faculty, students and the wider community within the new Punggol Campus currently under construction. ‘Smart Interventions’ will form part of SIT’s forthcoming Virtual Campus.
IUS has been advising Ramboll, OMA and KCAP and others on the smart aspects of Industry 4.0, including the role that art can play in the development of AI and experiential space for masterplan proposals for city districts in Chengdu, Shenzhen and Singapore. IUS’s design with MIT for a Future Energy Campus was recently shortlisted for an award in the International Future Place category.
