12 Questions with Jonathan Irawan - Magazine Issue02
Jonathan Irawan on behalf of collective Pulpo featured in Al-Tiba9 magazine ISSUE02, interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj about the urban installation project NACRE.
Jonathan is a part of Pulpo Collective, a team of international and multidisciplinary designers and interaction artists that strive to push boundaries of art and design through new digital philosophies and mediums. Together with Lalin Keyvan, Nikos Argyros, Noor El-Gewely, Firas Safiedden, and Mehmet Berk Bostanci, they envision future scenarios, and question how design as a practice can resolve challenges of the future, addressing both the physical realm of our urban habitats and natural environments, as well as changes in society. The core principle of this ideology is to incorporate digital technologies at multiple scales - from data collection at urban or territorial scale to sensors and microcontrollers in programmable machines at the intersection of architecture, installation, and interactive technologies.
Photo courtesy Pulpo Collective©
Jonathan, you are an Architect, Computational Designer, and Photographer. What kind of education or training helped you develop your skillset?
I have 5 years of formal education as an Architect. An Architecture Degree exposes you to so many other disciplines and streams related to art, design, and humanities, continually shaping your passion and identity as a creative. I’ve been very lucky to have had the opportunity to study and gain perspectives from various parts of the world and that drives me to continually adapt and gain new skills.
Please describe the intention behind your art. How do you successfully express this intention?
Our intention is to raise the awareness of the users about the natural world around us and translate data collected from the fluctuating natural systems of our given site. The installation must not only be beautiful but also provoke its audience to take action. We have extracted logic and forms from biology and augmented them in a way that would allow the audience to see nature in a different light.
You are a member of the Pulpo Collective, Could you introduce this collective and tell us more about your position in Pulpo?
Our collective is composed of international and multidisciplinary designers and interaction artists that met during our Masters of Advanced Architecture, at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Barcelona. This is a center of research and education, which encourages the next generation of designers and architects to envision future scenarios, and how we can design for the challenges which lie ahead - addressing both the physical realm of our urban habitats and natural environments, as well as changes in society. Another core principle of this ideology, which we continue to embody, is to incorporate digital technologies at multiple scales in our work - from data collection at an urban or territorial scale to sensors and microcontrollers in programmable machines.
In general, our methodology towards design and fabrication is a process of continuous testing and prototyping, until we achieve a feasible outcome. My role in the collective is one that is multifaceted, jumping around being a creative director to help coordinate and consolidate the various aspects involved, as well as a computational designer in the technical design and fabrication of our proposal.
The project “Nacre” was inspired by the stories of the place Barangaroo. Please tell our readers a short version of this story.
Photo courtesy Pulpo Collective©
This installation was inspired by the stories of the place Barangaroo. Our installation aims to unify the Aboriginal history of the site with the challenges we face today.
Barangaroo is named after a powerful Cammeraygal leader of the Eora Nation at the time of European colonization. The fisherwomen of the Warrane people played an important role in their community, as they were the main providers of fish for their clan - using a simple black wood canoe known as a Nawi. The Aboriginal people predominantly led a nomadic lifestyle, and as a consequence of that did not leave many physical traces on the land. However, we know that this site was an important gathering place due to the shell middens that have been found here in archaeological digs during the construction of the new Barangaroo urban development.
“Nacre” is reminiscent of ocean rock, mollusks or coral. Its design reflects a strong connection to nature and a hidden underwater world. It also interacts actively with the public. Could you reveal the mystery about the “Nacre” installation? Where did your inspiration for it come from?
The inspiration and ideas were strongly driven by the motives of the story above. The seashell geometry is incorporated into our design. Both mollusks and coral reefs contain calcium carbonate and are at risk due to ocean acidification, as this slows down the calcification process. Although corals may seem like durable rocks, they are very fragile and easily damaged by direct and indirect threats from human activity.
Photo courtesy Pulpo Collective©
The lighting of the “Nacre” installation is actuated by the data collected from the changing levels of the tide. Although this illumination in itself does not counteract the effects of climate change, it does raise attention for it. Do you aim to interact with nature using advanced technologies? Do you think that humans will be able to be in total control of nature using advanced technologies? Could you explain your artistic research about this?
Our education has geared our thinking towards discovering and breaking the unknowns between the physical and natural world. We constantly strive to research and find new ways of interacting with nature to extract information, learn and understand its processes within our daily lives. Technology is a major part of that exploration and acts solely as an enabler to our endeavors. What is important, however, is the initial approach and questioning of specific aspects of nature and how that might inform the main messages of our works. We are all research-driven and academics by nature, which allow us to structure the design process in an accountable way.
Your process includes lighting, sculpture, advanced computational design, algorithms, and other programs and techniques. How can you describe your complex artistic production and technique for our readers? How does the Pulpo team complete your process?
The setup of our team was actually quite complex. We were 6 artists who were based in 4 different locations (London, Barcelona, Australia, and Turkey). In order for constant development and progress to occur, we set aside specific times during the week to catch up and discuss major issues usually achieved using Google Hangouts or other various video conferencing tools. Each person then takes away specific tasks to resolve which feeds into the following discussion of future calls. All of us have similar skill sets but have specific passions in various aspects of the installation. Responsibilities pertaining to individual components are usually taken by the group member who is most passionate or knowledgable in that sector, Computational Design, Fabrication, Project Management, Programming, or Physical Computing. The Pulpo team only works when all these differences come together harmoniously.
Photo courtesy Pulpo Collective©
Nacre is a big and complex installation. How do collaborators and partners participate in the realization of the project? How does Nacre, as an artistic installation, interact not only with the public but also with the business world where advanced ideas are a source of inspiration for the vision of the future?
We were very lucky to have had the support of sponsors and collaborators in the overall process to realize the installation. We had the opportunity to work together with Protopixel, a Barcelona based lighting company to help us program the lights and hardware components of the installation. Showtex provided us not only with the technical support and diffusing material but also with the warehouse space to pre-assemble sections of our installation. We also partnered with HASSELL and Box & Dice to use their design knowledge and fabrication facilities. These interactions and collaborations bridge the gap between experimental methods and commercial applications, which is a necessary exchange for businesses to grasp new ideas and methods in their day to day operations.
They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?
We are currently in the age of Big Data. Every interaction we have with our physical world is more often than not recorded or has some sort of digital trail. These trails form the basis of our social behavioral patterns. To understand these nuances, it is necessary to have the ability to process, analyze, visualize and communicate them in a manner that is digestible to the open public. I am currently fixated on this field and would hope to incorporate it more into my work or switch to become a Data Scientist or Analyst as a future career aspect.
What current project are you working on?
Currently as a group, Pulpo Collective is pursuing personal interests in our respective passions. We will hopefully get together again when a new opportunity arises which can become the platform to share all the new skills and knowledge that we have picked up at this time.
What is your favourite escape from a busy London professional life to get new and fresh inspiration?
London is such an amazing place to find new ideas. There are countless cultural and artistic events and communities in so many different pockets of the city. It is also an amazing base to access the entirety of Europe to search for new perspectives.
Collective Pulpo in three words?
Multidisciplinary, Innovative, Experimental
