A MELTING WORLD
According to recent studies, even if our society were to stop carbon emissions overnight, it would take hundreds of years to stop the environmental effects of global warming. [2] Sea levels would continue to rise; melting in the cryosphere – areas predominantly below freezing: the Arctic, Greenland, Antarctica, and many places of high elevations – would continue to occur.
The work presented here uses this condition & setting to play out what a cybernetic approach to design might look like as it responds to the evolving needs of the cryosphere. Before knowing how to interact within an ecosystem, you have to study the natural elements and mechanisms in place.
SELF-REGULATION
Through analyzing a series of Structural Glaciology principles, [3] as well as different cycles in the dynamics of the cryosphere, [4] a pattern of self-regulation amongst the ice masses emerges. This theme of self-regulation can be observed both at the minute scale of snow crystal composition, and the global scale of the over all glacier.
The following diagrams illustrate several key mechanism inherent to the way-of-life of glaciers as they emerge from, decay into, and change within the dynamic states of the cryosphere.
Due to increasing pressure as crack deepens, the crevasse can only extend so far.
Glacial Moulin Section Cut. Water Flow Gradually Erodes Ice.
Erosion slowly carves out a passage through the glacial mass to release flowing water.
Cryoconites: Glacial Microbes
Cryoconites on the other hand, are a biological example that key into these mechanisms of self-regulation. The microbes’ physical make up, their dark color, enable them to utilize solar heat to melt the surface of the glacier right below them. They heat the ice into little pools in which they fall. [5] As the surface refreezes they become enclosed in their new micro-ecosystem. In other words, they utilize what happens naturally as a way to create their ideal living environment.
Through strategically utilizing melting, this thesis questions if we can tap into natural phenomena to gradually influence beneficial change through the inevitable melting in the cryosphere.
James Balog, Extreme Ice Survey
THE MIND: A CYBERNETIC LOGIC
Given the incredibly dynamic and complex ecosystem that the cryosphere proves to be, any system that aims to interact with it at a multidimensional level of monitoring, mediating, and activating, should begin with a basic classification method of the relationships between the various elements. Through the lens of early Cybernetics, one key part of this process is to first categorize these components into variables internal to the system, and external parameters that affect or influence the system.
Decision Tree: Root Hierarchy + Fluid Hierarchy
Given the vast array of atmospheric conditions and states of material introduced, how would the Mind decide the hierarchy by which it operates, by what it responds to first, second, third, etc.? And if we have an answer, how can we be sure that this hierarchy will prove befitting of the cyclical variation inherent to the cryosphere?
It appears that it would be crucial for the mind to be entirely malleable and capable of adapting to any situation, however this is not entirely the case. Structure, a framework of sorts that binds the soft and flexible, is required. This mind has two governing segments: A Root Hierarchy and A Fluid Hierarchy.
The Root Hierarchy is the decision-making process division that serves as the foundation on which to apply the Fluid Hierarchy. It is composed of elements that affect the ecosystem at the largest and slowest scales. The hierarchy of the second division, the Fluid Hierarchy, will depend on which condition-set is arrived to as active. For example, in the case of a wintertime operation on the accumulation zone of a glacier in recession, the U.V. index level would be considered an earlier priority to calculate than the current atmospheric temperature.
Evaluation Phase
As the design interacts with its Umwelt, it assesses both its procedure of mediation, and the subsequent response of the environment. The system comparatively evaluates the changes through time of: atmospheric conditions, states of material, and methods of activation. It compares the previous states to current conditions, and projects an anticipated scenario based on previous iterations. Depending on the accuracy of its projection to the actual response of the environment the mind evaluates likely reasons for discrepancies.
Project Credits:
Sole Contributor:
Ricardo Jnani Gonzalez
Thesis Committee:
Mark Goulthorpe. Associate Professor of Design, MIT
Terry Knight. Professor of Design and Computation, MIT
Brad Cantrell. Director of Master of Landscape Architecture Program, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Skyler Tibbits. Co-Director of Self-Assembly Lab, MIT
RELATED LINKS
MIT Master Thesis: Part 2
This section of the thesis has two focuses. First, to find ways to change the role of melting in the cryosphere, from that of decaying to that of reinforcing. Second, to investigate how a surface's geometry and texture influence it's ability to capture and retain snowfall.
MIT Master Thesis: Part 3
Proposing Cybernetic logic as a design approach for monitoring, mediating, and activating the fragile ecosystem of the cryosphere.