IAAC BLOG

After a full month of work, anxiety, discussions, tensions and above all, learning, the project comes to an end and the result is astonishing given its complexity and the timespan it took to be produced. These following images show the final stage of the trip to Venice and for the occasion Leticia (stylist) and José (photographer) were brought to create these futuristic pictures of some of the people of the group using the furniture in situ.

Here’s a sequence taken throughout the week to show the evolution of the project. Enjoy!!

It’s Saturday, August 9 and the project is taking a clearer shape. Although everyone is tired, all of the processes advance simultaneously. Most of the work done now is testing different electrical components, data wires and buttons.

The guides that carry the RJ11 crosses are being tested and put in place before lifting them into their final destination.

The first guide being lifted by the biennale workforce.

View from above showing the guides already lifted and waiting for the UTP orange wires.

The first guide with its lit crosses and UTP orange wires.

The soldering station.

View form below showing the 6 guides and their respective lit crosses.

A Flash animation done by Bestiario projected on the lateral walls will show the connections made between the different scales of the furnitures in an interactive way.

As almost every piece is assembled, the most important task now is to put the LED strips, connect the strips with copper film and solder them in place. This time-consuming process is crucial because the whole system depends on how well done are these connections.

At the same time the copper-wiring takes place, the different parts of the objects are glued together. In this case, a ball is being worked on.

A LED ring before being soldered where it belongs.

Soldering the LED strip and the copper film wire together.

Testing a RJ11 cross hub with nodes connected to it before lifting it in place.

Testing two guides with 7 crosses each while the rest keeps soldering objects.

The project started to take shape as everyone worked hard during the second day. For the moment, the main task has been unpacking and assembling furniture (already 72 pieces are complete) and LED-stripping as more pieces are done. Víctor is coming tonight to start with the nodes and Tomás, Rodrigo and Dani are arriving tomorrow to work on the projectors’ logistics.

Louie Chi connecting the 16-12V transformers and fixing them in the guides.

General view of the site as everyone is already set up doing their respective tasks.

Bird’s eye view of the right side of the site showing the progress of the assembly.

Finishing the assembly of a bed. Three more to go…

The group just before lunch break.

Enough city-seeing. Today is Wednesday, August 5 and we still have roughly 5 more days to put the whole project together. The rest of the group will arrive on Thursday.

Exterior view of the IaaC headquarters in Calle de la Madalena in the San Basilio District of Venice.

The stockpile of material being discharged from infamous truck that made the 1,500 km trip from Barcelona to Venice and charged in the tronchetto.

The material being carried away through the canals to its final destination.

It was received by the girls upon arrival.

Some cleaning had to be done before unpacking and assembling the furniture.

The group was subdivided in groups of 3 to assemble the furniture, prepare the electrical guides that carry the RJ11 cross hubs, the LED-stripping and wire-soldering.

Up until 12 a.m. we had assembled 20% of the furniture, which means we have a LOT of work left to do.

We arrived at Treviso Airport approximately at 9:00 p.m. From there we took a bus that left us in the Piazzale Roma, in the west part of Venice. After that we walked through some lovely streets until we reached Campo de Santa Margheritta, where we met Irene, who took us to our apartment in Calle de la Madalena. After a nice meal, we wandered around the San Basilio area.

As the week has passed, we have improved in every aspect of the project. Mainly because the self-organizing properties of it, each member can adjust according to the different needs that emerge throughout the process.

The team is giving some final touches to the sharing space’s plotter.

Bird’s eye view of IaaC’s central space where most of the work is taking place.

The media man helping out…sweeping!!!

This was one of the day’s moments of truth, where some tests were run to check that every RJ11 cross hub is interconnected and communicating with each other.

Meanwhile, this group of people is checking if the telephone wires are working correctly.

Later in the night, the conference room was transformed to accommodate the furniture for a press conference.

The sun shall not smite I by day,
Nor the moon by night;
And everything that I do
Shall be upfull and right.
And if it’s all night,
It got to be all right!
If it’s all night,
Got to be all right!

Bob Marley, Night Shift

A stack of completely wired RJ11 cross hubs seen from above.

The electronics team talking over how to connect the Internet Zero nodes to the hubs.

A fully functional, red LED-lit RJ11 cross hub seen from below.

Víctor testing the LED strips in the bookshelves, a chair and the t.v.

The bubble-wrapping and packaging is advancing quite well.

Nothing like Chinese food at 1:00 to charge batteries…or fall asleep.

Over the course of the week each part of the process has progressed almost uninterruptedly. Overall, around 70% of the workshop is done and the rest is coming at the same pace.

“Un camionero gilipollas con 2 personas (Tomás, Leandro) descargando 4,000 kilos de metacrilato”

El camionero

The oval CAD/Internet/Vinyl cutter table.

Stacked furniture is starting to look like a city.

From left to right, the five assembly steps of the hanging RJ11 cross.

Schematic diagram of the RJ11 hubs distribution.

Taking care of the minutest details…