Hello,

Protozoa (republicofprotozoa.wordpress.com) is a science/art project to explore
the creation of floating communities using simple and inexpensive forms. We are
publishing several dozen design patterns that can be used to build floating land
forms in any shape imaginable, for a cost of hundreds of dollars per acre using
off the shelf materials (tarp sewn to form, rope, sand and dirt).

Our goal is to encourage wide spread experimentation for artistic and
agricultural purposes. For example, with one design pattern, you can build
simple freshwater catch basins that harvest rain water by the acre foot, making
sea based agriculture and human settlement a possibility.

I have worked with POV before, in 2003 when I collaborated with Gilles Tran on a
design for the World Trade Center memorial competition. However, I am not
skilled at creating organic forms, and am looking for people who know how to
create natural surfaces. The whole idea in Protozoa is to make complex
landforms using iterative patterns of meshes, rope (or vine) and inflated forms
(such as inflated arches). The possibilities when you can design your own island
are endless, especially with the costs being so low. so I'd like to capture that
with some good POV renderings to complement the design patterns and technical
articles.

I'd like to promote POV as a standard tool for land designers to use, and would
like to build up a library of source files that people can use for different
land forms, elements (e.g. vines, sand, pogo moorings, etc).

If you'd like to contribute email me at bsmcconnell@gmail to learn more. The
site may be password protected depending on when you look at it. If so, I'll be
glad to give you a login. It will be public in a few weeks, once we finish
curating the 100 or so basic design patterns.

Thanks,

Brian McConnell

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