Hello. My name is Brent Klokis. I am an architecture grad from NJ School of Architecture, living in the NYC metro area. Within the following pages are a collection of pieces that range from architectural design to graphic design to art, with some pieces arguably in-between. With each project I pursue I attempt to look for opportunities, not necessarily to design the project, but to design the framework and system that will in-turn produce the project. This method allows me to step outside of my own personal vision of what the project should be, and focus on a system constructed by the needs of the project itself.

The Chaosophagus is an application, written in Processing 1.0, which uses an open audio line to produce a visualization of any audio sound picked up by the computer’s mic. The sound is reinterpreted into an enclosure of particles which, when excited, creates a tunnel of terrain turning the sound into a topographic landscape. I wrote this script for incorporation in the set design of LA-based fashion designer Native Son, for Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2011. The application is available for download for Mac or PC.

This project called for a contemporary renovation to a kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom in Princeton, NJ. I was responsible for schematic design, as well as CD production, and general project coordination for this built project. The clients called for a modern update that spoke to openness and usability. The design includes custom built Anigre cabinetry, custom glass-front doors, honed granite countertops, cork flooring, and new high-efficiency appliances.

This is a website I designed and developed for the web collective ENT3R that I work with. The collective provides web design, and web presence services for small businesses. The site was built on the Big Medium platform, and is located at www.ent3r.com.

This project was a proposal for the VSA “Revealing Cultures” Exhibition at the Smithsonian. The Exhibition featured more than 130 works of art in a broad range of media― installations, video, performance, painting, sculpture and printmaking―from emerging and eminent artists with disabilities in the United States and abroad. I worked on this project with GRO to create a parametrically controllable environment for the variable-media works.

From Proposal:

REVEAL
The reveal is a conceptual apparatus; it is a position that seeks to reorient expectations about how one experiences art, and is made manifest through material evidence. In considering the goals and special requirements of this exhibition, we have conceived of the reveal as a spatial organizational tool, an architectural device and an informational system. The reveal in our VSA proposal permits universal spatial and cultural experience across disabilities through visual, auditory, and tactile cues.

CLARITY
Our vision for the VSA exhibition is one in which art, information, and navigation are intertwined to provide a clear presentation of a diverse and complex set of artwork. Our scheme is organized by four interlocking spatial and information systems: suspended ceilings of ‘space wrappers’, perimeter display surfaces, textured floor treatments, and interactive handrails. These four elements work together to formalize the organization of a complex array of artwork of varying curatorial and logistical requirements that can be reorganized procedurally to curatorial points of view – our system is flexible.

POINTS OF VIEW
This proposal reorients expectations about how we experience art by reexamining the familiar symmetry of the existing gallery. Our scheme promotes a dynamic engagement – we create multiple viewpoints that engage the user in a series of options. To accomplish this, we use a diagonal organization that facilitates a path of partial and oblique views of the artwork, so that new connections between data and space become apparent. Careful choreography of these spaces will allow for the cross referencing of artwork of varied themes, scale, medium between disparate spaces, promoting continuity between them and ample curatorial freedom.

LAYERS OF INFORMATION
The artwork is locally differentiated, but universally revealed across disabilities. The reveal experienced spatially as visitors move through the space and follow cues from the way-finding systems of texture, color and signage, and is further developed in the scaled degrees of information provided about the artwork via systems of text, audio, lighting.

CURATORIAL FLEXIBILITY
Flexibility is integral to our design proposal. Our proposal allows for curatorial flexibility in the way that artwork is grouped, with an understanding that to do so a diverse range of artwork may exist within any given space. To do so, a variety of different types of display are provided, including wall surfaces of varied size for paintings or screens, suspended vitrines, showcases, and raised floor platforms. Our design for the exhibition is conceived as parametric: we have designed rules that establish the relationship between each of these four elements with our broader design objectives embedded in these rules. Once curatorial decisions are known regarding the placement of artwork, our parametric design system will be fluidly adjusted to accommodate. This flexibility can be utilized during the design development process so that the spatial consequences of curatorial decisions are made visible and can be evaluated prior to finalization.

This is a website I designed and developed for a local musical group, from New Brunswick, NJ. The site built on the WordPress platform, and is located at www.communipawmusic.com.

This was a 3D modeling project for a residence that a client wished to have printed in a polycarbonate plastic. The 3D model was made in Rhinoceros. The final model was printed at 1/16″ scale.

Aggregated Assemblies was a summer seminar course I co-instructed, with two colleagues of mine, at NJIT’s College of Architecture and Design. The course focused primarily on creating component-based geometry systems generated through Rhino’s parametric plug-in, Grasshopper, and digital fabrication of those geometries using RhinoCAM and an 8′X4′ CNC router.

The course website we constructed is still live at www.aggregatedassemblies.com, and serves as a great source for tools and resources related to parametric design. Student work can be seen in the links posted in the comments section under Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3.

This is a pair of logos I designed for the sister companies of Wilkes Architects and Princeton Design Guild. These are the Architectural and Construction ends of the same design-build firm located in Belle Mead, NJ. The company was looking for a clean, modern update to their brand.