Areas
Registration Required
Non Discrete Architectures:
Networks, Digital Prosthetics and Augmentation
Within the design fields, the use of programming languages, data, sensors, physical computing, and robotics are serving as new design mediums. These mediums are proving immensely capable of embedding degrees of intelligence into design which in turn allow for the production of space to move beyond static compositions of building material and toward environments that can sense, read, and react.
This new responsiveness aided by the convergence of digital and physical space will take design beyond physical artifacts and toward the inclusion of interfaces, responsive experiences, and human-machine interaction. We are now beginning to witness early results of this convergence in the form of non-discrete architectures: digital prosthetics, networked environments, and augmented space and objects. The affordances gained and provided by new design medium and the computation tools that drives them, have ushered in a new aesthetic. This new aesthetic is one that is diffuse, mute, expectantly intelligent, and simultaneously virtual and experiential.
The Non Discrete Architectures Symposium will catalogue and explore the implications, methods of understanding, research and production of the imminent convergence of the digital and physical, and thereby acknowledge its power and intent on shifting and expanding architectural and spatial production.
Organizers and Funders
This symposium is organized by Shawn Rickenbacker and generously supported by Motorola Solutions and Weitzman School's Office of the Dean and the Department of Architecture.
Non Discrete Architectures:
Thursday April 2nd 6:00 PM Symposium Opening
6:00 - 6:30 PM Registration
Welcome by Winka Dubbledam (Chair Weitzman School)
Introduction by Shawn Rickenbacker (Weitzman School)
6:30 PM Keynote Lecture by Carlo Ratti ( MIT)
Friday April 3rd 9:00 AM - 6:30PM
9:15 - 10:00 AM Registration / Breakfast
10:00 AM Welcome by Winka Dubbledam (Weitzman School)
Introduction by Shawn Rickenbacker ( Weitzman School)
SESSIONS:
10:30 - Session 1: Spatial Networks
Through distributed and embedded computing, the emergence of spatial networks has formed as an embodiment of information and the exchange of that information. The rise of spatial networks represents a new spatial domain allowing for new exchange protocols and possible outcomes. This session will explore how designers conceive of, understand and instrumentalize concepts of spatial networks toward augmenting space and human experience.
10:30 Introduction Dana Cupkova (CMU)
Lydia Kallipoliti, Syracuse University
Sean Lally, UIC
Mark Shepard, University at Buffalo
Kipp Bradford, Data Sensing Lab
Respondent: Dana Cupkova,CMU
Lunch: 12:30 - 1:30
1:30 - Session 2 Digital Prosthetics
Digital data represented as discrete discontinuous values is a new design medium. Increasing volumes and the complexity of digital data require multi-part systems to interpret and successfully coordinate actionable responses. The design of these systems act as new legible forms of prosthetic interfaces that extend the production and accessibility of human-machine synthesis. This session will examine current research and the design of new digital prosthetics.
Introduction by Simon Kim (Weitzman School)
Orkan Telhan, Weitzman School
Biayna Bogosian, USC
Jason Kelly Johnson, CCA
Michael Szivos, Pratt / Yale University
Respondent: Simon Kim, Weitzman School
3:30 - 3:50 Break
4:00 Session 3 Augmentation
The leveraging of computation in design is intended to increase capacity, functionality and agency. The spatial and generative capabilities served by computation communicate with a new and expanding range of tools. The tools are the bridge, linking new human, machine and environment exchanges, responsible for the new found augmentation of materials, spaces and experiences. This session will examine the design processes and their corresponding range of augmentation and affect.
Introduction: Shawn Rickenbacker (Weitzman School)
Ryan Luke Johns / Nicholas Foley, GREYSHED
Campbell Hyers - Control Group, Storefront for Art & Architecture
Peter Testa, SCI ARC
Molly Wright Steenson, U of Wisconsin-Madison
Carlo Ratti, MIT
Respondent: Shawn Rickenbacker, Weitzman School
6:30 PM RECEPTION