Christian Kerez et.al., image © Oliver Dubuis, via dezeen.com
Claiming materiality for algorithms and digital objects
What do algorithms and digital objects have to do with architecture? In this seminar, we will map contemporary discussions around digital, computational and algorithmic phenomena in architecture theory and beyond. We will explore the claims from contemporary theorists about material consequences of computation in architectural design. We will discuss prominent concepts such as Keller Easterling's active form as a way to address algorithms that orchestrate urban design; Malcolm McCullough¿s ambient commons as a way to discuss technology-driven framing of attention; Luciana Parisi¿s contagious architecture as a way to acknowledge the reality of algorithms as soft thought.
A short reading will be assigned for each session. This weekly seminar will comprise a lecture, followed by an open discussion. Students will learn how to effectively read critical texts, understand the author s position and philosophical, political and cultural background. They will be encouraged to make lineages between architectural theory and contemporary philosophical movements. Finally, they will learn to debate and present issues in contemporary architectural theory.
A reader and a list of literature will be made available during the course.
Final reading list:
- Keller Easterling, We Will be Making Active Form, Architectural Design 82/5, 2012
Additional reading, other material:
Keller Easterling, The Action is the Form: Victor Hugo’s TED Talk, Strelka Press 2012
Keller Easterling, Extrastatecraft: the power of infrastructure space, Verso, 2014
Keller Easterling, Revealing Reality, Improving Reality, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIZtwwdZlNQ
Keller Easterling, Extrastatecraft, Harvard GSD Lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaKoIP5qH8E
- Malcolm McCullough, Ambient Commons, MIT Press, 2013; chapter: Architectural Atmospheres, pp 167-194
Additional reading, other material:
Malcolm McCullough, Digital Ground. Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowledge, MIT Press, 2004 (Chapter 3: Habitual Contexts)
Interview with MIT Press, https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/MITP_McCullough.mp3
- Karen Barad, Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter, Signs, Vol. 28, No. 3, Gender and Science, Spring 2003, pp. 801-831
Additional reading:
Karen Barad, Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart, Parallax, Vol. 20, No. 3, Spring 2014 pp. 168-187
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Branko Kolarevic, Towards The Performative in Architecture (pp 203-214), in Kolarevic, B. and Malkawi, A., (eds) Performative architecture: beyond instrumentality, Spon Press, 2005
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Sarah Pink, Elisenda Ardèvol, Dèbora Lanzeni, eds, Digital Materialities: Design and Anthropology, Bloomsbury publishing, 2016
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Alexander Galloway, Laruelle: Against the Digital, University of Minnesota Press, 2014; chapter The Digital, pp 51-72
- Luciana Parisi, Contagious Architecture. Computations, Aesthetics and Space, MIT Press 2013, Chapters 1.4 Algorithmic Aesthetics and 3.0 Soft Thought
Additional reading:
Luciana Parisi, For a New Computational Aesthetics: Algorithmic Environments as Actual Objects, 2013, https://vimeo.com/72181685
Eleni Ikoniadou , Algorithmic thought: A Review of Contagious Architecture by Luciana Parisi, Computational Culture, Issue Four, 2014. http://computationalculture.net/review/algorithmic-thought-a-review-of-contagious-architecture-by-luciana-parisi
- Timothy Morton, Zero Landscapes in the Time of Hyperobjects (Zero Landscapes in den Zeiten der Hyperobjekte) (EN/DE) in Emerging Realities, Graz Architectural Magazine, 2007
