Sticky Postings
By fabric | ch
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As we continue to lack a decent search engine on this blog and as we don't use a "tag cloud" ... This post could help navigate through the updated content on | rblg (as of 09.2023), via all its tags!
FIND BELOW ALL THE TAGS THAT CAN BE USED TO NAVIGATE IN THE CONTENTS OF | RBLG BLOG:
(to be seen just below if you're navigating on the blog's html pages or here for rss readers)
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Note that we had to hit the "pause" button on our reblogging activities a while ago (mainly because we ran out of time, but also because we received complaints from a major image stock company about some images that were displayed on | rblg, an activity that we felt was still "fair use" - we've never made any money or advertised on this site).
Nevertheless, we continue to publish from time to time information on the activities of fabric | ch, or content directly related to its work (documentation).
Wednesday, November 29. 2023
Note: fabric | ch was honored to receive this year the Award for Architecture and Landscape Culture from the Fondation vaudoise pour la culture (FVPC).
The price distinguishes an actor who is "involved in the design or promotion of built environment and who, through this commitment, contributes to the quality of our natural, [digital] and built environment".
A brief video portait of fabric | ch was produced on this occasion by director Pierre-Yves Borgeaud, as well as a small publication by Art Director Emmanuel Crivelli and photographic portraits by Matthieu Croizier (see below).
We'd like to thank the foundation and its jury for awarding our studio in 2023!
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By fabric | ch
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... and for the record,
our bit of the award ceremony!
Monday, October 30. 2023
Note: this Saturday (04.11) fabric | ch will receive the "Architecture & Landscape" price from the Art Council of Canton de Vaud (CH).
It is a rare but much-apreciated recognition of our work by the region where we've been working all those years (and, at the same occasion, also one to show our faces)! We're still waiting for an invitation to exhibit fabric | ch's work somewhere in our hometown though 😉
So rejoice, and let's celebrate together during the following drinks reception!
Via @fvpc
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Wednesday, November 30. 2022
Note:
The exhibition related to the project and European research Beyond Matter - Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences will open next week at ZKM, with the digital versions (or should I rather say "versioning"?) of two past and renowned exhibitions: Iconoclash, at ZKM in 2002 (with Bruno Latour among the multiple curators) and Les Immateriaux, at Beaubourg in 1985 (in this case with Jean-François Lyotard, not so long after the release of his Postmodern Condition). An unusual combination from two different times and perspectives.
The title of the exhibition will be Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter, with an amazing contemporary and historic lineup of works and artists, as well as documentation material from both past shows.
Working with digitized variants of iconic artworks from these past exhibitions (digitization work under the supervision of Matthias Heckel), fabric | ch has been invited by Livia Nolasco-Roszas, ZKM curator and head of the research, to present its own digital take in the form of a combination on these two historic shows, and by using the digital models produced by their research team and made available.
 
The result, a new fabric | ch project entitled Atomized (re-)Staging, will be presented at the ZKM in Karlsruhe from this Saturday on (03.12.2022 - 23.04.2023).
Via ZKM
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Opening: Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter.
© ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Visual: AKU Collective / Mirjam Reili
Past exhibitions as Digital Experiences
Fri, December 02, 2022 7 pm CET, Opening
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Atrium 1+2, 2nd floor
Free entry
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When past exhibitions come to life digitally, the past becomes a virtual experience. What this novel experience can look like in concrete terms is shown by the exhibition »Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter«.
As part of the project »Beyond Matter. Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Virtual Reality«, the ZKM | Karlsruhe and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, use the case studies »Les Immatériaux« (Centre Pompidou, 1985) and »Iconoclash« (ZKM | Karlsruhe, 2002) to investigate the possibility of reviving exhibitions through experiential methods of digital and spatial modeling.
The digital model as an interactive presentation of exhibition concepts is a novel approach to exploring exhibition history, curatorial methods, and representation and mediation. The goal is not to create »digital twins«, that is, virtual copies of past assemblages of artifacts and their surrounding architecture, but to provide an independent sensory experience.
On view will be digital models of past exhibitions, artworks and artifacts from those exhibitions, and accompanying contemporary commentary integrated via augmented reality. The exhibition will be accompanied by a conference on virtualizing exhibition histories.
The exhibition will be accompanied by numerous events, such as specialist workshops, webinars, online and offline guided tours, and a conference.
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Program
7 – 7:30 p.m. Media Theater
Short lectures by
Sybille Krämer, Professor (emer.) at the Free University of Berlin
Siegfried Zielinski, media theorist with a focus on archaeology and variantology of arts and media, curator, author
Moderation: Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, curator
7:30 – 8:15 p.m. Media Theater
Welcome
Olga Sismanidi, Representative Creative Europe Program of the European Commission (EACEA)
Arne Braun, State Secretary in the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg
Frank Mentrup, Lord Mayor of the City of Karlsruhe
Peter Weibel, Director of the ZKM | Karlsruhe
Xavier Rey, Director of the Centre Pompidou, Paris
8:15 – 8:30 p.m. Improvisation on the piano
Hymn Controversy by Bardo Henning
8:30 p.m.
Curator guided tour of the exhibition
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The exhibition will be open from 8 to 10 p.m.
The mint Café is also looking forward to your visit.
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Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter.
Past Exhibitions as Digital Experiences.
Sat, December 03, 2022 – Sun, April 23, 2023
The EU project »Beyond Matter: Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Virtual Reality« researches ways to reexperience past exhibitions using digital and spatial modeling methods. The exhibition »Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter.« presents the current state of the research project at ZKM | Karlsruhe.
At the core of the event is the digital revival of the iconic exhibitions »Les Immatériaux« of the Centre Pompidou Paris in 1985 and »Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art« of the ZKM | Karlsruhe in 2002.
Based on the case studies of »Les Immatériaux« (Centre Pompidou, 1985) and »Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art« (ZKM, 2002), ZKM | Karlsruhe and the Centre Pompidou Paris investigate possibilities of reviving exhibitions through experiential methods of digital and spatial modeling. Central to this is also the question of the particular materiality of the digital.
At the heart of the Paris exhibition »Les Immatériaux« in the mid-1980s was the question of what impact new technologies and materials could have on artistic practice. When philosopher Jean-François Lyotard joined as cocurator, the project's focus eventually shifted to exploring the changes in the postmodern world that were driven by a flood of new technologies.
The exhibition »Iconoclash« at ZKM | Karlsruhe focused on the theme of representation and its multiple forms of expression, as well as the social turbulence it generates. As emphasized by curators Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel, the exhibition was not intended to be iconoclastic in its approach, but rather to present a synopsis of scholarly exhibits, documents, and artworks about iconoclasms – a thought experiment that took the form of an exhibition – a so-called »thought exhibition.«
»Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter.« now presents in the 21st century the digital models of the two projects on the Immaterial Display, hardware that has been specially developed for exploring virtual exhibitions. On view are artworks and artifacts from the past exhibitions, as well as contemporary reflections and artworks created or expanded for this exhibition. These include works by Jeremy Bailey, damjanski, fabric|ch, Geraldine Juárez, Carolyn Kirschner, and Anne Le Troter that echo the 3D models of the two landmark exhibitions. They bear witness to the current digitization trend in the production, collection, and presentation of art.
Case studies and examples of the application of digital curatorial reconstruction techniques that were created as part of the Beyond Matter project complement the presentation.
The exhibition »Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter.« is accompanied by an extensive program of events: A webinar series aimed at museum professionals and cultural practitioners will present examples of work in digital or hybrid museums; two workshops, coorganized with Andreas Broeckmann from Leuphana University Lüneburg, will focus on interdisciplinary curating and methods for researching historical exhibitions; workshops on »Performance-Oriented Design Methods for Audience Studies and Exhibition Evaluation« (PORe) will be held by Lily Díaz-Kommonen and Cvijeta Miljak from Aalto University.
After the exhibition ends at the ZKM, a new edition of »Matter. Non-Matter. Anti-Matter.« will be on view at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from May to July 2023.
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Artists
Josef Albers, Giovanni Anselmo, Arman, Art & Language, Jeremy Bailey, Fiona Banner, DiMoDa featuring Banz & Bowinkel, Christiane Paul, Tamiko Thiel, Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga, Samuel Bianchini, Bio Design Lab (HfG Karlsruhe), Jean-Louis Boissier & Liliane Terrier, John Cage, Jacques-Élie Chabert & Camille Philibert, damjanski, Annet Dekker & Marialaura Ghidini & Gaia Tedone, Marcel Duchamp, fabric | ch, Eric J. Heller, Prof. Dr. Kai-Uwe Hemken (Art Studies Kunsthochschule Kassel / University of Kassel), Joasia Krysa, Leonardo Impett, Eva Cetinić, MetaObjects, Sui, Michel Jaffrennou, Geraldine Juárez, Martin Kippenberger, Carolyn Kirschner, Maria Klonaris & Katerina Thomadaki, Joseph Kosuth, Denis Laborde, Mark Lewis & Laura Mulvey, Kasimir Malevich, Pietro Manzoni, Gordon Matta-Clark, Peo Olsson, Katarina Sjögren, Jonas Williamsson, Roman Opalka, Nam June Paik, Readymades belong to everyone®, Jeffrey Shaw, Annegret Soltau, Daniel Soutif & Paule Zajderman, Klaus Staeck, Anne Le Troter, Manfred Wolff-Plottegg, Erwin Wurm
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Further locations and dates:
| Mar 14, 2022 – Mar 29, 2022 |
Väre, Aalto University, Espoo |
| Apr 20, 2022 – Apr 25, 2022 |
The Cube /
Helsinki Central Library Oodi |
| Apr 25, 2022 – May 5, 2022 |
Väre, Aalto University, Espoo |
| May 16, 2022 – May 22, 2022 |
Design Museum Helsinki |
| June 25, 2022 – August 28, 2022 |
Tirana Art Lab, Albanien |
| Dec 3, 2022 – Apr 23, 2023 |
ZKM |
| Summer 2023 |
Centre Pompidou, Paris |
Project
Cooperation partners
  
 
Supported by
  
Monday, August 31. 2020
Note: during the long shutdown of the museums in Switzerland last Spring, fabric | ch has nevertheless the chance to see Public Platform of Future Past (pdf), one of its latest architectural investigations, integrated into the permanent collection of the Haus der elektronischen Künste (HeK), in Basel.
We are pleased that our work is recognized by innovative and risk taking curators (Sabine Himmelsbach, Boris Magrini), and become part of the museum's collection, along several others works (by Jodi, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Olia Lialina, Christina Kubisch, Zimoun, etc.)
It is also the first of our work whose certificate of authenticity has been issued by a blockchain! (datadroppers)
A second work - currently in production - will enter the collection in the spring of 2021, which will be documented at that time.
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Via Haus der elektronischen Künste
By Sabine Himmelsbach
HeK Sammlung - Sabine Himmelsbach über fabric | ch from HeK on Vimeo.
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The video work is composed of four distinct videos, each showing a distinct but static view into a timelapse of the pavilion and its evolving light.
All four video must be displayed simultaneously by following minimal instructions.
Thursday, October 04. 2018
Note: As a direct follow-up to the May 1968 celebrations, Makery published (in French) an article retracing a history of "inhabitable utopias", or different architectures that have since been experimented with or thought about.
The short article is mainly illustrated with an interactive timeline presenting these experiments carried out over the past 50 years.
Via Makery
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Depuis l’urbanisme utopique issu de Mai 68 jusqu’aux «Lieux infinis» mis en avant par le collectif Encore Heureux à la Biennale de Venise 2018, Makery balaie cinquante ans d’alternatives architecturales.
En savoir plus:
La webographie suit le déroulé de la chronologie ci-dessus.
L’image qui ouvre cette chronologie est le Makrolab de Marko Peljhan, à Rottnest Island, en Australie, 2000.
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Instant City, Peter Cook, Archigram, Royaume-Uni, 1968.
« Structures gonflables », exposition au musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, du 1er au 28 mars 1968.
Whole Earth Catalog, édité par Stewart Brand, de 1968 à 1971 aux Etats-Unis.
L’église gonflable de Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, par Hans-Walter Müller, France, 1969.
Inflatocookbook, du collectif Ant Farm, Etats-Unis, 1970.
Le laboratoire urbain d’Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri, Arizona, Etats-Unis, 1970.
La « ville libre » de Christiania, Copenhague, Danemark, 1971.
Le restaurant FOOD de Gordon Matta-Clark, New York, 1971, exposition Gordon Matta-Clark, anarchitecte, musée du Jeu de Paume, du 5 juin au 23 septembre 2018.
Superstudio, agence d’architecture, Italie, 1966-1978.
Shelter, Lloyd Kahn, Etats-Unis, 1973.
Lutte du Larzac, France, 1973-1982.
Sunspots, Steve Baer, Zomeworks, Etats-Unis, 1975.
Comment habiter la terre, Yona Friedman, 1976.
Casa Bola, Eduardo Longo, São Paulo, Brésil, 1979.
Les cabanes de Josep Pujiula à Argelaguer, province de Gérone, Catalogne, Espagne, 1980-2016.
Bolo’Bolo, P.M., 1983.
Le Jardin en mouvement de Gilles Clément, 1985.
Le Magasin à Grenoble, Patrick Bouchain, 1986.
Future Shack, Sean Godsell, Australie, 1985.
Brevétisation du container en habitat par Philip C. Clark, Etats-Unis, 1987.
Black Rock City, la ville éphémère du festival Burning Man, Nevada, Etats-Unis, 1990- .
Le projet A.G. Gleisdreieck, Berlin, Allemagne, 1990- .
Reclaim The Streets, Londres, 1991- .
Castlemorton Common Festival, Royaume-Uni, 1992.
Les maisons en carton de Shigeru Ban, Kobe, Japon, 1995.
Muf (Londres), Stalker (Italie), Coloco (Paris), Bruit du Frigo (Bordeaux), créés en 1996.
Makrolab, Marko Peljhan, Projekt Atol, Slovénie, 1997-2007.
Manifestations de Seattle contre l’Organisation mondiale du commerce, Etats-Unis, 1999.
Ecobox, Atelier d’architecture autogérée, Paris, 2002.
L’architecture du RAB, Exyzt, Paris, France, 2003.
Parking Day, Rebar, San Francisco, Etats-Unis, 2006.
Zone à Défendre, Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France, 2008- .
Tactical Urbanism, Mike Lydon et Anthony Garcia, Island Press, 2015.
Cloud City, Tomás Saraceno, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Etats-Unis, 2012.
Fab City Global, création en 2014 et Fab City Summit, à Paris du 11 au 13 juillet 2018.
Assemble Studio (Royaume-Uni), Turner Prize 2015.
Elemental, Pritzker Prize 2016.
Accueil des migrants porte de la Chapelle, Julien Beller, Paris, 2016-2018.
Mai 68. L’architecture aussi !, Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Paris, du 16 mai au 17 septembre 2018.
Lieux infinis, agence Encore Heureux, Pavillon français de la Biennale internationale d’architecture de Venise 2018.
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Direct translation with DeepL (no links):
To know more about it
The webography follows the chronology above.
The image that opens this chronology is Marko Peljhan's Makrolab, Rottnest Island, Australia, 2000.
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Instant City, Peter Cook, Archigram, United Kingdom, 1968.
"Inflatable structures", exhibition at the Musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, from 1 to 28 March 1968.
Whole Earth Catalog, published by Stewart Brand, from 1968 to 1971 in the United States.
The inflatable church of Montigny-lès-Cormeilles, by Hans-Walter Müller, France, 1969.
Inflatocookbook, by the Ant Farm collective, United States, 1970.
The Arcosanti Urban Laboratory, Paolo Soleri, Arizona, USA, 1970.
The "Free City" of Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1971.
The FOOD restaurant of Gordon Matta-Clark, New York, 1971, Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition, an architect, Jeu de Paume museum, from June 5 to September 23, 2018.
Superstudio, architectural firm, Italy, 1966-1978.
Shelter, Lloyd Kahn, United States, 1973.
Larzac struggle, France, 1973-1982.
Sunspots, Steve Baer, Zomeworks, USA, 1975.
How to Live on the Earth, Yona Friedman, 1976.
Casa Bola, Eduardo Longo, São Paulo, Brazil, 1979.
Josep Pujiula's huts in Argelaguer, province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain, 1980-2016.
Bolo'Bolo, P.M., 1983.
Le Jardin en mouvement by Gilles Clément, 1985.
Le Magasin à Grenoble, Patrick Bouchain, 1986.
Future Shack, Sean Godsell, Australia, 1985.
Patenting of the container in housing by Philip C. Clark, United States, 1987.
Black Rock City, the ephemeral city of the Burning Man festival, Nevada, USA, 1990- .
The A.G. Gleisdreieck project, Berlin, Germany, 1990- .
Reclaim The Streets, London, 1991- .
Castlemorton Common Festival, United Kingdom, 1992.
The cardboard houses of Shigeru Ban, Kobe, Japan, 1995.
Muf (London), Stalker (Italy), Coloco (Paris), Bruit du Frigo (Bordeaux), created in 1996.
Makrolab, Marko Peljhan, Projekt Atol, Slovenia, 1997-2007.
Seattle demonstrations against the World Trade Organization, United States, 1999.
Ecobox, Atelier d'architecture autogérée, Paris, 2002.
L'architecture du RAB, Exyzt, Paris, France, 2003.
Parking Day, Rebar, San Francisco, USA, 2006.
Zone à Défendre, Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France, 2008- .
Tactical Urbanism, Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia, Island Press, 2015.
Cloud City, Tomás Saraceno, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States, 2012.
Fab City Global, created in 2014 and Fab City Summit, in Paris from 11 to 13 July 2018.
Assemble Studio (United Kingdom), Turner Prize 2015.
Elemental, Pritzker Prize 2016.
Reception of migrants at Porte de la Chapelle, Julien Beller, Paris, 2016-2018.
May 68. Architecture too, Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, Paris, from 16 May to 17 September 2018.
Lieux infinis, Encore Heureux agency, French Pavilion at the 2018 Venice International Architecture Biennale.
More about it HERE.
Monday, August 13. 2018
Note: just after archiving the MOMA exhibition on | rblg, here comes a small post by Eliza Pertigkiozoglou about the Architecture Machine Group at MIT, same period somehow. This groundbreaking architecture teaching unit and research experience that then led to the MIT Media Lab (Beatriz Colomina spoke about it in its research about design teaching and "Radical Pedagogies" - we spoke about it already on | rblg in the context of a book about the Black Mountain College).
The post details Urban 5, one of the first project the group developed that was supposed to help (anybody) develop an architecture project, in an interactive way. This story is also very well explained and detailed by Orit Halpern in the recent book by CCA: When is the Digital in Architecture?
Also some intersting posts about Max Bense, Christopher Alexander, Cedric Price and Gordon Pask on the same Medium account.
Via Medium
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By Eliza Pertigkiozoglou
URBAN 5’s overlay and the IBM 2250 model 1 cathode ray-tube used for URBAN 5 (source: openarchitectures.com)
Nicholas Negroponte (1943) founded in 1967, together with Leon Groisser, the Architecture Machine Group (Arch Mac) at MIT, which later in 1985 transformed to MIT Media Lab. Negroponte’s vision was an architecture machine that would turn the design process into a dialogue, altering the traditional human-machine dynamics. His approach was significantly influenced by recent discussion on artificial intelligence, cybernetics, conversation theory, technologies for learning, sketch recognition and representation. Arch Mac laboratory combined architecture, engineering and computing to develop architectural applications and artificially intelligent interfaces that question the design process and the role of its actors.
The Architecture Machine’s computer and interface installation (source:radical-pedagogies.com)
Urban 5 was the first research project of the lab developed in 1973, as an improved version of Urban 2. Interestingly, in his book “Architecture Machine” Negroponte explains, evaluate and criticize Urban5, contemplating on the successes and insufficiencies of the program that aimed to serve as a “toy” for experimentation rather than a tool to handle real design problems. It was “a system that could monitor design procedures” and not design tool by itself. As explained in the book, Urban’s 5 original goal was to “study the desirability and feasibility of conversing with a machine about environmental design project… using the computer as an objective mirror of the user’s own design criteria and form decisions; reflecting formed from a larger information base than the user’s personal experience”.
Urban 5 communicated with the architect-user first by giving him instructions, then by learning from him and eventually by dialoguing with him. Two languages were employed for that communication: graphic language and English language. The graphic language was using the abstract representation of cubes (nouns). The English language was text appearing on the screen (verbs). The cubes could be added incrementally and had qualities, such as sunlight, visual and acoustical privacy, which could be explicitly assigned by the user or implicitly by the machine. When the user was first introduced to the software, the software was providing instructions. Then the user could could explicitly assign criteria or generate forms graphically in different contexts. What Negroponte called context was defined by mode, which referred to different display modes that allow the designer different kinds of operations. For example, in the TOPO mode the architect can manipulate topography in plan, while in the DRAW mode he/she can manipulate the viewing mode and the physical elements. In the final stage of this human-machine relationship there was a dialogue between designer and the computer :when there was an inconsistency between the assigned criteria and the generated form, the computer informed the architect and he/she could choose the next step: ignore, postpone, and alter the criterion or the form.
Source: The Architecture Machine, Negroponte
Negreponte’s criticism give an insight of Arch Mac’s explorations, goals and self-reflection on the research project. To Negroponte, Urban 5 insufficiency was summarized in four main points. First, it was based on assumptions of the design process that can be denuded: architecture is additive(accumulation of cubes), labels are symbols and design is non-deterministic. Also, it offered specific and predetermined design services. Although different combinations could produce numerous results, they were still finite. The designer has always to decide what should be the next step in the cross-reference between the contexts/modes, without any suggestion or feedback from the computer. Last point of his criticism was that Urban 5 interacts with only one designer and the interaction is strictly mediated through “a meager selection of communication artifacts”, meaning the keyboard and the screen. The medium and the language itself.
Although Urban 5 is a simple program with limited options, the points that are addressed are basically the constraints of current CAD programs. This is, up to an extent, expected, given the medium and the language frames the interaction between man and the machine.“The world view of culture is limited by the structure of the language which that culture uses.”(Whorf, 1956) The world view of a machine is similarly marked by linguistic structure”(1). Nevertheless, it seems that Negroponte’s and Arch Mac explorations were ahead of their time, offered an insight in human-machine design interactions, suggesting “true dialogue”. “Urban 5 suggests an evolutionary system, an intelligent system — but, in itself , is none of them”(2).
References:
(1),(2): Quotes of Negroponte from “The Architecture Machine” book -see below
-Negroponte Nicholas, The Architecture Machine: Towards a more human environment, MIT Press, 1970
- Wright Steenson Molly, Architectures of Information:Christofer Alexander, Cedric Price and Nicholas Negroponte & MIT’s Architecture Machine Group, Phd Thesis, Princeton, April 2014
https://openarchitectures.com/2011/10/27/an-interview-with-nicholas-negroponte/
Friday, July 13. 2018
Note: following the exhibition Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989 until last April at MOMA, images of the show appeared on the museum's website, with many references to projects. After Archeology of the Digital at CCA in Montreal between 2013-17, this is another good contribution to the history of the field and to the intricate relations between art, design, architecture and computing.
How cultural fields contributed to the shaping of this "mass stacked media" that is now built upon the combinations of computing machines, networks, interfaces, services, data, data centers, people, crowds, etc. is certainly largely underestimated.
Literature start to emerge, but it will take time to uncover what remained "out of the radars" for a very long period. They acted in fact as some sort of "avant-garde", not well estimated or identified enough, even by specialized institutions and at a time when the name "avant-garde" almost became a "s-word"... or was considered "dead".
Unfortunately, no publication seems to have been published in relation to the exhibition, on the contrary to the one at CCA, which is accompanied by two well documented books.
Via MOMA
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Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989
November 13, 2017–April 8, 2018 | The Museum of Modern Art
Drawn primarily from MoMA's collection, Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989 brings artworks produced using computers and computational thinking together with notable examples of computer and component design. The exhibition reveals how artists, architects, and designers operating at the vanguard of art and technology deployed computing as a means to reconsider artistic production. The artists featured in Thinking Machines exploited the potential of emerging technologies by inventing systems wholesale or by partnering with institutions and corporations that provided access to cutting-edge machines. They channeled the promise of computing into kinetic sculpture, plotter drawing, computer animation, and video installation. Photographers and architects likewise recognized these technologies' capacity to reconfigure human communities and the built environment.
Thinking Machines includes works by John Cage and Lejaren Hiller, Waldemar Cordeiro, Charles Csuri, Richard Hamilton, Alison Knowles, Beryl Korot, Vera Molnár, Cedric Price, and Stan VanDerBeek, alongside computers designed by Tamiko Thiel and others at Thinking Machines Corporation, IBM, Olivetti, and Apple Computer. The exhibition combines artworks, design objects, and architectural proposals to trace how computers transformed aesthetics and hierarchies, revealing how these thinking machines reshaped art making, working life, and social connections.
Organized by Sean Anderson, Associate Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, and Giampaolo Bianconi, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance Art.
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More images HERE.
Friday, March 09. 2018
Note: a proto-smart-architecture project by Cedric Price dating back from the 70ies, which sounds much more intersting than almost all contemporary smart architecture/cities proposals.
These lattest being in most cases glued into highly functional approaches driven by the "paths of less resistance-frictions", supported if not financed by data-hungry corporations. That's not a desirable future to my point of view.
"(...). If not changed, the building would have become “bored” and proposed alternative arrangements for evaluation (...)"
Via Interactive Architecture Lab (at the Bartlett)
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Cedric Price’s proposal for the Gilman Corporation was a series of relocatable structures on a permanent grid of foundation pads on a site in Florida.
Cedric Price asked John and Julia Frazer to work as computer consultants for this project. They produced a computer program to organize the layout of the site in response to changing requirements, and in addition suggested that a single-chip microprocessor should be embedded in every component of the building, to make it the controlling processor.
This would result in an “intelligent” building which controlled its own organisation in response to use. If not changed, the building would have become “bored” and proposed alternative arrangements for evaluation, learning how to improve its own evaluation, learning how to improve its own organisation on the basis of this experience.
The Brief
Generator (1976-79) sought to create conditions for shifting, changing personal interactions in a reconfigurable and responsive architectural project.
It followed this open-ended brief:
"A building which will not contradict, but enhance, the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere; has to be accessible to the public as well as to private guests; has to create a feeling of seclusion conducive to creative impulses, yet…accommodate audiences; has to respect the wildness of the environment while accommodating a grand piano; has to respect the continuity of the history of the place while being innovative."
The proposal consisted of an orthogonal grid of foundation bases, tracks and linear drains, in which a mobile crane could place a kit of parts comprised of cubical module enclosures and infill components (i.e. timber frames to be filled with modular components raging from movable cladding wall panels to furniture, services and fittings), screening posts, decks and circulation components (i.e. walkways on the ground level and suspended at roof level) in multiple arrangements.
When Cedric Price approached John and Julia Frazer he wrote:
"The whole intention of the project is to create an architecture sufficiently responsive to the making of a change of mind constructively pleasurable."
Generator Project
They proposed four programs that would use input from sensors attached to Generator’s components: the first three provided a “perpetual architect” drawing program that held the data and rules for Generator’s design; an inventory program that offered feedback on utilisation; an interface for “interactive interrogation” that let users model and prototype Generator’s layout before committing the design.
The powerful and curious boredom program served to provoke Generator’s users. “In the event of the site not being re-organized or changed for some time the computer starts generating unsolicited plans and improvements,” the Frazers wrote. These plans would then be handed off to Factor, the mobile crane operator, who would move the cubes and other elements of Generator. “In a sense the building can be described as being literally ‘intelligent’,” wrote John Frazer—Generator “should have a mind of its own.” It would not only challenge its users, facilitators, architect and programmer—it would challenge itself.
The Frazers’ research and techniques
The first proposal, associated with a level of ‘interactive’ relationship between ‘architect/machine’, would assist in drawing and with the production of additional information, somewhat implicit in the other parallel developments/ proposals.
The second proposal, related to the level of ‘interactive/semiautomatic’ relationship of ‘client–user/machine’, was ‘a perpetual architect for carrying out instructions from the Polorizer’ and for providing, for instance, operative drawings to the crane operator/driver; and the third proposal consisted of a ‘[. . .] scheduling and inventory package for the Factor [. . .] it could act as a perpetual functional critic or commentator.’
The fourth proposal, relating to the third level of relationship, enabled the permanent actions of the users, while the fifth proposal consisted of a ‘morphogenetic program which takes suggested activities and arranges the elements on the site to meet the requirements in accordance with a set of rules.’
Finally, the last proposal was [. . .] an extension [. . .] to generate unsolicited plans, improvements and modifications in response to users’ comments, records of activities, or even by building in a boredom concept so that the site starts to make proposals about rearrangements of itself if no changes are made. The program could be heuristic and improve its own strategies for site organisation on the basis of experience and feedback of user response.
Self Builder Kit and the Cal Build Kit, Working Models
In a certain way, the idea of a computational aid in the Generator project also acknowledged and intended to promote some degree of unpredictability. Generator, even if unbuilt, had acquired a notable position as the first intelligent building project. Cedric Price and the Frazers´ collaboration constituted an outstanding exchange between architecture and computational systems. The Generator experience explored the impact of the new techno-cultural order of the Information Society in terms of participatory design and responsive building. At an early date, it took responsiveness further; and postulates like those behind the Generator, where the influence of new computational technologies reaches the level of experience and an aesthetics of interactivity, seems interesting and productive.
Resources
- John Frazer, An Evolutionary Architecture, Architectural Association Publications, London 1995. http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/publications/ea/exhibition.html
- Frazer to C. Price, (Letter mentioning ‘Second thoughts but using the same classification system as before’), 11 January 1979. Generator document folio DR1995:0280:65 5/5, Cedric Price Archives (Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture).
Saturday, February 17. 2018
Note: a few pictures from fabric | ch retrospective at #EphemeralKunsthalleLausanne (disused factory Mayer & Soutter, nearby Lausanne in Renens).
The exhibition is being set up in the context of the production of a monographic book and is still open today (Saturday 17.02, 5.00-8.00 pm)!
By fabric | ch
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All images Ch. Guignard.
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