15 April 2014

Avoiding Digital Pitfalls

Allen (page72)  “we will be infinitely unhappy because we will have lost the very place of freedom, which is expanse.” (Going on to say) “The field of freedom shrinks with speed.  And freedom needs a field.  When there is no more field, our lives will be like a terminal, a machine with doors that open and close.”

How have computers shut down your creative process?
Has the introduction of a computer stalled your momentum?
Are there experiences when the computer has invigorated a project?

Allen (page72) Allen talks about the hidden speed of computers and how that speed is not as measurable as other modernist machines such as the aircraft, the telegraph or the automobile.  The work is expressed through the affect of its motion. 

When working by hand, the ability to see and hold your progress allows for direct understanding and allowable measurement.  Does slaving away in AutoCAD seem monotonous because there is a lack of immediate accomplishment?

“What is living, present, conscious, here, is only so because there’s an infinity of little deaths, little accidents, little breaks, little cuts…” It is through these interruptions that the field is reconstituted.

This quote reminds me of the happy accidents that can happen when working away.  The sterile environment of the computer does not allow for as my slips or cuts that allow the blood of the accident to provide insight.

Allen (page80) Digital fabrication pushes the boundary of materiality and material possibility

How often have you used to the tools available in the RP lab for gathering a greater understanding of a project?
Do you use the tools in the RP lab primarily for representing work?

Allen (page85) Preston Scott Cohen or Greg Lynn, who later became identified with innovative computer based design work, were engaged in explorations of formal complexity and descriptive geometry before they had access to the computer.  This prior research gave them strong conceptual bases on which to theorize new digital design techniques from with architecture’s definition of itself as a discipline.

How important is it to use computers for specific purposes and than detach when the job is done?

I find that getting on the computer for a specific purpose is the most productive use of my time.  It’s when I start slipping into doing other things on the computer without a clear intent, that I get lost.





Clayton 

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