Sang

On behalf of Sang on being able to post...here are her questions

1. The acronym SNAFU which describes a "normal" state where things are a little bit off. Have you used Snafu in your design process? Is a snafu manageable?
2. Tactics are the modes of creative opportunity that operate within the gaps and slips of conventional thought and the patterns of everyday life. What tactic do you use when you first start a project?
3. LTL states, “while the subject changes, the tactics of investigation remain consistent. Each project begins with a close inspection of an existing situation, triggering a speculative “What if…” question that postulates an alternative derived from the logic of the given object of study.” When you are assigned a new project, what type of questions should you ask yourself when referring to case studies?

Week 15

1.     A question for Chris: Why have you chosen to use Snafus as a part of your work? How does this influence the way you start to think about your projects also what do you learn by doing these types of drawings?

2.     LTLs reading talks about the idea of “two seemingly incompatible conditions occurring simultaneously: the normal (regulated military) and the fouled-up (Snafu). lf something is normal, everyday, and ordered then how can it also be disordered, jumbled, and otherwise out of kilter?” Thoughts???

3.     “The old standards of practice have been decisively critiqued by willful destruction.  In order to participate in the building of the reconstructed city, the practice of architecture itself becomes as radically reconstructed as the architecture required by the changed conditions of living. New principles must be articulated by the architect, and new tactics invented and adopted.”  Here Woods says that in order to build a new city new practices or principles must be built or established.  What do you think some new principles have been recently and what form does this take?  Is it in the form of materiality, or function or form?

Ex. 04_personal Research Topic_2018

Your final exercise of the semester is a personal research topic. This topic may be related to your current/past studios, Master's project topic or other topic that you would like to graphically research for this course. Your topic may be directly related, tangentially related or reciprocal to architecture(al) thought. You may critique conventions, processes or projects. You may also decide to explore phenomena that are not directly related to architecture, in that, it is not a building, drawing or other.

By 9:00 AM on December 10, you must submit a 300-word abstract of your research topic via d2L Dropbox. Within your abstract you must clearly state the topic as a thesis of inquiry, your methodology for research and your expected out comes. Keep in mind, this topic must be formatted to fit the final document per the syllabus.

To view examples of previous research topics view the blog archive for April 2013.HERE

Please post any questions as comments to this post so that the entire class may benefit.

The format of exercise four and your final document shall be the same as the previous exercises, 8.5x11 Landscape format.

Exercise four will be included in your final document along with exercises 01-03. Your final document is due at noon on December 21. You will upload a SINGLE pdf file to the dropbox on d2L. Your file size may not exceed 20 MB. I will not open/review any document larger than that, and I will not review multiple files. If you do not meet these requirements your assignment will be considered late.

Label your final document files with only the following:
Final Doc_Last Name

Week 14 - Power Point Sucks and here's why

1.    Tufte states "Especially disturbing is the introduction of power point into schools.  Instead of writing report sentences, children learn how to decorate client pitches and infomercials..."  I absolutely suck at writing.  Even sitting here writing you guys questions is difficult for me.  I find more value in presenting an idea rather than writing about it.  Do you find more value in speaking to an idea or writing about it?

2.  While Tufte is very much against using Power Points, I feel like as architects our presentations differ than the ones that Banks are putting together for their investors.  Are we the exception or have we been doing this whole thing wrong?

3.  I have been always told that during a presentation if I talk about it there should be a diagram or drawing that support it.  Tufte in this paper is arguing the opposite, that we should talk more and show less visuals.  Why is our profession against some of these things Tufte is saying?

4.  Why does it feel that the School or Architecture is arguable disconnected from the practice of architecture.  Every "large" firm in Milwaukee uses PowerPoint for its building pitches, client meetings, staff meetings, basically everything.  They all use templates and are a graphic nightmare, yet they still continue to be the largest firms in the entire state.   Why is this?

week 14 - presenting your work

1.     tufte shares and example of louis gerstner (then president of IBM) shutting down a slide based presentation being given by employees of IBM. displeased, tufte recalls "indeed, gerstner later asked IBM executives to write out their business strategies in longhand using the presentation methodology of sentence, with subjects and predicates, nouns and verbs, which then combine sequentially to form paragraphs, an analytical tool demonstratively better than slideware bullet lists." has peoples dependence on presentation tools such as power point hindered their ability to write analytically, or even structurally sound?

2.     over and over again tufte expresses his disapproval of power point presentations because of their tendencies to stack information in a way that does not allow for people to learn and draw connection , giving the content a surface level, almost vain quality. he gives a few options that in his opinion enhances the viewers experience, one being "high resolution handout allow viewers to contextualize, compare, narrate, and recast evidence." how do we as architecture students utilize this, and do you think it is as successful as tufte believes it to be.

3.     recount a presentation you have given (slide based or otherwise), how do the tools and methods you used to present your content/work were effective or ineffective?

4.     agrest states "...the understanding of the world based on establishing similarities between things, images, and words-in short, representation worked by establishing analogies." she goes on to give alberti's definition of beauty "...for example, a chain of signifiers that goes from nature to the human body, to proportion, and then to geometry allows for a particular concept of beauty to be transposed to architecture." as designers, how do we use analogies to help us today?

5.     "the representation of the gothic, classical, and beaux arts styles serve to link the old and the new, imposing the new by representing the familiar. architecture becomes self-referential and buildings are representing other buildings, thus transferring their history and myths to the new." what are some examples of modern buildings being represented by other contemporary buildings and why do we do this?

Week 14 Questions

LTL:
1) Throughout the opening few pages, the essay makes reference to the unexpected and chaotic with respect to a conditioned norm. What is your opinion on the necessity of rules or 'the norm' to serve as a backdrop for innovation and chaos to shine?

2) When discussing form and function, LTL suggests renaming the common phrase "form follows function" to "function fucks with form." Why do you think they chose to word it that way instead of simply swapping the object and subject to "form follows function?" Specifically, the choice of words implies that form need not be a predetermined outcome (form) of a set of inputs (function) but that form is a multitude of possible outcomes that takes influence from the inputs, but not in a necessarily deterministic way.

3) LTL describes surrationalism as, "the self-conscious examination of the rational...Surrationalism is first and foremost a conscious, critical, and rational project..." If you consider the rational as "the norm" and surrationalism itself as a rationalizing reimagination of the norm, then would it not eventually result in the same rationalized norm that it seeks to reconsider?

Woods;
1)Woods describes the temporal nature of establishment and innovation by stating, "The architect must become, more than ever, a creature of the present, fusing all that is remembered and all that is dreamt within it..." What are the implications of equating the past with the established and the future (dreamt) with innovation?

2) Though Woods talks about the architecture of old as a service, his pleas for a new architecture with new methods, values, and tactics still treats architecture as a service. Why do we, as a profession, consistently value architecture based on its ability to solve a problem - to "save the world"?

3) Woods states on rebuilding the city, "Because the architect has a more intimate knowledge than others of the city's physical structures and their processes of coming into being, it falls to the architect to act in the void left by the disruption or collapse of institutional authority." He says this despite saying, several paragraphs earlier, "Architects are no longer able...to view the city from high above, as though it were an object to be manipulated and dominated." Do you see a non sequitur here? Is there a way for architects to take charge using our knowledge while still being cognizant of the greater society at large? Do we need to?

Digital

1. In the Picon reading he states, "computer generated images play a role in this crisis of scale", do you believe this statement holds true in your own work? 
2. In the Picon reading he states that architectural form used to appear as the ultimate result of a process of research, he then continues to say a computer generated architectural form can no longer pretend to achieve this status. Do you believe this statement to be true? Can an architectural form solely begin with a computer generated process?
3. In Allens reading he claims traditional architectural representation has power because of its abstracted approach, do you think that oversimplification or over abstraction can lead to a faulty design?
4. Are there new technological advancements in computer generated design that can help solve the problems discussed in both readings? Do you think virtual reality is the future of architectural design?

---

WEEK 13_AVOIDING DIGITAL PITFALLS

1. In the reading Architecture, Science, Technology, and the Virtual Realm, Antoine Picon discusses how architecture operates in the virtual dimension. What are the advantages and disadvantages to this? In the future, do you believe there will be advances in technology that could push us closer to full actualization?

2. "From an architectural standpoint, the major consequence of this preeminence is the destabilization of form, a destabilization all the more paradoxical since it is the operations of the designer and the calculations of the computer that simultaneously and rigorously, define form" (Picon, 303).
Does the use of digital architecture help or hurt our abilities to design form? If you believe it helps, how so? If you believe it hurts, how can we fix this issue while still allowing for digital platforms?

3. In both readings, Allen and Picon discuss the dangers of the destroying the field. How can we use technological advances to help redefine the field and keep it from becoming a "terminal velocity"?

4. "The aim of the architect is no longer to propose an alternative, and allegedly better, world but to take the world as it is, to contribute to the further actualization of its potential rather than bring about the advent of a remote utopia"(Picon, 307).
Do you believe the idea that we are operating in a virtual dimension plays a role on this trend/do you believe advances in technology has brought this about? Do you believe it is more beneficial to operate in the manner of realism? If you believe so, to the architect or the client?

5. Both readings discuss scale through computer-generated images. In what ways do you believe scale is being lost/advanced through digital platforms?

6. Allen mentions that a disadvantage of working through a computer is that everything is accumulative and nothing is lost. Have you ever found this to be a disadvantage in your own work while designing through a digital software vs by hand?

Week 12: Research Methodologies

1 Let’s take a poll and see if there are any overwhelming majorities. How would you classify yourself? (anonymous – write on a piece of scrap paper - pick just one)

Herzog and de Meuron or {{{{Operations}Projects}}}

Aranda\Lasch or {{{{Operations}}}Movement}

Le Corbusier or {{{}Projects}Theses}Movement}

OMA or {{{{}Projects}Theses}}

Bruno Taut or {{{{}Projects}}Movements}

Enric Miralles or {{{{}Projects}}}

Diller + Scofidio or {{{{}}Theses}}

Are the results a product of the faculty/curriculum of this school, or mostly a personal choice?

Is your classification the same as your favorite architects?

2 “Movements are usually defined as organized effort to achieve a common goal” – Pineiro II

What are the current overarching (or most exciting to you) movements of architectural practice? Do we expect these to change in the next five years (or near future?) – Thinking about what we will encounter as we enter the working world.

3 “The process of design and construction is characterized by constant tactical adjustments made to the demands of clients, codes, consultants, budgets, builders, and regulatory agencies, not to mention the complex logistics of construction itself?” – Allen XI

Do any of these types of demands worry you more than the others in studios or as you think about entering practice?

4 “It is precisely when practice and experimentation turn up inconsistencies in the “normal science” that new theories are produced” – Allen XII

Which of the classifications as presented by Pineiro best facilitate the balance of practice and experimentation required to produce new theories?

5 “…doubt returns thought to openness before the world; it involves a loss of control which places thought in a more vulnerable relation to the world than before” – Allen XV

How much does doubt weigh on your thoughts throughout the design process? Is it a tool or an impediment? Is it more prevalent in the beginning (when choosing what the project should be), at the end (when thinking about what the project could have been), or some other time? (I’m thinking of doubt as “hard-headed” skepticism here. Self-criticism, client desires, best approaches, etc…)

week 12_research methodologies

Allen, "Practice vs. Project" Introduction, Practice, pp X-XXIII:

1. "Constraint is not an obstacle to creativity, but an opportunity for invention, provoking the discovery of new techniques." (p. XV)

How does constraint benefit and/or effect our own work in studio and what are some of those constraints that we are faced with?

2. "Meaning is not something added to architecture; it is a much larger, and a slipperier, momentary thing. It is not located in the architecture; it is what happens to and around architecture as part of a complex social exchange. It happens in the interval, as the result of an encounter between architecture and its public, in the field" (p. XIV)

This idea of social infrastructure and interaction creating meaning in architecture is very powerful, developments can create social and architectural impact on a multiplicity of scales. How do we as designers create these scenarios? In the context of Milwaukee, I think of developments such as Fiserv Forum, The Hop, and the Summerfest grounds.

3. "Two important senses of the word practice intersect here: practice designating the collective and peripatetic improvisations of multiple inhabitants in the city connects to practice as the creative exercise of  an intellectual discipline by an individual." (p. XIX)

Where these two senses of practice intersect there is spectrum of intensity between strict and creative. Are there nodes along this spectrum that are more applicable to different aspects of the design process? The above quotes relate to the Lopez-Pineiro reading as it describes a bridge between practice and production in both a professional and academic construct.


Lopez-Pineiro, "How to do a Thesis: Practice Models as Investigators for Academic Theses", pp 1-9:

4. In regard to the categories described within the Lopez-Pineiro reading (p. 3-7):

• Herzog and de Meuron or {{{{Operations}Projects}}}
• Aranda\Lasch or {{{{Operations}}}Movement}
• Le Corbusier or {{{}Projects}Theses}Movement}
• OMA or {{{{}Projects}Theses}}
• Bruno Taut or {{{{}Projects}}Movements}
• Enric Miralles or {{{{}Projects}}}
• Diller + Scofidio or {{{{}}Theses}}

  How would you classify your own design characteristics/process in relation to the above categories?

5. Pre-thesis students: 30-second elevator pitch of your current thesis research (i.e. topic, location, advisory, concept, etc.). What are your personal opinions of the process so far?

6. Even if you are not in thesis, how could these ideas described in the reading be applied to daily studio/seminar work to better evolve projects and create more innovation? 

week 12 - research methodologies

1 allen states "theory's promise is to make up for what practice lacks, to confer unity on the wildly disparate procedures of design and construction." in your experiences interning with or working for an architectural firm, how hove you found practice and theory interact?

2 because visual and material practices have rules that differ from those of textual practices, allen says "...architecture has never been particularly effective as a vehicle of criticism." that it is inherently affirmative and instrumental. as architecture students who receive criticism in regards to our visual and material based architectural projects, do you agree or disagree with this?

3 "...image culture belongs to the new ways of thinking and seeing that have emerged with modernity: shifting mental schemas that mark our uncertain position in the modern would and force us to see how the practice of architecture has been constantly revised by the complex current of twentieth century thought." how are imagerial representation (images, film, graphics, etc) seen as fleeting (or are they not?) and help us better understand ever-changing contemporary architecture?

4 lopez-pineiro wonders of traditional thesis rituals in schools of architecture "why do we-the architectural community at large-ask students to do a thesis if most practicing architects do not work in this manner?" as a first year grad, i also wonder. for those of you currently in thesis, are you 'enjoying' the process so far/would you prefer another way of structuring thesis? if so what would that look like for you?

colllage

1. Shields writes “a work of architecture contains accumulated history as it is lived and engaged rather than observed.” How as students are we able to convey a sense of history or engagement with a studio project? How can collaging aid this process?

2. Through your own projects what has collaging been most effective at conveying? Was this information easily comprehended by the audience?

3. On page 163 Corner states he is “struck by the range of types and forms of representation in comparison to the relatively small number of techniques used in the landscape, architectural, and planning arts.” Do you think this limit in representation is due to the field of our study?

Week 11

1.  “collage has transformed throughout the past century as the conception of space has evolved Materially, the choice of fragments is also distinctive, revealing evidence of the time and place in which the collages were constructed” (Shields : 9) Since collage has gone through evolutionary changes, in what ways does that effect how people think about collage and how it has an effect on the design of architecture. 
2. “The collagist’s tools are simple: a scalpel used in tandem with a probe or a pair of tweezers and small tabs to keep things in the right place prior to the gluing operation.” (Nicholson: 20) How has technology changed or replaced the tools necessary to create collage? 
3. “Any recovery of landscape in contemporary culture is ultimately dependent on the development of new images and techniques of conceptualization.” (Corner: 153-154) Before the contemporary culture, 1945 to the present, how would collage helped the recovery of landscape issues?... like the Great Depression, 1929-1939, or WW2, 1939-1945.  

WEEK 11_COLLAGE

1. On page 22 Nicholson states, "Making requires living with something that is knowingly incorrect. It is this anti-idealistic incorrectness which mysteriously permits the work to advance." This reading also suggests that the act of collage making is as productive as the outcome. Have you used collage as a generative tool during the architectural design process?
2. On page 2 Shields states, "The practice of collage has the capacity to capture spatial and material characteristics of the built environment, acting as an analytical and interpretive mechanism." Can the rendering software that we are taught in school, such as v-ray, capture the spatial and experiential qualities that collage is capable of achieving? What are the shortcomings of v-ray/lumion/ sketchup in comparison to collage and vice versa?
3. How can digital tools successfully be used in conjunction with collage, so that the full potential of collage as suggested by the readings is not lost? Are there any examples that come to mind?

WEEK 11_COLLAGE

1. Throughout all three readings by Nicholson, Shields, and Corner, each brief on the the process of collage making. The readings discuss the advantages of collages as a physical process, but are there any advantages to using digital production in the collage making process? If so, what do you think they are? If not, what advantages could our architectural representations benefit from by using collage outside of the digital platforms?

2. "The practitioner must have the skill to free the weight of the body, so that it can pirouette about the scalpel blade whist constant direction and pressure is applied to its point" (Nicholson, 20). In this quote from the reading, Collage Making, Nicholson discusses that one must understand the collage making process but also allow the mind to free itself during the process. Do you believe the most successful collage is one that is preplanned or on the spot? How do you create an architectural representation to convey a certain layers of meaning if it is not preplanned?

3. Do you use collage in your architectural representation to reveal layers of understanding to yourself or others?

4. Within the reading by James Corner, he discusses landscape and image being inseparable. Do you think landscape in collages heightens or hurts the image? If applied to an architectural representation such as a rendering, do you think it should display "realistic" landscape types or something as imaginative as a collage?

5. In the readings from Shields and Nicholson, both discuss collage being a tool to allow for layering of information. In this collaged image by Henry Stephens, what are the different layers of information he is trying to portray? Which are the most important?

09 MUYBRIDGE & MOVEMENT | the body in time and space

due to technical issues, Doan's questions were not posted.

... posting oh her behalf.

Allen differentiates between diagrams and notation, and describes “notational systems operate according to shared conventions of interpretations, while diagrams are by definition open to multiple interpretations”. What does this have to do with architectural drawings?

On page 50 & 51, Allen gives out multiple definitions of what a diagram can be. I think the most basic definition that best explains a diagram is "an explanatory device to communicate or clarify form, structure, or program" (50) or "a graphic assemblage that specifies relationships between activity and form" (51). Do you agree or disagree?

Do we read a city by reading its text: "from the language of its inhabitants to the space of the street" (56)? How do we read a city if it has changed so much?

09 MUYBRIDGE & MOVEMENT | the body in time and space

“Notations belong to time, diagrams to space and organization” (p. 49). On the following page, the author states that “notational systems operate according to shared conventions of interpretations, while diagrams are by definition open to multiple interpretations”. On page 64, however, “notations always describe a work… open to interpretation and change in the course of future performance. “ At first, these statements seem mutually exclusive. Are they really? If not, can you elaborate on why they might not be?

Recently, I have come to appreciate the value of diagram architecture, even though it does not "produce meaning" and tends to focus more on “immediacy, simple forms, direct accommodation of program, and the pleasures of the literal. “ (p.53) What do you think about it (diagram architecture)?

“The modern city… has gone out of control… it has lost the signifying potencies and structural coherence that it once seemed to possess… can no longer be read in any coherent or predictable manner.” (p.56)  We haven’t experienced that “once upon a time” period, but can taste its bittersweets character in relation to the urban insertions and modification imposed by the modern, “illegible city” and time. Personally, I see it (the “illegibility”) as a profound reorientation towards a changed world; a legible manifestation of a social, historical and political chaos that also resembles the inherent unpredictability of human nature and times that we are actually familiar with. What does it (the illegible city) mean to you?

Week 8- The form of data

1.     To better understand Sparklines take out one piece of paper and create a sparkline using datawords to describe the highs and lows of your educational experience in architecture as well as your social life. Have both lines begin at the same point. Use the font that best describes you or your personality. (5 minutes)
2.   How is parallelism different and similar to sparklines?
3.    Can parallelism and sparklines be shown together within architecture, or even in the same image, simultaneously to explain certain data?

Week_08-The Form of Data

1.  If sparklines are data lines with word-like graphics, how are only 3% - 5% of the graphics          published by major scientific journals considered sparklines? 
2. Would binary code, which is a representation of text and computer instruction, be considered a sparkline?
3.  "...sparkline graphics give us some chance to be approximately right rather than exactly wrong." (63) How can we be approximately right or exactly wrong if all the data needed is already there for us to read?
4. Would tree rings be considered sparklines? Or would the "resolution" be considered too small for consideration?

Week 08 - The Form of Data

1. To what extent can sparklines be understood as wordlike graphics if there are no words associated with the graphic?

2. What are some ways that this strongly statistical graphic might be used in the architecture field?

3. How might sparklines reinforce the ideas and graphic language read from the parallelism reading?

4. The Salyut 6 space flight used a cyclogram to layout their time in space, but initially failed due to its reminding of how much time they had left. How might you have fixed the graphic to look forward to the future and stay excited for their return to Earth?

5. How might architecture utilize ideas of parallelism without being directly related?

Week 08 - The Form of Data

1)      “Worldlike sparklines should often be embedded in text and tables, which provide a helpful context for interpreting otherwise free- floating sparklines” (49). Do sparklines need to be accompanied with text for understanding to be attained?

For instance, if one’s heartrate were to be monitored and captured graphically from before one’s beginning of life to after death, could that be understood visually without text?

2)      In the same instance of heart rate monitoring, can sparklines be understood auditorily? Can music be described as auditory sparklines?

3)      Moving away from visual and auditory perceptions, can sparklines be understood tactilely?

4)      Christopher Wilmarth’s “Gift of the Bridge” (84) describes the degradation of his birthday card. In architecture, we can see not only the effects of erosion and the changing climate but also material degradation as an indexing of environmental change through time. How/Should can design be done to capture this effectively?

5)      In the cyclogram narrative of the Salyut 6 space flight, we see various amounts of information captured as once. Does presenting this vast amount of information at once mitigate the understanding of critical events as opposed to seeing more detailed day or week by week events shown separately? (See World Map)

07 The Narrative Armature

1. On page 29, McCloud talks about how when we simplify a face it still registers as being just as "real" as a a direct copy of a face.  Why is that without all the details it still seems real to us?

2.  Icon and symbol are often used interchangeably but are they actually separate things?  McCloud classified icon as meaning any image used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea.  Would you agree with this?

3. "The storyboard determines the sequence of shots to be taken for a film."  Do you think that architects do something similar to this during the design process?

4. Davids talks about montage.  He says that "montage is characterized by the unusual: a collage of seemingly unrelated shots run in sequence for dramatic effect."  Do you think that something like this can be used in architecture and benefit a presentation or would it be harmful to the presentation?

07_Representation

1. What is your favorite comic? Why?  Has it changed since you read McCloud's and David's readings?

2. Do you get distracted by the details of a comic if it is complex? Does a detailed comic make it hard to follow the story line?


3. McCloud mentions on page 31 how film critics "sometimes describe a live-action film as a 'cartoon' to acknowledge the stripped-down intensity of a simple story or visual style." Translating that to the architecture world, do you think that is how architectural critics think?  When presenting your work, do you allow your critics to simplify your project on their own or do you help them through this process?  Is that the point of creating diagrams, tracings, and mappings?

3. McCloud said that "we assign identities and emotions (to things) where none exist." Why do you think we do this?

4. David mentions in his reading the importance of scale figures in drawings.  He gives the example of  Le Corbusier's drawings of jardin suspendu, where the scale figures in the drawings are interacting in the space and moving within it.  With this example in mind, how does thinking about the placement and activity of the scale figures in your drawings make you think about space? As opposed to just dropping them in?

07 THE NARRATIVE ARMATURE

1. What are some advantages of depicting characters as more abstract and cartoon than realistic? Could this be applied to architecture? (McCloud)

2. Why do some artists employ the strategy of utilizing detailed and realistic backgrounds in combination with characters drawn as cartoons? In what ways, if any, could this technique be beneficial for communicating architecture? Would it be better in reverse? (McCloud p 42)

3. McCloud discusses the ranges of pictures and words within the scale of received to perceived, how can we use this idea to think about how we communicate architecture? (McCloud p 49)

4. Storyboards in film are a preliminary design tool, in what ways could they be a design tool for architecture? (Davids)


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Tyler's Questions

1. McCloud notes, "When two people interract, they usually look directly at one another, seeing their partner's features in vivid detail. Each one also sustains a constant awareness of his or her own face, but this mind-picture is not nearly so vivid; just a sketchy arrangement... a sense of shape... a sense of general placement."
   1. Spend one minute drawing your neighbor to the right and one minute drawing yourself. Is the class able to match the drawings to the correct people? Is there a higher success rate with one over the other? More detail? 
2. McCloud discusses the abstraction of faces to their simplest forms. He also claims that we are better at connecting with abstracted figures rather than highly detailed ones (p. 36). Is this accurate? Is this why architects use objects to abstract inspiration from rather than making "duck" buildings. Does this empower the observer?
3. Storyboards. Architects regularly use storyboards to express their projects. Perspective renders are typically a key component but growing trends outsource these images to other companies. Is there an inherent value in developing the content of the storyboard or does the value exist solely in the final product? Is the same true for physical models?
4. How can architecture express time? Why is this important? 
5. Davids says, "The shift away from illustrating the human figure in architectural space is a shift away from architectural form as a setting for life in favor of architecture as a form of personal expression." Why do you agree or disagree? Why do we tend to use entourage in renderings but photograph buildings without people? 

Week 05_Index

1.    On  page 198 of Krauss’ Notes on the Indexwe are introduced to the painting Tu m by Marcel Duchamp. How do you think this influenced the ideas of an index?

2.    What medium is best to represent something? Are there pieces of the physical object lost in photography, painting, or drawing? Can these differences be used to our advantage in architecture?

3.    Deborah Hay gave a performance in which she explained to her audience “instead of dancing, she wished to talk” Was she successful in her attempt to become completely in touch with her body? Is the form of linguistic index completely different from an index of movement of the human body?

4.    In part 2 of Krauss’ Notes on the Index, she explains that dance is no longer interpreted as something symbolic but as an index. Are signs and indexes viewed differently by different cultures?

05 INDEX - Krauss

Question Set #1

Krauss quotes Barthes as writing “Photography set up, in effect, not a perception of the being-there of an object (which all copies are able to provoke), but a perception of its having-been-there. It is a question therefore of a new category of space-time: spatial immediacy and temporal anteriority.”

Do you agree with this experience of photography? How does the photo-realistic capability of architectural representation in this era fit into this view? I think most of us would agree that providing “spatial immediacy” is a regular goal. But are we also provoking a sense of “having-been-there”? Why, or why not?

Question Set #2

Although photo manipulation existed long before the digital era, Krauss seems to view and trust photography as a medium mostly faithful and connected to reality. Today, in a world filled with powerful digital photo-manipulation tools, images are inherently suspect as indexical or traces of reality. After all, architects can create an entirely new world modeled and detailed in a computer without tracing anything (or are we still unknowingly tracing/indexing something?).  

How much do we trust photography to accurately document “reality”? Does lack of trust effect the artistic expression potential or power of the medium? If so, what does that mean for how we move architectural representation forward?      

Question Set #3

Krauss describes a performance by a professional dancer, Deborah Hay, who explained to her audience that instead of dancing, she wished to talk. In her case the aspiration for dance was to be in touch with the movement of every cell in her body and to have recourse to speech. At that time she could no longer find justification for performing routines of movement in that effort, so instead she spoke.

What would happen if an architecture student did this during a final critique or during an important client meeting? (Or maybe a better question is what would be the architectural equivalent?) Are our objectives/motivations for practicing architecture similar, or connected in some way, to Hay’s attempt to be in touch with every cell in her body or to be fully present? In typical architectural circumstances, is the representation indexical to the architectural vision/inspiration, or is the final vision/product an index to the representation?

Question Set #4

What was your favorite piece of art referenced by Krauss and why? Was understanding the indexical qualities of that piece vital to your appreciation of it? (Examples of references are Acconci’s “Airtime,” Duchamp’s pieces, Oppenheim’s “Identity Stretch,” Askevold’s “The Ambit: Part I,” Hay's dance/talk, etc….)

05 INDEX

     REQUEST: Everyone, please be prepared to discuss three things related to   Krauss' readings.

1.      Something that intrigued you…

2.      Something that you disagree with…

3.      Something that a classmate will talk about… 

QUESTIONS:

# 1, 1 1/2:

    Krauss talks about the “psychic gestalt” (Part 1, p. 197, bottom) as well as the Symbolic and the contrasting Imaginary stage of Development (Part 1, p. 198, top).

    In general, Gestalt is a phenomenon in the field of psychology (actually, a whole branch). Along with other terms that are well known in psychology, Gestalt isn’t discussed in the reading even though it refers to it. In short, it studies the whole as a sum of its parts (Similarity, Closure, Continuity, Common Movement, Proximity and Figure-Ground). In addition, Gestalt also refers to theories of visual perception: principles that we rely on while working on projects of sorts (Symmetry, Closure, Continuity, Order, Proximity, and Figure-Ground).

    If we think about the symbolic (with its somewhat clear characteristics) and the imaginary (in parallel to its innate mysticism) in terms of indexing means of visual production, does the imaginary have any place under the Strong Visual Techniques umbrella? Can it effectively adopt Gestalt characteristics without losing its enigmatic attributes?

# 2, 2 1/2:

    Marcel Duchamp is considered a genius (in his own right) by many, if not most artists and other people, due to the originality of his pieces (means of representation, ideas, etc.)

    How do you define originality? Is it something that you have never seen or dared to imagine before, or is it a mere representation of an idea that contradicts “your own” beliefs and assumptions about the world and its conventions which you “had no role in shaping”, or is it something else entirely?

# 3, 3 1/2:

    From the standpoint of general associations, ‘70s art and factions go hand in hand. ‘70s art diversity and presumed lack of a collective style may or may not be an indicator of an irrefutable difference.

    The Collective unconscious (a term presented by psychiatrist Carl Jung) represents “a form of the unconscious (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware) common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain… collective unconscious contains archetypes, or universal primordial images and ideas” (www.britannica.com).

    Can ’70s factionalized nature actually be interpreted as a manifestation of the greater collective unconscious with all of its complexities (hence, the numerous factions in ‘70s art)? If so, can it be concluded then that 70’s art is not as diversified and original, but it is simply a representation of the complex whole as a sum of even more convoluted parts that we are not aware of, but already exist from the inside out?

Week 4: The Agency Of Mapping

• 1.       James Corner States, “What distinguishes the map from the tracing is that it is entirely oriented toward an experimentation in contact with the real. The map does not reproduce an unconscious closed in upon itself; it constructs the unconscious”.  In the studio or past studios you have been did you do mapping or tracing?
• 2.       Rem Koolhaus states “The generic city presents the final death of planning. Why? Not because it is unplanned . . . [but because] planning makes no difference whatsoever”  What Cities in your eyes are generic cities and why?
• 3.       “'Proto-urban conditions are like emotions ir-r human beings,' writes Bunschoten, 'subliminal conditions that strongly affect physical states and behavior”.  How can a static map capture something as dynamic as a city and something as subjective as human emotion?
• 4.       Layering, drifing and Rhizome are staple mapping techniques.  With new emerging technology what is going to be the next influential mapping technique?
• 5.       Would it be better to adapt a city (eg. Milwaukee and LA) over time? Or to manifest a perfect city then populate it (eg. Paris and Rome)?
• 

built city of Naypyidaw

Corner_The Agency of Mapping

1) "...given the importance of representational technique in the creative process, it is surprising that whilst there has been no shortage of new ideas and theories in design and planning there has been so little advancement and invention of those specific tools and techniques -- including mapping -- that are so crucial for the effective construal and construction of new worlds." (217) Maps have a specific purpose. Does that mean we should leave the way we map the same, or does it need to evolve with our ideas in order to show the more complicated and advanced ideas?

2) Maps are a tool that show specific information. How far can you go until a map is no longer a map but just an assortment of jumbled ideas or references?

Week 4 - The Agency of Mapping

1)      Corner states “…maps must by necessity be abstract if they are to sustain meaning and utility” (222). How abstract can a map be pushed until it loses its meaning and/or utility?

2)      The difference between planning and mapping is touched on throughout Corner’s writing. Mapping differs from planning in that it entails searching, finding and unfolding complex forces rather than imposing an idealized project from on high (228). For what purpose is the Urban Planner? Should such a role be better done by an “Urban Mapper”?

3)      Of the 4 thematic emerging practices of mapping, is there one practice that seems most useful in communicating ideas?

4)      “…Maps are sites for the imaging and projecting of alternative worlds. Thus maps are in-between the virtual and the real (225). Where do the 4 thematic practices of mapping fall on this spectrum?

5)      “The exploratory mapper detours around the obvious so as to engage what remains hidden” (225). Is one able to find hidden connections within the obvious?

Week 4 - The Agency of Mapping

1) In describing and advocating more open-ended forms of creativity, philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari declare: ‘Make a map not a tracing!’. What is the difference between the two and why is it important to understand the difference? (pg 214) 

2) When looking at Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion map in comparison to a Mercator projection map, how do they compare and contrast? Why is it imporant to examine them in relation to each other? (pg 217)

3) Corner says that “Unlike paintings and photographs, which have the capacity to bear a direct resemblance to the things they depict, maps must by necessity be abstract if they are to sustain meaning and utility... such abstraction....(is) their virtue.” Do you agree with this? How does this relate to the two fables (by Jorge Luis Borge and Lewis Carroll) that Corner summarized?  (pg 221-222)

4) Corner describes the operational structure of mapping as consisting of ‘fields’, ‘extracts’, and ‘plottings’. Of the three, he says that  the set-up of the field is one of the most creative acts in mapping. Do you agree and if so, do you think this makes the field more important than either 'extracts' or 'plottings'? (pg 229)

5) Corner describes four techniques for mapping: drift, layering, game-board, rhizome. Which of these four do you think might lead to the greatest discoveries in mapping? Which technique do you think is the most abstract? (pg 231)