A few days ago, I wrote about some basics of cybernetics, concluding with a snippet from Gordon Pask’s “The Architectural Relevance of Cybernetics. “Let us turn the design paradigm in upon itself,” he wrote, “let us apply it to the interaction between the designer and the system he designs, rather than the interaction between the system… Continue reading Misfits and architecture machines
Category: interaction + mobility
A network of constant interactions and communications
[This post is a part of a month of Cyborgs, a project started by Quiet Babylon’s Tim Maly. It’s the first of two.] To get to cyborgs, we need to start with cybernetics. Norbert Wiener. Image source: Complex Fields blog. Cybernetics is a network of constant interactions and communications. Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) coined the term in 1948… Continue reading A network of constant interactions and communications
The future in the past and past futures
In June, I spent several days in Nicholas Negroponte’s personal archive from the Architecture Machine Group era up to the founding of the MIT Media Lab — working my way through hundreds of documents and taking some 1600 images. I also had the chance to interview him about the early years of his career. He was… Continue reading The future in the past and past futures
Dissertation proposal! Artificial Intelligence, Architectural Intelligence: The Computer in Architecture, 1960–80
UPDATE: My dissertation proposal. I’ve completed my dissertation proposal! My dissertation is tentatively titled “Artificial Intelligence, Architectural Intelligence: The Computer in Architecture, 1960–80.” At noon, I defend it. Wish me luck! Here is the abstract: With the advent of the information age, architects in the 1960s and 70s found themselves contending with more complex design problems than… Continue reading Dissertation proposal! Artificial Intelligence, Architectural Intelligence: The Computer in Architecture, 1960–80
“Play is a form of order” and the dimension of the trace
For a year, I’ve had this on an electronic sticky on my Mac desktop: With the trace <Spur>, a new dimension accrues to “immediate experience.” It is no longer tied to the expectation of “adventure”; the one who undergoes an experience can follow the trace that leads there.Whoever follows traces must not only pay attention;… Continue reading “Play is a form of order” and the dimension of the trace
Wer ist in? Wer ist out?
Originally by Serge Gainsbourg (“Qui est in?”), this is the Stereo Total version which I like better because it’s raunchier sounding. I post it because I’m sitting in my Systems and their Theories class taught by one of my favorite professors, Henry Sussman, and we’re working through Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. We’re talking about things… Continue reading Wer ist in? Wer ist out?