Selected Topics in Architectural History and Theory - Celik/May

Our work takes place at the intersection of various instrumental assemblages: modeling and drafting software; computer-numerically controlled fabrication devices; digital sensing and imaging equipment;  mechanical and laser plotting apparatuses; etc. Despite their prevalence in contemporary practice, however, we rarely consider the historical identities of these assemblages, or the details of their respective genealogies. When, and how, did ‘routing’ become a part of design practice? 3-d printing? Robotics? What will happen to the long history of architectural drawing when we can ‘print’ architecture at full scale?

This seminar will consider the historical emergence—or ‘biography’—of various contemporary design technologies, and in doing so will aim to illuminate the specific manner in which these technologies have come to shape not only design practices, but also designers themselves. We will examine a series of theoretical frameworks used by historians, philosophers, and theorists in their attempts to describe: the relationships between technology and subjectivity; the ‘periodization’ of successive regimes of representational techniques and instruments (and the effect of those shifts on accepted representational conventions); and the often concealed ties that bind together aesthetic practices and political power.

See full course outline here.