Responding to msg by davidr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (david reddy) on
>Technology mediates theory and practice. It is
>fundamental to making, whether one is involved with
>clay pots or steel and glass towers. And making
>physical constructions (from dirt, wood, steel, glass,
>plastic, electricty, etc.) IS my personal agenda. New
>digital media are empowering us to build our visions,
>however humble or grand, by making it possible to
>connect design (theory) directly to construction
>(practice.) This can be as simple as giving the
>digital model to the contractor, working with her to
>find more efficient and cost effective ways to bring
>design thinking onto the physical plane.
>
>Does techne media(te) the Ontologic(theorea) and the
>Ontic(praxis)? I think so.
David,
This is a fine statement and pretty well tracks our
serpentine direction here, probably well in advance, too.
Would you agree that language -- text and graphics -- is a
technology in this sense of mediating theory and practice?
We have found that we can gradually move it along but no
faster than is comprehensible to our correspondents, who,
thank bountiful, often are moving it too, we just didn't
get their point in our eagerness to make our own.
It is this jaw-boning and ear-filling exchange of mediation
that interests us, having learned from day one as
architects how much others contribute to making our work a
success or failure, including long after move-in.
We listen to all others and learn now far more than at the
beginning -- owners, materials salepersons, standards and
code writers, consultants, general and specialty
contractors, workers of all kinds, maintenance and repair
teams, insurance and disaster investigators, and, yes, by
all means, the thinkers and theoretical designers and
prognosticators, especially those who have no interest in
design and architecture, or like Derrida, have a knack for
shocking us by creatively misunderstanding what we thought
we knew so well.
I have written here before about how Derrida, for one,
Richard Rorty another, has helped us read Sweets and and
building codes and technical materials of all sorts, and
from there produce more engaging documents, specs and
drawings. Derrida's "Postcard" has been an inspiration.
His musings on architecture have been hilarious, and I like
his poking fun at the archie theorists who try to ride on,
or hide beneath, his coattails. He and Rorty and others of
exquisite philo-lit ability ex-laxed us from constipation
of habitual over-seriousness.
As a prolegomena to the digital prospects, I'll mention a
few,
which are less sweeping than your Terra Incognita (which we
will come back to at another time):
We are working to setup wireless transmittals of data to
the field and getting faster feedback. As you know, a
number of the large engineering firms are well advanced at
this, especially in surveying with GPS. We have looked at
the portable packs these folks use to receive, record,
sketch and send. Great tool for measured drawings of
existing conditions and rapid exchange back home. We think
they can be used in a variety of ways to inspect and
otherwise track construction.
More propsectively, we have looked at the
micro-electromechanical devices and sensors the military is
developing for attachment to the body for recording and
transmitting soldiers' vital signs to base medical
officers. These might at some point be worn by people in
the field to implement info from a remote location. For
example, I might wear a device at the job site to receive
info directly from my home computer -- designs, shop
drawings, material data, hazmat info -- and send back
findings of sensors of my eyes, lungs, hands, feet, body
position, temperature, brain wave patterns, pornographic
yearnings, sick humor.
We have just begun to look at the language sensing modules
being developed by the federal government for scanning and
digesting gargantuan amounts of electronic text and data.
These we would use to scan and digest the voluminous hard
copy general interest, design and construction material
crossing our desks and going now into hard copy bins. We
need algorithms for more ready access to this during
planning, design, construction and follow-up -- as well as
our own sanity and keeping up with the most fashionable
dementia about our fair arte.
We are studying cryptology, stegonagraphy and
authentication of electronic documents. NYC, like other
municipalities, is finally getting set to accept electronic
filings of electronic documents where authentication of
signature and data is needed. As you may know,
something similar is being done with art works.
Money-making prospects for these will be addressed off-list
in the spirit of mutually beneficial competition and
collusion.
And, in anticipation of discussing your Terra statement,
we dutifully, to parrot the parrots, find the Net to be a
fabulous techne for prowling unknown territory. It's the
best piece of exotic architecture in the making we've come
across in a long time. We're surveying and recording it
madly, trying to catch up. Every day we find something
practical and theoretical, two sides of the coin usually.
At the rate things are moving we expect our current views on
digital techne to be superceded ziply, and we shall laugh at
our presumptions and ignorance, or cry crocodile tears all
the
way to David Sucher's off-shore data haven bank.
>Technology mediates theory and practice. It is
>fundamental to making, whether one is involved with
>clay pots or steel and glass towers. And making
>physical constructions (from dirt, wood, steel, glass,
>plastic, electricty, etc.) IS my personal agenda. New
>digital media are empowering us to build our visions,
>however humble or grand, by making it possible to
>connect design (theory) directly to construction
>(practice.) This can be as simple as giving the
>digital model to the contractor, working with her to
>find more efficient and cost effective ways to bring
>design thinking onto the physical plane.
>
>Does techne media(te) the Ontologic(theorea) and the
>Ontic(praxis)? I think so.
David,
This is a fine statement and pretty well tracks our
serpentine direction here, probably well in advance, too.
Would you agree that language -- text and graphics -- is a
technology in this sense of mediating theory and practice?
We have found that we can gradually move it along but no
faster than is comprehensible to our correspondents, who,
thank bountiful, often are moving it too, we just didn't
get their point in our eagerness to make our own.
It is this jaw-boning and ear-filling exchange of mediation
that interests us, having learned from day one as
architects how much others contribute to making our work a
success or failure, including long after move-in.
We listen to all others and learn now far more than at the
beginning -- owners, materials salepersons, standards and
code writers, consultants, general and specialty
contractors, workers of all kinds, maintenance and repair
teams, insurance and disaster investigators, and, yes, by
all means, the thinkers and theoretical designers and
prognosticators, especially those who have no interest in
design and architecture, or like Derrida, have a knack for
shocking us by creatively misunderstanding what we thought
we knew so well.
I have written here before about how Derrida, for one,
Richard Rorty another, has helped us read Sweets and and
building codes and technical materials of all sorts, and
from there produce more engaging documents, specs and
drawings. Derrida's "Postcard" has been an inspiration.
His musings on architecture have been hilarious, and I like
his poking fun at the archie theorists who try to ride on,
or hide beneath, his coattails. He and Rorty and others of
exquisite philo-lit ability ex-laxed us from constipation
of habitual over-seriousness.
As a prolegomena to the digital prospects, I'll mention a
few,
which are less sweeping than your Terra Incognita (which we
will come back to at another time):
We are working to setup wireless transmittals of data to
the field and getting faster feedback. As you know, a
number of the large engineering firms are well advanced at
this, especially in surveying with GPS. We have looked at
the portable packs these folks use to receive, record,
sketch and send. Great tool for measured drawings of
existing conditions and rapid exchange back home. We think
they can be used in a variety of ways to inspect and
otherwise track construction.
More propsectively, we have looked at the
micro-electromechanical devices and sensors the military is
developing for attachment to the body for recording and
transmitting soldiers' vital signs to base medical
officers. These might at some point be worn by people in
the field to implement info from a remote location. For
example, I might wear a device at the job site to receive
info directly from my home computer -- designs, shop
drawings, material data, hazmat info -- and send back
findings of sensors of my eyes, lungs, hands, feet, body
position, temperature, brain wave patterns, pornographic
yearnings, sick humor.
We have just begun to look at the language sensing modules
being developed by the federal government for scanning and
digesting gargantuan amounts of electronic text and data.
These we would use to scan and digest the voluminous hard
copy general interest, design and construction material
crossing our desks and going now into hard copy bins. We
need algorithms for more ready access to this during
planning, design, construction and follow-up -- as well as
our own sanity and keeping up with the most fashionable
dementia about our fair arte.
We are studying cryptology, stegonagraphy and
authentication of electronic documents. NYC, like other
municipalities, is finally getting set to accept electronic
filings of electronic documents where authentication of
signature and data is needed. As you may know,
something similar is being done with art works.
Money-making prospects for these will be addressed off-list
in the spirit of mutually beneficial competition and
collusion.
And, in anticipation of discussing your Terra statement,
we dutifully, to parrot the parrots, find the Net to be a
fabulous techne for prowling unknown territory. It's the
best piece of exotic architecture in the making we've come
across in a long time. We're surveying and recording it
madly, trying to catch up. Every day we find something
practical and theoretical, two sides of the coin usually.
At the rate things are moving we expect our current views on
digital techne to be superceded ziply, and we shall laugh at
our presumptions and ignorance, or cry crocodile tears all
the
way to David Sucher's off-shore data haven bank.