The Internet is an emerging informational ecology, created by the combination of a critical volume of data flow, the informational and experiential networks of the web. This latent ecology has been fostered by the information architecture of the web, providing a cybernetic mechanism in which the iterative cycles of usage and the fluid mutability of digital data have elicited a stochastic system of evolving datascapes. Internet Protocols will explore this ecology, its synergetic data relationships as well as the evolving cultural implications of increasingly immerisive experience and its ubiquity in everyday life.
The medium of digital video is evolving rapidly as a means of artistic expression, communication and design presentation. As the distribution of film extends beyond movie theaters and VCRs to multimedia and the web, and as the means of production of movies becoming cheaper and easier, it is increasingly important for students to have a chance to explore this art-form and develop a familiarity with the tools and techniques available.
In this seminar students will explore rule-based systems for generating architectural form, designing "genetic material" the computer can process to create new architectural morphologies. Using scripting languages available in 3d packages (i.e. Maya Embedded Language (MEL) and 3dMaxScript, Cinema4d COFFEE) students can go beyond the mouse, transcending the factory-set limitations of current 3D software. By working with code it is possible to create intelligent form using methods analogous to those through which intelligent life evolves: emergent behavior and self-organizing systems.
So often we examine the broad conceptual underpinnings of Architectural design
- the metaphor, the map, the mirror, the concealed text, the political or historical
recapitulation. This course continues that examination to the level of specific
technical and material details through reading, field trips, presentations,
and sketch problems.
