The etymology of the word author refers to an act of creation, an act of augmentation, from the Latin verb augere. Author instantiates creation, the expansion of the pre-existing. In 1967 Roland Barthes declared the death of the author in his famous essay to state once more that the crisis is that of the author as a single subjectivity and as a term that condenses prestige, undermined by the de-subjectivation strategies of automatism, fortuity and fragmentation of the historical avant-gardes, as well as by the machinic act and by the reproducibility of the second avant-gardes. Fifty years after Barthes’ paradigmatic formula, this lack of ...

This publication presents Peter Eisenman’s Biozentrum project, an expansion of Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, from 1987. In the competition brief, the program of the complex included biotechnology, molecular biology and biochemistry research laboratories and support spaces. The design process used biological concepts and procedures to generate the geometrical pattern that establishes the location, dimension and form of the complex. The iterations of DNA molecules in the production of the protein collagen were at the base of the fractal geometry guiding the project design. These pairs of figures, with a gap in between them, were the base forms Eisenman adopted ...

In this publication, Greg Lynn and Wolf Prix discuss Coop Himmelb(l)au’s BMW Welt, a corporate-event and car-delivery centre whose iconic form was realized with sophisticated structural analysis and visualization software. The project is located on the BMW campus in Munich, near the Olympic Park; among other corporate functions, it offers the opportunity for new BMW owners to learn more about their cars before driving them away from within the building itself. The design extends Prix’s interest in a cloud-like architecture without ties to the ground. Anchored in one corner by a twisting “double cone” made of nearly nine hundred unique steel ...

The second in the Studies in the Design Laboratory epub series produced by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and the CCA, this publication traces the development of complex computational geometry in the work of Ron Resch. Resch’s strikingly novel generative methods laid the seeds of computational origami, and during the early 1970’s he collaborated in the pioneering computer science department of the University of Utah, a hotbed of early computer graphics. Featuring interviews with Resch’s collaborators, excerpts from his remarkable films, and a consideration of the role of the architect in cross-disciplinary laboratories, this epub argues for Resch ...

Computational Fashion is a survey of topics explored during Eyebeam’s public events on wearable technology and fashion in 2012-14. This publication features excerpts from panel discussions and presentations covering 3D printed fashion, smart textiles, energy harvesting, intellectual property, and other issues impacting designers and entrepreneurs in this emerging field.

Dear_Tony (2013) is an unauthorized, distributed retrospective of the public sculptures of Tony Smith by Christian de Vietri and A.E. Benenson. Addressed as much to the deceased sculptor and his practice as our contemporary audience, Dear_Tony rethinks the artist’s historic investigations into modular construction, phenomenology, and public space within the contexts of digital fabrication, interactivity, and networked communication. At the same time, Dear_Tony is a means to reflect on the form of the retrospective and how its requirements may be adapted to contemporary conditions of viewership. Dear_Tony consists of a digital sculpture by Christian de Vietri, which is composed of extractable models ...

Designing the Computational Image, Imagining Computational Design is an exhibition showcasing rare photographs, film, high-quality reproductions, and interactive software reconstructions examining the formative period of numerical control and Computer-Aided Design technologies, along with a selection of experimental work by computational designers working today.

The .stl and .obj files contained within Material Speculation: ISIS/Download Series (King Uthal) are the first 3D models of a lost artwork openly published by Morehshin Allahyari.

A conference on drawing in a world in which architecture is almost entirely based on computation might seem something of a paradox. Less than 30 years ago, the appearance of new software, first in engineering companies and then in architectural practices, triggered a debate about the changing nature of architectural drawing and about how what was previously drawn was becoming standardised and normalised through a singular language, a common identity and, perhaps most controversially, a normative creativity. Today, all architects work with programmes such as AutoCAD, Autodesk and Catia, and their projects conform to recognised standards of digital modelling and ...

This publication presents Expanding Sphere and Iris Dome, two projects by Chuck Hoberman, in their context during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Chuck Hoberman’s work focuses on the notion of transformable design: objects, structures and spaces that can change size and shape through the respective movements of their parts. The Expanding Sphere and Iris Dome could be considered as prototypes that can be later adapted for multiple uses — from toys to buildings. The development of controlling surfaces defined by geometric transformation, with zero material thickness, has been combined with the rigorous design and engineering of hinged and folding ...

Graphic Design in the Post-Digital Age examines the challenges and opportunities in the wake of the rapid rise of creative coding within a growing community of designers opting to make their own design tools. This comprehensive overview covers educational approaches in design programs and the historic and economic contexts of programming in graphic design, as well as the implications surrounding the integration of coding with design. The book includes over twenty interviews in which major figures in design reflect upon the ways in which coding has innovated and transformed their design practice and strategies, and the directions it will take ...

The Hershey fonts are a collection of vector fonts developed c. 1967 by Dr. Allen Vincent Hershey at the Naval Weapons Laboratory, originally designed to be rendered using vectors on early cathode ray tube displays. Decomposing curves to connected straight lines allowed Hershey to produce complex typographic designs. In their original form the font data consists simply of a series of coordinates, meant to be connected by straight lines on the screen. SIL Open Font License