Shifting from Lines to Surfaces: Virtual to Empirical 2009: Bloom

Course Description

The aim of this course is to introduce students to a ‘diagrammatic’ way of thinking, according to which, any given ‘fi eld’ can be mapped in such a way that will transform it into something new. The function of the diagram, as understood in the context of this class, is not to interpret or represent, but rather to invent.

This is a course in computing theory and techniques on two-dimensional digital software and advanced three-dimensional modeling software. This course bridges the gap between 2D computational tools that define lines and the 3D tools that develop complex surfaces. The final project consists of 2D drawings, digital models, and physical models produced by advanced CAD/CAM technology.

By employing alternative techniques and emerging technologies of manufacturing, new forms of objects and perceptions will re-define multiple design processes.

The starting materials for the class are several painting from the years 1900-1950. The events and consequences of the two World Wars had a profound impace o humanity’s vision of the world, on culture in all its manifestations, and in particular on art. Art historians and critics usually refer to the fi rst half of the 20th century as the “age of the avante gardes.” Not satisfied with the version of art they had been taught, they sought to change the style and subject matter of their dicipline. Never before had there been such a large-scale and radical challenge to tradition, calling into question the very principles on which the creation and use of art were based.

Over the following weeks, students will create tracings of a chosen painting in order to produce two-dimensional maps. The output of this process is going to be used as the input for a new set of diagrams that this time will aim at the invention or discovery of a system. From this third set of drawings, the students will use this system to create a three-dimensional model and rendering. Each time, students will be creating a series of transformations that will produce a new diagram or map. Finally, the output of the latest process is going to again be used as the input for a fi nal transformation model, in three-dimensions, represented both digitally and physically.

The course does not concentrate only on moving between different platforms (autocad,illustrator, rhino...), but also working within the representation of different dimensions (1-d, 2-d, 3-d, 4-d). Just as these artists questioned the basic principles that until then had determined how art was made and used, you are asked to rethink these works, focusing on the methods and techniques used by these artists. The scope of the diagrams is not to interpret the original drawing or to represent what is already there, but to discover or invent systems that are not obvious in the images that we initially perceive.

Shifting from Lines to Surfaces: Virtual to Empirical 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

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Washington University Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design

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