MDes Open Project: Forms of Assembly: All Things Considered

"When bodies congregate, move, and speak together, they lay claim to a certain space as public space." Judith Butler.
 
In the public space, we pass by, come together, and continuously inform and form one another. It is a space of appearance, disagreement, and encounter critical for democracy, freedom, and a just society.
 
In "We Have Never Been Modern", and the following works, "Down to Earth" and "Critical Zones", Bruno Latour expands the notion of the assembly beyond the human into a “Parliament of Things” that includes the invisible, unthinkable, unrepresentable nonhuman, objects and semi-objects. He calls for a new constitution that considers all things and their properties, relations, abilities, and groupings. This newly imagined formation of an open-ended and ever-expanding assembly, and care, is not only just, but critical for earthly survival in the time of the Anthropocene.
 
The changing climate, environmental destruction, and uncertainty have immense consequences on human and other species' lives and our shared planet. Among the results of these stresses are expend policies, culture, and spaces of isolation, exclusions, and violence, that further urge us to enact and form an expanded assembly.
 
Students in this Open Project will operate at the intersection of art, design, activism, theory, and practice. They will investigate and imagine new forms and spaces of assembly where all bodies matter and all things are considered as an ever-expanding entangled collective. Students will focus on the articulation of the problematic of spatial equity while regarding the expansion of rights to more than human, subjects, and things. They will use design as an agent and agency to activate the potentiality of underused and interstitial public spaces and use the format of ephemeral interventions, performances, exhibitions, and installations.
 
Projects will need to be situated in specific physical or virtual public space, which includes squares, libraries and parks, but also archives, protocols, policies, constitutions, and all sorts of contracts that expand the "distribution of the sensible" and the social to more than human subjects, and things.
 
Forms of Assembly: All Things Considered includes guest lectures, open workshops, peer-to-peer reviews, assignments, and the production of a collective exhibition and publication.
Outcomes are expected to be dissimilar.
 
Research Trajectories include Activism, Performance, Territory, Space of Conflict, Power and Place, Parliament of Things, More than human, Terrestrial, Collective, Rights, Curation, Installation, Publication

Towards a new Science of Design?

This project- and discussion-based seminar offers a deep, critical inspection of contemporary design practices, research methods and discourses informed by Neuroscience, Behavioral Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction and Philosophy of the Mind. In recent years, theories about extended cognition, embodied interaction and material engagement, to name a few, combined with physiological data collection techniques such as eye-tracking, electroencephalogram and galvanic skin response, among many others, have given rise to new questions about the foundations of design. Crucially, these methods and frameworks have allowed design practitioners and scholars to ask disciplinary questions with a new  degree of rigor, and supported by empirical evidence. How are buildings perceived by their users? How do materials affect occupant behavior? How do designers think when they design? These and other puzzles have begun to be scrutinized under a new light.

While acknowledging the role that contributions from these fields play today in our understanding of architecture (as an experience) and design (as a practice), this course argues that a rigorous and systematic assessment of their applicability, value and potential in design research is needed. What aspects of the built environment can these fields’ methods and theories help us understand better? How relevant is their potential to change the ways we conceptualize and operationalize design practice? What methods are available to understand the degree to which there might be a scientific basis for design?

International Real Estate and Urban Developments

Real estate, in the international realm, is anchored at the intersection of economic activities, capital flows, and the spatial transformation of the environment. While different locales may entail distinct contextual elements embedded in real estate and design practices, fluid cross-border capital operation and increasingly connected institutional actors at the global scale constitute a formidable force in shaping and guiding the formation and operational mechanism of the built urban environment.

Through lectures, case studies, charrettes, and class discussions, this course provides students with knowledge and insights about the process and analytical frameworks of real estate development and investment from a comparative and trans-regional perspective. It begins by introducing institutional parameters that measure the comparative forces and disruptions framing the current landscapes of international real estate. And it then proceeds to examine analytical frameworks assessing the risks, opportunities, and performance of international real estate. The course concentrates on real estate practice models and emerging asset types that are deployed in selected locations of the world. Real estate financing strategies, institutional features, operational tactics, and physical design maneuvers of real estate projects located in countries and regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas are analyzed and interpreted through a lens of the decision-making process at the project and urban dimensions.

Non-Professional Practice

“The particular threat to the intellectual today, whether in the West or the non-Western world, is not the academy, nor the suburbs, nor the appalling commercialism of journalism and publishing houses, but rather an attitude that I will call professionalism. By professionalism I mean thinking of your work as an intellectual as something you do for a living, between the hours of nine and five with one eye on the dock, and another cocked at what is considered to be proper, professional behavior-not rocking the boat, not straying outside the accepted paradigms or limits, making yourself marketable and above all presentable, hence uncontroversial and unpolitical and “objective."
         Source: Edward Said, “Professionals and Amateurs,” in Representations of the Intellectual (New York: Vintage Books, 1996) 73-83.

The course studies unconventional modes of creative practices and their underlying implications. It is based on a workshop format, centered on research, conversations with guests and open dialogue.

 “I’ve never worked for a living. I consider working for a living slightly imbecilic from an economic point of view. I hope some day we’ll be able to live without being obliged to work.”
           Marcel Duchamp

In a rapidly changing world that is facing unprecedented challenges, the hyper-specialization of the professional can backfire in its rigidity and the implied limitation, while also becoming a powerful tool of discrimination. We will look collectively outside of the current framework of architectural practice and identify new possibilities.

Topics of investigation include the law of chance in changing times, the role of production of culture, the permeability of disciplinary boundaries, the role of language and communication, the banality of kickstarting something, the urgency of (mis)use and interpretation, the hacker and the expert, the irrelevance of authorship and the social being as a practice.  

Course structure:
The seminar has two parallel tracks: one conversational and one based on group work. The conversational part will take place every Wednesday from 9am EST and will require your attendance. Weekly guests from various professional fields will share with us the stories of their own practices, from failures to highs, from philosophical to practical. Students will have to introduce the guest as well as create a poster at the end of the semester that encapsulates the lessons from class.

The parallel track is based on group work and is to be scheduled in coordination with each group. We will collectively identify concerns regarding practice and investigate them. The end goal is to develop a set of tools or language to address and debunk them.
The main requirement for the class is the desire to be an active participant. The seminar is relying on each individual in creating a collective, and assume responsibility in shaping the seminar through participation by using your voice. It’s it mandatory to attend the first two seminars in order to remain enrolled.

For further information, and previous work, please refer to: nonprofessional.org

Proximities / or Readings and Methods within Reflexive Formalism

“Making comparisons is the only good method in a world in which things take on consistency in relation to others. A comparison may be implicit or explicit, but without it, the mind could not function; [one] who knows one thing only, doesn’t even know that thing.” –Guido Piovene, Zodiac 8, “The Multiple Future of American Architecture”
 
If proximate means almost or close, it conveys the sense both of aesthetic difference and of spatial nearness. Its etymology, from the verb “proximare,” suggests the consideration “to approach.” As things approach each other…. some amount of affecting between the two will arise. The tone, the texture, the posture of marks. How things come together.
 
For film or literature, this reflexive method may be something like actors acting as actors. Like Pollack and Hoffman’s "Tootsie." Like Emily Eden’s coupled novels, “The Semi-Attached Couple & The Semi-Detached House.” For musicians, this may be more akin to reverb, or the empathy gained in the culture of covers.
 
For architecture, this seminar will explore the proximities within such reflexive formalisms. Through the serial production of architectural “readings,” each student will consider methods in reflexive form making.
 
Method in lieu of representation
Readings in lieu of image
 
The structure of the seminar will be in two parts

Part 1) a series of weekly readings and guest discussions
Part 2) the serial production of an architectural method
 
Please note this course will meet on Zoom on February 9th.

Designer Developer

Design and finance can both be understood as universal languages. Although architects, landscape architects, and planners are trained to produce and interpret design, it is becoming more and more necessary for them also to be conversant and sometimes fluent in finance to implement innovative design proposals. As building complexity and the sophistication of building needs, construction methods, and finance have increased, architects have progressively taken on less risk and abandoned more agency. This seminar will explore the designer-as-developer model: the potential to carve out more agency for designers in construction and development, and how design generates added value in real estate development.

The seminar will begin with lectures on the designer-as-developer model and discuss how the value of design can be quantified in the real estate development industry. The course will cover project and construction management, construction pricing, permitting and approval procedures, and basic financial structures for designer-developer projects. Lectures and tutorials will be given on basic financial modeling as required to complete the final project for the course. The seminar will review these topics through discussions based on real-world case studies. The seminar will incorporate case studies that examine how designer-developer projects were able to further design innovation while maintaining a handle on feasibility. Practitioners who have leveraged their background in design while working in the fields of Real Estate Development, Real Estate Investment, and Community Development will be invited to speak as guest lecturers to share their real-world experience as a designer-developer.

Designers often value design innovation and public impact, while most clients heavily weigh feasibility, schedule, and financial returns. By acting as both the designer and client, students will learn how to understand the values and risks of building in the 21st century. We will focus on a designer’s ability to imagine and bring progressive building ideas to market and discuss effective project and construction management. To reinforce the material discussed in class, students will be tasked with completing two assignments throughout the course. In the Case Study Assignment, students will be asked to identify and research a designer-developer project and present the deal points to the class. For the Group Project Proposal, using knowledge gained throughout the course, students will be expected to put forward a proposal for the designer-development initiated project. The final project may be of any scale or location, but must represent financial viability, have a design agenda, and identify potential risks and proposed mitigations in the process of bringing the project to market.

This seminar is aimed at equipping students with the knowledge and confidence to develop their own mission-aligned projects, whether they are market-rate projects or community benefit developments. Students will be exposed to the myriad considerations and processes that enable a building to be designed, approved, and built. They will learn to align their entrepreneurial aspirations with the pursuit of creating work that benefits a greater public. Design and finance are seldom discussed together due to the perception that they belong to two different phases of development. However, for developers, design is a powerful tool when underwriting a potential project. For designers, acknowledging the financial constraints and understanding precedents for economic opportunity can provide a sustainable foundation for design innovation.

Materials

This course explores the science of materials. How do we classify materials? How do we build with materials? What are the energy, health, and societal implications of materials? And what does the future of materials look like? The goal of this course is to enable students to understand the near- and long-term environmental impact of materials and how to leverage this knowledge in building design.

This course is the fourth of four modules (6121, 6122, 6125, & 6126) and constitutes part of the core curriculum in architecture and the Master of Design in Energy and Environments.

Public Space

In a digital age, does physical public space matter? Tahrir Square, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Gezi Park, the streets of Hong Kong, Zuccotti Park, Madrid Rio, and countless other public spaces argue the affirmative, sporting ambitions from accommodating everyday leisure activities to mass political protests. Although perpetually adapting to current demands and contexts, physical public space nonetheless appears anchored in transcendent human needs and desires.

This seminar examines the case and place for physical public space. Physical public space occurs in a variety of typologies, including plazas, parks, streets, sidewalks, arcades, atriums, and other outdoor and indoor spaces, but morphology alone is not destiny. Public space raises fascinating and complex questions. What is meant by “public?” What makes good public space? Who decides what is good? Who should own and manage public space? Can private parties participate in public space provision without loss of publicness? Is government provision always better that private provision? Who should design public spaces? Are there universal design principles? Does theory usefully inform practice? How much do democracy and equality depend on ample availability of public space? How much public space is enough? Is physical public space threatened or enhanced by the digital? Is a shopping mall a public space? And the list goes on.

The seminar introduces students to foundational research and practice and offers them an opportunity to contribute new ideas and research to the field. A 5,000-word research paper or project is required. Class time is spent on discussions based on readings and regular presentations about the student’s work on their paper or project. Students are expected to complete assigned readings for each class so that they may actively participate in discussions. The research paper or project counts for 75% of the course grade, while class participation counts for 25%.

Interdisciplinary Art and Design Practices

The Interdisciplinary Art and Design Practices Seminar investigates art and design work in the interdisciplinary modalities of contemporary culture, the city, and the world. As artists and designers respond to challenges of global magnitude and their local impacts, engage with cross-cultural and often conflicting conditions, and operate in disparate economic and societal realms, the need for increased engagement and collaboration is paramount. The complexity present in the context of action—economic, social, political, cultural, and ecological— frequently requires interdisciplinary approaches accompanied by cross-pollinating knowledge and skillsets.

Stemming from socially engaged art and design practices, and relational aesthetics, this seminar aims to develop artistic tools and approaches that challenge disciplinary boundaries that crossover and interact with communities, policymakers, institutions, and various experts and help cultivate new forms of interdisciplinary knowledge.

As art and design practices move from art in public space to art in the public interest (M. Kwon), their participatory and relational makeup can generate platforms and agencies that question dominant culture, construct new practices, establish new subjectivities, and subvert existing configurations of power (C. Mouffe).

This semester, we will explore the theme of survival in times of an endangered and uncertain future. As humans have become dangerous not only to themselves but also to the whole biosphere (H. Jonas), we need to reimagine strategies, pragmatic processes, effective assemblies, and spaces of collective survival that may release us from the "dead hand of the past that clutches us by way of living people who are too frightened to accept change." (K. S. Robinson, The Ministry for the Future). Throughout the semester, we will engage in a series of conversations with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs while examining nuclear energy sites, including uranium mines, power reactors, testing sites, and all sorts of exclusion zones in various geographies, and their complex multitemporal implications on human, nonhuman life, and the planet.

Practice-oriented, this seminar at the intersection of art, design, and activism includes lectures and assignments dedicated to exploring artistic tools and methods and the context in which they perform.

Drawing for Designers 2: Human Presence and Appearance in Natural and Built Environment

The course is intended as a creative drawing laboratory for designers, an expressive and playful supplement to computer-based labor.

The aim of the class is to learn how to depict and express the presence and appearance of people in natural and built environments.

This class objective will be achieved through three projects:
First: focusing on people’s active presence in the landscape.  
Second: on people in a populated urban environment.
Third: on a person or two people acting or interacting in a specific spatial and social situation.

Each of the assigned projects will be realized in a different, specifically selected technique:
     – The first project will use a technique called a subtractive tone.
     – The second one will use a technique of a multiple lines/marks.
     – The last one will use an images projection.
 
The course will help to master techniques in hand drawing, refine sensitivity to all details of what one sees, and develop capacity to articulate them in a visually convincing and evocative form.

The class projects will include work in outdoor and indoor situations and places, as well as drawings of life models. In the process of drawing, students will focus on the world of lines, textures, shapes, light, shade, and values. We will use various tools, materials and artistic techniques including pencils, vine charcoal, graphite, etc.

In addition to the completion of three large drawing projects a special short assignment will be given at the beginning of each class session.

Working on studio projects will be supplemented by the field trips, presentations, and discussions of relevant examples from art history and contemporary art. Guest artists will be invited as reviewers for the presentations and exhibition of the final project.

No prerequisites are required. Students do not need to take VIS 2446 to enroll.

VIS 2457 will hold the first class online from 9-11 AM on Thursday, Jan 26th. Please see the course Canvas site for Zoom link.