Projectors, Experiments in Image Tectonics
by Zeina Koreitem (MDes Tech ’16) — Recipient of the Daniel L. Schodek Award for Technology and Sustainability
Today, architecture often finds itself caught in the dissonance between two competing subcultures. On the one hand, there is a culture of rendering, in which the image is regarded as an end-process “output,” often for promotional ends. On the other hand, there is a culture of fabrication, in which the architectural image plays no role during the transition from representational model to materialization.
This project takes up the question of “image tectonics.” In order to pursue such an approach, image-based strategies of disruption must be viewed as essential elements of the architectural process, rather than “imprecisions” to be technically eliminated. These strategies include specific types of image projection: ray tracing, parsing, sorting, scanning and other forms of algorithmic pixel manipulation. How might techniques that belong to the world of the raster form the basis for material-tectonic decisions? How can images be reinserted into the process of architectural experimentation? What might be the consequences of such an approach for the processes of materialization? How might one work with images rather than on images?
Thesis Advisor:
Andrew Witt