CLASS 1: WED SEPT 3rd // INTRODUCTION TO METAFORMS READ: the syllabus again carefully, please email me if you have any questions. WORK: merge with the city and create a photo essay with these 12 words. EVENTS: - please go to one of the events below. write a short review in your digital sketchbook, take photos, observe Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling at the MOMA Buckminster Fuller: Starting With the Universe at the Whitney The Art Parade 2008 Swoon Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea at Deitch Studios on the East River in Long Island City LINKS: http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/
photograph: drama d.k. Aug/2008 CLASS 2: WED SEPT 10th // THE MAGIC AROUND YOU READ: Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas pg .29 Coney Island: The Technology of the Fantastic (PDF handout) WORK: create your own tag / go tag it / photograph the tag / and explain why your tag looks the way it does and why you choose that location / what it does to the architecture to the material. Post your tag to your digital sketchbook by class. Make sure to list the exact location of the tag so we can make a class map. Think about a place in or around the provokes you, that inspires you, that forces you to react, think of a place that you can develop a connection with as a site for research, keep this place in the back of your mind for next class. EVENTS: Keith Haring Houston Street and Bowery Mural also just around the corner LINKS: Style Wars on Google Videos // parkour // banksy // GRL // space invaders // CLASS 3: WED SEPT 17th //Beyond representation //Investigating emergent architectural forms and computation techniques// READ: Illuminations by Benjamin , The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (linked here as a PDF dowload) WORK: Write a manifesto (details to be discussed in class), Manifestos should be no longer than one page. Each of you will write a one page manifesto and post it to your digital sketchbook. The manifesto will be your declaration of architecture. This could be a purpose, principle, or plan of action. See it as an attack on a conventional way of thinking about architecture. A manifesto is about statements. Make statements. Manifestos are often political or make an argument. Please try to spend less time researching and more time writing. Treat this as an expansion of your thoughts, as they exist now, and how you would declare architecture! To get started think of how architecture effects your life, your path, your response to your daily environment. Think about architecture and : power, control, constraint, scale, problem, social, culture, history, theory,love, hate, etc. You can be very specific to a particular relationship that you have with architecture, or you can be broad and write a take over the world manifesto. Please make it no longer than one page. Choose one image to accompany your manifesto this can be a photograph or a graphically produced image. Take a look at: Antonio Sant'Elia manifesto as a related example: http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/architecture.html And read about archigram: http://www.designmuseum.org/design/archigramhttp://www.archigram.net/index.html EVENTS: Neighborhood Watch TALK AT C-LAB/STUDIO-X: MICHAEL ROCK and GEORGIANNA STOUT: 2x4 is a multidisciplinary studio focusing on design for art, architecture, fashion and cultural clients worldwide. 2x4’s clients include Nike, Prada, San Francisco MoMA, Malin + Goetz, and others. What: NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH with Michael Rock & Georgianna Stout LINKS:METAFORMS DELICIOIUS: Visit the Metaforms delicious site, a place to post links in class. Please post your links and references that you have emailed or mentioned in class here. The user name is METAFORMS and the password is fall2008 http://delicious.com/METAFORMS
CLASS 4: WED SEPT 24th // POLITICS POWER and SPECTACLE WORK: Conduct and interview with a person inside the system. Ten questions or more. The theme of the interviews will be announced in class. Look at Sample Volume article.Choose a SITE for your METAFORM . Obtain a collection of maps, visuals, photos, etc for this site. EVENTS: !!!!!!! VISIT THE DUMBO ART UNDER THE BRIDGE FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND IN DUMBO BROOKLYN. SCHEDULE of EVENTS Friday the 26th - Sunday the 28th
CLASS 5: WED OCT 1ST// Manipulation of the environment // creating inventive mediums for architecture //Storytelling //Looking at the people of modern architecture and the structures they are known for//Understanding the futurists, structuralists, and modernists. READ: Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (linked here as a PDF) Cities & Memory // Cities & Desire WORK: Metaform Idea Development, Obtain site photographs, maps, research, history, information, data, etc about your site. Understand the landscape of your research so you can produce insight and find out things that are unknown about your site. Define potential relationships that can develop between your sight and your metaforms idea. 1.Make a matrix diagram that reveals this relationship. THe diagram needs to be a high resolution graphic. This diagram will allow you to reveal information and connections of information that are happening on your site. look at the spatial information design lab projects: million dollar blocks visualizing information: http://infosthetics.com/ 2.Make a psycho-geographic analysis of your site and represent your analysis through your own psychogeographic map. PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY: is the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals (thanks wikipedia!) Smell your way through a city or navigating a nyc with a map of amsterdam. Providing directions without a map. Patterns, senses, emotions. dada! http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/rhethtml/dadamaps/dadamaps2b.html 3.Define your metaforms concept. This can be extremely abstract, but an idea needs to be developing in your head. Please email me with any questions about this idea. 4.please look at the kokkugia website and prepare one question for next weeks quest ...Jono Podborsek. (http://www.kokkugia.com)
CLASS 6: WED OCT 8TH//Boundaries // Constraints // Design Rules //The Shaping of Space // Fabrication techniques //Looking at external and internal forces // agents // codes// influences that guide form // Situating of public and private space // Perfromance over time //Blurring the divisions of inside and outside //Injecting a live element into the form // Understanding the layers and skins 8pm GUEST SPEAKER! JONO PODBORSEK from KOKKUGIA WORK: Prepare metaform idea for conceptural review. Write a conceptual description of your metaform idea. Make simple sketch that represents the idea and pair it with a (multi media sketch of your idea) for example: simple sketch: a diagram of the idea made in photoshop / illustrator / maya multi media sketch: short video / sound clip / code / digital format EVENTS: CLASS 7: WED OCT 15TH// SITE RELATIONSHIPSS // INTERVENTION // HABITAT // RITUAL // MYTHOLOGY // INTERSECTION // CONNECTING THE RESEARCH YOU HAVE DONE FOR YOU SITE TO YOUR METAFORMS CONCEPT // WORK: Prepare a short 10 minute midterm presentation (multi-media -- images/ photographs / text / short videos ) of your metaform site and concept. The midterm will begin at 6:30 sharp and each of you will present your concept to a panel of invited guests. Guests will critique your project and provide feedback. More details about the presentation will be given in class.
CLASS 8: WED OCT 22ND// MIDTERM REVIEW WITH INVITED GUEST CRITICS. DISCUSSION TO CONTINUE AT AFTER PARTY critics: Grey Barreda, Luke Dubois, Daewha Kang, Karla Karwas, Amy Peterson, Daniel Perlin, and Jesse Seegers. Thanks for putting together such great presentations. Thanks to our panel too, your feedback was very helpful! CLASS 9: WED OCT 29TH// HUMANS AND ROBOTS // 8pm GUEST PRESENTERS GIL AKOS AND RONNIE PARSONS. -- the grasshopper plugin. WORK: Schedule an Appt. with me to follow up on your midterm and have a converstion about what direction you should be headed in next. Post a link to where we can download your midterm presentation. Email me this link. EVENTS: GO VISIT 11 RIVINGTON http://www.elevenrivington.com/ and check out the exhibit at the guggenheim: theanyspacewhatever also this week there is a large
CLASS 10: WED NOV 5TH// MATERIALS AND THE FUTURE// WHAT ARE OPTIONS FOR MAKING THE METAFORM HAPPEN IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD// OUTPUT // SCLAE. READ: the introduction to Design Noir - via google below Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects WORK: Make a beautiful storyboard of your project. Ask yourself the question: Does my project have a shelf life? Is my project going to be dated in a few years? EVENTS: Please go and visit the Lozano-Hemmer exhibit at Bitforms, let me know what you think. Diller Scofidio + Renfro / 2x4 talk: Tueday November 11th at AIGA Chanel Store Tokyo Materials Lecture download here CLASS 11: WED NOV 12TH // PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER// Class visit to the Advanced Media Lab at NYU. Rapid Prototyping, 3D printing, and laser cutting. For those interested please meet at the Advanced Media Studio at 6:30 for an orientation. The Advanced Media Studio on the second floor of 35 West 4th street. The orientation will take about an hour. Please let me know if you will be attending. The rest of the class please meet in the classroom for storyboard presentations. WORK: PRODUCE YOUR PROJECT! You are running out of time! The final is in on DECEMBER THE 10th.
CLASS 12: WED NOV 19TH// PRODUCTION OF YOUR FINAL METAFORM
CLASS 13: WED DEC 3RD// PRODUCTION OF YOUR FINAL METAFORM
CLASS 14: WED DEC 10TH// FINAL !!!! 5pm.
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METAFORMS: OVERVIEW
Metaforms is a studio course offering a broad range of topics focused on progressive architectural discourse framed by new media. The goal of the class is for each student to produce an architectural form which will inhabit an urban public space in New York City. The forms need not be traditional architectural constructs, but new strategies towards defining an architecture that can be expressed through new technologies. Students will be encouraged to imagine the impossible and to integrate metaforms into the contemporary city. Science-fiction sites, transportation paths, urban anomalies, invisible boundaries, moments in history, predictions for the future, and mapping techniques will be examined and developed as Metaform habitats. Metaforms will emerge from a binary system: expressions and interventions. The first section, expressions, will address contemporary architectural, environmental, computing, and material tendencies that unfold to inhabit the spaces of NYC . Expressions are analyzed through, but not limited to, techniques of storytelling, generative algorithms, spatial sound analysis, video processing, physical installations, 3D interpretations, living materials, and live performances in the city-space. The second part, interventions, will activate communication strategies to connect the Metaforms to actual public spaces within New York City. Such Metaforms might include site specific installations, big games, events, tours, activism, objects, happenings, etc. The class work will culminate with a final Metaform prototype and presentation. Classes will be a combination of lecture, discussion, presentation, guest speakers, NYC site visits, and Metaform production. No prerequisites or architectural experience is needed, however, previous knowledge on at least one programming language is strongly recommended (processing, max/msp/jitter, maya, flash etc.).
WORK: THE METAFORM PROJECT: THE PROCESS There will be one semester long project, you will each make a metaform. The project will have a midterm review and a final show. Weekly assignments and readings will be devoted to conceptualizing, designing, developing, and creating the final Metaform. The metaform is an architectural idea that you will come up with that will materialize into a final output. In the first half of the semester you will cultivate the metaform idea and in the second half of the semester you will output and produce a metaform. The final output will range from live performances, panel discussions, sculptures, films, competitions, games, transportation vehicles, efficient machines, utopias, scores, etc. One should not be able to arrive at the metaform idea in the first class. The idea will be developed for the first 6 weeks. Each metaform idea will have multiple layers of complexity and depth. The goal is to do an intensive investigation and come up with your own strategy for creating an architectural metaform. You will gain a vast understanding of architecture through technolgy, politics, culture, and media. I encourage ideas that solve a larger problem, or bring an issue to the surface. Metaforms should also be aware of efficiency, energy, and use. You will choose a NYC location for your metaform. YOUR INVOLVEMENT : YOU : CRITIQUE This course will allow you to make intelligent decisions about design and topics in architecture. You will be required to ask questions and be an extremely critical audience to your classmates and your own work. In this class you will work hard and your contribution will add to the intensity to the class dynamic. Participation is key to getting the most from this class. At the midterm and final we will have a review with invited guests from ITP community, the architecture community, and the art community. The critique format will provide each student with honest sometimes too honest feedback. ****Please be prepared to defend your project. The strongest projects often create the most discussion, debate, and madness for the visitors. Critique is a very impotant part of this class and is taken very seriously! dlk253 (at) nyu.edu CLASS WEBSITE: The website will be your resource to what is happening on a weekly basis. Please visit the website before every class!! THE ITP SHOW : ONLY IF YOU WANT TO This class is part of the Winter ITP show. If, as a class, we all feel your project will be a good addition to the show then you can submit it. I would like all of you to keep in mind that this class is not your ticket to make a project that will debut in the show, but instead is a class that you can use to develop a substantial thesis quality project which could be part of the show, but in the end has more ambitious venues and has a life after death. THE METAFORMS FINAL SHOW: VAUDEVILLE : YOU HAVE TO The final Metaform presentations will be in the format of an evening show which will be created by your projects. It will be a collection of performances, installations, readings, debates, tricks, exhibits, objects, discussions, etc. Critics and professionals from the ITP community and the architecture community will be the audience for the Vaudeville. The Vaudeville will be open to the public. DATE AND NYC Location TBA. Mid December. FIELD TRIPS : HAVE YOUR CAMERAS READY We will make many site visits to various NYC architecture hot spots, these trips will be spontaneous departures from class, so when you arrive in class always be prepared to step outside and take a short walk. READINGS : READ THEM : QUESTION THEM I will hand out PDF readings in Class or link them to the syllabus. There is no required text for this class but when I give you a reading you will be expected to read it for the next class. Stop by St. Marks Books go to the magazine rack and and sift through the recent issue of Volume Magazine / 30.60.90. / and Seed. If you really want to dive in please pick up copies of: Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan by Rem Koolhaas Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture: City, Technology and Society in the Information Age. EVENTS / LECTURES / EXHIBITS : GO SEE THEM You will be expected to integrate yourself into activities that will expand your mind outside of class. Often I will require the class to see and exhibit or attend a lecture. When going to events please document the event in whatever format you wish and be ready to speak about you experience at the next class. DOCUMENTATION : YOU HAVE TO DO IT EVERY WEEK Metaforms will have a course website. Each student is responsible for creating a Metaforms digital sketchbook. This can be an online place for archiving all of the work, writing, ideas etc for this class. Please send me a link the first week of class. The digital sketchbook will also have a physical counterpart so please bring a sketchbook to class. FORMAT : SPONTANEOUS : LECTURES : DISCUSSIONS : PRODUCTION TIME Each class will have a set lecture followed by class discussion, examples, and critique of project development. Readings listed are due the following week.
GUIDELINES: FOLLOW THEM Grading: We are on the Pass Fail System for 1st Years only. OFFICE HOURS : LETS TALK ABOUT YOUR PROJECT Wed afternoon before and after class. Please make and appt. with me. DANA KARWAS IS: A researcher with C-LAB / Volume Magazine. C-Lab, the Columbia Laboratory for Architectural Broadcasting, is an experimental research unit devoted to the development of new forms of communication in architecture, set up as a semi-autonomous think and action tank at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University. Since 2005, C-Lab has collaborated with Archis and AMO on Volume, an independent bimonthly for architecture to go beyond itself. http://www.c-lab.columbia.edu |
METAFORMS STUDENTS: Alex Abreu
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The field of architecture is constantly in search of new species of form. Most recent technological movements and capacities are utilized in this pursuit. The increased presence and prominence of new media in the context of architecture justifies a separate study of the forms that arise at the intersection of the two fields. Such generalized entities can be regarded as Metaforms.