Code, Form, Space Symposium at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh
I’m participating in a symposium directed by Golan Levin and Jeremy Ficca on the topics of generative form and digital fabrication at Carnegie Mellon from 3-7 February:
Algorithmic processes, harnessed through the medium of code, allow creators to generate complex forms and organic structures by the application of elementary but carefully-tuned sets of rules. Digital fabrication systems, such as computer-controlled laser cutters, 3D printers, and machining systems, offer a nearly instantaneous way of exploring ideas in new spatial and material formats. The combination of these two approaches represents an extreme but growing position in art and design, wherein the traditions of hand-craft are exchanged almost entirely for the unprecedented possibilities made possible through a demanding new form of mind-craft.
In this mini-symposium, we present four practitioners – C.E.B. Reas, Marius Watz, Ben Pell, and MOS Architects (directed by Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample) – who are refiguring the material world through rule systems and digital fabrication tools. Their work spans the disciplines of art, design, architecture, and engineering; the objectives of provocation, of utility, and of pure aesthetic delight; and the realms of bits, atoms, and ideas. All of these practitioners have singularly rigorous personal aesthetics and sensitive understandings of how the arts can transform the way we live. In their contrasting approaches at the limits of digital craft we can catch a glimpse of a new humanism in our increasingly computer-articulated environments.
The schedule follows:
3 Feb 2009, 5-6pm. McConomy Hall: C.E.B. Reas and Marius Watz dialog
4 Feb 2009, 12-1pm. MM203: Reas, Watz, Pell, Ficca, Levin discussion
4 Feb 2009, 5-6pm. Giant Eagle Auditorium: Ben Pell lecture
5 Feb 2009, 5-6pm. Giant Eagle Auditorium: MOS Architects lecture
There’s more information at the CMU site.