computational craft

proto-patterns

posterproto

Core Design Studio 1 | Arch 101.11 | Ezio Blasetti | ta: Alessia Schoor

“We are fascinated by the unit; only a unity seems rational to us. We scorn the senses, because their information reaches us in bursts. We scorn the groupings of the world, and we scorn those of our bodies. For us they seem to enjoy a bit of the status of Being only when they are subsumed beneath a unity. Disaggregation and aggregation, as such, and without contradiction, are repugnant to us. Multiplicity, according to Leibniz, is only a semi-being. A cartload of bricks isn’t a house. Unity dazzles on at least two counts: by its sum and by its division. That herd must be singular in its totality and it must also be made up of a given number of sheep or buffalo. We want principle, a system, an integration, we want elements, atoms, numbers. We want them, and we make them. A single God, and identifiable individuals. The aggregate as such is not a well-formed object; it seems irrational to us. The arithmetic of whole numbers remains a secret foundation of our understanding; we’re all Pythagorians. We think only in monadologies.”

“… by giving up the multiple for the one, has reason given up its prey to chase a shadow?”

Michel Serres, Genesis


πάντων γὰρ ὅσα πλείω μέρη ἔχει καὶ μὴ ἔστιν οἷον σωρὸς τὸ πᾶν [10] ἀλλ᾽ ἔστι τι τὸ ὅλον παρὰ τὰ μόρια
“… the totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something besides the parts …”

Aristotle, Metaphysics

‘Proto-patterns’ was an investigation on systemic formal logic for the creation of conditions within architectural ‘logos’ as proto-language. It drew upon the non-deterministic nature of the generative forces behind the design process. Consisting of a simultaneous operation through notational and material mechanisms, it engaged the complexity of organizational space. The sequential assessment of both the abstract and tectonic qualities of the work enabled numerous material manifestations. ‘Proto-patterns’ was a three-fold feedback process: codification (formalization in syntactical elements), construction (enactment of the generative principles) and analysis (mapping of phenomenal behaviors).
We started from a simple diagram and moved to its unfolding into space. Through intuitive iterations, we arrived at midterm with a first attempt to meta-organize the work in catalogs. The work since then gained specificity through a series of steps towards the assessment of orientation, scale and potential for inhabitation.
While the point of departure was abstract and autogenous, as phenomenal concepts behind the work began to strengthen, the focus shifted towards a programmatic narration, a spatial sequence or character. Language in ‘Proto-patterns’ was always already multiple, collective and non-linear. As such, ‘words’ acquire meaning simultaneously through their interrelation, meaning as significance, as the constructive difference.

Students:

Readings:

  • 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d elle (script)
  • Agent Intellects: Pattern as a Form of Thought
  • Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
  • From Object to Field
  • Funes The Memorious
  • Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
  • Introduction from Genesis (the object of this book)
  • La Jetee (script)
  • Library of Babel
  • Music and Architecture
  • Self-made Tapestry
  • Techniques and Technologies in Morphogenetic Design
  • The Garden of Folking Paths
  • The Invention of Morel
  • The Origin of Language: Biology, Information Theory & Thermodynamics
  • Tlon, Uqbar Orbis Tertius
by Jean Luc Godard
by Ed Keller & Carla Leitao
by Steven Johnson
by Stan Allen
by Jorge Luis Borges
by Douglas Hofstadter
by Michel Serres
by Chris Marker
by Jorge Luis Borges
by Iannis Xenakis & Sharon Kanach
by Phillip Ball
by Michael Hensel
by Jorge Luis Borges
by Aldoflo Bioy Casares
by Michel Serres
by Jorge Luis Borges