Diverse Angles (Asynchronous Session)
Three Exhibitions, Three Interviews, Three Archives - Yes, but Why?: Idiosyncrasy as a Meta Design Tool View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Angeliki Sofia Mantikou
This paper features subject-object oriented research, in a postindustrial socioeconomical condition. Idiosyncrasy will be used as a methodological tool in a researcher’s personal archive. This archive consists of everyday design objects from 1920 till 2020 that have been exhibited in museums and art institutions such as MoMA, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Franco Albini Fondazione, the curators’ interviews of these exhibitions and rare archives such as Greta Manguson archive and S. Delialis archive. Firstly, there the definition of idiosyncrasy is reviewed. Its references extend from the aesthetic theory from the romantic period till contemporary object-subject oriented theories (S. Zizek), to interdisciplinary references of pathology, psychiatry and neurology, which interconnect idiosyncrasy with the function of human sensory system. Secondly, the researcher’s collection is organized and read as a cloud. The characteristics of idiosyncrasy create a two metric systems of reading that cloud. The first one relates to norms of ideological design and the second to aesthetic values and social symbols. Through this methodology each object of the cloud is reorganized in new ideological categories. So, each object is connected with different objects, ideas and words that all together consist of a new hyper object narrative, responsible for the design of cultural footprint. The aim of that research is the timeless value of design nowadays, when everything is said and done. Through the value of the meaning of idiosyncrasy in design everything matters and design is sustainable from another point of view.
Confronting Issues of Diversity in Data Visualization Curriculums View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eugene Park
Data visualization, in all of its rigor and depth, has always been an act of measuring and analyzing the world. The ubiquity of charts and graphs as used for scientific, journalistic, and sometimes for entertainment purposes has given data visualization an advantage to impart and explain critical and complex topics. However, it is also a field that is rooted under western-centric assumptions and even a history with its own prejudices. Situated in the terrain of the ever-evolving digital technologies and design specializations, it is easy to be singularly focused on the technical and empirical aspects of data visualization, and perpetuate the faulty assumption that data is a purely objective medium that cuts through prejudice and bias. From ISOTYPE’s depiction of people of color that relies on cultural stereotypes to the lack of BIPOC (Black, Indegenious, People of Color) practitioners in the field today, there are numerous issues that must be addressed both in academia and industry practice. Realizing these challenges, this paper proposes how data visualization curriculum can be changed—without abandoning the analytical and technical instructions—to become more racially and socially inclusive, confront past racist practices involving data, promote past current practitioners who identify as BIPOC, and use data to uncover unjust realities around us.
Beginning at the End: Human Experiences as a Generator of Built Form View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kevin Nute
This paper argues that reliance on the plan drawing as the primary generator of architectural space has had a limiting effect on the human experiences of many modern buildings. It suggests that dependence on a two-dimensional diagram to generate habitable space is an example of objectivism, the “view from nowhere” that priviledges theoretical abstraction over direct experience, which phenomenology exposed but which has nonetheless remained prevalent in architectural design. The reseaarch presented examines a reverse approach, in which desired perceptual experiences are used to generate building plans rather than vice versa. This process is explored in the work of a leading member of the “other tradition” of modern architecture, Hans Scharoun, the overtly phenomenological contemporary designer, Steven Holl, and two architectural design studios that were used to test the effectiveness of this approach in producing more humane environments.
Modeling Landscape Performance for a Watershed Approach in Design View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aaron Liggett
During the 1920s, the Olmsted Brothers had a vision for Los Angeles; to construct a series of interconnected parkways that would serve as multimodal transportation routes providing green space for recreation, wildlife habitat, and stormwater management. Following a watershed approach as a framework, the parkway was strategically positioned to protect water resources, establish public parks, and install flood management infrastructure. The comprehensive plan focused on the physical and social connections within the Los Angeles watersheds to revitalize neighborhoods and rehabilitated the Los Angeles River and its tributaries. For a number of reasons, their proposed park corridor, known as the Hollywood-Palos Verdes Parkway, was never constructed. However, the forethought of the Olmsted Brothers’ design approach and the subsequent floods that devastated Los Angeles in 1938 offers a rich opportunity to backtest how their original parkway design could have performed during large storm events. Digital applications, such as HGIS, AutoCad, and SketchUp provide methods to simulate, test, and interpret how natural systems might have interacted with the built environment in a historical context. These digital models offer ways to analyze ecological, functional, and experiential landscape systems to uncover potential outcomes. This innovative research approach offers new applications for testing and visualizing proposed (and existing) designs as well as technical insights and methodologies to inform contemporary sustainable development strategies.
