Conceptions of Design in a Culture of Simulation

Yanni Alexander Loukissas, Ph.D., will be the opening speaker for the “Emerging Voices” lecture series. This series is intended to bring outstanding young and emerging scholars to Ann Arbor to share their work with students and faculty at the Taubman College.

Yanni Alexander Loukissas holds a Ph.D. in design and computation from MIT, as well as a master of science in architecture studies, also from MIT, and a bachelor of architecture from Cornell. His latest publication, Keepers of the Geometry, is an ethnographic essay about information technologies and professional identity in architecture offices that will be released by MIT Press in 2009 as part of an edited volume entitled Simulation and Its Discontents. Loukissas is currently working on a book based on his dissertation, “Conceptions of Design in a Culture of Simulation,” which tracks the evolving meaning of design at Arup, a global design and business consultancy.

Yanni Loukissas teaches design studio and theory in the Cornell University department of architecture. He also practices as a design and technology consultant. Most recently, he worked with Small Design Firm on an art information and way-finding system for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

For more information about PARG, visit their website at http://sitemaker.umich.edu/parg/home.