ACADIA 2016 Workshop Coverage by Viola Ago Featured on Archinect
In an Archinect article called “Immersion in robotic design keeps ACADIA workshops true to ‘Posthuman Frontiers’ theme,” Viola Ago, Taubman College’s 2016-2017 William Muschenheim Fellow, takes a deep dive into the ACADIA 2016 workshops and their concluding panel discussion. The workshops which took place on October 24 – 26, 2016 were set up and arranged by workshop co-chairs and Taubman College assistant professors Wes McGee and Catie Newell, and were led by experts from across the globe. Seven workshops took place and some introduced participants to advanced methods of fabrication while others focussed on information management and work flows. The workshops were then concluded by a panel discussion, “Fabricated,” with workshop leaders Brandon Clifford, Matt Jezyk, Dave Pigram, and Lauren Vasey, and moderated by McGee and Newell.
In her thorough analysis, Ago emphasizes that “the workshop leaders were highly sophisticated in craft and agency, and were able to very quickly and efficiently bring the participants up to speed with their research and methodologies in both digital design and output. This was viable because the leaders are highly established in their respective fields of research and they all have been involved in varying methods of teaching. Alongside this expertise, the availability of the exquisite machinery and tools from (the Taubman College) FABLab supported the advanced fabrication that these workshops demanded. One of the workshops used the 5-axis CNC machine to mill one of the designed pieces from the workshop itself.”
Ago then concludes that “The ability of the workshops to produce their respective projects at the end helps in situating the research in a more concrete framework, rather than a speculative one.” And that one framework is set up by the participants; “The participants are a combination of practicing architects, students, and researchers, who were placed in a room and were compelled to work and learn together. Their newly acquired skills and knowledge will continue to resonate with them after the workshops. The practicing architect will evolve in the office, the student will have a more informed project, and the researcher will use it as a base to further build upon.
The effort and expertise were present in these workshops, not only during the intensive work, but also present in the final projects. Through these workshops, it is evident that ACADIA’s relevancy into the development of research and investigation continues to grow. It is not a matter of finding the ultimate process, but rather it is the ambition of evolving methods.”
For the full article: http://archinect.com/news/article/149977567/immersion-in-robotic-design-keeps-acadia-workshops-true-to-posthuman-frontiers-theme
More about ACADIA 2016: http://2016.acadia.org/
