Studio 43

digital disobediences

Christopher Ferris and Jack Mansfield-Hung

This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90143 Studio D, and ABPL90115 Studio E.

Studio Description

(augmented reality) Digital disobedience is a design and build studio that is interested in how the skills and capabilities of designers can be extended through mixed reality technologies when they are used collaboratively as a fabrication tool.

(timber fabrication) Throughout the semester students will work with complex geometries with the help of the Microsoft HoloLens, across a range of scales using timber with advanced generative digital techniques.

(future making) Design can be seen as a type of future-making and we would argue that by looking at the current trajectory set by the status quo, a re-questioning of the way architecture is typically practiced is required. This studio instead uses a speculative approach using fictional and story-telling elements.

(programme) In order to engage critically with the tools the students will be asked to design a living barricade as a way of questioning architectures role/agency through a type of fictional disruption, that intervenes in the sociopolitical landscapes of the city.

Studio Outcome

The first half of semester we will run a series of hands-on workshops to introduce the tools, methods and technologies required for rigorous testing through prototyping, culminating in the design and fabrication (in groups) of a tectonic system at detail scale.

During the second half of semester the groups will implement their specific tectonic system to a small-medium scale architectural proposition (barricade), and production of a physical ‘chunk’ of the final design.

Throughout the semester the students will be engaging in ongoing research about political and cultural involvements, literature, mythology and documentaries in order to give a critical context to the work. Together with the final realised fabrication a short narrative film will be produced in order for the project to communicate itself beyond traditional architectural representation and drawings.

Please note that no previous experience in fabrication or algorithmic tools is required, however a willingness to engage in these tools and highly iterative processes is essential.

Studio Leaders

Christopher Ferris is a computational designer working across the territories of architecture, art, digital design and film. He has recently returned from living in London where he was working for the Korean artist Do Ho Suh. Christopher graduated with a Master of Architecture with Distinction from RMIT has taught at the AA, the University of Melbourne and RMIT. He also has experience inside from architectural practice having worked at PLP Architecture in London and Elenberg Fraser here in Melbourne.

Jack Mansfield-Hung has a keen interest in emerging technologies, and their ability to affect the way we think, design and represent our ideas in architecture. Jack graduated with a Master of Architecture from RMIT and has previously run both fabrication and Machine Learning undergraduate studios at RMIT University, and Melbourne University. Jack also has experience within architectural practice at Perkins Architects, Minifie van Shaik and Hachem Architecture.

Jack and Chris have worked collaboratively recently in 2019 through working on Fologram’s Steampunk Pavilion for the Tallinn Architecture Biennale, and have worked on several architectural robotic fabrication projects previously.

Readings & References

• Adorno, Theodor & Horkheimer, Max (1944). The Culture Industry
• Baker, George & Huyghe, Pierre (2004). An Interview with Pierre Huyghe
• Beck, Ulrich (1992). Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity
• Blanqui, Auguste (1868). Instructions pour une prise d'armes (Instructions for an Armed Uprising)
• Carpo, Mario (2011). The Alphabet and the Algorithm, Mario
• Crumley, Jim (2015). Nature’s Architect: The Beaver’s Return to Our Wild Landscapes,
• Deleuze, Gilles (1996). R for Résistance (L'Abécédaire de Gilles Deleuze)
• Dick, Philip K. (1977). If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others
• Foucault, Michel (1966). The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences
• Fry, Tony (2008). Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice
• Guattari, Felix (2014). The Three Ecologies
• Hardt, Michael & Negri, Antonio (2017). Assembly
• Jahn, Gwyllim & Newnham, Cameron & Berg, Nick & Beanland, Matthew. (2019). Making in Mixed Reality.
• Kafka, Franz (1931). The Burrow
• Mallgrave, Francis (1996). Gottfried Semper : architect of the nineteenth century : a personal and intellectual biography
• McKEnzie, Wark (2019). Capital Is Dead: Is This Something Worse?
• Morton, Timothy (2009). Ecology without Nature
• Roudavski, Stanislav & Jahn, Gwyllim (2016). Activist systems: Futuring with living models
• Seike, Kiyosi (1977). The Art Of Japanese Joinery
• Thoreau, Henry (1849). Civil Disobedience

Schedule Mondays 09:00-12:00 and Thursdays 09:00-12:00 in MSD Room 142

Travel To Be Confirmed

Contact Handbook Key Dates