T 9:30 am-12:00 pm
Anderson Hall, Room 230
ARCH 403: Degree Project Seminar
Through historical texts and contemporary study cases, the seminar will explore the history and theory going back to the older training of observation based on physiological responses and its technical representation (Sketches, Drawing, and Perspectives), exploring the mechanical documentation through analog images and video (Photography and Film), as well as its incursion into the digital era and its contemporary techniques, software, and visualizations (3D Models, Renderings, and AI) that saturate the contemporary discipline of architecture, and how these have played a fundamental role in the discourse construction of and the social and political systems (Mass and Social Media). Vision Machines seeks to explore the different mediums and processes through which we see and represent architecture and the environment and, in doing so, understand how they have reshaped and restructured the discipline and how we understand and practice it today.
The Watkin Degree Project Seminar is a special-topics seminar that establishes the theoretical framework for the Watkin Studio (ARCH 402) “Vision Machines.” Fourth-year undergraduate architecture students enrolled in this section will continue to work with the same theme and instructor in the spring. For the spring studio, students will conceptualize, design, and
develop their own “Vision Machines” or contemporary visualization strategies. In preparation for the studio, the objectives of this seminar include the presentation and engagement of research methodologies and visualization strategies through the study of relevant precedents that span the fields of architecture, the humanities, and the arts. Contemporary
experimental research and curatorial projects, will serve as a site of investigation throughout readings and discussions.