Image (left): Walden (first digital scanned image, by Russell Kirsch/NIST, 1957); Image (right): Institut Geographie Français, “Photogrammetrie”, 1968

Newish Media
A Conversation with Lucia Allais and John May
February 22, 2017, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Gund Hall, 112 Stubbins

The surface of architectural thought has changed radically over the past half century. Whereas architects once pushed ink or graphite across various types of paper, we now touch and swipe electronic screens. This transformation has placed novel postorthographic operations—modeling, sensing, scanning, rendering—at the center of our practices. And it demands that we take seriously the technical basis of architectural thought and imagination. John May will present material from his forthcoming book, Signal, Image, Architecture and Lucia Allais will present a counter-history of rendering. Then they will converse.

Conversants:

Lucia Allais, “Rendering and Experience”
Assistant Professor of Architecture, Princeton University, Editor Grey Room, member of Aggregate

John May, “Postorthography: An Outline”
GSD Design Critic in Architecture; Co-Director, M.Des advanced studies; Coordinator, History and Philosophy of Design; Principal, MILLIØNS, Los Angeles

Interlocuter:

Catherine Ingraham
Professor of Architecture, Pratt Institute and Visiting Faculty, GSD

First Responder:

Michael Hays
Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory; Interim Chair, Graduate School of Design, Chair, GSD