Net-Materials

Our intentions now are have a clear objective of placing no hierarchy between any media, tools or space to complete a task. The choice and use of each media, tool or space must pass contemporary criteria of sustainability and functionality. As with navigating through the commercial landscape or the democratic/anonymous web, a rigorous process of filtering, selection, concentration and personal export will follow.


Tom, Dale. Western Negative. Sculpture. Still image burned into screen of monitor. TV Broadcast monitor. Dim: 60cm x 80cm x 80cm. 2007. Sourced from Dale Tom.

There are several discrepancies about which, it is that should be investigated architecturally - or whether the investigation into building is something that needs to happen at all. A paradigm shift is occurring within the occupation of architecture and catalysed with the unenviable economic trough we are all faced with, architects - ‘cast-ers’ of indestructible stone are now bequeathed with a profession somewhat dormant. The shift is an extension of science, where architects conduct most of their work as research, some never building, or as a guise for youth to developing a pre-building catalogue.


Sutherland, Peter. Acid Rain. Sourced from IANN Magazine.

Peter Cook denounces this sort of investigation as a construction to provide virtual parameters for the constraint of building, but where the relevance is in this work, our focus’ must be poignant and sustainable as it is on a scale of mass-investigation. The investigation in the algorithmic process has its limitations: it has the unfortunate circumstance of being dictated by technological development, and the technological development is governed by capitalistic gain (by slow inch-by-inch releases: there is the analogy that once a extra-terrestorial ship crashed and the military stole, preserved and recreated all the of the technology on-board - now, month by month they are releasing updates and ‘breakthroughs’ for commercial access acting as the leather belt on the arm of the techno-addicts). There also is grave irresponsibility in the frivolous act labeled ‘scripting’, an uncanny name, as though it performs architectural pantomime (virtuality), it is so virtual that the production, labour and materialistic value is totally disregarded. Any contextual relationship is uprooted.


Palace. Overrated - Scripted (Rhino Model), 2008.

The analogy that architecture should be built as a reflection of its age is however fulfilled by this dalliance. With graciousness and with a stringent effort to avoid the sickening and prevalent copy/paste blogosphere we cite Sam Jacobs, “This unreality has infused architectural production, often finding resolution in hysterical, liquid, fluid form at audacious scale - the kind of thing recently dubbed ‘Parametricism’. Displays of beyond-human formal complexity drop out of the computational design systems employed in the search for exoticism and difference - a difference that was demanded by the market pluralism of ultra capitalism. Appropriately, these projects seem to use the very same kind of tools that has maximized, magnified, and deepened our current financial crisis.” (The Ruins of the Future, Stange Harvest, 6/12/2008)

One responsible building definition of our age is to access the highly developed data mining abilities we have on our silver platter. The formal resolutions existing in scripting could be re-hashed (while still holding all of the profound complexities) into works investigating geo-spatial analyses, web-based feedback, responsive spaces and other humanist approaches. Furthering that, we are staring straight into the face of an energy crisis and every move the architect make is of instant negative consequence. The notion of building is now in question.