ARC3206H F
Instructor: Andrew Bako
Meeting Section: LEC0101
Wednesday, 12:00PM - 3:00PM

In a contemporary context of the “now-trending”, both physical and digital matter are placed on a flattened ontological plane with equal capacity for appropriation, hacking, and digital transmissibility. Now more than ever, our “will-to-form” as designers is intrinsically linked to the subversive misuse of commandeered 3D assets across networked digital playgrounds. As filetypes have become more promiscuous in their ability to shape-shift across software platforms, unexpected outcomes arise through the kitbashing of parts from disparate corners of visual culture.

As we navigate through a wilderness of online content, how can we define the aesthetic language of the “now”? How can we evaluate and produce novel aesthetic outcomes through the productive coalescence of physical and digital matter? In this course, students will harvest, hack and curate a taxonomy of appropriated objects in the establishment of their own digital asset library. Once an ecology of parts has been defined, students will spend the majority of the semester sculpting, simulating, texturing and manipulating these objects into novel tectonic and ornamental design languages. Throughout the course, students will develop their skills utilizing Photogrammetry, Blender, ZBrush, Adobe Substance, and real-time rendering engines as they establish new aesthetic languages.

The course will be structured through a combination of in class lectures on issues concerning contemporary ornamentation, paired with in-class software tutorials to develop a series of techniques that will assist with the production of assignment deliverables. Students will work in pairs throughout the term towards the design of a virtual cabin, redefining an aesthetic language that is formed by an amalgamated landscape of objects “in the wild”.