Actual Reality: An Alternative Approach to Post-Digital Representation

In his essay “Architecture Enters the Age of Post-Digital Drawing”, Sam Jacob advocates for a new method of representation that eschews the digital technology used to create photo-realistic renderings in favor of an approach that utilizes digital collage in order to embrace drawing as a work of fiction. While his criticism of photo-realism is valid, it is also arguable that a post-digital age in architecture should more heavily concerned with reality. An alternative method of representation is investigated that utilizes photographs of physical models that are digitally modified in order to emphasize the experiential qualities of architecture. Whereas Sam Jacob uses the zombie as a metaphor for a collage technique risen from the dead, the cyborg may be a more apt analogy for a post-digital method of representation that is focused on real world, but also open to embracing the potential of digital enhancements. The paper explores the role of physical models, photography, and in some cases digital technology as a means to generate perspectival views by architects of the past and the present with the hope that these precedents can be utilized to inform an alternate post-digital era to the one Sam Jacob advocates. These techniques have been applied in a series of design studios focused on shifting the focus from external form and abstraction toward internal experience with an emphasis on reality. While this approach diverges from what students’ expectations are for design, many have embraced the process and stated that the studio has helped to shape their view of the realm of architecture.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.108.115

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ISBN
978-1-944214-26-5