The machines of perception

The following work is an attempt to feed a dynamic concept of the body into contemporary morphogenetic design procedures in order to confront critiques that topological design processes produce architectural form that is too abstract. This begins with an understanding of the body schema; the open and continuously variable relationships between the various modes of sensation and perception that can only be described in topological terms. Similar to how active matter is instrumentalized in avant-garde practice and cutting edge research towards self-organization and morphogenesis, an active body schema has the potential to be instrumentalized towards design that aims to exploit the potential performance and openness of the body when confronted with architecture, moving away from mechanistic, representational notions of function. The work follows a procedure wherein conceptual research engages physical phenomena that are abstracted into diagrams then organized into material systems or abstract machines. These machines are intended to be mobilized and consolidated to engage specific issues of program and type and further refined to be deployed upon a specific site. This morphological process of machining architecture aims to move toward a seamless exchange between research and design that effectively instrumentalizes the dynamic body schema into a design process engaging architecture of performance. Perhaps, in terms of the body, morphogenetic design produces architecture that is not abstract enough.M.S.Committee Chair: Lars Spuybroek; Committee Member: Sonit Bafna; Committee Member: Stuart Rom