atlas of fantastic infrastructures
book cover text
The Atlas of Fantastic Infrastructures deals with the characterization of architecture, media and digital infrastructure. In concrete terms, it deals with the materiality of buildings and the intangibility of data. While technical or functional studies often tend to “ atten” the multiplex phenomena, the author speculatively proposes four abstract prisms: 1) Affair With Phantoms – who do we want to meet in a digitally mediated space, and what kind of conversation/activity will we have?; 2) Para-DesIre – where do our surreal desires live, and what are their strategies?; 3) mediated space catalogue – what kinds of data, information, things, spaces and places are available in the world, and how our activities blend them?; 4) gifts of the gardens – how can an idea enter physical reality, and what are the pathways of such becomings?
The author examines buildings and projects by Toyo Ito, Philippe Rahm, Olafur Eliasson, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Electroland, Troika, NOX, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and others.
Mihye An is a designer and media theoretician, currently researching at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design (CAAD), Institute for Technologyin Architecture ITA, ETH Zurich.
table of contents
Foreword: Mastering the Generic (by Ludger Hovestadt)
Preface
Atlas I – Affairs With Phantoms
Accepting obscurity
Accepting Affection
Having Fictitious Affairs
Scheherazade
Dracula
Orlando
The Last Leaf
Morel’s Machine
God
Atlas II — Para-Desire
Infrastructure of Para-Functionality
Para-Desire
Infra-natural
Infra-ordinary
Infra-speculative
Atlas III — Mediated Space Catalogue
1001 Days on earth
At home
Outside
Something Special
Atlas IV — Gifts of the Gardens
A Field trip to Gardens
Fourfold Analysis and speculation
Baroque
English
Zen
Monastic
Folly
Footnotes
Image credits
Acknowledgements
Imprint