....Bücher..Books....
GHOSTS OF TRANSPARENCY
Information and data are not synonyms: data (etymo- logically, the ‘given’) has to be treated, articulated, read or deciphered in such a way as to contain information. The sheer amount of data today tends to obscure this important difference between data and information: data is entropic, while information is where this entropy is negated; infor- mation is negentropic. An emerging political imperative of ‘transparency’ conflates the abundance of data with an increase in information. Unfortunately, the reverse is often the case: The more ‘data’ is rendered available and passed off as ‘information’ or ‘knowledge’, the more opaque the dealings with ‘information’ become. This is perhaps one of the greatest challenges we face with regard to becoming lit- erate in the algorithmic and symbolization processes that organize data in our world today—processes we refer to here as ‘ghosts of transparency’. ....
Mathematics and Information in the Philosophy of Michel Serres
Mathematics and Information in the Philosophy of Michel Serres introduces the reader to Serres’ unique manner of ‘doing philosophy’, namely, as a novel manner of bearing witness. It demonstrates the reality of intellectual courage at work in Serres’ oeuvre that crucially involves mathematical thinking, and that makes possible a novel kind of dialogue in the world, not just on the world. Discourse around such dialogue thoughtfully articulates the principle of ‘the priceless’, folding it into an architectonics that is coefficient with nature.
Situating Serres’ universalist yet plural reading of knowledge as power, at the same time reveals it as coextensive with anonymous, incandescent and inventive thought. Vera Bühlmann’s work acquaints the reader with some of the epistemologically unsettling situations in contemporary science and technology that Serres addressed, formulating the original concept of ‘Quantum Literacy’ to examine the particular way in which he responded to these situations.
A GENIUS PLANET - ENERGY: FROM SCARCITY TO ABUNDANCE, A RADICAL PATHWAY
Imagine a world where the power is always on, where there is not just enough energy, but an abundance of it. Such a world is no Utopia, it is a possible reality. Using indefinitely available sources of energy – especially photovoltaic solar, in combination with others – and networking this energy, much in the way that we have networked information, we can get beyond our current energy ‘crisis’ and resolve it. The world we then find ourselves in is not a world without problems – we will face new challenges on the way – but in terms of energy it is a world of plenty. Rooted in sound theory and based on technology that is available now, A Genius Planet offers an accessible but detailed and insightful perspective on how we can free ourselves from our dependency on natural resources and generate, trade, and use energy in ways that open up the genuine potential that we have at our disposal today.
symbolizing existence (metalithikum III)
....Symbolizing Existence deals with the current rapidly happening “deterritorialization” of everything which was once regarded as stable and binding. What we today regard as statistically encoded information is capable of explicating and indexing the entire realm of what can be expressed and represented through a cascade of geometrical, functional, or finally logified schemes. We are currently experiencing a rapid loss of “grounding” of that which we once considered binding in our cultural and intellectual history. How can we obtain an articulate, cultivate way of thinking about “instances” that does not fall back into a schematic model Platonism (thereby falling behind Plato), and that does not remain enmeshed in an Aristotelian realization dynamics with a naturalism organized by original genus, kinds, and specific marks of distinction?
The central phenomenon considered was the technological process of doping material: At the quantum level, a particle or its representation, the point, is no longer “that which has no parts” (Euclid).
..Symbolizing Existence deals with the current rapidly happening “deterritorialization” of everything which was once regarded as stable and binding. What we today regard as statistically encoded information is capable of explicating and indexing the entire realm of what can be expressed and represented through a cascade of geometrical, functional, or finally logified schemes. We are currently experiencing a rapid loss of “grounding” of that which we once considered binding in our cultural and intellectual history. How can we obtain an articulate, cultivate way of thinking about “instances” that does not fall back into a schematic model Platonism (thereby falling behind Plato), and that does not remain enmeshed in an Aristotelian realization dynamics with a naturalism organized by original genus, kinds, and specific marks of distinction?
The central phenomenon considered was the technological process of doping material: At the quantum level, a particle or its representation, the point, is no longer “that which has no parts” (Euclid). ....
ATLAS OF FANTASTIC INFRASTRUCTURES
....The Atlas of Fantastic Infrastructures deals with the characterization of architecture, media and digital infrastructure. Myhe An examines buildings and projects by Toyo Ito, Philippe Rahm, Olafur Eliasson, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Electroland, Troika, NOX, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and others.
..The Atlas of Fantastic Infrastructures deals with the characterization of architecture, media and digital infrastructure. Myhe An examines buildings and projects by Toyo Ito, Philippe Rahm, Olafur Eliasson, Greg Lynn, MVRDV, Electroland, Troika, NOX, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and others. ....
TOKIO WHIP
....Roberta, Lang and their friends experience the great Japanese city in all its manifestations to their inquiring, observing, and wandering minds as they banter over the details of a party, a film, Songs Common to Dreams, Tokyo’s history, the Names of Love.
Tokio Whip is a distinctly stylistic Yamanote station-by-station tour-de-force discovering the City of Language, the City as Language.
..
Roberta, Lang and their friends experience the great Japanese city in all its manifestations to their inquiring, observing, and wandering minds as they banter over the details of a party, a film, Songs Common to Dreams, Tokyo’s history, the Names of Love.
Tokio Whip is a distinctly stylistic Yamanote station-by-station tour-de-force discovering the City of Language, the City as Language. ....
coding as literacy. self-organizing maps (metalithikum IV)
....Recent developments in computer science, particularly “data-driven procedures” have opened a new level of design and engineering. This has also affected architecture. The publication collects contributions on Coding as Literacy by computer scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, cultural theorists, and architects. “Self-Organizing Maps” (SOM) will serve as the concrete reference point for further discussions.
..Recent developments in computer science, particularly “data-driven procedures” have opened a new level of design and engineering. This has also affected architecture. The publication collects contributions on Coding as Literacy by computer scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, cultural theorists, and architects. “Self-Organizing Maps” (SOM) will serve as the concrete reference point for further discussions. ....
A Quantum city. mastering the generic
....We know the specific strengths of various cities, are aware of their ranking, are able to discuss their density and growth. But what do all cities have in common, what do we know about their “lowest common denominator”? The “city as a species”, the “primal genetic material of the city”: this is the subject of A Quantum City. This colossal work is a love letter to the city and intellectual culture.
..We know the specific strengths of various cities, are aware of their ranking, are able to discuss their density and growth. But what do all cities have in common, what do we know about their “lowest common denominator”? The “city as a species”, the “primal genetic material of the city”: this is the subject of A Quantum City. This colossal work is a love letter to the city and intellectual culture. ....
Eigenarchitecture. computability as literacy
....Ein Weg aus den technologischen und ökonomischen Exzessen in der heutigen Architektur: Ein Buch über Forschung und Ausbildung in Architektur und Informationstechnik – begriffen als philosophisches Zusammenspiel zweier Spezies ähnlicher Art, beide in keiner Weise disziplinär. Beide wirken sich auf alles aus, beziehen alles mit ein, sind Künste des artikulierenden Gliederns. Die eine ist würdige 2500 Jahre alt, die andere nur 50 Jahre und ungeduldig.
..A path out of the technological and economical excesses in contemporary architecture: A book on research and education in architecture and information technology, conceived as a philosophical interplay between two species similar in kind. Neither of them is in the least disciplinal: both affect everything, both are arts of structuring. The one 2500 years old and dignified, the other just 50 years of age and impatient. ....
Berufsfeld Architektur 2.0: Lebenswelten, Wissen und Vernetzung
....Langzeitstudie zur kritischen Reflexion der sozio-politischen Bedingungen der zeitgenössischen Produktion von Architektur in Österreich (2004-14). Basis ist ein Forschungsprojekt und eine forschungsorientierte Seminarreihe über die Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen der Menschen die im Bereich der österreichischen Architektur tätig sind.
..A long-term study on the critical reflection of the socio-political conditions that constitute the current architectural production in Austria (2004-14). The basis of the study is a research project and research-based seminar on the working and living conditions of people in the Austrian field of Architecture. ....
NACHRICHT ALS MEDIUM. GENERISCHE MEDIALITÄT, STÄDTISCHE ARCHITEKTONIK
....Was würde es bedeuten, die architektonische Frage darüber, wie das Wissensmögliche seine Genese, Fügung und Gliederung findet, unter genuin städtischen Vorzeichen neu zu formulieren? Medialität müsste darin eine zentrale Rolle spielen. Sie wäre der Inbegriff all dessen, was in seinem Bedeutungsgehalt vermittelt, erhalten, entwickelt und erzeugt werden kann. Mit der Inversion von Marshall McLuhans berühmten Dictum „Das Medium ist die Nachricht“ geht es Vera Bühlmann darum, einen generischen Begriff von Medialität zu konturieren, welcher die selbstbezügliche und selbst erzeugende Wendigkeit medialer Instrumentalität zu adressieren vermag. In diesem Sinn wird Medialität als Element verteilter, diskontinuierlicher und sich gegenseitig herausfordernder wie hervorbringender Möglichkeiten konturiert, die einer symbolischen Natur des Allgemeinen entspringen. Dieser Vorstellung spürt die Autorin hier kulturgeschichtlich und gegenwartsdiagnostisch nach.
..What would it entail to reformulate the classical architectonic question under genuinely civic instead of natural conditions? The author sketches a concept of mediality as the element of symbolically constituted, distributed and discrete possibilities, engendered from the probabilistic mixture in which the open totality of what can be communicated is indexed. ....
DOMESTICATING SYMBOLS (METALITHIKUM II)
....This book looks at the entropic dissolution of symbolic structures and explores various approaches towards learning to articulate code. Photovoltaics and its capacity to capture energy by coding instead of exploitation of resources is the central focus of this publication. This is the second volume of the Applied Virtuality book series based on the Metalithikum Conferences at the ETH Zürich.
..This book looks at the entropic dissolution of symbolic structures and explores various approaches towards learning to articulate code. Photovoltaics and its capacity to capture energy by coding instead of exploitation of resources is the central focus of this publication. This is the second volume of the Applied Virtuality book series based on the Metalithikum Conferences at the ETH Zürich. ....
SHEAVES. WHEN THINGS ARE WHATEVER CAN BE THE CASE
....This book doesn't depict, it doesn't judge. It doesn't contain a continuous text, but a wide variety of subjects. How shall this book be read then? Take the text indications and pictures seriously! Search the internet, and the texts and pictures will lose their arbitrariness. Bundle these with the diversity of other ideas, and you will form something new.
..This book doesn't depict, it doesn't judge. It doesn't contain a continuous text, but a wide variety of subjects. How shall this book be read then? Take the text indications and pictures seriously! Search the internet, and the texts and pictures will lose their arbitrariness. Bundle these with the diversity of other ideas, and you will form something new. ....
AUTOMATISMEN UND ARCHITEKTUR. MEDIEN, OBSESSIONEN, TECHNOLOGIEN
....Der Autor geht der Entwicklung technischer Innovationen in der Architektur des 20. Jahrhunderts anhand der Ikonen des technischen Fortschritts nach. Beginnend bei Le Corbusier und dem Maschinenkult, dehnt er seine Beobachtungen u. a. bis zu Werner Sobeks weltbekannten Projekten aus. Automation, ein Schlüsselwort für die moderne Planung, ist im Bereich der energetischen Versorgung unserer Häuser schon nicht mehr wegzudenken. Der Blick zurück lohnt sich, um architekturhistorische und architekturtheoretische Erkenntnisse für unsere Zukunft zu gewinnen.
..The author pursues developments of technological innovation in the architecture of the 20th century by means of icons of technological progress. Starting with Le Corbusier and the machine-cult, he expands his observations among other matters up to Werner Sobek's world famous projects. Automation, a key word for modern planning, has become key in thinking about the supply of our buildings, for example. A look back in history is worthwhile in order to acquire architecural-historical and architectural-theoretical knowledge that is relevant also for the future. ....
PRINTED PHYSICS (METALITHIKUM I)
....Printed Physics looks at the technological and economical developments with which the physical characteristics of materials can be symbolically programmed, for example in the field of photovoltaics or in electronics more generally. These devices are being industrially produced by printing procedures. It is no exaggeration to call this a veritable "printing revolution," although unlike in Gutenberg’s day, the printed products represent, primarily, their own functionality: They demonstrate what they can do in a techno-logical, operative way.
..
Printed Physics looks at the technological and economical developments with which the physical characteristics of materials can be symbolically programmed, for example in the field of photovoltaics or in electronics more generally. These devices are being industrially produced by printing procedures. It is no exaggeration to call this a veritable "printing revolution," although unlike in Gutenberg’s day, the printed products represent, primarily, their own functionality: They demonstrate what they can do, in a techno-logical, operative way. ....
MICHEL SERRES
ÜBER DAS »GENERISCHE DES MENSCHSEINS«
....“The sphinx – Animals have feet, not hands. In the mixed body, the box is put forward held by human hands. Oedipus – Of the three, one foot matters more, leaving the two others to their living parity and to the upright posture that causes hands to be born: the foot that could be said to be orthopedic or false, the prosthesis serving as a support but that can be detached, marking the final and decisive advance of this living being delivered from death by the animal and from the animal by death, risen at noon, soon talking and measuring – at the price of his life –language by things, and bringing death again before the object-box. This living being suddenly recognizes the world. The sphinx – Farewell. Oedipus – Stay. Consider, before you, that, and forget, behind you, the old cases. Look, in silence, for a long time at these boxes and these stable pyramids, at this peaceful objective world. What good is it to die, for what archaic causes?”..“The sphinx – Animals have feet, not hands. In the mixed body, the box is put forward held by human hands. Oedipus – Of the three, one foot matters more, leaving the two others to their living parity and to the upright posture that causes hands to be born: the foot that could be said to be orthopedic or false, the prosthesis serving as a support but that can be detached, marking the final and decisive advance of this living being delivered from death by the animal and from the animal by death, risen at noon, soon talking and measuring – at the price of his life –language by things, and bringing death again before the object-box. This living being suddenly recognizes the world. The sphinx – Farewell. Oedipus – Stay. Consider, before you, that, and forget, behind you, the old cases. Look, in silence, for a long time at these boxes and these stable pyramids, at this peaceful objective world. What good is it to die, for what archaic causes?”....
MICHEL SERRES, STATUES, SECOND BOOK ON FOUNDATIONS, BLOOMSBURY 2016
....Journale..Journals....
WOLKENKUCKUCKSHEIM HEFT 33
THEORIE DER TECHNIK IN ARCHITEKTUR UND STÄDTEBAU
....Kuratiert von Ute Poerschke und Oliver Schürer
Editorial- Auszug
In Aristophanes Komödie Die Vögel, geschrieben etwa 400 Jahre vor Vitruvs Zehn Bücher über Architektur, entscheiden die Vögel, Menschen und Göttern zu entfliehen und sich sowohl vom konkreten aber unperfekten Alltag als auch von der idealen aber abstrakten Transrealität zu befreien. Sie gründen im Raum zwischen Erde und Himmel eine Stadt in den Wolken: Wolkenkuckucksheim.
In dieser Ausgabe: Wo ist Technik zuhause?
..
Curated by Ute Poerschke and Oliver Schürer
Editorial- Excerpt
In Aristophanes comedy Die Vögel, which was written about 400 years before Vitruv's Ten Books about Architecture, the birds decide to escape humans and gods, and liberate themselves from a concrete but imperfect daily life as well as from an ideal but abstract trans-reality. They establish a city in the clouds, amidst heaven and earth: Wolkenkuckucksheim.
In this issue: Where is technology at home? ....
the minnesota review, duke university press
....Sonderedition herausgegeben von Vera Buhlmann, Felicity Colman and Iris van der Tuin: New Materialisms, Novel Mentalities, Quantum Literacy. Forthcoming early 2017.
..Special edition co-authored by Vera Buhlmann, Felicity Colman and Iris van der Tuin: New Materialisms, Novel Mentalities, Quantum Literacy. Forthcoming early 2017. ....