Digital Formation

2018

In this assignment, students worked with an image, first abstracting it into a set of basic parts and then translating it into a pattern base on the embedded formal systems in the image. The formal systems were explored. In that process, we came to understand what a formal system is, the degree to which it is predicated on spatial relationships and unique interfaces. Performative concepts such as morphing, singularity, unity, fragmentation, hybridity, dissolution, distortion, formation, incremental change, self-organization, evolution, and more, came to light.

This assignment posits a unified approach, where the design of space and form will be defined by a singular and complementary undertaking. In so doing, students relied as much on the process of subtraction as addition and explored how formal systems can produce such complimentary conditions. The content of each image could be described through geometry, or as a set of related forms with particular spatial interactions.

The content of each image could also be described as a system of production, the result of certain actions or activities that produced the image as captured. Thinking critically through these terms, and the space in between them, provided students with an initial way of understanding the formal systems that underlie and produce the 3D model that represent those systems.

Type: Analogue and Digital 

Location: Pullman, WA

Methods and Media: Computational Design, Digital Fabrication 

Photo Credit: Mona Ghandi

Instructor: Mona Ghandi 

Washington State University