Digital Lexicon

Abstract

The seminar focuses on the etymology and use of terms. It engages students to interrogate words and notions in order to understand the historical and theoretical implications related to the digital. The seminar aims to be a collective and shared work through the edition of a common lexicon.

Objective

Enlarge a background of historical knowledge and architectural culture. Develop a critical reflexion on tools and methods of digital design. Foster writing and synthesis skills and organize a collective publication.

Content

Is digital design a tool, a language, a content, a style, a dogma? In the last four decades the digital turn had a radical impact in the field of architecture from the conception to the fabrication stage, through different ways of representing and simulating space. Despite its recent history and a substantial rapid evolution, digital design is also naturally in continuity with previous techniques of craftmanship and traditional design. Digital, computer, analog, virtual, artificial intelligence, smart technology, virtual reality, parametric design, rendering, modelization, auralization: to only name some of the most widely employed terms. The proposed seminar focuses on the theoretical definition of a recent although already dense and evolving vocabulary related to digital design. Building on the etymology of chosen terms and borrowing from a selected bibliography, we will edit a collective lexicon tackling the historical roots and theoretical implications of our everyday language employed in relation to the digital.

Resources