Kenneth Masden - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Kenneth Masden
In recent years, the "information generation" has become more and more reliant on image-based lea... more In recent years, the "information generation" has become more and more reliant on image-based learning, moving students into a near co-dependent relationship with visual forms of information. Exposing students to obscure philosophical writings, dialogue, and discourse only creates in them a greater dependency on images. This practice has allowed architectural academia to de-contextualize architecture even further through the conveyance of images and rhetoric, where endless forms of visual speculation replace what is real. If we are to maintain our humanity, architecture must once again be grounded in an information-rich reality. Physical structures provide our evolved mind with the information content needed to navigate our surroundings, and to manufacture beliefs and values that sustain human existence through culture and community.
Abstract This paper introduces a compelling new way of thinking about, teaching, and practicing a... more Abstract This paper introduces a compelling new way of thinking about, teaching, and practicing architecture. Founded on the basis of how the human mind perceives and interacts with the built environment, we call this new design process “intelligent architecture”. Perhaps surprisingly, scientifically-conceived rules for architectural design and building can lead to a more human architecture, one with a renewed respect for traditional methods of architectural design. This new process can also be extended by implementing new ...
Abstract: This paper utilizes ideas from biological life to examine the architectural condition i... more Abstract: This paper utilizes ideas from biological life to examine the architectural condition in which we live. We reveal how modern-day designs have come to operate in exclusion of any connection between the built environment and the primary animating properties of living structure, ie (i) organized-complexity,(ii) metabolism,(iii) replication,(iv) adaptation,(v) intervention,(vi) situatedness, and (vii) connectivity. Architecture today for the most part seems empty and lifeless, devoid of the requisite innate information necessary to engage ...
Abstract Architectural theory as currently taught in modern universities throughout the world no ... more Abstract Architectural theory as currently taught in modern universities throughout the world no longer provides a plausible basis for the discipline and practice of architecture. Students studying within this model are left to their own inventions if they hope to gain an architectural degree. Forced to formulate a body of work constrained by the paradigm of contemporary design, students learn to copy fashionable images without understanding their geometry; or simply invent forms that look as if they possess a contemporary sense of architecture. By ...
Automation in Construction, 2003
From the viewpoint of Batesonian cybernetics, 'conscious purpose' and 'artistic process' are dist... more From the viewpoint of Batesonian cybernetics, 'conscious purpose' and 'artistic process' are distinct ends of a spectrum of the functioning of 'self'. The conceptual stage of the design process is essentially an artistic activity unencumbered with accuracy, dimensionality, scale, program or even tectonics, albeit all of these maybe tacitly present at the 'back of a designer's mind'. Artistic activities involve broad mental processes that are beneath the stratum of consciousness. By definition, consciousness is selective awareness; it is linear in execution and limited in its capability to synthesize complex parameters. One of the central questions of this paper is ''if artistic process requires one to abandon, or relinquish conscious purpose at the time of the generation of the work of art, and if the early stages of artistic process is a result of a vast number of 'unconscious' forces and impulses, then how can the computer, which demands (and thus propagates) geometric precision, focused operation and rational execution, be part of that process?'' This paper will explore how, cybernetically, the computer can be 'coupled' with 'self' (via a visual interface) and the artistic process. Three specially devised conceptual design exercises-namely BlurrDesign, BlinDesign and BlitzDesign-and three corresponding ''interruptive'' computer interface modifications were deployed in an introduction to digital media course. The results of this study are now under consideration for their effectiveness in promoting conceptual design using the computer, and how the 'self' might form a cybernetic whole with the machine. The findings could have implications in design pedagogy, informatics and interface design. D
In recent years, the "information generation" has become more and more reliant on image-based lea... more In recent years, the "information generation" has become more and more reliant on image-based learning, moving students into a near co-dependent relationship with visual forms of information. Exposing students to obscure philosophical writings, dialogue, and discourse only creates in them a greater dependency on images. This practice has allowed architectural academia to de-contextualize architecture even further through the conveyance of images and rhetoric, where endless forms of visual speculation replace what is real. If we are to maintain our humanity, architecture must once again be grounded in an information-rich reality. Physical structures provide our evolved mind with the information content needed to navigate our surroundings, and to manufacture beliefs and values that sustain human existence through culture and community.
Abstract This paper introduces a compelling new way of thinking about, teaching, and practicing a... more Abstract This paper introduces a compelling new way of thinking about, teaching, and practicing architecture. Founded on the basis of how the human mind perceives and interacts with the built environment, we call this new design process “intelligent architecture”. Perhaps surprisingly, scientifically-conceived rules for architectural design and building can lead to a more human architecture, one with a renewed respect for traditional methods of architectural design. This new process can also be extended by implementing new ...
Abstract: This paper utilizes ideas from biological life to examine the architectural condition i... more Abstract: This paper utilizes ideas from biological life to examine the architectural condition in which we live. We reveal how modern-day designs have come to operate in exclusion of any connection between the built environment and the primary animating properties of living structure, ie (i) organized-complexity,(ii) metabolism,(iii) replication,(iv) adaptation,(v) intervention,(vi) situatedness, and (vii) connectivity. Architecture today for the most part seems empty and lifeless, devoid of the requisite innate information necessary to engage ...
Abstract Architectural theory as currently taught in modern universities throughout the world no ... more Abstract Architectural theory as currently taught in modern universities throughout the world no longer provides a plausible basis for the discipline and practice of architecture. Students studying within this model are left to their own inventions if they hope to gain an architectural degree. Forced to formulate a body of work constrained by the paradigm of contemporary design, students learn to copy fashionable images without understanding their geometry; or simply invent forms that look as if they possess a contemporary sense of architecture. By ...
Automation in Construction, 2003
From the viewpoint of Batesonian cybernetics, 'conscious purpose' and 'artistic process' are dist... more From the viewpoint of Batesonian cybernetics, 'conscious purpose' and 'artistic process' are distinct ends of a spectrum of the functioning of 'self'. The conceptual stage of the design process is essentially an artistic activity unencumbered with accuracy, dimensionality, scale, program or even tectonics, albeit all of these maybe tacitly present at the 'back of a designer's mind'. Artistic activities involve broad mental processes that are beneath the stratum of consciousness. By definition, consciousness is selective awareness; it is linear in execution and limited in its capability to synthesize complex parameters. One of the central questions of this paper is ''if artistic process requires one to abandon, or relinquish conscious purpose at the time of the generation of the work of art, and if the early stages of artistic process is a result of a vast number of 'unconscious' forces and impulses, then how can the computer, which demands (and thus propagates) geometric precision, focused operation and rational execution, be part of that process?'' This paper will explore how, cybernetically, the computer can be 'coupled' with 'self' (via a visual interface) and the artistic process. Three specially devised conceptual design exercises-namely BlurrDesign, BlinDesign and BlitzDesign-and three corresponding ''interruptive'' computer interface modifications were deployed in an introduction to digital media course. The results of this study are now under consideration for their effectiveness in promoting conceptual design using the computer, and how the 'self' might form a cybernetic whole with the machine. The findings could have implications in design pedagogy, informatics and interface design. D