Auto-màtic: an exhibition that explores the implications of automation in architecture

The research was developed within the framework of Machinic Protocols, a project directed by Edouard Cabay, within IAAC's Master’s in Advanced Architecture:
 

 
Raising questions on automation, reproducibility, and the role of arbitrary“accidents” as sources of creative experimentation, the exhibition gathers over 120 drawings that have been developed over the past three years, by more than 80 contributors from fields including computation, arts and design.

Casting aside the “hand of the artist”, each drawing results from imposed conditions rather than preconceived ideas. It is based on the principle of not designing the final form of a product, but enunciating the instructions that govern its production. Once the process has begun, it runs on its own and the “author” becomes a spectator. The protocol is the recipe, a set of instructions that dictate actions to be executed. Although they have been produced by different means, including people, robots, computers, and even by forces of nature such as wind and waves, they all share a set of common characteristics: they are always unique and their result cannot be anticipated; they are not created by an individual, but rather by a system composed of plural actors.

Two installations complete the exhibition path, focusing on performative drawing.
First, an electronically controlled array of eight fans blow towards the centre of a page, where a pen attached to a sail moves in the wind. In a context of reciprocity, where the pen and the fans dialogue, the machine never stops drawing, in a kind of perpetual dance.

The second installation is an experiment: 10.000 droplets of ink fall onto a moving canvas from a height of 15 metres. The mobile canvas moves at the rhythm of the falling drop, in order to form an orthogonal grid. Will the drop fall vertically and land in the precise position anticipated by the robot in order to shape a perfect grid, or will the movement of the air and other factors affect its trajectory?

Automation can incorporate deviations from original expectations, that can be read as imprecisions, arbitrariness or even accidents but, at the same time, may allow new outcomes to emerge. As a metaphor of the new age of uncertainty where anything is possible, the real intention of the exhibition is to develop an attitude towards creation, where designing is more about the process rather than envisaging an outcome.

The unexpected is yet to come.

Project - Plots 2018
Project 1: Tal Dotan & Martin Garcia-Miro Zaldumbide with Rodrigo Aguirre
Project 2: Aman Jain & Hayder Abdulameer Mohammed Mahdi with Relja Ferusic
Project 3: Gayatri Harikrishana Desai & Ewald Jooste with Roger Paez
Project 4: Bhakti Vinod Loonawat & Matteo Proaño Albuja with Marco Ingrassia
Project 5: Soroush Garivani & Elena Kavtaradze with Isabel Witt
Project 6: Gabrielė Liuda Jurevičiūtė & Deepak Sivadasan with Lluis Viu Rebes
Project 7: Xu Jiang & Takeru Osoegawa with Rebeca Font
Project 8: Arman Najari & Baran Mostafa Tehrani with Crissant Romans
Project 9: Yingxin Du & Ardeshir Talaei with Mademochoritis
Project 10: Marc Bou Assaf & Alberto Emil Holguin Martinez with Ana Isabel Cajiao
 
Project - Scripts 2017
Machine #1: Valerie Frey
Machine #2: Mehmet Berk Bostanci
Machine #3: Gelder Van Limburg Stirum and Pablo Agustin Vivas
Machine #4: Hsin Li and JengRung Hong, based on original work by Nasser Ghannam, Mohamad Rachid Jalloul, Ceren Yildrim and Guolang Zhang
Machine #5: Cagan Izgi
Machine #6: Athanasios Zervos and Keesje Avis
Machine #7: Kathleen Bainbridge, Irene Ayala Castro, Yasmina Wery and Krati Gorani
Machine #8: Anonymous
 
Project - Traces 2016
Pedro Levit Arroyo Ventura & Lina Salamanca
Dirk van Wassenaer & Naitik Shah
Tobias Deeg & Martin Hristov
Peter Geelmuyden Magnus & Utsav Mathur
Vishnu Jadia & Khushboo Jain
Hong Jeng Rung & Ekaterina Simakova
Sidharth Kumar & Goutham Santhanam
Jean Sebastian Munera & Lili Tayefi
Chenthur Raaghav Naagendran & Varsha Subba Rao
Connor Stevens & Mercedes Swiecicki