The Active Image: Architecture and Engineering in the Age of Modeling

Sabine Ammon, Remei Capdevila-Werning

Springer, Jul 10, 2017 - Philosophy - 317 pages

The “active image” refers to the operative nature of images, thus capturing the vast array of “actions” that images perform. This volume features essays that present a new approach to image theory. It explores the many ways images become active in architecture and engineering design processes and how, in the age of computer-based modeling, images play an indispensable role.

The contributors examine different types of images, be they pictures, sketches, renderings, maps, plans, and photographs; be they analog or digital, planar or three-dimensional, ephemeral, realistic or imaginary. Their essays investigate how images serve as means of representing, as tools for thinking and reasoning, as ways of imagining the inexistent, as means of communicating and conveying information and how images may also perform functions and have an agency in their own.

The essays discuss the role of images from the perspective of philosophy, theory and history of architecture, history of science, media theory, cognitive sciences, design studies, and visual studies, offering a multidisciplinary approach to imagery and showing the various methodologies and interpretations in current research. In addition, they offer valuable insight to better understand how images operate and function in the arts and sciences in general.

Contents

• Points of Departure Notes Toward a Reversible History of Architectural Visualization: 1
• Architecture and the Structured Image Software Simulations as Infrastructures for Building Production: 23
• Architectural Drawings as Symbols A Goodmanian Account of Epistemic Practices in the Design Process: 53
• Manual Sketching Why Is It Still Relevant?: 77
• Operative Manufacts Gestures as Embodied Sketches in the Early Stages of the Design Process: 98
• The Role of the Image in Digital Design Processing the Image Versus Imaging the Process: 133
• Visualization Techniques and Computational Design Strategies Reflecting on the Milieu and Agency of Digital Tools in 1990s Architecture: 156
• ImageBased Epistemic Strategies in Modeling Designing Architecture After the Digital Turn: 177
• PeopleCentered Visuospatial Cognition NextGeneration Architectural Design Systems and Their Role in Design Conception Computing and Commun...: 207
• License to Explore How Images Work in Simulation Modeling: 233
• On Fuzziness and Relationships Abstraction and Illustrative Visualization in Snow Avalanche Control Planning: 255
• Epilogue The Rise of Imagery in the Age of Modeling: 286
• About the Authors: 313

About the author

Sabine Ammon works at the Berlin University of Technology as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, funded by the European Union, and acts as spokesperson of the interdisciplinary research group “Dynamics of Knowledge in Engineering Sciences”. She received her Ph.D. from Berlin University of Technology. She works mainly in epistemology, philosophy of engineering science and technology, image theory, and design ethics.

Remei Capdevila-Werning is Director of Education and Public Programs at El Museo del Barrio in New York. She received her Ph.D. from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She has taught at Fairfield University and the School of Visual Arts. Her research interests include analytical aesthetics and epistemology, philosophy of art, architecture and historic preservation.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Active Image: Architecture and Engineering in the Age of Modeling; Volume 28 of Philosophy of Engineering and Technology
• Editors: Sabine Ammon, Remei Capdevila-Werning
• Publisher: Springer, 2017
• ISBN: 3319564668, 9783319564661
• Length: 317 pages
• Subjects: Architecture / Criticism; Architecture / Design, Drafting, Drawing & Presentation; Architecture / History / General; Art / Techniques / General; Philosophy / Aesthetics; Philosophy / General; Philosophy / Reference; Technology & Engineering / Industrial Design / General; Technology & Engineering / Industrial Design / Product