Creative || Experimenting
Research is simultaneously a very broad and extremely specific endeavor. Most disciplines align research with a particular methodology, which is usually determined by the type of data being gathered and the specific analysis type used. Whether corollary or causal, the nature of the relationship being investigated and the type of data gathered are interlinked. These are vitally important questions for any researcher to answer and they form the base assumptions of any endeavor, but in the context of this missive are just the gateway to talk about measuring.
All research is an attempt to measure or quantify something in an attempt to better understand or explain a phenomenon, predict an outcome, or drive a solution. One of the central tenets in the philosophy of science is how we measure. The history of science is the history of creating better tools for measuring – or as I see it, just the creation of better tools. This is essentially the theme of Kuhn’s work “Structure of Scientific Revolutions”. All of this is to say, I am fascinated by tools, both how we use them and what they let us accomplish. Most of human history is the history of tools. From the clay tablet to the pencil, the fountain pen to the ballpoint, the typewriter to the word processor, the administrative assistant to the text to type AI. I can keep going from papyrus to paper to screens. Language is a tool, grammar and syntax, all tools for organizing, building, and communicating ideas. From edged stone to the 24-watt blue light laser I use in my machine, all tools for cutting or shaping. We all use tools every day. At some point tools become so ubiquitous we no longer recognize them as such, they just become what we use. Business models are something most people discuss as if Adam and Eve brought them out of the garden, or maybe they sprung forth alongside Athena. Neither of those is the case. The notion of the business model only came about after the widespread adoption of spreadsheet software, namely Lotus 1-2-3 in the 1980s. Now one could not imagine organizing, managing, or modeling, anything without an Excel sheet. Spreadsheet software birthed the entire concept of a business model when it allowed us to literally model our businesses, and most importantly, project that model into the future – to predict how our business will perform under a given set of conditions. Spreadsheets are two-dimensional data, while databases think Microsoft Access, are three-dimensional in a sense. This would seem like a good segue to Building Information Modeling – a 3D database of buildings, but I’ll demur. You can read more about that on my other pages.
I’m getting a bit afield here as I don’t research business models and spreadsheets or language processes, although their history and development are fascinating as all humans use language and almost all of us use spreadsheets. I do, on the other hand, research and investigate tools for creating objects. From software tools to machines and fabrication, I live at the intersection of tools and creation.
What I find so fascinating is how complex our tools have become. Designing something and fabricating it have become so interlinked it is difficult to design without experiential knowledge of the fabrication methods. This is an essential component of architectural history. Our creations are reflections of not only our culture, at the time but the understanding of the tools we use. Whether they be abstract things like building codes or very precise things like NURBS modeling and additive manufacturing (which seem to be the new words for 3D printing).
The posts in this section are investigations I have done on the how of creating objects and I try to tell the story along the way. Doing this work helps me become a better architect – to do good work well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
A First Birthday Present – a CNC exploration
Dome Shelf – parametric forays