may 2014

Critiques

The Trouble with Certainty

by Avigail Sachs

An op-ed on the wickedness of application.

Screen Testing, Test Driving

by Jennifer W. Leung

Research as a place apart.

Task Environment

An interview with Arindam Dutta

Architecture and the ‘Creative Economy.’

The Thermoheliodon

by Daniel Barber

Climatic architecture at the end of calculation.

Masdar City’s Hidden Brain

by Gökçe Günel

When monitoring and modification collide.

Sandbox Infrastructure

By Matthew Wisnioski and Kari Zacharias

Field notes from the arts research boom.

The City is Not a Lab

by Leah Meisterlin

How (not) to experiment in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

Hypercapital

by David Zhai and Simon McGown

A backup city for Tokyo.

Land of the Moving Mountains

by Alessandra Ponte with Stephan Kowal

Testing ground at 30 degrees below zero.

june 2014

Projects

Everyone an Expert

by Andrés Jaque

On making Peter Eisenman transparent.

Niagora

by Jordan Geiger

The netherworld of the Phantom Tollbooth Plaza.

Delaware Über Alles

By Jordan Carver

Inside a two-story, beige brick building.

An Interview on Interviews

Andrés Jaque in conversation with Patrick Joseph Craine and Rodrigo Valenzuela Jerez.

Rarely Seen Sleeping

by John Buonocore

Witnesses to a system long since established.

Five Ways to Fix an Energy Business

By Elliott P. Montgomery

Social measurement of the unlikely.

Design Forward, Reverse Engineer

An interview with Cory Brugger

How Morphosis manages to take risks.

Learning from Schools

By Gabu Heindl

Close a door, draw a line.

Bioplastics!

by Meredith Miller

From the kitchen to the field.

If The Dust Never Settles

By Phu Hoang, MODU

Uncontrolling weather control.

Informed Speculation

by Rachel Armstrong

An ill-tempered foundation for Venice.

Lab Overboard!

by Kate Orff

Piloting Oyster-tecture in the New York Harbor.

Choose Your Own Catastrophe

by Kyle Hovenkotter and Trevor Lamphier

Failure is not the end of the world.

Bit by Bit

by Els Verbakel

Real time urbanism.

Sangue Bom

by Keith Kaseman and Raul Corrêa Smith, with Studio Sangue Bom VI

Start with a handshake.

Which Public?

By Quilian Riano

Conflict as catalyst.

The Minstrel’s Lab

by Lucía Jalón Oyarzun & Mateo Fernández-Muro

Taking steps to experiment upon ourselves.

july 2014

Debates

TopicsPostsLast post

Re-staging Research

Moderator: Isabelle Kirkham-Lewitt		1Thu Jul 17 , 2014
19:05:44

Between Knowledge and Spectacle

Moderator: Janette Kim		1Thu Jul 17 , 2014
18:03:56

The Economy Of Research

Moderator: Janette Kim		1Thu Jul 17 , 2014
18:00:05

On Debate (How to Use This Section)

Moderator: admin		1Thu Jul 17 , 2014
17:31:21

Test Subjects

Architects experiment upon the world. Researchers extend outside the laboratory by co-opting existing structures of influence and crafting new techniques of engagement. Even the effects of proving grounds--from Coney Island to emergency drills--leak beyond their boundaries without any official sanction. Impacts are often unpredictable, but no less powerful. The practice of human subject research has yielded the benefits of the polio vaccine and the horrors of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, reminding us that, as a former director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency once remarked, “When we fail, we fail big.” 'Test Subjects' focuses on the contended nature of application in architectural research. How do architects wield influence through research? As we weigh the risks and rewards of aggressive experimentation, how careful do we need to be? How do researchers maintain effects of their work, both intended and unintended? How does the agency of test subjects refigure the role of the expert in research? cover: Dr. Arnold Gesell studying a baby at Yale's child psychology lab, 1947.