<nettime> architectural digest [bratton x2]

[nettime_faber <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

Re: <nettime> Biotech + Architecture + Politics + the English
     Benjamin Bratton <benjamin@cultureindustry.com>
Re: <nettime> RE: genetic architecture
     Benjamin Bratton <benjamin@cultureindustry.com>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2003 16:22:36 -0700
Subject: Re: <nettime> Biotech + Architecture + Politics + the English
From: Benjamin Bratton <benjamin@cultureindustry.com>

Shaun,

Thanks for your comments.

A few words on Karl Chu's project:

Karl is precisely interested in the architectonics of information itself. He
employs genetic/ algorithmic systems to produce forms in mathematical space.

His interest is toward the definition of this space as a quasi-autonomous
realm of speculation and production. He calls this an "Hyperzoic Paradigm."

The forms themselves are quite beautiful.

I would refer to you Karl's  chapter, "The Unconscious Destiny of Capital
(Architecture In Vitro/ Machinic In Vivo)"  in Neil Leach's excellent
volume, _Designing for a Digital World_ (Wiley-Academy, 2002) for a more
complete statement on the project.

Philistinism and neologisms aside, bricks and mortar are not, as you
surmise, the technologies-at-hand in his architectural investigations of the
contingencies of form, order and replication.

Best,

Benjamin.

On 4/8/03 11:11 AM, "Shaun Rolph" <shaun@palefire.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Benjamin Bratton" <benjamin@cultureindustry.com>
> To: <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>
> Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 4:35 AM
> Subject: <nettime> Biotech + Architecture
> 
>> For Karl Chu, organic and inorganic phyla intermingle in mutually
>> constitutive limit-horizons of informational materiality. These
 <...>

---------------------------------------
Benjamin H. Bratton
The Culture Industry
-Principal

SCI_Arc (The Southern California Institute of Architecture)
UCLA, Department of Design | Media Arts
-Faculty

(323) 646-8071 (mobile) | (323) 661-2691 (office) | (213) 613-2260 (fax)
benjamin@cultureindustry.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Date: Tue, 08 Apr 2003 16:50:07 -0700
Subject: Re: <nettime> RE: genetic architecture
From: Benjamin Bratton <benjamin@cultureindustry.com>

Ryan,

Thank you for your kind words. You get right to the heart of the matter.
We needn't speculate about some future role for 'micrological' agency in the
habitation of architectural environments.

The discursive fear of bodily contamination surely plays itself out as
actual technology in the form of pesticides, solvents and 'cleansers' with
which we exterminate 'alien' life forms on the surfaces of our habitats.

Architecture, like other (bourgeois?) bodies, is disciplined by
"hygiene." In the case of the body and structure, both are conceived in a
kind of somatic purity that must be expertly, graciously defended.

Chemical warfare begins at home, we might say; or even closer, inside us.

Best,

Benjamin.



On 4/7/03 9:09 AM, "Ryan Griffis" <grifray@yahoo.com> wrote:

>> When architecture becomes genomic, the ecological
>> circuit between human immune system and a buildingšs
>> immune system is raised to primary importance. The
>> notion of a sick building syndrome takes on unimagined
>> ethical ramifications. Whether or not we come to eat
>> our architecture, we will internalize it on a
>> micrological level, as we would the viruses, bacteria,
>> diseases of any complex organism with which we share
>> close quarters.
> 
> very interesting analysis. hadn't thought much about the architectural
> implications of biotech + genetics... the "ethical ramifications" would
 <...>

---------------------------------------
Benjamin H. Bratton
The Culture Industry
-Principal

SCI_Arc (The Southern California Institute of Architecture)
UCLA, Department of Design | Media Arts
-Faculty

(323) 646-8071 (mobile) | (323) 661-2691 (office) | (213) 613-2260 (fax)
benjamin@cultureindustry.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net