THE AURA OF THE DIGITAL

摘要

The use of computers in practically all areas of design is ubiquitous: in sketching, refining, drawing, analysing and visualising, as well as in operating, reviewing and redesigning. Searching for the aura of the digital in spatial design may therefore seem meaningless. The role of computation, however, not just as a tool, but as meaning making, is something quite different. In the 1970s and 1980s, industrial design was an embodiment of the rapidly developing field of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), manifesting in products with fillet edges and extruded outlines. The range of tools available today has made this technological scaffolding perhaps less visible, yet ever more omnipresent, not only in planning, but also in materialising designs through the developing field of rapid manufacturing. In this emerging landscape, the role of computational design has great new potential, where the making and using of tools blend together. This form of design can perhaps be defined as a practice of writing code to explore the possibilities.