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CumInCAD is a Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design
supported by the sibling associations ACADIA, CAADRIA, eCAADe, SIGraDi, ASCAAD and CAAD futures

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_id	aa78
authors	Bayazit, Nigan
year	1992
title	Requirements of an Expert System for Design Studios
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.187
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 187-194
summary	The goal of this paper is to study problems of the transition from traditional architectural studio teaching to CAAD studio teaching which requires a CAAD expert system as studio tutor, and to study the behavior of the student in this new environment. The differences between the traditional and computerized studio teaching and the experiences in this field are explained referring to the requirements for designing time in relation to the expertise of the student in the application of a CAD program. Learning styles and the process of design in computerized and non-computerized studio teaching are discussed. Design studio requirements of the students in traditional studio environment while doing design works are clarified depending on the results of an empirical study which explained the relations between the tutor and the student while they were doing studio critiques. Main complaints of the students raised in the empirical study were the lack of data in the specific design problem area, difficulties of realization of ideas and thoughts, not knowing the starting point of design, having no information about the references to be used for the specific design task, having difficulties in the application of presentation techniques. In the concluding parts of the paper are discussed the different styles of teaching and their relation to the CAAD environment, the transformation of the instructional programs for the new design environment, the future expectations from the CAAD programs, properties of the new teaching environment and the roles of the expert systems in design studio education.
keywords	CAAD Education, Expert System, Architectural Design Studio, Knowledge Acquisition
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	eabb
authors	Boeykens, St. Geebelen, B. and Neuckermans, H.
year	2002
title	Design phase transitions in object-oriented modeling of architecture
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.2002.310
source	Connecting the Real and the Virtual - design e-ducation [20th eCAADe Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-9541183-0-8] Warsaw (Poland) 18-20 September 2002, pp. 310-313
summary	The project IDEA+ aims to develop an “Integrated Design Environment for Architecture”. Its goal is providing a tool for the designer-architect that can be of assistance in the early-design phases. It should provide the possibility to perform tests (like heat or cost calculations) and simple simulations in the different (early) design phases, without the need for a fully detailed design or remodeling in a different application. The test for daylighting is already in development (Geebelen, to be published). The conceptual foundation for this design environment has been laid out in a scheme in which different design phases and scales are defined, together with appropriate tests at the different levels (Neuckermans, 1992). It is a translation of the “designerly” way of thinking of the architect (Cross, 1982). This conceptual model has been translated into a “Core Object Model” (Hendricx, 2000), which defines a structured object model to describe the necessary building model. These developments form the theoretical basis for the implementation of IDEA+ (both the data structure & prototype software), which is currently in progress. The research project addresses some issues, which are at the forefront of the architect’s interest while designing with CAAD. These are treated from the point of view of a practicing architect.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:52

_id	6d1d
authors	Daru, R. and Daru, M.
year	1992
title	Personal Working Styles in the CMD Studio
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.451
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 451-472
summary	Normative and problem-solving approaches of architectural design ignore the personality aspects of the designing activity. Every architect approaches projects according to her/his own strategies and tactics. Usually they do not conform to the prescriptive models of design theoreticians. Computer aided design tools should be adapted to their utility within the strategies and tactics of each and every architectural student. We are testing the usefulness of CAAD tools developed by others or ourselves and identifying the needs for missing tools. It is already clear that many CAAD tools reflect the point of view of the programmer about strategies and tactics of designing and that they do not take into account the idiosyncrasies of the end user. Forcing the tools on students breeds the risk of fostering repulsion against ill-adapted tools, and consequently against CMD. Our research group pursues empirical research on working styles of designing by practising architects within the frame of a personality theory of actions. The results indicate that there are three main directions for designing strategies. If we want to take into account the real-world behaviour in design practice within architectural education, this implies the diversification of the exercises we offer to the students in threefold, corresponding with the three directions. To this, we add the didactic options of complementation, compensation and support, depending on what we know about the strong or weak points of the students involved. We have started proposing choices for the exercises of our design morphology studio. Students are offered approaches and tools we consider best adapted to their own working
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:55

_id	88ca
authors	Kane, Andy and Szalapaj, Peter
year	1992
title	Teaching Design By Analysis of Precedents
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.477
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 477-496
summary	Designers, using their intuitive understanding of the decomposition of particular design objects, whether in terms of structural, functional, or some other analytical framework, should be able to interact with computational environments such that the understanding they achieve in turn invokes changes or transformations to the spatial properties of design proposals. Decompositions and transformations of design precedents can be a very useful method of enabling design students to develop analytical strategies. The benefit of an analytical approach is that it can lead to a structured understanding of design precedents. This in turn allows students to develop their own insights and ideas which are central to the activity of designing. The creation of a 3-D library of user-defined models of precedents in a computational environment permits an under-exploited method of undertaking analysis, since by modelling design precedents through the construction of 3-D Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAAD) models, and then analytically decomposing them in terms of relevant features, significant insights into the nature of designs can be achieved. Using CAAD systems in this way, therefore, runs counter to the more common approach of detailed modelling, rendering and animation; which produces realistic pictures that do not reflect the design thinking that went into their production. The significance of the analytical approach to design teaching is that it encourages students to represent design ideas, but not necessarily the final form of design objects. The analytical approach therefore, allows students to depict features and execute tasks that are meaningful with respect to design students' own knowledge of particular domains. Such computational interaction can also be useful in helping students explore the consequences of proposed actions in actual design contexts.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:52

_id	65aa
authors	Madrazo, Leandro
year	1992
title	From Sketches to Computer Images: A Strategy for the Application of Computers in Architectural Design
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.331
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 331-350
summary	The use of computer tools in architectural practice has been steadily increasing in recent years. Many architectural offices are already using computer tools, mostly for production tasks. Hardly any design is being done with the computer. With the new computer tools, architects are confronted with the challenge to use computers to express their design ideas right from conception. This paper describes a project made for a competition which recently took place in Spain. Sketches and computer models were the only tools used in designing this project. A variety of computer tools were used in different stages of this project: two dimensional drawing tools were used in the early stages, then a three-dimensional modeling program for the development of the design and for the production of final drawings, and a rendering program for final presentation images.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:59

_id	6f8a
authors	Pittioni, Gernot
year	1992
title	Concepts of CAAD-Instruction
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.363
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 363-376
summary	Today we can look back on several years of data processing support in architecture. When computer aided architectural design - CAAD - entered the field there was a lot of utter confusion in the beginning, a lot more than usually in other more technical application-fields of CAD. The architect is a very special CAD-user, as he is a very special member of all those other very analytical and scientific faculties around. There is a lot of tradition involved, tradition that has got its roots far back in medieval and classic periods and is rich of art and creativity and intuition. Mostly lots more of this than scientific analysis, exact research, and similar stuff. We could spot a large number of architects who would have been horrified when they are confronted with the analytic research of the very basic problem as how architects are designing - the methods, the procedures and the ways of thinking. And there CAAD was entering the architects' studios. No question that this caused a lot of trouble. CAD in architecture is a very provoking subject as the new tool is going to gain ground against the tradition of centuries of handmade architectural designs and drawings. And there we don't even touch the future aspects of the computer's architectural design support - what about the imminent threat of computer support in the holy domain of architectural creativity and intuition. What about the uneasy idea of CAAD in connection with artificial intelligence? The problem of CAAD-education has been largely neglected through a number of years. If there existed a certain horror looking at the mere idea of CAD-support in architecture, horror became to outrage, when university education was discussed. In our days we can stay a good deal more relaxed, when we speak of CAAD education - we not only got used to it, we are convinced, that the whole subject is of high importance.
keywords	Concepts of Education
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 08:00

_id	61e0
authors	Streich, Bernd
year	1992
title	Should We Integrate Programming Knowledge into the Architect's CAAD-Education? Basic Considerations and Experiences from Kaiserslautern
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.399
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 399-409
summary	At the ECAADE-congress 1991 in Munich, the teaching concept of computer-aided architectural design of the faculty of architecture and environmental/urban planning at the University of Kaiserslautern has been presented. On that occasion, this brought about the question whether the curriculum should include programming knowledge. In this paper, the discussion shall be taken up again with several arguments in favour of the computer programming instruction. At first, a survey of the current discussion of the subject shall be given, then there will follow some reflections on the theoretical relationship between designing and programming, and finally, examples from the teaching experience in Kaiserslautern will be presented.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:56

_id	064b
authors	Ward, D., Horton, F.F. and Brown, A.G.P.
year	1992
title	An Environmental Design Assistant
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.427
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 427-434
summary	One of the problems facing students of architecture and those teaching of architecture is that the body of information which needs to be bourne in mind when designing is continually increasing. One area where there has been a rapid recent growth in interest and consequent legislation is in environmental or "green" matters. As an example recent legislation has been introduced in an effort to standardise the procedures for assessing building, and in particular their energy consumption. This paper reports on the development of a Hypermedia based tool to aid the process of the Environmental design of buildings with the objective of producing a computer-based aid which encourages understanding and innovation rather than leading the. user through a mechanical process of form filling. We conclude with comments on the effectiveness of the tool as a design aid and propose future developments for the work on computer-based Environmental Assessment.
keywords	Environmental Impact, Environmental Assessment, Expert Systems, HyperCard
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:58

_id	83ea
authors	Monreal, Amadeo and De la Puente, Josep M.
year	1992
title	Alternatives to Syntactic Paradigms in CAAD: Using Random Numbers in Layout Generation and Spatial Modeling.
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.497
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 497-510
summary	The paper provides instances of graphic techniques using random numbers in layout generation and spatial modelling. Leaving aside more elaborate methods based on shape grammars and syntactically oriented schemes, direct graphic procedures useful in computer aided architectural design are discussed. Drawings presented show how aleatory input can influence the appearance of computer generated forms.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:58

_id	b2f9
id	b2f9
authors	Bhzad Sidawi and Neveen Hamza
year	2012
title	INTELLIGENT KNOWLEDGE-BASED REPOSITORY TO SUPPORT INFORMED DESIGN DECISION MAKING
source	ITCON journal
summary	Research highlights that architectural design is a social phenomenon that is underpinned by critical analysis of design precedents and the social interaction between designers including negotiation, collaboration and communication. CAAD systems are continuously developing as essential design tools in formulating and developing ideas. Researchers such as (Rosenman, Gero and Oxman 1992) have suggested suggest that knowledge based systems can be integrated with CAAD systems to provide design knowledge that would enable recalling design precedents that maybe linked to the design constraints. Currently CAAD systems are user centric being focused on architects rather than the end product. The systems provide limited assistance in the production of innovative design. Furthermore, the attention of the designers of knowledge based systems is providing a repository rather than a system that is capable to initiate innovation. Most of the CAAD systems have web communication tools that enable designers to communicate their design ideas with colleagues and partners in business. However, none of these systems have the capability to capture useful knowledge from the design negotiations. Students of the third to fifth year at College of Architecture, University of Dammam were surveyed and interviewed to find out how far design tools, communications and resources would impact the production of innovative design projects. The survey results show that knowledge extracted from design negotiations would impact the innovative design outcome. It highlights also that present design precedents are not very helpful and design negotiations between students, tutors and other students are not documented thus fully incorporated into the design scheme. The paper argues that the future CAAD systems should be capable to recognize innovative design precedents, and incorporate knowledge that is resulted from design negotiations. This would help students to gain a critical mass of knowledge that would underpin informed design decisions.
series	journal paper
type	normal paper
email
more	http://www.itcon.org/cgi-bin/works/Show?2012_20
last changed	2012/09/19 13:41

_id	0ad8
authors	Candy, E., Maver, T.W. and Petric, J.
year	1992
title	A Multi-Media Celebration of Robert Adam's Glasgow Architecture
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.043
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 43-54
summary	This paper is a summary of work done in preparation for an exhibition titled "A European Vision: Robert Adam's Glasgow" which marks the bi-centenary of Robert Adam's death. The main contributors to this project, orchestrated over academic sessions 91/92, were the undergraduate and post-graduate students from the Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
series	eCAADe
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:54

_id	cf2009_poster_09
id	cf2009_poster_09
authors	Hsu, Yin-Cheng
year	2009
title	Lego Free-Form? Towards a Modularized Free-Form Construction
source	T. Tidafi and T. Dorta (eds) Joining Languages Cultures and Visions: CAADFutures 2009 CD-Rom
summary	Design Media is the tool designers use for concept realization (Schon and Wiggins, 1992; Liu, 1996). Design thinking of designers is deeply effected by the media they tend to use (Zevi, 1981; Liu, 1996; Lim, 2003). Historically, architecture is influenced by the design media that were available within that era (Liu, 1996; Porter and Neale, 2000; Smith, 2004). From the 2D plans first used in ancient egypt, to the 3D physical models that came about during the Renaissance period, architecture reflects the media used for design. When breakthroughs in CAD/CAM technologies were brought to the world in the twentieth century, new possibilities opened up for architects.
keywords	CAD/CAM free-form construction, modularization
series	CAAD Futures
type	poster
last changed	2009/07/08 22:12

_id	8996
authors	Ng, Edward
year	1992
title	Towards the 4th Dimension
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.ecaade.1992.091
source	CAAD Instruction: The New Teaching of an Architect? [eCAADe Conference Proceedings] Barcelona (Spain) 12-14 November 1992, pp. 91-100
summary	Fifteenth century Europeans 'knew' that the sky was made of closed concentric crystal spheres, rotating around a central earth and carrying the stars and planets. That 'knowledge' structured everything they did and thought, because it told them the truth. Then Galileo's telescope changed the truth. As a result, a hundred years later everybody 'knew' that the universe was open and infinite, working like a giant clock. Architecture, music, literature, science, economics, art, politics - everything - changed, mirroring the new view created by the change in the knowledge. The medium by which perceptive intuition and the rigorous discipline of shaping became compatible was technology. Technelogos, the art of knowing how to make, fell naturally and historically into the realm of perceptive fundamentals... For the artist it verified scientifically what he had perceived emotionally; for the engineer it added the vast field of perceptive responses to the narrow limits of the laboratory experiment.
series	eCAADe
last changed	2022/06/07 07:58

_id	427b
authors	Ozel, Filiz
year	1993
title	A Computerized Fire Safety Evaluation System for Business Occupancies
source	CAAD Futures ‘93 [Conference Proceedings / ISBN 0-444-89922-7] (Pittsburgh / USA), 1993, pp. 241-251
summary	The development of computer-based code compliance checking programs has been the focus of many studies. While some of these investigated the procedural aspects of building codes, others focused more on their rule base. On the other hand, due to the complexity of the codes, the process of identifying which sections apply to a given problem, and in which order to access them requires a meta-knowledge structuring system. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 101M, Alternative Approaches to Life Safety (1992) provides a framework through which code sections can be systematically accessed by means of a set of checklists. The study presented here primarily focuses on the development of a computer based fire safety code checking system called ARCHCode/Business for business occupancies following the guidelines and the methodology described in Chapter 7 of NFPA 101M.
keywords	Fire Safety Expert System, Business Occupancies, CAD Interface
series	CAAD Futures
last changed	1999/04/07 12:03

_id	3ff5
authors	Abbo, I.A., La Scalea, L., Otero, E. and Castaneda, L.
year	1992
title	Full-Scale Simulations as Tool for Developing Spatial Design Ability
source	Proceedings of the 4rd European Full-Scale Modelling Conference / Lausanne (Switzerland) 9-12 September 1992, Part C, pp. 7-10
summary	Spatial Design Ability has been defined as the capability to anticipate effects (psychological impressions on potential observers or users) produced by mental manipulation of elements of architectural or urban spaces. This ability, of great importance in choosing the appropriate option during the design process, is not specifically developed in schools of architecture and is partially obtained as a by-product of drawing, designing or architectural criticism. We use our Laboratory as a tool to present spaces to people so that they can evaluate them. By means of a series of exercises, students confront their anticipations with the psychological impressions produced in other people. For this occasion, we present an experience in which students had to propose a space for an exhibition hag in which architectural projects (student thesis) were to be shown. Following the Spatial Design Ability Development Model which we have been using for several years, students first get acquainted with the use of evaluation instruments for psychological impressions as well as with research methodology. In this case, due to the short period available, we reduced research to investigate the effects produced by the manipulation of only 2 independents variables: students manipulated first the form of the roof, walls and interiors elements, secondly, color and texture of those elements. They evaluated spatial quality, character and the other psychological impressions that manipulations produced in people. They used three dimensional scale models 1/10 and 1/1.
keywords	Full-scale Modeling, Model Simulation, Real Environments
series	other
email
more	http://info.tuwien.ac.at/efa
last changed	2003/08/25 10:12

_id	6208
authors	Abou-Jaoude, Georges
year	1992
title	To Master a Tool
source	Proceedings of the 4rd European Full-Scale Modelling Conference / Lausanne (Switzerland) 9-12 September 1992, Part B, p. 15
summary	The tool here is the computer or to be precise, a unit that includes the computer, the peripherals and the software needed to fulfill a task. These tools are getting very sophisticated and user interfaces extremly friendly, therefore it is very easy to become the slave of such electronic tools and reach self satisfaction with strait forward results and attractive images. In order to master and not to become slaves of sophisticated tools, a very solid knowledge of related fields or domains of application becomes necessary. In the case of this seminar, full scale modelling, is a way to understand the relation between a mental model and it's full-scale modelling, it is a way of communicating what is in a designers mind. Computers and design programs can have the same goal, rather than chosing one method or the other let us try to say how important it is today to complement designing with computer with other means and media such as full scale modelling, and what computer modelling and simulation can bring to full scale modelling or other means.
keywords	Full-scale Modeling, Model Simulation, Real Environments
series	other
more	http://info.tuwien.ac.at/efa
last changed	2003/08/25 10:12

_id	735a
authors	Anh, Tran Hoai
year	1992
title	FULL-SCALE EXPERIMENT ON KITCHEN FUNCTION IN HANOI
source	Proceedings of the 4rd European Full-Scale Modelling Conference / Lausanne (Switzerland) 9-12 September 1992, Part A, pp. 19-30
summary	This study is a part of a licentiate thesis on "Functional kitchen for the Vietnamese cooking way"at the Department of Architecture and Development studies, Lund University. The issues it is dealing with are: (1) Inadequacy of kitchen design in the apartment buildings in Hanoi, where the kitchen is often designed as a mere cooking place - other parts of the food making process are not given any attention. (2) Lack of standard dimensional and planning criteria for functional kitchen which can serve as bases for kitchen design. // The thesis aims at finding out indicators on functional spatial requirements for kitchen, which can serve as guide-line for designing functional kitchen for Hanoi. One of the main propositions in the thesis is that functional kitchens for Hanoi should be organised to permit the culinary activities done according to the Vietnamese urban culinary practice. This is based on the concept that the culinary activity is an expression Of culture, thus the practice of preparing meal in the present context of the urban households in Hanoi has an established pattern, method which demand a suitable area and arrangement in the kitchen. This pattern and cooking method should make up the functional requirement for kitchen in Hanoi, and be taken in to account if functional kitchen designing is to be achieved. In the context of the space-limited apartment building of Hanoi, special focus is given to find out indicators on the minimum functional spatial requirements of the kitchen works.
keywords	Full-scale Modeling, Model Simulation, Real Environments
series	other
type	normal paper
more	http://info.tuwien.ac.at/efa
last changed	2004/05/04 15:29

_id	3620
authors	Evans, B.
year	1992
title	Designing castles in the air
source	Architects Journal 196(15, Oct 14), pp. 57-60
summary	Contributed by Susan Pietsch (spietsch@arch.adelaide.edu.au)
keywords	3D City Modeling, Development Control, Design Control
series	journal paper
last changed	2003/05/15 21:45

_id	7ce5
authors	Gal, Shahaf
year	1992
title	Computers and Design Activities: Their Mediating Role in Engineering Education
source	Sociomedia, ed. Edward Barret. MIT Press
summary	Sociomedia: With all the new words used to describe electronic communication (multimedia, hypertext, cyberspace, etc.), do we need another one? Edward Barrett thinks we do; hence, he coins the term "sociomedia." It is meant to displace a computing economy in which technicity is hypostasized over sociality. Sociomedia, a compilation of twenty-five articles on the theory, design and practice of educational multimedia and hypermedia, attempts to re-value the communicational face of computing. Value, of course, is "ultimately a social construct." As such, it has everything to do with knowledge, power, education and technology. The projects discussed in this book represent the leading edge of electronic knowledge production in academia (not to mention major funding) and are determining the future of educational media. For these reasons, Sociomedia warrants close inspection. Barrett's introduction sets the tone. For him, designing computer media involves hardwiring a mechanism for the social construction of knowledge (1). He links computing to a process of social and communicative interactivity for constructing and desseminating knowledge. Through a mechanistic mapping of the university as hypercontext (a huge network that includes classrooms as well as services and offices), Barrett models intellectual work in such a way as to avoid "limiting definitions of human nature or human development." Education, then, can remain "where it should be--in the human domain (public and private) of sharing ideas and information through the medium of language." By leaving education in a virtual realm (where we can continue to disagree about its meaning and execution), it remains viral, mutating and contaminating in an intellectually healthy way. He concludes that his mechanistic model, by means of its reductionist approach, preserves value (7). This "value" is the social construction of knowledge. While I support the social orientation of Barrett's argument, discussions of value are related to power. I am not referring to the traditional teacher-student power structure that is supposedly dismantled through cooperative and constructivist learning strategies. The power to be reckoned with in the educational arena is foundational, that which (pre)determines value and the circulation of knowledge. "Since each of you reading this paragraph has a different perspective on the meaning of 'education' or 'learning,' and on the processes involved in 'getting an education,' think of the hybris in trying to capture education in a programmable function, in a displayable object, in a 'teaching machine'" (7). Actually, we must think about that hybris because it is, precisely, what informs teaching machines. Moreover, the basic epistemological premises that give rise to such productions are too often assumed. In the case of instructional design, the episteme of cognitive sciences are often taken for granted. It is ironic that many of the "postmodernists" who support electronic hypertextuality seem to have missed Jacques Derrida's and Michel Foucault's "deconstructions" of the epistemology underpinning cognitive sciences (if not of epistemology itself). Perhaps it is the glitz of the technology that blinds some users (qua developers) to the belief systems operating beneath the surface. Barrett is not guilty of reactionary thinking or politics; he is, in fact, quite in line with much American deconstructive and postmodern thinking. The problem arises in that he leaves open the definitions of "education," "learning" and "getting an education." One cannot engage in the production of new knowledge without orienting its design, production and dissemination, and without negotiating with others' orientations, especially where largescale funding is involved. Notions of human nature and development are structural, even infrastructural, whatever the medium of the teaching machine. Although he addresses some dynamics of power, money and politics when he talks about the recession and its effects on the conference, they are readily visible dynamics of power (3-4). Where does the critical factor of value determination, of power, of who gets what and why, get mapped onto a mechanistic model of learning institutions? Perhaps a mapping of contributors' institutions, of the funding sources for the projects showcased and for participation in the conference, and of the disciplines receiving funding for these sorts of projects would help visualize the configurations of power operative in the rising field of educational multimedia. Questions of power and money notwithstanding, Barrett's introduction sets the social and textual thematics for the collection of essays. His stress on interactivity, on communal knowledge production, on the society of texts, and on media producers and users is carried foward through the other essays, two of which I will discuss. Section I of the book, "Perspectives...," highlights the foundations, uses and possible consequences of multimedia and hypertextuality. The second essay in this section, "Is There a Class in This Text?," plays on the robust exchange surrounding Stanley Fish's book, Is There a Text in This Class?, which presents an attack on authority in reading. The author, John Slatin, has introduced electronic hypertextuality and interaction into his courses. His article maps the transformations in "the content and nature of work, and the workplace itself"-- which, in this case, is not industry but an English poetry class (25). Slatin discovered an increase of productive and cooperative learning in his electronically- mediated classroom. For him, creating knowledge in the electronic classroom involves interaction between students, instructors and course materials through the medium of interactive written discourse. These interactions lead to a new and persistent understanding of the course materials and of the participants' relation to the materials and to one another. The work of the course is to build relationships that, in my view, constitute not only the meaning of individual poems, but poetry itself. The class carries out its work in the continual and usually interactive production of text (31). While I applaud his strategies which dismantle traditional hierarchical structures in academia, the evidence does not convince me that the students know enough to ask important questions or to form a self-directing, learning community. Stanley Fish has not relinquished professing, though he, too, espouses the indeterminancy of the sign. By the fourth week of his course, Slatin's input is, by his own reckoning, reduced to 4% (39). In the transcript of the "controversial" Week 6 exchange on Gertrude Stein--the most disliked poet they were discussing at the time (40)--we see the blind leading the blind. One student parodies Stein for three lines and sums up his input with "I like it." Another, finds Stein's poetry "almost completey [sic] lacking in emotion or any artistic merit" (emphasis added). On what grounds has this student become an arbiter of "artistic merit"? Another student, after admitting being "lost" during the Wallace Steven discussion, talks of having more "respect for Stevens' work than Stein's" and adds that Stein's poetry lacks "conceptual significance[, s]omething which people of varied opinion can intelligently discuss without feeling like total dimwits...." This student has progressed from admitted incomprehension of Stevens' work to imposing her (groundless) respect for his work over Stein's. Then, she exposes her real dislike for Stein's poetry: that she (the student) missed the "conceptual significance" and hence cannot, being a person "of varied opinion," intelligently discuss it "without feeling like [a] total dimwit." Slatin's comment is frightening: "...by this point in the semester students have come to feel increasingly free to challenge the instructor" (41). The students that I have cited are neither thinking critically nor are their preconceptions challenged by student-governed interaction. Thanks to the class format, one student feels self-righteous in her ignorance, and empowered to censure. I believe strongly in student empowerment in the classroom, but only once students have accrued enough knowledge to make informed judgments. Admittedly, Slatin's essay presents only partial data (there are six hundred pages of course transcripts!); still, I wonder how much valuable knowledge and metaknowledge was gained by the students. I also question the extent to which authority and professorial dictature were addressed in this course format. The power structures that make it possible for a college to require such a course, and the choice of texts and pedagogy, were not "on the table." The traditional professorial position may have been displaced, but what took its place?--the authority of consensus with its unidentifiable strong arm, and the faceless reign of software design? Despite Slatin's claim that the students learned about the learning process, there is no evidence (in the article) that the students considered where their attitudes came from, how consensus operates in the construction of knowledge, how power is established and what relationship they have to bureaucratic insitutions. How do we, as teaching professionals, negotiate a balance between an enlightened despotism in education and student-created knowledge? Slatin, and other authors in this book, bring this fundamental question to the fore. There is no definitive answer because the factors involved are ultimately social, and hence, always shifting and reconfiguring. Slatin ends his article with the caveat that computerization can bring about greater estrangement between students, faculty and administration through greater regimentation and control. Of course, it can also "distribute authority and power more widely" (50). Power or authority without a specific face, however, is not necessarily good or just. Shahaf Gal's "Computers and Design Activities: Their Mediating Role in Engineering Education" is found in the second half of the volume, and does not allow for a theory/praxis dichotomy. Gal recounts a brief history of engineering education up to the introduction of Growltiger (GT), a computer-assisted learning aid for design. He demonstrates GT's potential to impact the learning of engineering design by tracking its use by four students in a bridge-building contest. What his text demonstrates clearly is that computers are "inscribing and imaging devices" that add another viewpoint to an on-going dialogue between student, teacher, earlier coursework, and other teaching/learning tools. The less proficient students made a serious error by relying too heavily on the technology, or treating it as a "blueprint provider." They "interacted with GT in a way that trusted the data to represent reality. They did not see their interaction with GT as a negotiation between two knowledge systems" (495). Students who were more thoroughly informed in engineering discourses knew to use the technology as one voice among others--they knew enough not simply to accept the input of the computer as authoritative. The less-advanced students learned a valuable lesson from the competition itself: the fact that their designs were not able to hold up under pressure (literally) brought the fact of their insufficient knowledge crashing down on them (and their bridges). They also had, post factum, several other designs to study, especially the winning one. Although competition and comparison are not good pedagogical strategies for everyone (in this case the competitors had volunteered), at some point what we think we know has to be challenged within the society of discourses to which it belongs. Students need critique in order to learn to push their learning into auto-critique. This is what is lacking in Slatin's discussion and in the writings of other avatars of constructivist, collaborative and computer-mediated pedagogies. Obviously there are differences between instrumental types of knowledge acquisition and discoursive knowledge accumulation. Indeed, I do not promote the teaching of reading, thinking and writing as "skills" per se (then again, Gal's teaching of design is quite discursive, if not dialogic). Nevertheless, the "soft" sciences might benefit from "bridge-building" competitions or the re-institution of some forms of agonia. Not everything agonistic is inhuman agony--the joy of confronting or creating a sound argument supported by defensible evidence, for example. Students need to know that soundbites are not sound arguments despite predictions that electronic writing will be aphoristic rather than periodic. Just because writing and learning can be conceived of hypertextually does not mean that rigor goes the way of the dinosaur. Rigor and hypertextuality are not mutually incompatible. Nor is rigorous thinking and hard intellectual work unpleasurable, although American anti-intellectualism, especially in the mass media, would make it so. At a time when the spurious dogmatics of a Rush Limbaugh and Holocaust revisionist historians circulate "aphoristically" in cyberspace, and at a time when knowledge is becoming increasingly textualized, the role of critical thinking in education will ultimately determine the value(s) of socially constructed knowledge. This volume affords the reader an opportunity to reconsider knowledge, power, and new communications technologies with respect to social dynamics and power relationships.
series	other
last changed	2003/04/23 15:14

_id	1076
authors	Gero, John S. and Saunders, Robert
year	2000
title	Constructed Representations and Their Functions in Computational Models of Designing
doi	https://doi.org/10.52842/conf.caadria.2000.215
source	CAADRIA 2000 [Proceedings of the Fifth Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia / ISBN 981-04-2491-4] Singapore 18-19 May 2000, pp. 215-224
summary	This paper re-examines the conclusions made by Schön and Wiggins in 1992 that computers were unable to reproduce processes crucial to designing. We propose that recent developments in artificial intelligence and design computing put us in a position where we can begin to computationally model designing as conceived by Schön and Wiggins. We present a computational model of designing using situated processes that construct representations. We show how constructed representations support computational processes that model the different kinds of seeing reported in designing. We also present recently developed computational processes that can identify unexpected consequences of design actions using adaptive novelty detection.
series	CAADRIA
email
last changed	2022/06/07 07:51

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