Time Schedule:
John Michael Humphries
ARCH 498
Seattle Campus
Instructor-initiated and department-approved systematic study and offering of specialized subject matter. Topics vary and are announced in preceding quarter.
Class description
Model shop will look at several issues, the primary—modeling. The emphasis will be communication. The work will be design focusing on the linkage between a photograph and a physical object. The tool will be the computer and analogue modeling. The methods will be observation and abstraction. The projects will be design at an intimate scale. Designers are necessarily sloppy, in that the process of design is non-linear and requires discursive and often indirect methods. Machinists are not. Model shop is not a tutorial course, solely interested in teaching software or hardware.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Model shop is presented in the format of a seminar. A seminar is different from both a studio and a lecture course though it has qualities of both. A seminar, this seminar, will define a framework of production and discourse with a term-long project. Model shop, as a seminar, will have periodic goals and agendas, however the exact form of the final work and the critical discourse surrounding the work is not fully defined. It is likely that each project will be very different, in terms of questioning, content, and execution.
Recommended preparation
read and or have a copy of
Title: Einstein’s Dreams Author: Allen P Lightman Publisher: Warner Books ISBN: 0446670111
Class assignments and grading
The projects will initiate an investigation into functional, material and formal structures through the use of science:technology metaphors as means of designing. These methods are not concerned with only the pragmatic, but creative modes of thinking. Modeling is a process of applying quantitative data, with the result being qualitative. The goals will be to observe, manipulate and interpret with rigor. Finally, apply each observation to a design solution. We will take care to document our processes and understand our critical paths of thought.
The basis for final grade evaluation is improvement and participation rather than accumulated semester project grades.
