Contingent - The Bartlett International Lectures

About

Streamed live on The Bartlett School of Architecture's YouTube channel, this event will be a discussion between host Gilles Retsin and speaker M. Casey Rehm. 

This event forms part of The Bartlett International Lectures Autumn 2021.

This autumn and spring, each of the International Lectures will be curated by one of the school's programmes to inspire, invent, imagine, and provoke. This event is curated by Architectural Design MArch.

Abstract

Contingent

Contemporary models of synthetic intelligence construct meaning through contingent relationships of perceived information. As these tools increase in capability and application, the practice of architecture faces an inflection point through the automation of intellectual labour.  Lurking within the efficiencies afforded by this automation exist potential issues of inductive stagnation and increased stratification of agency for designers.

Through the work of the studio, the lecture will explore how leveraging the inherent prometheanist nature of feed-forward intelligence allows us to construct alternative value structures in design. The true generative potential of tools like convolutional neural networks is their ability to reframe our current and a priori data, producing a form of viable expertise outside of the established trajectory of architectural history. 

Speaker biography

M. Casey Rehm is a designer based in Los Angeles, CA.  His studio's work focuses on the integration within design of machine learning, intelligent agency and platform software for material and cultural production.  His works have been exhibited at national and international museums and galleries including Centre Pompidou, FRAC Orleans, Pola Annex Ginza, and the Chicago Art Institute.  Additionally, he has received several grants in the area of artificial intelligence and architecture, including two from the Google Artists and Machine Intelligence group.  Currently he is the Coordinator for the MS Architectural Technology programme and is the Faculty Director of the Platforms and Automation Lab at SCI Arc.  He received his BArch from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005 and his MS AAD from Columbia University in 2009. 

More information

• Explore Architectural Design MArch
• See the full programme for The Bartlett International Lectures

Image: Automated Elevations - M. Casey Rehm