Content Seeking Students: Site-and-Sound Bites as Participants in Ubiquitous Social Computing

Discussion of digital, collaborative environments for architectural work often focuses on the structure of discourse, rather than upon its substance. An implied assumption is that the various means of electronic-based communication are suitable for any kind of subject matter, whether visual, sound-based, or text. Our project team has chosen to challenge this assumption by example: We have created new media artifacts for collaborative architectural education. Our project is an attempt to leverage on-going research concerning the efficacy of "ubiquitous social computing” (USC) for design-studio teaching. With a pilot project already put in place by one of our team's leaders, we have supplemented graphic and verbal communication among participants with purpose-crafted video for their use and exchange. Smart-screens, placed strategically within students' "social enclaves,” provide access to curated content. Our approach challenges traditional educational emphasis upon explicit types of architectural knowledge. The construction of tacit knowledge, usually derived from first-hand architectural experiences, is here effected by mediated, digital-based experiences. Nevertheless, the social dimension of the USC framework may be significant in negotiating the interface between immediate and mediated experiences

The photoelectric effect in external fields

Atoms and negative ions interacting with laser photons yield a coherent source of photoelectrons. Applying external fields to photoelectrons gives rise to interesting and valuable interference phenomena. We analyze the spatial distribution of the photocurrent using elementary quantum methods. The photoelectric effect is shown to be an interesting example for the use of coherent particle sources in quantum mechanics.Comment: Contribution to the Einstein special issue, slightly updated reference

Situational Ecumenism: The Architecture of Jewish Student Centers on American University Campuses

Since the start of the 20th century, the presence of Jewish students on American university campuses required accommodation of their religious practices. Jewish activities, including prayer, took place in existing campus buildings designed for other purposes. Eventually, at some universities, facilities were built to serve Jewish religious and social needs. These Jewish Student Centers, which include worship spaces yet are typologically different from synagogues, generally have to accommodate the diverse religious streams that characterize Jewish life in the United States. To do so, both architects and Jewish organizations have adapted the idea of ecumenism, by which related sects seek unity through fellowship and dialogue, not doctrinal agreement. Three examples—at Yale, Duke University, and the University of California San Diego—demonstrate differently the situational ecumenism at the core of their designs. These buildings, and other Jewish Student Centers elsewhere, make visible the intersection between American collegiate and Jewish religious values, variously defined

Nature versus nurture : the irony of intervention, despoliation, and remediation

Natureza / [coordenação de] Victor Manuel Canedo Neves. - Lisboa : Universidade Lusíada, 2014. - ISBN 878-989-640-169-6. - P. 47-56.The out-scaled processes of strip-mining appear incredible, absurd, and even ironic. In fact, the notion of irony, in which explicit meaning is different from intended meaning, is itself a useful critical tool for extending concepts which otherwise guide conventional discussion about design for the environment. We read about, for instance, the “vernacular” landscape. But how can the word “vernacular” – which denotes characteristics unintended, unselfconscious, yet entirely artificial – be applied to landscape? Are there circumstances in which understanding the transition from a natural to man-made landscape can be moderated by “ironic” sensibilities? Acts of despoliation afford us with useful examples. One can perceive, in their engagement with pre-existing natural environments, a kind of visual vernacular established by the landscape’s precedent at an existing place and time. Perception of this vernacular, on the other hand, depends upon the subtle, ironic chiasm between site specificity and its opposite: the general concept of landscape itself. The relevance of the anthropologist relationship in bipolar space-time

Session 6: Universalism by Design

Robert Kargon, Johns Hopkins University The Geography of Knowledge: William Pepper, Jr. and the Advancement of Learning in Philadelphia 1870-1900 William Pepper, Jr. MD was the provost of the University of Pennsylvania and brought it and its medical school into the scientific age. Inspired by the successes of South Kensington\u27s Albertopolis and by his role at the 1876 Philadelphia World\u27s Fair, Pepper planned to create a knowledge city in Philadelphia, including advanced research and teaching institutions, laboratories, libraries, and museums. Nader Vossoughian, New York Institute of Technology Internationalism under National Socialism: Architects\u27 Data and the Standardization of Knowledge (1933-1945) The intimate ties between internationalist and pacifist movements in modern European history is fairly well-established. Lesser known, however, is the fact that fascist and imperialist governments have often affiliated themselves with internationalist and globalizing causes as well. Hendrik Christian Andersen appealed to Mussolini in an effort to realize the building of his World Center of Communication. Ernst Neufert appealed to Albert Speer and to Adolf Hitler in order to realize his dream of developing a universal language of design. He joined Speer\u27s architectural office in 1938, he became an advisor to the Organisation Todt in 1942, and he headed DIN\u27s (the German Institute for Standardization\u27s) Construction Standards Committee between 1944 and 1945. Arguably, Neufert is best remembered today for authoring Architects\u27 Data (Bauentwurfslehre). After eighty years, it is still the most influential standards handbook in the world. In this presentation, I document the genesis and evolution of this important publication. I concentrate on the graphic design and conceptual aims of the first edition. (I use it to explore the links between imperialism, modernism, and internationalism.) I historicize its 1943 and 1944 editions. (I show that these help flesh out Neufert\u27s utopian aims and aspirations.) I narrate Neufert\u27s stewardship of DIN\u27s Construction Standards Committee. (This is in order to underline the links between internationalism, imperialism, and standardization.) I discuss the important role that standards continue to play in the organization of knowledge today. (I argue that we still need to historicize what some are calling the Internet of things.

Session 6: Universalism by Design

Robert Kargon, Johns Hopkins University The Geography of Knowledge: William Pepper, Jr. and the Advancement of Learning in Philadelphia 1870-1900 William Pepper, Jr. MD was the provost of the University of Pennsylvania and brought it and its medical school into the scientific age. Inspired by the successes of South Kensington\u27s Albertopolis and by his role at the 1876 Philadelphia World\u27s Fair, Pepper planned to create a knowledge city in Philadelphia, including advanced research and teaching institutions, laboratories, libraries, and museums. Nader Vossoughian, New York Institute of Technology Internationalism under National Socialism: Architects\u27 Data and the Standardization of Knowledge (1933-1945) The intimate ties between internationalist and pacifist movements in modern European history is fairly well-established. Lesser known, however, is the fact that fascist and imperialist governments have often affiliated themselves with internationalist and globalizing causes as well. Hendrik Christian Andersen appealed to Mussolini in an effort to realize the building of his World Center of Communication. Ernst Neufert appealed to Albert Speer and to Adolf Hitler in order to realize his dream of developing a universal language of design. He joined Speer\u27s architectural office in 1938, he became an advisor to the Organisation Todt in 1942, and he headed DIN\u27s (the German Institute for Standardization\u27s) Construction Standards Committee between 1944 and 1945. Arguably, Neufert is best remembered today for authoring Architects\u27 Data (Bauentwurfslehre). After eighty years, it is still the most influential standards handbook in the world. In this presentation, I document the genesis and evolution of this important publication. I concentrate on the graphic design and conceptual aims of the first edition. (I use it to explore the links between imperialism, modernism, and internationalism.) I historicize its 1943 and 1944 editions. (I show that these help flesh out Neufert\u27s utopian aims and aspirations.) I narrate Neufert\u27s stewardship of DIN\u27s Construction Standards Committee. (This is in order to underline the links between internationalism, imperialism, and standardization.) I discuss the important role that standards continue to play in the organization of knowledge today. (I argue that we still need to historicize what some are calling the Internet of things.