Making + Practice: The Work of Micah Rutenberg by micah rutenberg

Making + Practice Micah Rutenberg

1523 1/2 Allesandro St. Los Angeles, CA 90026 micahruts@gmail.com (734) 834-7722

Portfolio, Fall 2011

Essays: A: Avant-what? 18 Heart[h] of Dis.course 74

Making

Projects

Research

Contents 4 – 41 42 – 59 60 – 87

>> Media_8

Graduate Perimeter Studio, Fall 2008

>> Furstenberg Elementary >> Ramp_Stair_Wall

Undergraduate Design Studio 2, Winter 2005

Graduate [Brazil] Studio, Winter 2009

>> Studio 3

With StudioMARS, Fall 2011

>> Stella and Big Boy

>> MS_DR Exhibition

Personal Zeitgeist, Summer 2010

>> Asclepius Machine

With Robert Adams and SudioMARS, Fall 2011

MS_Design Research, Winter 2011

>> Area 51 1/2 >> ExtraLegal

Curriculum Vitae

Thesis, Winter 2010

MS_Design Research, Winter 2011

Media_8

Introduction: Mediatized Perimeter Landscapes

Media_8

he site for this project is a stretch of I-94 between Ann Arbor and Chicago. I-94 is at once a communicative infrastructure that supports a massive flow of people and economy, while simultaneously supporting an ecology of programs specific to the I-94 perimeter condition. These programs and their relationship to one another represent a complex multitude of sociocultural voices and ideas that are rarely revealed because of the high-speed regime of the freeway. The goal of Media_8 is to activate the latent I-94 milieu by creating an infrastructure of media related programs operating at multiple speeds of interaction that allow for both the creation and dissemination of ideas. Remote hubs are located

Media8 Production: Filming Developing Projecting Editing Printing Binding Splicing Composing Harvesting Extracting Playing Tuning Tagging

Performance: Stage Frame Focus Screen Monitor Shelf Catalogue Sample Cook Display

Perimeter Program: Adult superstore Radio station Winery/vinyard Tasting room Furniture outlet Llama farm Jerky outlet Flea market Big box store

Site/Event: Tasting Consuming Praying Drying Distilling Hocking Trading Fantasizing Role-playing

Perimeter Reality: Linear datum Mile marker Highway hypnosis Anonymity Delincuency Frequency

Interstate 94

Amtrak ALBION

Kalamazoo River

Winery Adult Superstore Christian Radio Station Furniture Store

_Existing Program

Program

Record Print/ Develop Sound/ Light Edit Splice Bind

Message Production

Projection Stage Art Frame Screen Shelf Kiosk

Message Performance

Stadium seating Meeting room Lounge Hallway Plaza Surface

Message Reception

_Proposed Program

Media_8 begins with the idea of the hybridized mediatheque. It is broken down into three programs; creation, performance, reception. These programs are then recomposed and organized across the site to create PARMA a decentralized mediatheque hybrid. The purpose of this approach is to respond to the speed of freeway culture, as well as the complex programmatic relationships that already exist on the site.

Media_8

across the site, inviting people to exit the freeway to participate in the creative practices that make up Media_8. Each communicates with the freeway via radio frequencies, creating a grid that is picked up by passing cars, giving them information about events and mediating between the freeway and Media_8â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hubs. The project is about bringing the anonymous voices of the perimeter to the fore and projecting the possibility for a vital, creative experience within the I-94 reality.

correspond to the analog, produce a field: a network that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t activate a target directly, rather it relies on an area of coverage through which a target passes to produce a connection. Digital networks are targeted, interconnected, and produce feedback. Media_8 capitalizes on the dissemination and reception processes of both.

AM 1140 Performance Pop Exit 124 BL I-94/ M99

123

Exit 122 BL I-94 (28 Mile Road)

122

This project addresses two kinds of networks: The analog and the digital. Each expresses a differing kind of dissemination. Radio networks, which Create Perform

Film Perform Project

125

>>Analog / Digital Networks

AM 1140 Performance Pop

Media_8

Analog network

Digital network

AM 550 Pulp Frequency

AM 970 Voice in the Key of Protest

AM 810 Graffiti Train

128

Exit 128 Michigan Ave.

Exit 127 Concord

Exit 126

2 Grids. The Jeffersonian grid which is the product (hegemony) of an ancient regime that the perimeter has appropriated- its language in the form of mile markers and freeway exits- and the subversive grid of the radio frequency. The former is knowledge that supports power, the latter knowledge that resists power. The thesis and antithesis form a dialectic that creates a space of contention- a democratic public realm.

AM 550 Pulp Frequency Tag Curate

Create Perform

AM 810 Graffiti Train Paper Print Bind Drink Beer

Create Perform

<< 11

Sound

Perform Film Project Dance

Develop

First Floor

Media_8

Node 1140_Film Club

he film club consists of a plaza that stages performances, a dance club, and a building that houses spaces for film production. Production and performance are juxtaposed in a continuous architectural moment. Located immediately next to I-94, the film club acts conceptually like a horizontal and vertical billboard, projecting itself into the space of the freeway as a series of temporal event surfaces. The architecture of the film club plays on a larger conceptual grounding of Media_8 that has to do with bringing the temporal fringe culture of the freeway to the surface. Existing freeway programs celebrate the fringe culture of the ‘trucker’–an established subject of the urban perimeter–but they largely ignore other constituencies that frequent the urban perimeter constructed by the freeway. In producing a space of performance, expression, and projection in both the horizontal and vertical planes, the film club accepts other kinds of temporary fringe subjects.

AM 1140 Performance Pop

Theoretical Notes on Media_8 Henri Lefebvre and Cultural Hegemony In “The Production of Space,” Henri Lefebvre identifies two forms of knowledge, which he calls savoir and connaissance. Savoir is the dominant form of knowledge controlled by the ruling class as a means of maintaining its position in society. Connaissance is the knowledge of resistance; the knowledge that attempts to reject the cultural hegemony of the ruling class. The duality of ‘savoir’ and ‘connaissance’ sets up a struggle where the project finds opportunity. ‘Savoir’ is to the freeway perimeter regime as ‘connaissance’ is to Media_8. Media_8, then, finding itself within the cultural hegemony of the freeway perimeter, is a part of that power structure by its mere presence, but provides a platform for subversion and the countervoice. The graffiti gallery/train station, for example, plugs in to the infrastructure of dominant knowledge, but at the same time provides the conditions for the expression of resistance. Hegelian Dialectics The dialectic presents itself in three parts: a thesis, which gives rise to an antithesis, which results in a synthesis. The zone of creative activity that emerges from Media_8 is the synthesis. The dialectic is the argument between the programs of the freeway perimeter and

those of the mediateque. It is through this dialectic that the programs are deconstructed and reconfigured across the site to open up the possibility for creative practice within the perimeter. The Democratic Public Realm in the words of Rosalyn Deutsche. “Laclau and Mouffe use the term antagonism to designate the relationship between a social identity and a “constitutive outside” that blocks its completion. Antagonism affirms and simultaneously prevents the closure of society, revealing the partiality and precariousness--the contingency--of every totality. Antagonism is “the ‘experience’ of the limit of the social.” “Linked to the image of an empty place, democracy is a concept capable of interrupting the dominant language of democracy that engulfs us today. But democracy retains the capacity continually to question power and put existing social orders into question only if we do not flee from the question--the unknowability of the social-that generates the public space at democracy’s heart.”

Media_8

Node 810_Graffiti Gallery/Train Station

he graffiti gallery and train station act as a red herring architecture that plugs into existing railway infrastructure. It is a working stop that is a destination itself rather than an exchange point. It is a pavilion devoid of program until its walls are activated by expressions of graffiti that convert it into a gallery. It is an architecture of dormancy; one that is voided until it is activated by graffiti and the train. But the architecture is not an innocent canvas. Rather, it consists of spatial and architectural cues that call for its activation.

Tag Create Perform

Curate

AM 810 Graffiti Train

>>Resistance as practice This project recognizes creative practice as a form of resistance: the best way to effect change is through participation and the sharing of knowledge.

Media_8

Node 550_Paper Workshop/ Brewery

he artisan paper-making workshop and brewery is a slow node of Media_8. It combines slow processes of creation, performance, and spectatorship: that of making paper and that of brewing beer. It communicates with freeway culture and the rest of Media_8 at the opposite speed of what is expected. It is not about the quickness of a bathroom break or refilling of the gas tank, but the subtle experience of material transformation. For this reason, the building is located in an existing wheat field that transforms the reading of the building as being more or less open depending on the time of year. Because the architecture opens up to the landscape to produce outdoor spaces and a beer garden, it facilitates the long repose rather than quick stop.

Paper Print Bind

Create Perform

Drink Beer

AM 550 Pulp Frequency

<< 19

Q: To what extent are the concepts of the avant-

garde and the neo-avant-garde relevant or useful to contemporary architectural discourse? >> Selected essay: Theory and Criticism, Winter 2009

A: Avant-What? It is not an easy task to position the historical avant-garde or the neoavant-garde within contemporary discourse since ingrained within the nature of the avant-beast, one begins to unravel a mythic tale of fantastic triple agents, immaculate conceptions, and heroic struggles. As with any myth that attempts to explain the origins of the world, it is at once a history that serves to perpetuate ideals, and a debate that propels the formulation of contemporary thought. This double time code becomes the setting for the poles of the larger avant-garde project to perpetually churn, gathering energy and feeding it back into contemporary discourse.

Inherent to the character of the avant-garde project is its rejection of the past in favor of progress, the new, and the original. However, while the avant-garde claims originality through autonomy from the past, it only exists because of it. In rejecting the past, the avant-garde acknowledges its position as a relative “other” analogous to Edward Said’s notion of Orientalism where the “Orient” is constructed as a negative inversion of Western culture.1 Considering the avant-garde’s “otherness,” its claim to be born from nothing (its immaculate conception) only further reveals its true roots. If we interrogate the origins of the avant-garde as a birth metaphor, it begins to fall apart when we consider one is born from something, suggesting not only a mother (the purveyor of knowledge), but also fertilization and gestation. The contradiction between an immaculate conception

and a fertilized birth are well illustrated by Marinetti’s own “birth” through an ironic brush with death:

1) In attempting to reject the past and achieve autonomy, the avant-garde erased historical context and took on the blank canvas as the its site.

Oh, maternal ditch, half full of muddy water! A factory gutter! I savored a mouthful of strengthening muck which recalled the black teat of my Sudanese nurse...As I raised my body, mud-spattered and smelly, I felt the red hot poker of joy deliciously pierce my heart… Then with my face covered in good factory mud, covered with metal scratches, useless sweat and celestial grime, amidst the complaint of staid fishermen and angry naturalists, we dictated our first will and testament to all the living men on earth.2

While Marinetti suggests a spontaneous birth -an epiphany that manifests industry as the mother that gave him life- he exposes the fertility of the collective memory in society that eventually leads to the episode. Furthermore, he refers to the manifesto that is to follow as his “first will and testament.” In doing so, Marinetti not only unites his birth and death, but also positions “living men on earth” as his children and himself as the giver of life. For the avant-garde the implication is that while it rejects the past it is of the past and while it projects the future, its legacy becomes part of a continuous past.

2) But it was because of that history, or the desire to depart from it that created a general sentiment in society conducive to the ideals of the avant-garde project.

When the neo-avant-garde appropriates the notion of originality, the conceptual contradictions and oppositions become even more pronounced. The neo-avantgarde overtly draws on the legacy of the historical avantgarde as its fountain of knowledge, but distills the content to satiate its own thirst for autonomy. In doing so, the neoavant-garde unwittingly becomes matricidal, undermining the spirit of the historical avant-garde’s originality in order to survive on its own. Key players in the neo-avant-garde such as Peter Eisenmann, making “opportunistic use of the canon”3 of the historical avant-garde, reformulated originality

3) Even in an attempt to reject the past, one history replaced another. The avant-garde was never able to fully achieve autonomy. 21

and autonomy to meet their own ends. To Eisenmann, autonomy became about inventing a syntactical language from the canons of the historical avant-garde that could be deployed irrespective of external forces. His success in this endeavor is at once the birth and the death of the historical avant-garde. On the one hand, his irreverence toward the avant-garde tradition is revolution in itself, making a case for the originality of his undertaking. On the other hand, his apparently blind appropriation of the gestures of the avant-garde (the grid, repetition, function, which he didn’t follow anyway, monochromy, and autonomy) suggests otherwise. Whether or not Eisenmann and the neo-avant-garde can truly be considered to be consistent with the larger avant-garde project, it is undeniable that the polemics they engaged in with both the historical avant-garde and theory at large has left a lasting impression on contemporary architectural discourse. It is difficult not to be seduced by the heroics of the avant-garde and the neo-avantgarde projects. One is easily caught up in the semantics of locating them within a particular historical framework or other context, but it is not their location that is important. Rather, the dynamic repositioning and looping contradictory states of the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde are what give the possibility of fueling contemporary discourse. In navigating the contested theoretical territories of the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde, one draws energy from and feeds energy back into the loop of the larger avant-garde project, propelling contemporary architectural thought forward.

Notes: 1) Wikipedia, “Orientalism: Edward Said and Orientalism”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wik/Orientalism#Edward_Said_ and_.22Orientalism.22. 2) Marinetti, F.T., “The Futurist Manifesto,” 1909, http://www.cscs. umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html. 3) Lynn, Greg, “In the Wake of the Avant-Garde,” Assemblage, No. 29 (1996): 123.

Images: 1) Mies van der Rohe, Glass Skyscraper, 1922. 2) Herbert Bayer–[Kurt] Kranz, Joy in Work Through Green Factory Yards, n.d. 3) Giuseppe Terragni, Casa Del Fascio, 1932-1936. 4) From the cover of “Giuseppe Teragni: Transformations, Decompositions, Critiques,” by Peter Eisenman. 5) Peter Eisenman, House III, 1970. 6) Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture, 1972. 7) Greg Lynn, Secession Project, 1999.

4,5) The neo-avant-garde project made claims to originality and autonomy, but it becomes apparent in its manifestation that it is historically grounded in the avant-garde itself.

6) Eventually, the language of the neo-avant-garde gets apppropriated to perform tasks and make commentary beyond the scope of its original conception.

7) The legacy of the avant-garde and neo-avantgarde becomes evident as a context for contemporary discourse.

<< 23

SITE

LINE OF ECOTONE

Furstenberg Park, Ann Arbor, MI

Furstenberg

Furstenberg School

Introduction

n ecotone is the moment in nature when two ecosystems meet at a fluctuating line where they compete for territory. The ecotone in Furstenberg Park lies between a prairie and a forest. When the building is placed on the ecotone it becomes a didactic tool. The architecture gives the line a material presence; a thickness that allows students to occupy and experience the phenomenon of the ecotone. Additionally, the building becomes a measuring tool by which the fluctuation of the ecotone over time can be read and experienced.

5 5 2

1. Office 2. Library 3. Gymnasium 4. Cafeteria 5. Classrooms

Furstenberg

[Facade Studies] The model is used to study the qualities and affects of light and shadow. The facade acts as a filter that strategically juxtaposes the verticality and horizontality of the ecotone.

Furstenberg

>>Modernist space To give a metric to the project: CIAM determined that the minimum [optimized] domestic space needed for one person is 15 m2.

he project begins as an investigation of public and private space in a favela called Acaba Mundo in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. My initial investigation into the amount of interior space compared to exterior space revealed the high density of the favela, which is comparable to some of the densest cities in the world. In addition, calculations based on statistics of favela life and domestic occupation reveal that the average domestic space per person in the favela is 8.9m2, which is almost half the area CIAM determined to be the minimum domestic space needed per person (15m2).

<< 33

Ramp_Stair_Wall

Introduction

Ramp_Stair_Wall

Interior / Exterior space

hile in Acaba Mundo there is neither a generous amount of interior nor exterior space to offer relief from dense favela life, there is a formal characteristic of the favela that may point the way to a possible resolution. The organic growth of the favela means that large quantities of exterior space are bound up in the interstices between dwellings. Many times these spaces, while initially public, are co-opted or privatized by the surrounding dwellings. If these interstitial spaces were exploited, a network of exterior spaces would emerge to the benefit of the community at large.

Exemplary Acaba Mundo dwelling footprints (grey fill) overlaid onto typical American bedroom occupancy conditions:

Typical favela occupancy conditions:

1 Inhabitant

Brazilian Standard Bed 75 x 190 cm

4 Inhabitants

39 m2

1 Inhabitant

3 Inhabitants

18 m2

2 Inhabitants

1 Inhabitant

6 m2

9 m2

12 m2

16 m2

>>The claim By claiming open spaces along the river, public space in the favela increases by 200%.

Current â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; space as perceived by the community

Proposed public space

<< 37

Ramp_Stair_Wall

Acaba Mundo bifurcates along two riverbeds. The two rivers serve as main axes where the majority of public as well as domestic life in the favela is focused. The tendency toward privatization and territorialization in the favela resists the public realm created by the rivers. Untouched “public” ground is likely to be appropriated into the private domestic space of a favela dweller; once a dweller has intervened in open space, it is implicitly understood by the community that the space has been claimed by that person, and it becomes private. The strategy of this project is to use the notion of “touching” ground through simple favelalike interventions (ramp, stair, wall) to claim space for the public realm of the favela.

figure/ground of Acaba Mundo

50 m

Sample Area

Favela life lacks gradation from public to private spaces. Exterior spaces are either left untouched and therefore entirely public or, as is often the case, they are built up or altered and are understood by the community to be entirely private. This way of treating public and private space is in large part due to the social and economic conditions of the favela. Because favela dwellers lack economic resources, they cannot afford to build sufficient domestic spaces immediately. Instead of building an entire home, favela dwellers build an initial structure and add on as money and materials become available. For this reason the favela does not grow in discreet increments and is never complete. Instead, the favela grows in a piece-meal, indeterminate way. As a family acquires resources to add to their home or if their family grows, they begin to appropriate open space around their home to build on. Favela dwellers rely on exterior spaces as an extension of the home and in many ways they are treated like living rooms. This project proposes a gradation and mixing of public and private spatial typologies at varying degrees and scales depending on their location and size as a form of urban remediation. Current Condition

Proposed Condition

Interior Space: 1127.13 m2 Avg. Area / Inhabitant: 8.9 m2

Dwelling Garden Courtyard Collective

Exterior Space: 1247.73 m2 Avg. Area / Inhabitant: 10.4 m2

50 m

Private

Public

50 m

Plazas Circulation

Ramp_Stair_Wall

Exterior spatial typologies and urban gradation

PUBLIC

PRIVATE

hile this project proposes the importance of maintaining public exterior spaces, it also recognizes that the strategic maintenance of privacy is also very important in the favela. For this reason, this project proposes to phase in courtyard-like spaces that serve the domestic needs of sub-communities within the favela. This series of diagrams shows the transitional phasing from entirely public spaces to the graduated condition.

Ramp_Stair_Wall

Public/ private phasing

PUBLIC-PUBLIC

PUBLIC-PRIVATE-PRIVATE

PUBLIC-PRIVATE

_TERRACES

_WALLS, RAMPS, STAIRS

_PROPOSAL

he minimal interventions that this project proposes prepare the ground for diverse social interaction and also act as the infrastructure for the exterior spacial typologies that this project proposes (gardens, plazas, courtyards, etc.). Walls provide terraced spaces for gardening while ramps act as social gathering spaces. In turn, stairs and ramps act as connective tissue between spatial types.

Social narratives and slight interventions

provides community gathering space

produces shade and fruit

provides place to hang laundry

courtyard

Grove

Terraced gardens

plaza

Grove

gives children a place to play

Flat surface

Terraced gardens

can also be bioswales to help control water runoff

A series of light-handed interventions (ramp, stair, wall) produce a new set of social relationships within the favela in concert with existing conditions. The subtlety and simplicity of these interventions makes it possible for them to be configured and constructed by the local community within their means and lifestyle.

10 m

Ramp_Stair_Wall

Photos courtesy of StudioMARS 44

Studio 3

Mark Stanley)

Studio 3 is a design-build interior renovation. Located in a strip mall typology, the client wanted to re-brand and renovate an already existing dance studio. We developed a logo and color palette that became an exterior sign and paint scheme for the interior. In addition, we designed, fabricated, and installed furniture for the entrance and changing rooms, a new sprung dance floor system, freestanding mirrors, and stretching bars. Fabrication techniques ranged from manual wood and metal work, to digital fabrication methods found in the exterior sign.

Studio 3

A StudioMARS design-build project (Micah Rutenberg and

>>Slight Interventions: A lot with a little design The limitation of scarce resources opens up the possibility to think about how small, tactical design interventions can have greater spatial implications.

This

project takes a similar posture to Ramp_Stair_Wall, capitalizing on efficient moves at the surface of space rather than integral moves to re-align an existing space.

Studio 3

[Lobby] Reception desk and seating area.

<< 47

Studio 3

[Dance studio] Above: Stretching bar fabrication process Left: Finished installation in dance studio

(Micah Rutenberg and Mark Stanley)

tella and Big Boy is an offset smoker fabricated with steel for smoking everything from fish to ribs to whole hogs. Although it is a side project and hobby, we used it to explore the geography of material and making... and of course there is subtext; the currency of political narratives, reclaiming content, and sustainability, to name a few.

Stella and Big Boy

Offset Smoker

Stella and Big Boy

[Pig Roast] Sponsored by Taubman College students, featuring Stella and Big Boy.

My role in the project was to develop the design of the exhibition, further the design of the model, fabricate parts, assemble the model, and aid in the coordination and execution of packaging and shipping the exhibition from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Berkeley, California. Introduction to the project in the words of Robert Adams (Project Director and Designer):

“T

he Asclepius Machine is an exuberantly designed wheelchair accessible ramp and computationally pervasive architecture. The Asclepius Machine is to the 21st century what the arcade was to the 19th century – an animated passage – a civic infrastructure and space capable of producing extreme urban euphoria. In contrast to the passive labor

Asclepius Machine

Collaboration: Exhibition at UC Berkeley

Exhibition photos by Elena Zhukova 56

Asclepius Machine

of 20th century infrastructure designed with a singular understanding of fitness and beauty through frictionless auto-mobile bodies avoiding the more extreme capacities of the human experience, the Asclepius Machine is a complex and interactive environment thriving among human technological and mechanical diversity. Located between the scale of furniture and a pedestrian bridge, the Asclepius Machine animates and extends the operative range of our bodies. If assistive devices such as motorized wheelchairs or white canes for the seeing impaired are mechanical extensions of a sensing body, the Asclepius Machine is a biomechanical hybrid between mechanized bodies and extreme urban environments. Unlike most wheelchair ramps and other accessible forms of infrastructure that perform simply in service to those with so-called special needs, the Asclepius Machine is a performance vehicle that exceeds necessity, and motivates a more robust understanding of how our collective genetic diversity contributes to the vitality of everyday life. â&#x20AC;?

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Frequency Kenneth? The Master of Science in Design Research Exhibition, held in April, 2011 in the Taubman College Gallery, was funded, curated, and constructed by the eight students in the exhibition. The primary goal of the exhibition design was to remove the work from the walls and fill the gallery, creating a labyrinthine space where visitors could come into close contact with the work and experience it in different ways. Aside from the overall exhibition design concept worked on collectively, my role was as part of a team of three in charge of fabricating, assembling, and directing the installation of the hanging panels. The panels are constructed of an MDF frame sandwiched between White Gloss Hardboard panels. They are hung from the ceiling with hooks and Zip Ties. Being funded by the MS_DR class, a big challenge was keeping the budget as low as possible as well as being efficient with materials and labor. The final budget for the entire exhibition was under $500.

MS_DR Exhibition

MS_DR Exhibition, 2011

MS_DR Exhibition

LOCATION_37˚14’N 115˚49’W DATE_NOV 14 TIME_1200h PST

90°

80°

70°

Solar Elevation

60°

50°

0800

40°

30°

20°

0700h

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10° 0500h 60°

2, 2006

NOV 14, 2006

OCT 27, 2006

1300h

1000h

1400h

0900h

1500h

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21 v 21 No c De

1800h

90°

120°

150° E

180°

Solar Azimuth

210° W

240°

270°

Area 51 1/2

1200h

1100h

Agency of the Unknown

oubt and uncertainty is a way of knowing– an internal operable logic that privileges latency and potential. Through doubt and uncertainty we are able to question the status of things; what they appear to be, what they claim to be, and the potential for what they could be. The logic of doubt and uncertainty also questions the routine of seeing through the production of alternative, multiplicitous modes of vision. But the subjectivity of doubt and uncertainty is only in service of knowing its opposite- of knowing the logic of the rational, empirical world, but knowing it through what it might be. In this way, doubt and uncert–ainty become representational of the world, and in many ways a re-rationalization. This thesis, as a personal investigation

1900h

300°

>>Shadows A shadow is a soft form: it does not have a single, static bodily state, but many states. They are conditional; understood relative to a particular way of seeing. Shadows are vicarious. vi.car.i.ous \vī-ˈker-ē-əs, və-\ Occurring in an unexpected or abnormal part of the body instead of the usual one.

_Evidence without proof

_Contents unknown

_In sincere

e anatomy?

Area 51 1/2

asks, on the one hand: How do we produce belief? On the other hand, its disciplinary aspiration is to recapitulate form and meaning through the production of context in the face of a culture that threatens to be devoid of content. But the thesis is optimistic. It positions doubt and uncertainty as a subjectivity, that, through its logic, is capable of producing a spatial experience in which we are motivated to wonder about the latent qualities and potential of space-making.

IN IN SINCERE SINCERE ANATOMY? ANATOMY?

AA FIELD FIELD OF OF FORM FORM WITHOUT WITHOUT CONTENT CONTENT

is is aa question. question. On On its its own, own, the the site site drawing drawing is is formally formally banal. banal. It It rerelies lies on on propinquity propinquity and and other other forms forms (drawings) (drawings) to to give give it it meaning. meaning. It It makes makes me me question question the the sincerity sincerity of of its its formal formal make-up: make-up: why why forms forms belong belong and and what what they they are are up up to. to. This This is is the the struggle struggle of of the the site site plan– plan– the the balance balance of of its its own own agenda agenda against against that that which which it it is is siting, siting, if if it it has has its its own own agenda, agenda, and and whether whether it it rereally ally is is what what it it claims claims to to be. be.

We We are are in in constant constant contact contact with with forms forms whose whose content content are are unknown unknown to to us, us, or or forms forms which which are are simply simply devoid devoid of of content. content. So, So, the the question question at at the the core core of of the the thesis thesis is is why why are are things things there there and and what what are are they they up up to? to? How How can can we we produce produce content? content? We We are are living living in in aa condition condition where where the the raison raison d’être d’être of of objects objects is is ofoften ten hidden. hidden. But, But, As As Ira Ira Glass Glass puts puts it, it, “sometimes “sometimes the the most most exciting exciting thing thing about about these these truths truths is is knowing knowing that that they’re they’re out out there– there– that that the the ananswer swer exists, exists, but but you you don’t don’t know know it.” it.” My My thesis thesis suggests suggests that that we we seek seek opopportunity portunity in in the the face face of of aa field field of of forms forms without without content content to to produce produce content content for for ourselves ourselves and and to to create create context context as as aa way way of of defining defining forms forms for for ourselves. ourselves.

FORM FORM IN SINCERE WITHOU WITHO SOFT

Forms Forms is shadow a question. without without cont On A is aconte sof tached tached drawing from from is static meaning formall meanin no single, ing ing lies is is on situational. situational propinquit many bodily states this this (drawings) thesis thesis to uses uses give a comprehended relat sort sort makes letters’: letters’: me of question lar way seeing its formal make-up cariously. The The ‘last resort le l and ‘last what resort they are vi.car.i.ous \vī-ˈkerries ries the struggle of of letters letters ofwri wr t Occurring in an unexpe nuclear nuclear balance submarines submarines of its ow of the body instead of submarine submarine commander commande that which it is in in itsthe the ownevent event agenda, that that a destroyed destroyed in in it aa nu nu ally is what cl retaliate retaliate or or not. not. ish ish nuclear nuclear submari submar letters letters is is locked locked that that is is locked locked awa aw safe, safe, and and is is only only the the event event of of nuclea nucle new new Prime Prime Minister Ministe hand-write hand-write aa new new l then then destroyed, destroyed, un u the the premiership premiership ch c besides besides the the Prime Prime moment, moment, has has seen seen o ters. ters.

No No one one has has ever ever re r letter, letter, and and yet yet th t message. message. The The actua actu ter, ter, then, then, is is not not but but rather rather the the si si letter letter exists exists in in a message message of of the the let le aa panoptic panoptic moment moment abstract abstract idea idea of of th t the the meaning, meaning, and and th t of of the the letter letter is is un u

Is Is the the letter letter you you aa without without content? content? See See Lars Lars Lerup, Lerup, “Suburban “Suburban Metropolis” Metropolis”

See See Paul Paul Virilio, Virilio, “Dro “Dro Marshall Marshall McLuhan, McLuhan, Message” Message”

Area 51 1/2

OUT UT EFORM ANATOMY? CONTENT CONTENT

A FIELD WHOSE WHOSE OF FORM AGENDA AGENDA WITHOUT IS IS OTHER OTHER CONTENT

FORM WITHOUT CONTENT

ntent ent its are are own, forms forms the site dedeft form– there is ng, g, ly or banal. or whose whose It meanmeanrebodily state, but l. . ty An and An example example other forms that that s. Soft forms are are e are itthe the meaning. ‘last rereIt tive to a‘last particusincerity of g.theThey live vip: why forms belong etters’ are aa seseeletters’ up to.are This is -ē-əs, və-\ the ritten itten site for for plan– British British the ected or abnormal part swn that that agenda instruct instruct against the the f the usual one. er rsiting, about about what what to tohas do do if it and t the the whether homeland homeland it reis is uclear uclearto attack– attack– to to laims be. . On On every every BritBritrine, ine, one one of of these these d away away in in aa safe, safe, way ay inside inside another another y to to be be opened opened in in ear ar attack. attack. Every Every er r is is required required to to letter. letter. They They are are unread, nread, every every time time changes. hanges. No No one, one, e Minister Minister of of the the one one of of these these letlet-

We The Theare models models in are are constant forms forms without without contact content content with forms whose whose agenda whose agendacontent is is other. other. areTheir Their unknown agenda agenda to us, is is to or to forms cast cast which shadows shadows arethat that simply are are devoid then then of seen seen content. in in aa particular particular way. way.

Forms without content are forms detached from meaning, or whose meaning is situational. An example that this thesis uses are the ‘last resort letters’:

read ead one one of of these these they hey have have aa strong strong ual al content content of of letlett what what is is written, written, ituation ituation that that the the and and the the potential potential etter. tter. It It becomes becomes t where where it it is is the the the he letter letter that that is is the he very very existence existence uncertain. ncertain.

This This is is aa possible possible area area for for future future development development of of the the thesis. thesis.

Their Their form is is static, static, but butoftheir their So, theform question at the core the shadows shadowsisare are mobile and and take take on on and didithesis whymobile are things there mensionality mensionality relative to the the envienviwhat are theyrelative up to? to How can we ronment. ronment. So, So, seen seen from from above above at at aa produce content? particular particular moment, moment, the the shadows shadows talk talk about about an elusive elusive form, whereas whereas on on We are an living in aform, condition where the the raison ground, ground, shadows shadows become become is illegillegthe d’être of objects ofible ible and and the the form form As static. static. ten hidden. But, Ira Glass puts it, “sometimes the most exciting Also, Also, about from from above, above,truths cast cast shadows shadows are are thing these is knowing collapsed collapsed with with ground information, information, that they’re out ground there– that the anand and they they begin begin to to mingle. mingle. The The shadshadswer exists, but you don’t know it.” ows, ows, then, then, become become informers informers of of opthe the My thesis suggests that we seek ground ground when when viewed in in of aa particular portunity in viewed the face aparticular ﬁeld of way. way. without content to produce forms content for ourselves and to create Shadows Shadows as begin begin to to be be read read as as forms lines lines context a way of deﬁning drawn drawn on on the the ground, ground, or or as as poch pochShadShadfor ourselves. ows ows considered considered in in this this way way produce produce soft, soft, vicarious vicarious forms. forms.

are are reading reading aa form form

omoscopy” omoscopy” “The “The Medium Medium is is the the

WHOSE A

The ‘last resort letters’ are a series of letters written for British nuclear submarines that instruct the submarine commander about what to do in the event that the homeland is destroyed in a nuclear attack– to retaliate or not. On every British nuclear submarine, one of these letters is locked away in a safe, that is locked away inside another safe, and is only to be opened in the event of nuclear attack. Every new Prime Minister is required to hand-write a new letter. They are then destroyed, unread, every time the premiership changes. No one, besides the Prime Minister of the moment, has seen one of these letters. No one has ever read one of these letter, and yet they have a strong message. The actual content of letter, then, is not what is written, but rather the situation that the letter exists in and the potential message of the letter. It becomes a panoptic moment where it is the abstract idea of the letter that is the meaning, and the very existence of the letter is uncertain.

The models ar whose agenda is to cast seen in a par

Their form shadows are m mensionality ronment. So, particular mo about an elu the ground, ible and the

Also, from ab collapsed wit and they begi ows, then, be ground when v way.

Shadows begin drawn on the g ows considere soft, vicario

This is a po development o

Is the letter you are reading a form without content? See Lars Lerup, “Suburban Metropolis”

See Paul Virilio, “Dromoscopy” Marshall McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message”

[Theoretical territories and projections] The thesis is accompanied by a series of images and leaflets that sit alongside the work like captions or vignettes that communicate theoretical territories, projections, and possible futures of the work. They are succinct provocations whose intention are to make one view the work through different filters and disciplinary paradigms.

Area 51 1/2 Site plan

_projective, that mines for content within the territory of the unknown.

[Speculative site plan] This site plan makes implicit site narratives explicit; it makes invisible conditions visible through representation and capitalizes on the ‘other’ as its core logic. The ‘real’ Area 51 is only accessible via satellite imagery, and even then it is a highly curated vantage point. This is seen as an opportunity to ‘see’ a site as a series of potential phenomena. This thesis argues that the speculative site plan is as ‘real’ and/or as fabricated as the actual Area 51 given that they are mutually embedded within the mythological and culturally fabricated narratives of ‘what we think we see.’ 69

“Sometimes the most exciting thing about truths [unknown] is that they are out there, that the answer exists, but you don’t know it.” -- This American Life

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The imagination is a repertory of what is potential, what is hypothetical, of what does not exist and never existed, and perhaps will never exist but might have existed.â&#x20AC;? -- Italo Calvino

Area 51 1/2

[Mess hall, Area 51 1/2] This thesis proposes to re-purpose the site and its [supposedly] abandoned architecture with a mess hall, Supercow breeding facility and abattoir that serve tourist activity and act as part of a larger network of cattle and meat distribution centers in the region. Mess hall plan

>> Essay published in Dimensions 24,

Amin, Anand, et al, ed., Dimensions, Volume 24, (Ann Arbor: Taubman College, University of Michigan, 2011)

Heart[h] of Dis.course

Winning essay, Saarinen Swanson Essay Competition, 2010

This essay is a humble attempt to give new life to the third floor studios at Taubman College through writing. For those of you that have never had the pleasure of the third floor studio experience, I invite you: When you enter the building on the ground floor, the weight of the institution may be off-putting at first, but please, continue upward to the second floor where the burden dissipates slightly through moments of light and color, or a flickering of student work. The stairs to the third floor are nondescript, only announcing themselves at a few discreet points, and it is at this juncture that many get lost in the sleekness of the media center or banal confusion of classrooms. But onward dear reader for the weight is nearly converted to light: proceed upward again with a clear mind. You are now in the beloved third floor architecture studios of Taubman College: the heart[h] of our school. The studios occupy a space in the shape of a bar wrapped in glass tenuously sitting atop the floors below. Lightness here pervades to the extent that the third floor seems to float above the concrete anchor of the institution below. When you have passed the threshold of the stairwell into the main space of the studios, you will immediately notice the open floor plan sparingly divided by low, modest walls that only rarely succeed in breaking the ceiling plane. The space is continuous, allowing the senses to move freely across its expanse. The fulcrum of the third floor is the primary review space lovingly referred to

as CMYK. It is a corridor that is flanked on one side by faculty offices and a sea of studio desks on the other. Idiosyncratic voids in the disposable surface of the wall shared with faculty offices denote four bays of pin-up space corresponding to CMYK. It is a space of wild occupation; at once a hallway, review space, classroom, meeting room, and workshop. It is an artery connecting all systems of the third floor, and a chamber housing them. Being on the third floor is a unique experience where information literally flows from studio to studio, review to review. On a busy day, the crescendo of a heated discussion in C performs inextricably with a low bass hum in M, mediated by the ethereal pitch of Y, unpredictably punctuated by a crash or sudden static outburst in K. This is the chorus of the third floor: at times chaotic, frustrating, or inhibiting to some, but thrilling and liberating to others. Whatever your take on the flows of a busy day on the third floor might be, whether from the perspective of faculty, staff, student, or other, the fact is, the hub[bub] of the third floor is the heart[h] of this institution. The third floor (especially CMYK) is not the heart[h] of this institution because it is where the studios are, or where we hold reviews. It is the heart[h] because it is the pedagogical center– its form is the latent message of what the institution has to offer that is sincere beyond the objects that we fill it with. For me, that message is dis.course. If discourse is defined as a conversation, or thought communicated through speech, or a course of reasoning from premises to their outcomes, dis. course is situated within this territory while encompassing everything that is the “other”: the realm of possibilities; every path not taken, every tangential line of reasoning, every potential course of action. Dis.course is the gritty, less traveled avenue of discussion; the syncopated messiness of negotiating a critical mass of ideas– resistance to a cleanly sealed, neat argument, and bane of an illusively set course. It is hard to say whether dis.course defines the third floor, or if the third floor defines dis.course, but regardless, the link between dis.course and the third floor, like the audible flows between CMYK, are inextricable. The third floor is messy and unkempt when it is at its best. Desks and credenzas negotiate an economy of proximity to natural light, climate control, and direct access to the power grid, and the floor has a delightful coating of chipboard, foam core, and a pink, powdery residue. Although unsightly at first, the physical messiness is

an illustrative product of a happy interior messiness– the result of productive identity crises, schizophrenias, and thrilling neuroses. To think that even through the clean-house paradigm that digital media and advanced digital modes of fabrication facilitate, that the messiness of dis. course can be a desirable condition is hopeful. It is not that I have a fetish for scrap, or that I am nostalgic for the X-acto knife, but rather the fact that the informality and uncertainty of messy modes of dis.course on the third floor leads me to believe that there is room for a wider degree of tolerances that digital means can’t easily cope with, and that within this space is the potential to produce some of the most interesting and lively discussions. Although the third floor is an immediate example of dis.course, it should not be limited to a particular site, but rather situated within larger pedagogical and disciplinary questions. Architecture schools must contend with responsibilities to the profession as well as accreditation requirements, which at times leads to a tidying up, and tightening up, of the workshop quality of the studio experience. These pressures tend to privilege certain kinds of projects over others to represent the institution in the face of these responsibilities. The kind of project that tends to be on the receiving end of this privilege is the one that advances clarity and certainty at its core. It is not to say that these are anything less than highly admirable qualities, but from my naïve perspective there is a larger institutional issue at stake: that by preferencing this type of project as a measure of success for an institution, we run the risk of undermining sincere dis.course. It is also about a general questioning of clarity and certainty as the only model of logic for the discipline. While desirable on one level, clarity and certainty tend to ignore a whole set of potential lines of discussion. They are facile communicators, but also exclusive and reliant on closed loop logics. Dis. course, on the other hand, uses messiness and uncertainty as a viable logic– the same logic that allows one to imagine the multiple uses of architecture and the possibility of multiple readings. This messiness and uncertainty of dis. course is about a more permissive legibility of architecture– one that has the potential to direct the discipline toward unexpected and unforeseen territories of discussion. It is also a means of exploration and research that unabashedly seeks out the latent qualities and potentials of space. Once sought out,

latency and potential can be brought to the surface, engaging in productive oppositional play with the logics of clarity and uncertainty. Engaging messiness and bringing it to the forefront for its integral role in the discipline of architecture is a method of operating through the agency of dis. course that re-informs the work of the institution; the institution as a place where we seek out the difficult, ill-defined situation and manage or curate it, not through the reductive logic of clarity and certainty, but through playful engagements that prod the foundations of architecture as a way of re-inscribing our knowledge onto the discipline. According to Mark Wigley, schools work hard to hide the fact that at the heart of the discipline is doubt, enigma, and uncertainty. There are varying degrees to which institutions fall into this habit, but here we benefit greatly from the rich moments when doubt, enigma, and uncertainty reveal themselves. We should embrace these exuberant moments not as signs of weakness or sources of concern, but as opportune moments to learn and to teach, and moments that can create genuine dis.course that have the possibility of resonating beyond these walls. They are these moments of exuberance that define this institution and make it uniqueâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; they are these moments that are the fire at the heart[h] of this institution.

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Area 51 1/2

faciality

interiority

extralegality

-logue Introduction The New Aesthetics of Spatial 1 13 42

>> Degrees of Interiority 3 >> Extralegality/ Extraterritoriality 9 >> Membranes of Conductance

Excerpts of fiction and essays: “Nosce Te Ipsum” by Fergus Nicholson “Axolotl” by Julio Cortazar

>> Tattooing 15 >> Surfaces of Inscription 21

“Chuang Tzu” by Herbert Allen Giles >> Thinness 29

“Hiding” by Mark C. Taylor “The Premise of Recombinant Architecture” by Benjamin Bratton

>> Surface over Volume

“The Order of Things” by Michel Foucault >> Arrest 43

>> Body as Membrane-Media S >> Redness 51

>> The Legal Institution of Publ >> The Courthouse 59

l Organization and the Politics of the Iinterior

Stack 49

lic and Private 57

ExtraLegal

faciality

he following images are sample pages from the forthcoming publication â&#x20AC;&#x153;ExtraLegal,â&#x20AC;? which is a projective documentation of my Master of Science in Design Research degree project. The work is a research and making based exploration that reflects on contemporary attitudes toward surface. The publication attempts to forge avenues of investigation and theoretical territories that architecture might engage to advance the way the discipline thinks about surface, skin, envelope, and enclosure. extralegality

ExtraLegal

Migratory Interiors and Spatial Doubles

Interiority

faciality

>>Degrees of Interiority As the notion of a differentiated public and private realm is obliterated by communication and social technologies, the notion of a differentiated interior and exterior is displaced in favor of degrees of interiority. Increasingly our Each of these formats is an extension of our interior self to a varying degree. Where walls once held the border between privacy/ interior and public/ exterior we can instead think of them as thresholds from one interior to the next.

pre dev ope We not to ext is b con

Thi art her Spa an rea dep con Ho pai kin

interior self (identity, self-image) is proliferated through more and more media formats.

extralegality

ronically it seems to often be the case that the interior is ignored in favor of the exuberant expression of the façade or exterior of the building. Architecture has become thin in this sense- it is seen as a shell, an envelope, an enclosure… architecture has become all face and no guts. But trends in technology and sociocultural trends would actually suggest that focusing so heavily on the exterior as architects tend to do is a failure on our part to see that the surface is no longer superficial- rather, the surface is actually an interior itself. What I mean to say is that there are different levels of interiority and that in reality ‘exteriority’ doesn’t exist. Obviously we still need the term, but only rhetorically as a means of understanding relatively what we speak of spatially, but effectively any sense of the ‘exterior’ or notions of envelope are overcome by the

interiority

The inte her is a inte

The the pai and wit sim the

ExtraLegal interiority

edominance of mechanical devices that operate through internalization; vices that that are networked into a larger technological apparatus, erating through modes of capture, registration, and dissemination. e can call these devices cameras and they are not contingent on any tion of the outside, but rather on the interiority of the scene. If we are return to ‘façade’ as a spatial idea, it is not by necessity a concept of teriority at all, but rather of surface directed toward a viewer, and what behind that surface directed at the viewer is only of consequence as a ntinuation of ‘this’ interior behind which we are bound to find another.

>>Embedded Interiors From the undifferentiated public and private realm, and the favoring of degrees of interiority, the notion of architecture as a series of embedded interiors allows the architect to engage forms of spatial governance in a new way.

ink of the painting ‘Las Meninas’ by Diego de Velazquez in which the tist paints himself in a scene that depicts the princess surrounded by r caretakers, and in which we see in an image of the King and Queen of ain reflected in a mirror on the back wall. The painting not only captures image, but it captures (and produces) a series of interiors that are both al and virtual. The most explicit interior is that of the paiting itself that picts the interior in some room of the royal residents and this depiction ntains its own explicit qualities that can be enumerated and discussed. owever, with the viewer as an active participant in the creation of the inting, the painting begins to structure the appropriation of different nds of interiors.

Embedded interiors follows ‘degrees of interiority’ in suggesting that technology (especially media) allows interiority to extend outward and begin to connect with other interiors producing networks that house themselves within one another. Reality television and predator drones are emblematic of this condition. In the case of reality television one’s

e space of the museum gets appropriated by the painting as an extended erior- ‘outside’ the painting is obliterated by the fact the viewer him or rself falls within the visual organization of the painting such that there a convergence between the interior that the viewer occupies and the erior depicted in the painting.

‘private’ life (interior) is projected into the homes of others, casting the tv screen as a threshold that embeds one interior into another.

e interiors of the painting are further proliferated by the complication of e mirror that reflects the King and Queen of Spain on the back wall. If the inting is reflecting the King and Queen, then the viewer is also the King d Queen and the viewer is occupying the royal residents and resides thin the scene itself such that the space that the viewer occupies is multaneously the museum and the royal residence. But the viewer, in e act of viewing as becoming a completion of the painting becomes

Existing within limits ﬁgured as spatial; belonging to the inner relations or intrinsic nature of anything Internal, domestic Inner, as distinct from what appears on the surface or is publicly declared Belonging to or existing in the mind or soul; mental or spiritual, as distinguished from that which is bodily; ‘inward’*

>>Degrees of Interiority >>Surfacing >>Faciality 4

* Deﬁnition of Interior from The Oxford English Dictionary

interiority

extralegality

>>Surfaces of Inscription The latent potential of the surface is as a container rather than containing; it becomes a surface of inscription in which information and content is embedded. Surface becomes autonomous rather than acting as an expression of that which lies beneath.

[METHODOLOGY: INSCRIBING THE S

Idaho potato inscribed with black ink using prison-sty The surface gets worked as the locus of the objectâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; as the site of a spatial m re-maps the object based not on its volumetric or geometric qualities, but thing being a surface. Inscribing the surface is an act of re-defining the objec

ExtraLegal faciality

>>REDNESS The red [velvet] that provides a backdrop for the research is about setting a stage and providing material context that taps into other territories and other networks of inquiry. Red is the reformulation of the stripes on the Amercian ďŹ&#x201A;ag that sits directly behind a judge in a courtroom, and the redness of the velvet curtain in a movie theater, or redness as a rupture...that this material can hook into other things providing an out from the closing off of the courthouse as an institution... [Jason Young interjects: ...or even that as a model; here in the culture of the third ďŹ&#x201A;oor, trying to push that beyond the status it would get almost automatically get as a model].

SURFACE]

yle tattoo gun. meander that based on the ct via surface.

88 55

faciality

interiority

ExtraLegal faciality

The jig works on multiple levels. Its outer edges document the timebased televisual mappings and result in a virtual mediatic massing of the courthouse interior. Additionally, it produces a second (doubled) interior as the mass of the jig intersects with and mutually produces the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;migratory spatial doubleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (folded aluminum surface). The jig works functionally as a jig or template, and conceptually as a mutually constructed interior. In this way it begins to oscillate between the world of jigs, models, and representational space; between the world of temporary, disposable, migratory extralegal space, and durable institutional space.

interiority

extralegality

[FOLDING JIG]

<< 56

MICAH RUTENBERG 1523 1/2 Allesandro St. > Los Angeles, CA 90026 E-mail: micahruts@gmail.com > Phone: 734.834.7722

EDUCATION The University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI

Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning 2010- 2011

Master of Science, Design Research Advisor: Jason Young

2008- 2010

Master of Architecture Thesis advisor: Neal Robinson

2002- 2006

Bachelor of Science, Architecture Graduated with University Honors

EDUCATION ABROAD 2009 [Fall]

Florence Travel Studio

Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

Graduate semester study abroad With Prof. Neal Robinson 2009 [Spring]

Barcelona Travel Studio

Barcelona, Spain

Graduate summer study abroad With Prof. Craig Borum 2006 [Spring]

Beijing Architecture Studio Enterprise [B.A.S.E.]

Beijing, China

Undergraduate summer study abroad â&#x20AC;&#x153;Double Exportâ&#x20AC;? Design Studio with Prof. Robert Adams 2004 [Winter]

University of Barcelona

Department of Hispanic Studies Undergraduate semester study abroad

Barcelona, Spain

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2011- Ongoing

StudioMARS

Co-founding partner Collaborations: with Robert Adams; The Asclepius Machine [research, making, exhibition design] with YARD; Single family home re-model [design-build] Projects: Studio 3 Performing Arts and Dance Center [design-build] MiesMAX [design-build; in process] 2008- 2009

Studio Caj.e

Research assistant PASSAGEWAYS/Portes et Passages du Retour [artist community in Senegal] Dwell Magazine project submission [closet design]

Ann Arbor, MI

2007

Corea Moran Arquitectura

2006- 2007

Actar Arquitectura

Barcelona, Spain

Freelance AVE, Barcelona high speed train station [design competition, 2nd place] Intern ArboCentre; “Multiple dwelling” for 3 sites in France [design competition] Casa Atmella [single family home]

2005

Marcelo Villafañe, Architect

Rosario, Argentina

Intern Casa Antoniz [single family home]

TEACHING 2011 [Summer]

Teaching Assistant

2010 [Fall]

Graduate Student Instructor

Ann Arbor, MI

Arch 302: Undergraduate transfer studio Arch 218: Visual Studies Professor: Dawn Gilpin

2007

Construint a la Sala [Building in the Classroom]

A one day workshop to educate children in architecture and design

PUBLICATIONS 2011

“Heart[h] of Dis.course”

in Amin, Anand, et al, ed., Dimensions, Volume 24 (Ann Arbor: Taubman College, University of Michigan, 2011) 2010

“Stella the Offset Smoker”

in Cooper, Bradley, et al, ed., &, Volume 3 (Ann Arbor: Taubman College, University of Michigan, 2010) 2010

“Slim Jim Stands, Still”

in Stanley, Mark, et al, ed., &, Volume 2 (Ann Arbor: Taubman College, University of Michigan, 2010)

WORK EXHIBITED 2011

MS_DR Exhibition 2011: What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? Taubman College gallery Project: Extralegal_Migratory Interiors and Spatial Doublings

2009

Taubman College Annual Student Show Taubman College gallery Project: Media_8

Barcelona, Spain

HONORS AND AWARDS 2011

Master of Science Student Award

Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning 2010

Saarinen Swanson Essay Competition Award Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning Essay title: Heart[h] of Dis.course

2008-2010

White Fellowship

Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning Departmental scholarship 2004- 2006

Binda Merit Scholar

Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning Merit scholarship for academic excellence 2006

Wallenberg Studio Award and Travel Scholarship

Wallenberg Competition Studio Project: PlastiCity_foregone memories and neologistic typologies Instructor: Prof. Dawn Gilpin

INVITED CRITIC 2011 [Fall]

Woodbury University

Final Reviews; 1A Design Studio, Design Communication 1 2011 [Winter]

University of Michigan

Final Reviews; Arch 218: Visual Studies Mid Reviews; UG2 Design Studio, Arch 218: Visual Studies 2010 [Fall]

Final Reviews; Arch 202: Graphic Communication Mid Reviews; Thesis Studio, 2G1 Design Studio, UG1 Design Studio

Bowling Green State University Final Reviews; Jr. Design Studio 2010 [Winter]

University of Michigan

Final Reviews; Arch 202: Graphic Communication, Arch 218: Visual Studies