Technological latency : from autoplastic to alloplastic

Abstract

Digital technologies can bring about a paradigm shift in architecture that reflects the ongoing cultural adaptation of society to an electronic environment. To achieve this we must consider current technical developments in psychological as much as technical terms. The concept of 'trauma' is important: it refers not to a strategic dis/re-orientation, but to a suspension of the possibility of orientation. The paper speculates on the relations of trauma to the patterns of creativity propagated by digital technology, in order to counter the re-incorporation of electronic technologies within traditional ideological frameworks. One might characterise this as a shift from an autoplastic (a self-determinate operative strategy) to an alloplastic (a reciprocal environmental modification) mode of operation. Three projects are described. The Pallas House project hints at new possibilities of numeric craft and decoration. In Aegis the surface deforms according to stimuli captured from the environment, which may be selectively deployed as active or passive sensors. The Paramorph is imagined as a series of tessellated aluminium surfaces which act as host to interactive sound sculpture, sound deployed in response to the passage of people moving through the form.