The Media Studies programme provides a wide range of courses that explore various methods in the production of design, covering fabrication, visualisation and information techniques. The studio-based courses offered by the department are intended to both complement and act independently from undergraduate units providing students with an opportunity to explore the possibilities of available media within an integrated curriculum, and to materialise and reinvent their design approach in architecture. This year’s courses range from digital information processing, video, photography and drawing to rapid prototyping. In addition to studio-led courses the department also administers digital skills-based courses focusing on major applications to help students quickly and effectively learn contemporary tools and develop their architectural ambitions.
While Media Studies are a compulsory part of the curriculum in the First Year and Intermediate School, the programme draws the participation of students from across the entire AA. This widespread integration of students from a highly diverse set of backgrounds allows for a participative discussion through production techniques. Beyond the studio courses provided by Media Studies, the department also offers workshops that quickly introduce students to contemporary applications and fabrication techniques to reinforce and inspire their conceptualisation process in architectural design. The department is composed of staff from a wide range of expertise, from architecture to the arts and technology. This diversity allows for a comprehensive and established collection of courses that helps to equip students with vital skills relevant to contemporary means of production in architecture.
Department Head
Eugene Han
Department Staff – Core
Charles Arsène-Henry
Shany Barath
Sue Barr
Valentin Bontjes Van Beek
Shin Egashira
Elif Erdine
Trevor Flynn
Anderson Inge
Max Kahlen
Alex Kaiser
Tobias Klein
Immanuel Koh
Heather Lyons
Antoni Malinowski
Marlie Mul
Joel Newman
Goswin Schwendinger
Department Staff – Lab
Ran Ankory
Christina Doumpioti
Chris Dunn
Andres Harris
Pavel Hladik
Joshua Newman
Edgar Payan Pacheco
Scanned Space
Autumn 2012
The course is interested in computer-vision as a means of exploring new architectural forms by implementing the work with the aid of computational techniques. This term students would use X-Box’s Kinect sensor to extract ‘live’ physical data and embedding these as digitally scanned architectural geometries. Processing’s rich algorithmic and graphical capabilities would be utilized to allow direct application to students’ ongoing unit projects.