John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

has been argued that objects have no stable meanings other than those they get
from their users (Krippendorff, 1995). Therefore, these developments
collectively reframe the relationship between objects, their makers and their
audiences throughout a designed object’s life cycle - at conception, production
and during their consumption. A systematic means of identifying where in this
cycle computer-based design and fabrication tools impact on this process would
perhaps make a significant contribution to a greater understanding of objects
produced across subject domains.
Practitioners have been making objects that exploit the unique capabilities of
computer-based design and fabrication tools and this presents an opportunity to
reframe the activities, methods and knowledge of the makers that produced
them. Contemporary designers are paying more attention to the relationship
between objects and their users beyond only those aspects that are purely
ergonomic or functional. In this way designed objects can provide a
commentary on consumer culture that provokes reflection on cultural values
(Dunne, 1999) or that integrate art, technology, design, entertainment, and
popular culture (Kusahara, 2006). These practitioners are engaging with new
sets of technologically driven, creative, cultural and economic conditions. There
are increasing examples of practitioners that are looking beyond standard
means of production to what has been termed ‘post-optimal design’ that
explores the deeper metaphysical dimensions of objects and experiences
(Chapman, 2005). These practitioners are not only challenging their own
practice but also offering a more extensive conception of production and the
politics consumption.
Computer-based design and fabrication tools have rapidly become ubiquitous in
contemporary architectural practice and the discourse around these tools is
more developed in architecture than in other disciplines. However,
contemporary architectural practitioners that make use of new scientific
developments in artificial intelligence and evolutionary computation have been
criticised from within their own discipline for making use of ideas and processes
borrowed from nonarchitectural disciplines (Gwilt, 2006). The ability to
generate construction information directly from design information has
fundamentally changed the production of buildings. The computer is being
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