1c_"Potential Performative Effects"-Ali Rahim

In many ways keeping with the recent class discussion of “perversion”, Ali Rahim’s article describes a hybrid investigative process involving the inherent distortion of lineage and the theme du semestre of emergence. Both involve the conceptualization of temporal context as an essential (and inevitable) force.

The article seems to recall our class debate on form-finding versus assembling when Rahim writes:

“Our intention in architectural projects is to actualise virtualities contained within the matrices of the software that fully exploit its potential to produce new effects, which modify behaviours and performances.”

The text then promotes the “continuous feedback loop” of evolution, discovery, and learning found in contemporary digital processes. I had thought these were the fundamental characteristics of any living, engaged endeavor. After this first reading, I continue to wonder how this description is new or innovative, compared to the traditional method of drawing and gluing models together, only the designer is able to manipulate an incredibly complex set of points and data at once.

Formally, however, the work produced is seductive, and shouldn’t that be the end-all be-all? For all the description of his concept of “actualisation”, and especially the intricacies of nonisotropic composite materials, Rashid strongest point may be incredibly simple yet strikingly powerful: Just because you can, you can.


UPDATE: Rereading the description of their process for the Residence in Islamabad, I re-realized that the notion of emergence involves data-sorting and learning. This is editing, and editing is very quickly on its way to craft, which is the critical human component to any endeavor. Though there is a strong bias initially on randomness and chance, in many ways Rahim describes the creative architectural process in any capacity.