ann arbor MICHIGAN

University of Michigan
Critic: Viola AGO & Jeff HALSTEAD

Over the first weekend in March, Viola Ago and Jeff Halstead ran the University of Michigan’s first Drawing Hackathon. The workshop took place in tandem with the Taubman College Gallery opening of “Drawing Codes: Experimental Protocols of Architectural Representation” curated by the California College of the Arts’ Andrew Kudless and Adam Marcus. Expanding on the exhibition’s question, “how do emerging technologies of design and production open up new ways to engage with traditional practices of architectural drawing?”, the Hackathon Workshop questioned if/how we can use code as a formal catalyst in generative drawing practices.

The event itself was formatted as a collective experiment in the productive misuse and reappropriation of tools, techniques and softwares foreign to conventional representational processes. Students “hacked” programs and techniques designed for utilitarian applications including digital fabrication, photogrammetry, algorithmic modeling, and graphic design over the course of three exercises. 12 students produced a 25” x 25” drawing each that explored the use of data sets, imaging technologies, typical annotation, and numerical code as drawing devices.

Student Participants:
Delaney MCCRANEY, Gayatri MURLIDHAR, Shahin GHAEMIAN, Ryan WANG, Elizabeth FELTZ, Chao DENG, Kalin NGO, Karina HERNANDEZ, Yanhao LIU, Jiasun WEI, Sigen CHEN, and Victoria YU.