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Machinic Protocols is a computational drawing investigation focused on architecture and computational art installations.
In a time where society and culture are undergoing radical shifts, and due to the inevitable advancement of technology and its forceful intrusion within our lives, the research presented here uses drawing, a creative practice known to all as a tool to explore and understand questions that can be intimidating to some, and exciting to others:
What is the status of our relationship to technology today, and how can it enrich our practices, beyond optimization and efficiency? In a process involving both humans and machines, what are the limits of their respective roles?
Machinic Protocols gathers experiments that have been developed by numerous contributors ranging from the fields of computational drawing, to architecture, arts and design. They have been produced by different means including people, robots, computers, and even by forces of nature. The experiments have come in the form of computational art installations, collective interventions, exhibitions or publications.
Despite the differences of how they are made, the final form of these drawings can never be anticipated, they are therefore all unreproducible or unique. However, in their finality, all the drawings are no more than the traces of an automated process. The real intention of this work surpasses the act of drawing; it is about developing an attitude towards creation where one designs and relies on a process rather than envisaging an outcome.
Machinic Protocols is an investigation directed by Edouard Cabay and initiated at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Barcelona. It contains works that were exhibited around the world, as results of projects, art residencies, workshops and also experimentation with universities.