Loving and hating Christopher Alexander

April 16, 2009 | Comments (2) |
On Wednesday night, I gave a talk at "The Influencers" lecture -- as part of the dotdotdot lecture series sponsored by the SVA's Interaction Design MFA program. I talked about Christopher Alexander -- how interaction designers and computer scientists love him but architects hate him. I also included some research I'm doing that links Alexander's early work to early artificial intelligence. My presentation is below, but the PDF version has my notes (you'll want them for the middle of the presentation, when I describe Notes on the Synthesis of Form & A Pattern Language).

Thank you so much to Liz Danzico, chair of the SVA's Interaction Design MFA and her team for inviting me, and the other excellent speakers: Allegra Burnette, Steven Heller and Jason Santa Maria for a stimulating and fun evening.

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2 Comments

June Kim said:

Hello.

I am a big fan of CA and leading a study group for Nature of Order. I am from the computer side.

I recently visited Eishin School, which CA built in the mid-1980s. It was fascinating. How about you? What do you think about his real works?

Thank you for the informative slides and notes. I didn't see the clear connection between CA and AI.

I requested for your twitter updates. I want to know more about your research.

Tor Hershman said:

I know his first name is a pile of CULTural carp but, a rose by - and all of that.

Ohhhhh, he could change it.....Tor Alexander, now that IS a name!

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What is Active Social Plastic?

Active Social Plastic takes on cultural ephemera, turning its lens to architecture, urbanism, design, interaction, landscape, music and literature, among other leanings.

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It's Molly Wright Steenson's project. She is completing a Ph.D. in architecture at Princeton University. She is also an interaction designer and design researcher with roots in web, mobile and service design.