This book offers a novel perspective on contemporary architecture, exploring its position in mediatization, attained through technological apparatuses. It introduces the novel concepts of apparatus-centricity and mediatization of architecture, which have significant disciplinary and cultural ramifications.

Highlighting key technological and theoretical developments, the book’s narrative traces the transformation of architecture from the modernist era to the present, digital age. En route, it reflects on how architecture becomes a crucial element of shifting dispositives through its confluence with technologies of aestheticization and virtualization, and by emblematizing ecological ideals. It also illuminates the reconfiguring of architectural practice through examining surprising interactions and analogies between architecture and music, whose developments in notation and codification continually change the relationship between composer and performer. The book explores how architecture is reshaped by broader theory and practice in media and ultimately serves as a cognitive agent. It underscores that architecture profoundly influences our phantasmagoric, image-driven affective world through its increasingly apparatus-centric approach to conception, design, production, and mediatization.

Architecture in the Age of Mediatizing Technologies brings into focus the behavior of architecture in mediatization for researchers and advanced students in architectural design, theory, and history. As an investigation into the interdisciplinary impact of architecture in a mediatized culture at large, it also provides a valuable resource for cultural and media studies.@en

Tracing fast nanopore-translocating analytes requires a high-frequency measurement system that warrants a temporal resolution better than 1 µs. This constraint may practically shift the challenge from increasing the sampling bandwidth to dealing with the rapidly growing noise with frequencies typically above 10 kHz, potentially making it still uncertain if all translocation events are unambiguously captured. Here, a numerical simulation model is presented as an alternative to discern translocation events with different experimental settings including pore dimension, bias voltage, the charge state of the analyte, salt concentration, and electrolyte viscosity. The model allows for simultaneous analysis of forces exerting on a large analyte cohort along their individual trajectories; these forces are responsible for the analyte movement leading eventually to the nanopore translocation. Through tracing the analyte trajectories, the Brownian force is found to dominate the analyte movement in electrolytes until the last moment at which the electroosmotic force determines the final translocation act. The mean dwell time of analytes mimicking streptavidin decreases from ≈6 to ≈1 µs with increasing the bias voltage from ±100 to ±500 mV. The simulated translocation events qualitatively agree with the experimental data with streptavidin. The simulation model is also helpful for the design of new solid-state nanopore sensors.

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We present results from the first 22 GHz space very long baseline interferometric (VLBI) imaging observations of M87 by RadioAstron. As a part of the Nearby AGN Key Science Program, the source was observed in 2014 February at 22 GHz with 21 ground stations, reaching projected (u, v) spacings up to ∼11 Gλ. The imaging experiment was complemented by snapshot RadioAstron data of M87 obtained during 2013-2016 from the AGN Survey Key Science Program. Their longest baselines extend up to ∼25 Gλ. For all of these measurements, fringes are detected only up to ∼2.8 Earth diameter or ∼3 Gλ baseline lengths, resulting in a new image with angular resolution of ∼150 μas or ∼20 Schwarzschild radii spatial resolution. The new image not only shows edge-brightened jet and counterjet structures down to submilliarcsecond scales but also clearly resolves the VLBI core region. While the overall size of the core is comparable to those reported in the literature, the ground-space fringe detection and slightly superresolved RadioAstron image suggest the presence of substructures in the nucleus, whose minimum brightness temperature exceeds T B , min ∼ 10 12 K. It is challenging to explain the origin of this record-high T B , min value for M87 by pure Doppler boosting effect with a simple conical jet geometry and known jet speed. Therefore, this can be evidence for more extreme Doppler boosting due to a blazar-like small jet viewing angle or highly efficient particle acceleration processes occurring already at the base of the outflow.

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The electrical properties of a single facet of an individual ZnO microwire were investigated. Electrode patterns with a Hall bar structure were deposited on the surface of the top facet of the ZnO microwire. Using a suspended and cross-linked poly(methyl methacrylate) ribbon structure, it was possible to define the electrical connections only at the top surface, while avoiding those on the other five sides of the ZnO microwire. Current-voltage characteristics were examined, and Hall measurements were conducted with various magnetic fields. Through our device structure, the electrical properties could be directly probed at specific points on the ZnO surface in a reliable manner. The estimated electrical characteristics demonstrate that the carrier concentration and mobility of the ZnO surface varied along the axial direction of the wire. These results indicate that the charge carrier concentration on the surface of the micro-/nanowire can be sensitively changed according to the synthesis environment. In addition, it is worth noting that the nanoscale local Hall probes, fabricated by our technique, could probe the very slight variation of carrier concentration, which is difficult to detect by a standard transport measurement along the wire.

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In this study, high-performance few-layered ReS₂ field-effect transistors (FETs), fabricated with hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as top/bottom dual gate dielectrics, are presented. The performance of h-BN dual gated ReS₂ FET having a trade-off of performance parameters is optimized using a compact model from analytical choice maps, which consists of three regions with different electrical characteristics. The bottom h-BN dielectric has almost no defects and provides a physical distance between the traps in the SiO₂ and the carriers in the ReS₂ channel. Using a compact analyzing model and structural advantages, an excellent and optimized performance is introduced consisting of h-BN dual-gated ReS₂ with a high mobility of 46.1 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, a high current on/off ratio of ≈10⁶, a subthreshold swing of 2.7 V dec⁻¹, and a low effective interface trap density (N_t,eff) of 7.85 × 10¹⁰ cm⁻² eV⁻¹ at a small operating voltage (<3 V). These phenomena are demonstrated through not only a fundamental current–voltage analysis, but also technology computer aided design simulations, time-dependent current, and low-frequency noise analysis. In addition, a simple method is introduced to extract the interlayer resistance of ReS₂ channel through Y-function method as a function of constant top gate bias.

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Apparatus and apparatisation, the focus of the Cyber-Physical Architecture (CpA) issue #2 of SPOOL, refer to an assemblage of various components, tools, and instruments that in combination produce an exponential surplus beyond the linear sum of parts. On the one hand, apparatus can be seen as a collective of means used to perform certain tasks in order to solve a range of problems. It can contain a series of tools and instruments and produce new rationalities that often translate into pervasive technology, such as, for instance, electricity and, today, Information and Communication Technology (ICT). On the other hand, apparatuses can be found in organisations and institutions that deal with various aspects of a society. For example, the police apparatus, of which rationalities are – rather than being embodied in physical technics – codified in written statutes. The apparatus in this sense is a collection of performative concepts that the subjective members of the apparatus execute in order to serve policies and plans.@en

This paper discusses by way of the authors' recent projects how improvised live dance performance, architectonic composition, and sensing technology converge and inform new opportunities in architectural experimentation. We first lay out the theoretical basis of technology in architectural experimentation in "new rationalities" of technologically augmented aesthetic work. We then briefly describe two projects, X-Change Room and RaumSubsTANZ and the motives behind them. X-Change Room deals with /non-verbal/ ambient display of information and interaction through envelope threshold. RaumSubsTANZ, a short interactive dance composition that highlights the ephemerality of architectural composition augmented by interaction devices. Through the two small projects we attempt to explore a specific technological milieu and reflect on the potentials and challenges of experimentation in architectural composition. The paper presents design methods and techniques that incorporate theories of perception and semiotics by way of an umbrella concept, "ambient displays" and interactive composition. Ultimately, we explore non-verbal communication and theatrical performance as architectural informant that augments semiosis and cognition that pertains to the role of technology at the intersection of primordial senses, cerebral technology, and place-making.@en

In this chapter, I hypothesize “performance-criticality” as a keystone that conjoins technological advances, environmental sustainability, and culturally conducive aesthetics. I first explore how architecture should exemplify the causalities of performance: the congruity in materiality, construction, efficiency, and purpose. I then explore what performance-criticality means to aesthetic qualifications of architecture. On the flip side, I will also critique “performance-redundancy” in architecture that no longer appears tenable. In the end, I tackle how the concept of performance-criticality should conflate technology and aesthetics in equal measure toward culturally situated purposiveness. Digital modeling and imaging technologies since the 1990s have greatly enhanced the conception, design, and production of architectural work in precision and quality, as well as the performance of buildings. They enable experimental work previously considered impractical and/or technically impossible. As significantly, virtualization enabled by such technologies brings into question the role of architecture as embodiment of idea, expression, and meaning in contrast to the historically privileged position of culture as milieu that shapes subjectivity. Relentless commodification of digital formalism has also come to problematize architectural work by fabricating and valorizing the allure of image-making rather than tangible purpose in actualization. Aestheticized technologies and technologized aesthetics have been explored independently for decades. Architects frequently treat such conjunction in analogical as well as stylizing ways. In the so-called “green” architecture, the discord between technological innovation, conservation and aesthetics appears especially acute. One can hardly ignore the branding headlines pitching green-something – both literally and figuratively – as the hallmark of “sustainability.” However, whether such iconized, image-driven pitches live up to the claim of environmental responsibility and sustainability often proves tenuous. We should clearly identify what “sustainability” actually means: the unity of efficiency, durability, and conservation practiced in a culturally productive way that we can maintain and continue into the foreseeable future, ideally forever. Against such a backdrop, this chapter hypothesizes “performance-criticality” as a key concept in the discourse of material human culture and its sustainability: how to maximize performance with minimal resource load employing efficient technics, and in a culturally constructive way. Technological measures alone cannot mitigate our environmental problems stemming from our worldview and so-called lifestyle. It is a question of aesthetic choice. We may speak of how effectively various bits and pieces of technologies (e.g. photovoltaics, wind-turbines, geothermal, passive house, advanced composites and alloys, etc.) increase the performance of architecture in consideration of dwindling resources. But we must also address cultural and aesthetic appropriations that eventually determine the distribution and scope of use. Ultimately, the battle unfolds at the cultural front that is essentially aesthetic. We may ask: Does form indeed follow emotion as Hartmut Esslinger once declared? Does emotion override utility? Or should utility outweigh emotion? How does technology contribute to aesthetic sublime? Is the aesthetics of a given material culture fundamentally symptomatic of its architecture and the human-centric environment? Has architecture indeed become an operative of the cognitive capitalism and noopolitics? This chapter is dedicated to the discourse of architectural and environmental aesthetics in how we employ what kind of materials and technics for what purpose in human-specific ecologies. Performance-critical architecture no longer represents a category separate from aesthetic qualifications. Architecture as a part of human ecology articulates the necessity to maximize materials and techniques in a purposive way. Such architecture provides a compelling aesthetic position that arises from performance-criticality.@en

This paper focuses on the conception and design of architecture as the work of producing media about buildings and other environmental artifacts. I approach the questions regarding simplicity and complexity through "interdependence" and "intermodality." I believe the two concepts offer more precise frames of relations and contexts involving simplicity and complexity. I will first discuss the complexity as a condition of interdependences and how today's interdependences may provide a framework to understand complexity. I will then propose that intermodality adds to interdependence a notion that specifically pertains to today's media-driven culture and its complexity. I will next discuss how dependences and modalities are interconnected at various levels and eventually producing a new kind of semiosis that results from the disjunction between the medium and the content. I will in conclusion propose a new concept "apparatization" driven by interdependence and intermodality and how it changes shape and remain fluid, rather than scaling between simplicity and complexity, without a specific physical locus.@en

A work of architecture occupies a delicate position between functional performance and production of certain meaning and experience. The design of architecture becomes stifling when an architects attempts to harmonize the two facets. Modernist architects argued that a building should express materiality and assemblage in the most direct, “honest” way without embellishment. This view suggests that architecture should be designed so as to demonstrate the logic and efficiency of materials and assembly, the techné as embodiment of Aristotelian causalities. Postmodernist architects insisted that a building consists of “signs” that are applied to functionally generic structure. This view suggests that the meaning of architecture depends on the cultural context and architecture must augment the legitimacy of the given cultural discourse. As such, architecture may be made to express many different meanings while the fundamental technics remain the same in each instance. In this poster, I will describe a tectonic-indexical approach to the design of architecture. I will first approach Peirce’s triadic sign system (icon, symbol and index) and its application to architecture. Next, I will discuss and link together indexicality, extra-somatic construct and tectonic aggregation in the context of architectural semiosis. In the process, I will argue for the view of architectural work as “instantiation” of semiotic assemblage that is driven by the intimate combination of tactility and algorithmic abstraction that epitomizes today’s apparatus-centric semiosis. In the process, I will demonstrate how architecture can be designed in a symbiosis of tactile and visual composition specific to the tooling and assembly of materials and forms, and how such construct opens up to new potentialities of producing meaning in architecture. I will conclude the paper with a speculation of a new environmental criticality. On a larger context, I foresee the post-human semiotic architectural composition in which material ontologies of human-specific culture take a new turn.@en

With the work-in-progress research project ColorTracker we explore color as a formal design tool. This project-based paper describes a novel software application that processes color composition of a place and transcribes the data into three-dimensional geometries for architectural design. The research comprises two parallel trajectories: a theoretical survey and the software application design. The theoretical survey presents the historical background of color. The project-based research seeks to develop digital methods and techniques that analyze the color compositions of the environment. Subsequently the objective is a novel application software for smart mobile devices in order to demonstrate the potentials of examining the color composition and chromatic parameters of a given environment and how it can contribute to the design.@en

Perceptual Automaton (PA) challenges and disrupts human subjectivity. It attempts to reform architecture that has been for millennia centered on the authority of human subjectivity driven by the whims of architect-personalities. It more crucially interrogates the role of architecture as the material manifestation of human-specific dispositifs and provides a glimpse of posthuman ecology1 where architecture may transcend the vagaries of human body.@en