Introduction

This chapter presents an exploration of design theories beginning at California College of the Arts under the direction of Mitchell Schwarzer and at University of California Berkeley during 2002–2004 with Jean-Pierre Protzen, Dr. Eleanor Rosch, Ken Goldberg and Anthony Burke. By the mid-1990s new methods of digital imaging, as well as technologically derived media, supported a more diverse means of expression for architects. Computational modeling techniques, e.g. scripting and simulations, adopted from the sciences, further contributed to an unprecedented dematerialization of the architectural image-object. Architectural expression (of which the image is an important part) is not limited to one definition; it exists as a complexity. From this perspective, it also seems necessary to constitute a notion of a complexity formulated on performatives.