ABSTRACT
Depth in an architectural drawing is regulated through techniques of projection. The representation of depth is regulated by disciplinary values that seek to establish and maintain the legitimacy of architectural practice; it has always been bureaucratic. For architectural representation, depth is a much stranger question than one that can be reduced and resolved by a simple dichotomy. It reflects conceptual and aesthetic provocations that continually negotiate disciplinary boundaries. Digital images are like painting in that they consist of a “marked medium” rather than “lines on a ground,” only the marks are now electromagnetic pulses. Since a digital image is simply an array of scanned electromagnetic energy, any point in the environment scanned twice from slightly different positions can be assigned a three-dimensional location in space. The measurement of depth is resolved through technologies that scan the energetic information of the environment.
