We thought we should make a quick plug to anyone who is free Thursday - Saturday, February 9-11.  Yale is holding a symposium on the crisis of drawing and its place in architecture.  Part of the draw for us is the poster, designed by Pentagram.  From their website, "Pentagram’s Michael Bierut and Yve Ludwig have designed a poster for the event using the simple design parameters of the series of posters we’ve designed for Yale since 1998: black, white and type. Here, a broken pencil takes the form of a “Y.” And yes, the poster was originally conceived with a hand-drawn sketch"

There are some fantastic speakers/panels, and worth checking out if you are within a reasonable distance to travel by car, rail, bike, boat or jet pack.  If there are any students who are planning to attend, and need a place to stay, please let us know, and we'll find a place in one of our homes.  

We'd also like to know what your thoughts are on this topic - Is drawing dead?  Is it in a moment of crisis?  Or a point of evolution?

See below for an abridged description, and follow the link for the line-up :

Is Drawing Dead?

Thursday–Saturday February 9–11, 2012

Since the early Renaissance the defining act of architecture has been the production of drawings. Originating within the site-bound paradigm of ancient and medieval building practice, architecture as a distinct professional and intellectual endeavor emerged from a newfound ability to define and depict form, space, material, and structure.

Over time, drawing practice proved sufficiently stable and flexible to remain the architect’s primary instrument of investigation and expression. However, as the promise of digital technology is increasingly fulfilled by sophisticated methodologies, such as parametric modeling, computational design, digital design and fabrication, and Building Information Management (BIM), drawing has come under stress and become ill-defined and moribund. Developments over the past decade have challenged a practice that has flourished for a half millennium leading one to ask: Is drawing dead?

For some, the current moment is one of crisis. The proliferation of digital tools has radically changed the historic role of drawing, once the signature skill of the architectural profession. Others see the moment as one of unparalleled opportunity. Digital design has matured through what Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the MIT Media Lab, has called the “accommodative” and “adaptive” phases of integration into conventional design processes. 

Convened at this liminal moment, this symposium will explore drawing in all of its variants and its place in the making of architecture.

 http://www.architecture.yale.edu/drupal/events/symposia/spring2012