Also Known As

An exploration of conceptual frameworks common to architecture and digital media.
Also Known As offers analogies between objects and architecture, finding shared structures in physical things and architectural ideas, to render ideas relevant to a broad design audience. In this collection of written and visual work, Michelle JaJa Chang bridges conceptual frameworks found in architectural design and contemporary representation to examine design technology's social, material, and political effects. In architectural practice, where visual representation typically precedes building, techniques like drawing and imaging do not merely structure appearances. They are schemas, or organizational theories, connecting the abstract to the real. Buildings evidence representation's abilities to show how something is (through description) and how things should be (through projection).
Also Known As is a book in fragments. Some ideas are examined in depth, in essay form, while others are explored as anecdotal discoveries. Longer essays begin with a description of an object or phenomenon outside of architecture (e.g., a surveillance blimp, ancient bowls, a cartoon) in the manner of case reports. Observations on curious objects and events are also occasions to consider more complex systems in architecture. Richly illustrated and accompanied by an afterword by architect Jesús Vassallo, Also Known As offers a unique perspective for readers interested in architecture, media, computation, design, and arts from the informed perspective of a practitioner.

Michelle Chang is the director of JaJa Co and Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In her work, she investigates how optics, digital media, and modes of cultural production influence translations between design and building.