Digital.Visual.Material is a three-day virtual symposium that explores the cross-disciplinary construction of a computational imaginary of design through scholarly presentations and first-hand accounts on pioneering efforts to transform computers into visual and creative media.

DAY 1: SURFACES
May 26, 9:30AM – 5:30PM EST

• As Below, So Above: Surface and Depth in the Computational Image, Jacob Gaboury (UC Berkeley)
• Materialities of Shiny Surfacing, Akshita Sivakumar (UC San Diego)
• Your New Mnemotechnics, John May (Harvard University)
• Designers Redesign Robotics, Mario Carpo (the Bartlett)

With an introduction by session chair Michael Osman (UCLA)

Conversations: George Stiny
Conversations:Materiality and Computation, featuring Joanna Berzowska (Concordia), Dana Cupkova (CMU), Vernelle Noel (U. of Florida), Jer Thorp and moderated by Dina El-Zanfaly (CMU)

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DAY 2: STRUCTURES
May 27, 10AM – 5:30PM EST

• On Mathematical Aesthetics, Alma Steingart (Columbia University)
• Processing Models, Modelling Processes for the HfG Ulm ca. 1952, Anna-Maria Meister (TU Darmstadt)
• From Paper to Code: Episodes in the history of computer mapping in Great Britain, Moa Carlsson (ESALA)

With an introduction by session chair Alessandra Ponte (UdeM)

Conversations: Leslie Mezei & Frieder Nake
Conversations: Rachel Strickland & Paul Pangaro

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DAY 3: PROCESSES
May 28, 10AM – 4:30PM EST

• Feminist Interventions in the West Coast: The case of Video Art and Computer Graphics, Gabriela Aceves-Sepúlveda (Simon Fraser University)
• Topology, Crystals, and a Multitude of Futures, David Theodore (McGill University)
• T-Square, Spacewar!, and Interfaces of Early Spatial Computing, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal (UC Davis)

With an introduction by session chair Olga Touloumi (Bard College)

Conversations: Elizabeth Vander Zaag

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Organized by:

Theodora Vardouli (McGill University)

Daniel Cardoso Llach (Carnegie Mellon University)

Supported by:

Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, McGill University

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada 

Live-stream thumbnail:

Stills from the documentary Finger Film, by Rachel Strickland, 35mm film. 1975.