Laura Allen, Luke Caspar Pearson (eds.): Drawing Futures: Speculations in Contemporary Drawing for Art and Architecture (2016)

“Despite numerous developments in technological manufacture and computational design that provide new grounds for art and architecture, the act of drawing still plays a central role as a vehicle for speculation. There is a long and rich history of drawing that is tied to innovations in technology as well as revolutions in our philosophical understanding of the world. In consideration of a society now underpinned by computational networks and interfaces allowing hitherto unprecedented views of the world, the changing status of the drawing and representation as a political act demands a platform for reflection and innovation.

Drawing Futures is a compendium of the many approaches and directions in which drawing practice and research is heading. Featuring 60 projects from architects and artists to computer scientists and educators, the book opens up the discussion of how drawing may expand synchronously together with technological and computational developments.

The book coincides with an international conference of the same name, taking place at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, in November 2016.”

Publisher UCL Press, London, 2016
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License 4.0
ISBN 9781911307266
288 pages

Project website
Publisher
OAPEN
WorldCat

PDF, PDF (19 MB)
Internet Archive

Anni Albers: On Weaving (1965–)

“In this book, Anni Albers develops the thoughts on the history and design of weaving which she put forward in her collection of essays On Designing, published in 1959. Although On Weaving is not meant to be a technical reference book, it conveys a fundamental understanding and appreciation of the craft, both to the textile expert and to the interested layman, and is written in uncomplicated language, illustrated with clear diagrams.

In chapter 5 Anni Albers says: ‘Though elaborations are usually thought to be an advance of stage of work, they are often an easy expansion from basic concepts. Intricacy and complexity are not, in my mind, high developments. Simplicity, rather, which is condensation, is the aim and the goal for which we should be heading. Simplicity is not simpleness but clarified vision–the reverse of the popular estimate.’

This methodically intellectual approach has been applied in the composition and writing of this book and has enabled the author with her expert knowledge to condense into a small space the very quintessence of designing woven fabrics and the many facets and intricacies of this craft. But at the same time Anni Albers is able to excite and inspire the reader’s imagination and unravel the romantic story of weaving.

The technical side, which includes tapestry and carpet weaving, weaves and their derivatives, cloth constructions and materials is extremely well documented with drawings and photographs. The artist-designer will find delight in the many illustrations of ancient and modern weaving.” (back cover)

First published by Wesleyan University Press, Middletown/CT, 1965
Reprint, Studio Vista, London, 1974
ISBN 0289370043
204 pages
via x

Review: Irene Emery (American Anthropologist, 1968).

WorldCat

PDF (1965/1974, 30 MB, no OCR)
HTML (New Expanded Edition, 2017, added on 2017-10-30)

Morehshin Allahyari, Daniel Rourke (eds.): The 3D Additivist Cookbook (2016)

“The 3D Additivist Cookbook is a compendium of imaginative, provocative works from over 100 artists, activists and theorists.

The accompanying 3D Additivist Archive contains 3D .obj and .stl files, critical texts, templates, recipes, (im)practical designs and methodologies for living in this most contradictory of times.”

Publisher Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 4 Dec 2016
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 International License
ISBN 9789492302106
[356] pages

Editors

Cookbook: PDF, PDF, IA, Scribd (460 MB)
Archive: torrent, magnet (6 GB)