New Book: Critical Computational Relations in Design, Architecture and the Built Environment
Dr. Noel co-edited a book, “Critical computational relations in design, architecture and the built environment” with Dr. Yana Boeva at the University of Stuttgart (IntCDC).
The book represents a collaborative effort to bring together diverse perspectives on the power relations between computational practices, technology infrastructures, knowledge, their reproductions, and how they mask social, political, and environmental entanglements.
New Article: Repairing Code, Craft, and Computation
December 2024 – The article “Repairing Code, Craft, and Computation” was published in Technology|Architecture + Design (TAD) – Volume 8, Issue 2: Coding.
On November 1st, Dr. Noel gave a talk on AI and Local knowledge as part of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture and Planning (GSAPP) AI Actioning Summit.
Vernelle A. A. Noel was one of 96 architects commissioned to produce ONE drawing and write about it as a site of investigation for the book, “Drawing Codes: Experimental Protocols of Architectural Representation” by Andrew Kudless and Adam Marcus. The book explores how architects have critically integrated procedural thinking into their drawing process. Her critical drawing is entitled “Embodied CODEnition.”
On October 7th, Dr. Noel gave a lecture and was part of a panel for the Marilyn T. and Byron C. Shutz Lecture Series on Artificial Intelligence and Human Creativity at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
New Article: A Mindful Body Approach to Creating Architecture: Movement, Models and Spatial Experiences.
August 2024 – The article “A Mindful Body Approach to Creating Architecture: Movement, Models and Spatial Experiences” was published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences – Volume 379, Issue 1911: Minds in movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence.
The Situated Computation + Design Lab, led by Vernelle A. A. Noel at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA.), is looking for a PhD student to join the Lab starting in Fall 2025. I am especially interested in working with those motivated to explore critical, social, cultural, and political aspects of craft, embodied and technological practices, and society.
Tradigital Wire-Bending Workshop @ CMU
On February 3-4, 2024, Dr. Noel led a workshop titled, “Tradigital Wire-Bending: Conversations Between Craft Practices and Machines” at CMU’s School of Architecture. Participants learned about, designed, and built large-scale sculptures by employing different approaches to the craft of wire-bending specific to the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.
Human-Computer Interaction Institute Talk
On February 2nd, 2024, Dr. Noel gave a talk titled “Craft, Culture + Computing” at CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) Seminar Series. The HCI Institute’s Seminar Series has been a Carnegie Mellon University tradition for more than 25 years. The lecture was paired with a weekend workshop titled, “Tradigital Wire-Bending: Conversations Between Craft Practices and Machines.”
New Publication: Carnival + AI: Heritage, Virtual Spaces and ML
October 2023 – The paper, “Carnival + AI: Heritage, Virtual Spaces and ML” was published in Habits of the Anthropocene: Scarcity and Abundance in a Post-Material Economy, the ACADIA 2023 Conference Proceedings.
New Publication: Text-to-Image Generators: Semiotics, Semantics, and Society
October 2023 – Our paper, “Text-to-Image Generators: Semiotics, Semantics, and Society,” was published in Habits of the Anthropocene: Scarcity and Abundance in a Post-Material Economy, the ACADIA 2023 Conference Proceedings.
You can visit the “Design and Making in the Trinidad Carnival: Histories, Re-imaginations, and Speculations of Computational Design Futures” exhibition, which was funded by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, virtually on tradigital.space
New Publication: Critical Computational Relations in Design, Architecture and the Built Environment
Dr. Noel guest-edited a special issue of Digital Creativity titled “Critical computational relations in design, architecture and the built environment” with Dr. Yana Boeva, scholar and researcher at the University of Stuttgart (IntCDC).
CMBC Symposium: Embodied Cognition, Learning & Culture
From May 15 – 17th, 2023, Dr. Noel presented at Emory’s Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, led by Dietrich Stout (Director) and Robert Liu (Associate Director). Titled, Mind in Movement: Prospects for the Study of Embodied Cognition, Learning, and Culture, the workshop brought together scholars in anthropology, engineering, robotics, psychology, and more to discuss embodiment and what it means for cognition.
Connecting culture, cognition, and computing with lines
Read the article, “What is a Line? Interdisciplinary Research Exhibit Highlights Culture, Craft, and Computation Possibilities” by Ann Hoevel on my Graham Foundation-funded exhibition.
Lost in the Stacks Radio Show interview
Listen to Dr. Noel’s interview with Lost in the Stacks: the Research Library Rock ‘n” Roll Radio Show on her exhibition, “Design and Making in the Trinidad Carnival: Histories, Re-imaginations, and Speculations of Computational Design Futures.” The exhibition answers the interdisciplinary question, “What is a line?” through the craft of wire-bending and the Trinidad Carnival. Link to Radio Show episode >>>
College of Computing article on exhibition
Read the article, “New Computing Approach May Save At-Risk Carnival Costume Making Tradition” by Nathan Deen on my work in wire-bending and computing, and the Graham Foundation-funded exhibition.
Carnival-AI exhibited in Berlin, Germany
From September 15th to November 4th, 2022, Dr. Noel’s, Carnival and Artificial Intelligence (Carnival AI) project was on display at SAVVY Contemporary in Berlin, Germany, in their Magical Hackerism or the Elasticity of Resilience exhibition. See more here >>>
Toronto Geometry and Architecture Keynote
On October 21st, 2022, Dr. Noel was a Keynote at the Toronto Geometry and Architecture workshop at The University of Toronto.
“This workshop is an opportunity for students from geometry processing and architectural computation research groups to communicate relevant issues in their fields. It aims to fill the gap between geometric deep learning and architectural computation and to promote collaborative research for social equity between these two fields.”
New Publication: Computational regionalism: De-familiarization of tectonics in the wire-bending craft
June 2022 – The paper, “Computational regionalism: De-familiarization of tectonics in the wire-bending craft” was published in the International Journal of Architectural Computing (IJAC).
On April 22nd, 2022, Dr. Noel was a keynote for the University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. Conference on Architectural Research with the theme, “Precarity.” In her talk, “Craft, Culture and Computing,” she presented the ‘precarities’ she addresses in her research and how she goes about addressing them.
On March 7, 2022, Dr. Noel gave a talk titled “Craft and Computation: Grounding our field in the social world” at the Media Arts & Technology (MAT) Seminar Series at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
On February 10, 2022, Dr. Noel gave a guest lecture titled “Situated Computations, AI & Design” for the AI in the Built Environment course at the University of Florida College of Design, Construction, and Planning. She was invited by Prof. Karla Saldaña Ochoa with fellow presenters Nikola Marinčić, and Mathias Bernhard.
On January 18th, 2022, Dr. Noel gave a keynote titled “Grounded Approaches to Design | Equity | Data” at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) TAP Building Connections Congress 2022. In this talk, she touched on the history of data (collection, analysis, representation, design, presentation, and application) in planning, architecture, and their societal implications, especially in light of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) today. Dr. Noel presented what our approach should be to data and design so that it is equitable.
Dr. Noel has joined the University of Stuttgart’s Integrative Computational Design and Construction (IntCDC) Cluster as a Visiting Professor from October to December 2021.
“The Cluster aims to lay the methodological foundations for a profound rethinking of the design and building process and related building systems by adopting an integrative computational approach based on interdisciplinary research encompassing architecture, structural engineering, building physics, engineering geodesy, manufacturing and system engineering, computer science and robotics, social sciences and humanities.”
Read the announcement here >>>
On Thursday, Sept. 23rd, Dr. Noel gave a lecture titled, “Situated Computations, Craft + Technology” at MIT’s School of Architecture Fall 2021 Lecture Series in collaboration with the Design and Computation Group. In her lecture, she spoke about how we might reconfigure craft and cultural design practices through computation, and vice versa, how we might repair theories, tools, and methodologies in the field of design computation by looking into craft and cultural practices.
On Sept. 10th, we launched our Mozilla Foundation-funded project, “Artificial Intelligence + Carnival + Creativity.” In this project, we use the Trinidad Carnival as a vehicle and site for exploration and education in artificial intelligence (AI), art, and design. By combining AI, architecture, heritage, and art, we rethink and engage with Carnival and our diaspora in new creative ways.
carnival-ai.com
On July 4th, Dr. Noel was a recipient of the 2021 DigitalFUTURES YOUNG Award “for exceptional research and scholarship in the field of critical computational design.”
Dr. Noel’s project, “Design and Making in the Trinidad Carnival: Histories, Re-imaginations, and Speculations of Computational Design Futures” was one of the projects funded by The Graham Foundation.
About the Project:
“The Trinidad Carnival is a cultural design practice through which people express their creativity, aesthetic sensibilities, and craftsmanship around the world. […] The Design and Making in the Trinidad Carnival exhibit showcases […] new imaginations for design, interaction, and fabrication of architecture that include non-digital computational tools, novel software, computer-controlled machines, robots, and computer interactions. It argues that computation and computing can remediate and reconfigure dying crafts for new design pedagogy, practices, and architecture.”
On Wednesday, February 24th at 6pm EST/ 7pm AST, Dr. Noel will give a talk at the inaugural Robert H. Winters lecture series “Resistance as Practice: Acts of Anti-Racism through Architecture and Planning.” The event is hosted by the Dalhousie University Faculty of Architecture and Planning’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, in partnership with the SHIFT: Connect conference.
In January, Dr. Noel and her team won a grant from the Mozilla Foundation to examine and interrogate the connections between AI and Racial Justice. Titled, “Black Arts + Culture: Generative Traditions with AI and Design in Carnival,” the project uses AI to remix Black histories of design, art, and dance. Archival images of dancing sculptures from the Trinidad Carnival will be mixed with images of Black dancers across the diaspora in a single dataset. A machine learning model will then generate new designs based on this data. The resulting art will be presented via an online gallery and discussions.
From January 14–16, the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO will host “Art && Code: Homemade“, a free online festival featuring more than two dozen talks by creators who work with digital tools and crafty approaches to explore the neo-homemade. Presenters include: Vernelle A. A. Noel, Ari Melenciano, Leah Buechley, Laura Devendorf, Olivia McKayla Ross, LaJuné McMillian, and more…
On 5th December 2020, Dr. Noel will give a talk entitled “Situated Computations: Software-based practices and The Social” at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Architecture. The presentation is one of five in the Computational Design Lecture series for Fall 2020 , “The Digital Mundane.”
Dr. Noel will talk about how software-based practices reshape architectural ideas and labors, as well as how cultural design practices can reshape software-based practices, ideas, and labors.
On 28th of October 2020, Dr. Noel will be a Keynote Speaker at ACADIA 2020 Distributed Proximities conference. The talk is part of the session on Culture & Access.
The Keynote event features presentations by designers and scholars whose work deals critically with questions of computation, craft, and public engagement. Participants include Kate Hartman and Laura Devendorf.
“Computational design and data impact nearly every aspect of contemporary life and architecture and design practices. Ranging in accessibility from user-friendly social media to highly skilled programming, these technologies are informed by the exchange between a technology’s end-user and it’s author(s). In this context, what is a computational public? Who is the audience for computation design? How might computational design practices resonate beyond the academy or rarefied audiences?”