Scripting Cultures (PDF)

With scripting, computer programming becomes integral to the
digital design process. It provides unique opportunities for
innovation, enabling the designer to customise the software around
their own predilections and modes of working. It liberates the
designer by automating many routine aspects and repetitive
activities of the design process, freeing-up the designer to spend
more time on design thinking. Software that is modified through
scripting offers a range of speculations that are not possible
using the software only as the manufacturers intended it to be
used. There are also significant economic benefits to automating
routines and coupling them with emerging digital fabrication
technologies, as time is saved at the front-end and new
file-to-factory protocols can be taken advantage of. Most
significantly perhaps, scripting as a computing program overlay
enables the tool user (designer) to become the new tool maker
(software engineer). Though scripting is not new to design, it is
only recently that it has started to be regarded as integral to the
designer's skill set rather than a technical speciality. Many
designers are now aware of its potential, but remain hesitant.
This book treats scripting not only as a technical challenge,
requiring clear description, guidance and training, but also, and
more crucially, answers the question as to why designers should
script in the first place, and what the cultural and theoretical
implications are.

This book:

* Investigates the application of scripting for productivity,
experimentation and design speculation.

* Offers detailed exploration of the scripting of Gaudí's
final realised design for the Sagrada Família, leading to
file-to-factory digital fabrication.

* Features projects and commentary from over 30 contemporary
scripting leaders, including Evan Douglis, Marc Fornes, Sawako
Kaijima, Achim Menges, Neri Oxman, Casey Reas and Hugh Whitehead of
Foster + Partners.