Trans.figure

TRANS – a prefix from Latin (transcend: transfix): is associated with the meanings “across,” “beyond,” “through,” and “changing thoroughly,” in combination with elements of any origin.

The IDEAS Summer Studio is an introduction to the post-professional M.S.AUD program at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s IDEAS campus near Culver City. In consecutive weekly workshops, students are introduced to software, tools, and techniques available to design students. This technical foundation provides a common platform for the remainder of the one-year program, equipping students to work collaboratively with faculty to explore four topics of relevance: Entertainment, Mobility, Technology and Urban Strategy.

The studio engaged art objects from a curated selection of contemporary sculptures from international artists to learn different modeling techniques including aggregation, texturing, massing, surface, topology and tessellation. Students researched both the artwork and artist to learn about the intent of the object and engage with the artistic, intellectual and cultural ideas behind each piece. These sculptures were then documented in digital space and further interrogated by extracting a kit of parts integral to the pieces. Students combined and reassembled selected parts, creating new assemblies through “kitbashing.” These assemblies were fabricated, animated and represented using various media to expand the ways in which the work might be understood and experienced. From image composites to augmented reality, viewers experience the new assemblies as animated sequences, immersive environments and user configured constructions.

Students: Aron Carcamo, Ruoyang Chen, Shuaijing Chen, Weonwoo Choi, Wenhan Dong, Revathi Ganesh, Luis Garcia, Xinran Ge, Anatoli Georgiadou, Ali Hussain Hakami, Yuxuan He, Jingyi Huang, Diptini Kapoor, Onur Koyun, Sangmee Lee, Lecan Li, Qingyang Li, Huilin Liu, Xuanhong Liu, Zhishan Liu, Qi Long, Alekya Malladi, Yeawon Min, Yueshi Min, Akshada Moham Muley, Negin Nayeri, Neha Oswal, Chunsu Ouyang, Gaurav Puri, Akash Ragde, Aishwarya Rajasekar, Gesthimani Roumpani, Pranay Sharma, Ruchi Singhania, Tianyi Song, Nan-Tse Su, Chinmayi Suri, Irem Uygur, Jingyi Wang, Shilin Wang, Tong Wang, Xianrui Wang, Xiyan Wang, Jinfeng Wu, Yiyin Wu, Dingkai Xiang, Wei Xie, Siyuan Xu, Liang Yang, Ruohan Yang, Yanrong Yang, Sihang Zeng, Linyi Zhang, Wenzhao Zhang, Xiaoman Zhang, Yuexuan Zhang, Yusi Zhang, Xue Zhao, Zhi Zhou, Xiran Wang

Lab Assistants: Nick Miller, Sarah Kim, Morgan Jacobs and Casey Knudsen