Greg Lynn: Archaeologist of the Digital

2014 / 61 min. / color
Directed by Michael Blackwood

With the participation of Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Chuck Hoberman and Shoei Yoh.

Greg Lynn, one of the leading figures in computer-aided architectural design, is the curator of an exhibition series initiated by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA.) The exhibitions, which will travel to the Yale School of Architecture Gallery, are to explore the role of digital technologies in the design process since the early days. For the first exhibition “Archaeology of the Digital” Lynn selected four individuals who are the pioneers in applying the new technologies to architectural design: Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Chuck Hoberman, and Shoei Yoh. The exhibition is an introduction to digital design which has progressed since then in a radical fashion. It documents these important beginnings which will soon disappear since very few files are kept. The initiative of the CCA to preserve the early stages of this ground-breaking development in architecture will also positively affect the means and the ways of collecting information by museums.

The film is a visit to the first exhibition with Greg Lynn, whose knowledge and interest in the subject matter was essential for putting together an archaeology of the digital. He is joined by three of the four practitioners: Eisenman, Gehry and Hoberman. Each explains his path to the digital at the time. Although it is barely 25 years since their first digitally aided projects, their reminiscences also give a sense of the amazing advances in today’s architectural design.