Since the times of Plato and Aristotle we have lost our innocence in thousands of ways. One of them means theory’s double transformation from the act of observing the world and the heavens through the intellect to the act of measuring the world through our senses, on one hand, and, on the other, its transformation from the best way of living to a vague and abstract waste of time, inferior to any kind of praxis. This article studies the shifts in (...) the meaning of “theory”, the shifts in the public perception of this term and, finally, it offers some considerations on the relationship between humanities and the theoretical paradigm. (shrink)

A parallel reading of ten powerful works of conceptual and analytical originality yields a novel epistemological method based on the possibility of automated experimentation in engineering and architecture. An initial protocol for Parametric Epistemic Things, a particular kind of assemblage (as postulated by DeLanda following Deleuze & Guattari) that builds on Rheinberger’s ideas of Epistemic Things, is outlined and conceptualised to allow for the possibility of such automation. Following the interpretations of fragments from the texts, a discussion examines future potentials (...) and identifies some of the conceptual and pragmatic thresholds to overcome in order to leverage the proposal and situate it within a general theory of science and research, while attempting to answer the question at the heart of this essay: what is the role of parametric epistemic things in contemporary evolutionary architecture? (shrink)