Andrew Madl is a teacher and designer. He holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the Pennsylvania State University. His work focuses on the exploration and registration of computation/advanced digital technologies in the landscape. Within his research, Madl seeks to expose landscape consequences through schemas at the confluence of, and in response to, monumental technological advancements ranging from the nuclear bomb to artificial intelligence. Currently he is working on a graphic novel with AR+D publishing, presenting speculative landscape scenarios for nuclear test sites in the western United States. He has recently published the book “Parametric Design for Landscape Architects: Computational Techniques and Workflows.
1. What are your degrees and from what institutions?
I hold a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the Pennsylvania State University.
2. What might someone be surprised to learn about you?
That I am an avid metalcore and heavy metal music listener.
3. What’s one thing you have learned about in the last month?
As part of continued research on digital technologies in landscape architecture, I learned to code first player video game logic in the software Unity.
4. Do you have a favorite project you have worked on?
Yes, I am really enjoying working on a current book project with ORO Editions/Applied Research + Design Publishing. The book is a graphic novel that leverages fictional design narratives as devices for discussing the impact of nuclear technology within the territory of the western United States. The research visualizes alternative realities in which projects actually proposed by the US government that were not carried out are implemented. The narratives provide perspectives from both the landscape and its occupants of how such dramatic infrastructures and policies, if executed, would play out. The work intends to legitimize speculative design and storytelling as modes of operation for furthering research and intervention in the field of landscape architecture.
5. What are some opportunities for professional growth that you have been able to take advantage of?
Being in an academic position has allowed me the ability to constantly learn new software and computational workflows to generate research that is disseminated through platforms ranging from conferences to journal and book publications.
6. What is your primary research focus currently?
6. What is your primary research focus currently?
My research seeks to expose landscape consequences through schemas at the confluence of and in response to monumental technological advancements. Previous and current novel technologies, ranging from the nuclear bomb to artificial intelligence, are explored as a way of speculating on future landscape conditions from past outcomes. The research utilizes advanced digital technologies through scripting, coding, and simulating landscape scenarios that are the result of technological inception. Output scenarios navigate borders of pragmatism and fiction as a means to legitimize the speculations. The direct uses and applications of computational workflows provide a way to push back and become critical of technology in influencing and characterizing landscape.
7. What do you love most about your job?
I appreciate the ability to research topics as well as tools that may appear to be outside of the discipline and align them back to landscape architecture. As an educator I enjoy being able to see how students grow in technical and theorical skills as they progress through their studies.
I appreciate the ability to research topics as well as tools that may appear to be outside of the discipline and align them back to landscape architecture. As an educator I enjoy being able to see how students grow in technical and theorical skills as they progress through their studies.
RESEARCH
Technological advancement defines and dictates the world. It leads to new cultural norms, objects, organizations, and theories. The means in which these respondent entities are spatialized embodies the consequences of the technological provocation. Landscape registers and acknowledges these responses through the various systems it interacts with. Cultural uses, economic values, land uses, and infrastructures are all landscape performances that are altered through technological moments. Such alterations occur at various scales of the landscape, but collectively have the ability to dictate a territory. My research seeks to expose landscape consequences through schemas at the confluence of and in response to monumental technological advancements. Previous and current novel technologies, ranging from the nuclear bomb to artificial intelligence, are explored as a way of speculating on future landscape conditions from past outcomes. The research utilizes advanced digital technologies through scripting, coding, and simulating landscape scenarios that are the result of technological inception. Output scenarios navigate borders of pragmatism and fiction as a means to legitimize the speculations. The direct uses and applications of computational workflows provide a way to push back and become critical of technology in influencing and characterizing landscape.