Prof. Federico Garcia-Lammers and Prof. Jessica Garcia-Fritz
Course Information:
DoArch Independent Specs Studio, South Dakota State University, Fall 2021 : Link
Publication:
F. Garcia Lammers, J. G. Fritz, N. Krueger, J. Kenny, and R. Woytassek, “Labor Movements: From the Specifications of the Panama Canal to Robotic Patents,” 2022, doi: 10.7275/VXR2-0K71.
The project focused on U.S. KUKA robotic patents, labor legislation, and documents from the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers union, using visualization as a method for tracing the movements that structure work on the construction site. These movements were understood in two ways: the physical movement of people, materials, and machines, and the less visible political movements embedded within systems of labor, regulation, and power.
By placing these forms of movement in relation to one another, the project examined how seemingly technical documents carry enduring social and political consequences. The work argues that contemporary conditions of human and robotic labor are shaped not only by visible actions on the job site, but also by histories of regulation and institutional power that remain embedded within the documents governing construction. Developed in collaboration with Nathanial Krueger.