About

Yanni Alexander Loukissas is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at MIT, where he develops innovative methods to illuminate human-machine relationships in their environmental contexts. His current focus is on cultures of creative and technical work that are shaping new roles for human presence, imagination, and skill. His forthcoming book, Co-Designers: Cultures of Computer Simulation in Architecture (Routledge, 2012), critically examines a shift in the practices of designers, from manual traditions to virtual techniques, and accompanying concerns about the redistribution of control and responsibility in design. As a member of the MIT Laboratory for Automation, Robotics, and Society (LARS), he is developing a new class of visualization tools that draw together a combination of qualitative and quantitative data for studies of human-machine interactions in complex environments: in operating rooms, on flight decks, and even on the surface of the moon. He recently completed a dynamic visualization of the last ten minutes of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, which illustrates how real-time interactions and communications can be translated into beautiful and legible graphic patterns to inform a broad range of audiences. With Small Design Firm, he helped create the interactive art information and way-finding system of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He has taught design, technology, and social science at Cornell, MIT, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.

2011 MIT 150 Symposium:
The Future of Exploration, Cambridge, MA, Exhibition, Visualization of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing play video

2011 MIT History, Theory + Criticism of Art and Architecture, Cambridge, MA, Respondent, Beyond the Author

2011 Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Cambridge, MA, Invited Speaker, Visualizing Human Presence

2010 TEDx Athens Youth Day, Athens, Greece, Keynote Speaker, Translate, Rotate, Transform play video

2010 INPUT_OUTPUT Symposium, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, Keynote Speaker, Moonscapes and City Scrapes

2010 Society for Social Studies of Science, Tokyo, Japan Paper Presentation, Surface Cities

2009 Society for Social Studies of Science, Washington, DC, Paper Presentation, Spaces of Simulation

2009 Cornell University Information Science Colloquium, Ithaca, NY, Invited Speaker, Design as Computation

2009 The Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, NY
Presentation and Panel Discussion, Material Feedback

2009 Autodesk Headquarters, Boston, MA
Invited Lecture, Keepers of the Geometry

2009 Emerging Voices Lecture Series, Planning + Architecture Research Group University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI, Inaugural Lecture: Conceptions of Design in a Culture of Simulation

2009 Violence and the Cinematic City, Cornell University Ithaca, NY, An original film made in Google Earth, Angel Dust, with John Zissovici

2009 MIT Department of Architecture Computation Lectures, Cambridge, MA, Invited Lecture, Conceptions of Design in a Culture of Simulation

2008 Digital Critical, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Paper Presentation, Keepers of the Geometry

2007 Society for Social Studies of Science, Pasadena, CA
Paper Presentation, Building Simulation through a Socio-technical Lens

2007 Manchester University, Department of Architecture, Manchester, UK, Invited Lecture, Performance Discourse at Arup

2007 Cambridge University, Martin Centre
Invited Lecture, The Culture of Simulation in Building Design

2005,2006 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Exhibition, Computer Aided Fabrication for Sculptors

2005 Society for Social Studies of Science, Pasadena, CA
Paper Presentation, Representations of the User in Geometric Modeling

2005 Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany
Invited Lecture, Practices of Learning, New Media in Architectural Offices

2005 New York State University, Department of Architecture, Buffalo, NY, Invited Lecture, Computational Design Workshop

2004 ACADIA and AIA Fabrication Conference, Toronto, Canada. Paper Presentation with Larry Sass, A Generative Approach to Modeling Architectural Designs Using a 3-D Printer

2004 European Assoc. for the Study of Science and Technology, Paris, France, Paper Presentation, Relational Modeling in Architectural Education

2002 MIT Initiative for Technology and Self, Cambridge, MA
Invited Lecture, Digital Mock-ups Ethnographies

2002 MIT The Center for Bits and Atoms, Cambridge, MA
Invited Lecture with Larry Sass, Digital Fabrication in Architecture

2000 Cornell University Department of Architecture, Ithaca, NY, Exhibition with John Zissovici, Hartell Gallery Moving Wall