Langhorst presents paper on quest for rendering ‘perfection’

Joern Langhorst, assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of Colorado Denver, recently presented a paper on “Rendering the Unseen: The Pragmatics, Aesthetics and Ethics of Place Representation” at the Biannual Conference of the Design Communication Association, hosted by Oklahoma State University.

The paper addresses the implications of media and technology that increasingly is capable of rendering qualities of designed spaces that are impossible to achieve in reality. In the quest for ever more “perfect” and seductive ways of rendering projects, the ethical issues of empowering communities, stakeholders and clients to make informed decisions versus advertising and “selling” a project tend not to be acknowledged and discussed. The paper triggered an in-depth discussion that included the need to develop principles for the use of visual media in the development and promotion of design projects.

Langhorst also was reappointed to the board of directors of the Design Communication Association, a professional society composed of academics from schools of architecture, landscape architecture, interior, graphic, product and industrial design, as well as some of the leading visualization professionals from the United States and abroad.