In the CoDEx research group and facility, we work to open digital instruments and computational techniques for design and making to critical historical investigation and creative retooling.
CoDEx performs exploratory operations on digital tools for design and making through a combination of historical inquiry the making of artifacts, code, and machines. Dramatizing processes of taking something apart and scrutinizing its constituents and anatomy, exploratory operations activate stories of techniques packaged in software products, concealed behind screens, or fuelling ever-elusive futures of design’s algorithmic automation. We engage these techniques through historical work that is informed and enlivened by the making of discursive artifacts: digital and physical objects meant to instigate critical conversations and enact historical and theoretical knowledge.
Enabling this work is the infrastructure of the CoDEx facility, founded through a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation – John R. Evans Leaders Fund. The research conducted in the facility has been supported by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Development Grants Program at McGill University, and the Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE) Program at McGill University.
The CoDEx facility hosts flexible, bench-top equipment for digital fabrication and electronics prototyping as well as recording instruments for digitizing objects and actions in the physical world. This infrastructure allows us to move between materially embodying digital abstractions and digitizing material objects and embodied events. Consult our list of instruments and machines.
Researchers in the CoDEx group come from diverse educational levels. We strive to cultivate an environment of learning, curiosity, and collaboration. View our current and past members and find out how to join the team. For any inquiries, please contact us.
