Steven Mankouche’s studio, An Amish Riddle, is working on the manual mass production of algorithmic derivations. Two or three cuts were made to a scaled 20' x 20' x 40' block, and rules defining the re-arrangment of these pieces resulted in combinations varying (student to student) from 250 – 5000+. This is not just a formal exercise; the process of cutting and re-arranging sets up a doctrine—the resulting forms become the new rule set for the next game, a rule set to be exploited, bent, and broken.
Image 01: thousands of uncut blocks, waiting for the band saw. Image 02: manual mass production.
Image 03: our mindset, our glory, and our downfall—cut blocks waiting for assembly. Images 04-08: week 1 pin-up. (Images 01-03 by Ian Sinclair, images 04-08 by Steven Mankouche, text by Ian Sinclair)
An Amish Riddle Studio had a progress review last Tuesday and produced 10,000 models blanketing the floor of Liberty Lofts. Each student presented their work by describing their cuts, the rules that generated the diverse range of forms, and the issues that arose during production. They are now organizing their models into “families” in the form of a taxonomy and proposing individual ways to move this work forward. (Photos by 
Steven Mankouche’s studio, An Amish Riddle, is working on the manual mass production of algorithmic derivations. Two or three cuts were made to a scaled 20' x 20' x 40' block, and rules defining the re-arrangment of these pieces resulted in combinations varying (student to student) from 250 – 5000+. This is not just a formal exercise; the process of cutting and re-arranging sets up a doctrine—the resulting forms become the new rule set for the next game, a rule set to be exploited, bent, and broken.
Image 01: thousands of uncut blocks, waiting for the band saw. Image 02: manual mass production.
Image 03: our mindset, our glory, and our downfall—cut blocks waiting for assembly. Images 04-08: week 1 pin-up. (Images 01-03 by Ian Sinclair, images 04-08 by Steven Mankouche, text by Ian Sinclair)
