In this interview, David Ruy discussed becoming one of the first architects outside Columbia GSAPP’s Paperless Studio to own and operate Alias software in the mid-1990s. After learning the program in Columbia’s engineering department, he produced renderings for Reiser + Umemoto before contributing to projects such as Jeffrey Kipnis’s Water Garden and teaching with Jesse Reiser, Nanako Umemoto, Sanford Kwinter, and Cecil Balmond. Increasing computational power enabled Ruy to develop a digital practice influenced by Gothic architecture and Louis Sullivan’s ornament. At Pratt Institute, he created a long-running course on the architectural image. In 2015, Hernan Diaz Alonso invited him to lead SCI-Arc’s graduate programs, where advanced computation supported experiments with sublime, hyperreal, surreal, and moving imagery. Having nearly pursued a conservatory career, Ruy’s musical background shaped his understanding of architecture as an art form. His interest in aesthetics and his connection with Graham Harman at St. John’s College led him to introduce Object-Oriented Ontology into architectural discourse, particularly Harman’s conception of aesthetics as first philosophy.