Anatomy of an AI

ABOUT TEAM STUDENTS BRIEFS ADMISSION

Possibilities of AI representation in/of/for/with architecture.
Winter Term 2023/24

In order to understand the politics of AI images and to develop a finer way of looking at images, a study of drawings was created that examines the process of image creation by artificial intelligence. By questioning the composition of the images, where they originate from, what the drawings are actually made of and what exactly is going on in the way the AI draws on its libraries and tags, identifies certain aspects of images and then resembles them, we can decode the seamless assemblages the AI presents us with. Surrealism was interested in the way images, texts, etc. could provide access to dream-like, Freudian associations, and it utilised "automatic" processes to do so. In this workshop, Surrealism was performed in reverse. By interrogating AI images, identifying sources and examining the 'ecstasy of influence' all present in the assemblages, their origins and trajectories can be discovered.

By applying an avant-garde and psychological method of interrogation, we can begin to get under the skin of the technology. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" asked Phillip K. Dick in the novel on which Blade Runner is based. The workshop interpreted algorithmic dreams and examined the processes and meanings that mass data, computing power and networked culture can produce today. In other words, a techno-Freudian exercise!

Madelon Vriesendorp‘s drawing for Delirious New York drawn by artists of the Persian Empire, © Marlene Ortner

Section drawing of unité d’habitation painted by Hariton Pushwagner
© Joel NIkles

Salvador Dali painting of a Venetian McDonalds
©John Clayson

Bergisel ski jump drawn by Aldo Rossi
© Jonas Ramoser

Elevation of an old, ukrainian folk house drawn by Zaha Hadid © Yurii Brytov

La Fabrica by Ricardo Bofill drawn in the style of Le Corbusier,
© Marlene Ortner

Brutalist Rudolph Hall painted by Alex Katz
© Joel NIkles

Soviet bus station by Ed Ruscha
© Joel NIkles

Section of Retti candle shop drawn by Aldo Rossi
© Hoda Balouchi

2d floor plan drawing of a parking space from Gustav Klimt
© Jonas Ramoser

Traditional Malay vernacular timber hut drawn by Archizoom
© Mikael Ristmets

Sketch of Villa Savoy drawn by Jean-Michel Basquiat
© Marlene Ortner

Plan drawing of a library drawn by Louis Kahn looking like Vanna Venturi House
© Hümeyra Cam

Section drawing of Lebbeus Wood’s of a bus stop , clear lines © Yurii Brytov

Minimalistic 2d plan of Bauhaus by Mikhail Filippov
© Sofie Wetten

Painting made by Gustav Klimt of a marshmallow model of habitat 67
© Morith Pfister

Vanna Venturi’s house drawn in the style of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
© Marlene Ortner

Architectural drawing of a Christian church drawn by Estonian postmodern artist Sirje Lapin © Mikael Ristmets

Elevation hand drawing of a gas station drawn by Andrea Palladio
© Maria Gross

Black and white axonometric drawing of gothic and romanesque cathedral in ruins influenced by the aesthetics of 1980s estonian postmodern geometric architecture blown-off-roof perspective © Mikael Ristmets

Etching of a Beaux-Arts Gas Station, incorporating an eclectic mix of elaborate decorative Italian and French Renaissance elements, drawn by Superstudio, © Hümeyra Cam