Faris Ahmed SCI-Arc | M.Arch II | 2019-2021
Email: faris_ahmed@sciarc.edu Los Angeles, California Phone: 330.283.8611 Website: farisahmed.com
Faris Ahmed SCI-Arc | M.Arch II | 2019-2021
Faris Ahmed is currently a graduate student pursuing a Masters at The Southern California Institute of Architecture (M.Arch II ‘21). Prior, he attended The Ohio State University - Knowlton School of Architecture where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture with Research Distinction in 2019. Notably, while at Ohio State, he was a finalist for the James E. Gui competition and received the Faculty Award in Architecture among many other distinctions. In the past, Faris has interned with Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects in New Haven, CT. Immediately before joining SCI-Arc, he worked as a research assistant to Viola Ago for her practice, Miracles Architecture. Faris sees and values his time at SCI-Arc as an opportunity to explore architecture imaginatively as a means to shape the built environment of the future. Often utilizing a diverse palette of software and technology, he is interested in the power designers have to engage and drive the discipline.
CONTENTS 3GBX
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Vertical Studio
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Vertical Studio
Puzzling Assemblies
3GAX Towards a new Design Interface
Visual Studies Elective ALONE
2GBX
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Design Studio II Geological Fictions
Visual Studies II inVisible
2GAX
118-125 126-149 150-163 164-179
Design Studio I Workshop
Design Studio I After Images
Visual Studies I Slice-It
Advanced Materials and Tectonics Musee De Confluences Case Study
Papers
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Theories of Contemporary Architecture II Divided Realities
Theories of Contemporary Architecture I Anthropocentricism Towards AI in Film and a Shift to Posthumanism
IDD
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Introduction to Digital Design House of Hyperpop
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Puzzling Assemblies Puzzles Professor: Dwayne Oyler In Collaboration with Jordan Scheuermann Studio 3GBX - Spring 2021
From the syllabus: Puzzles, and in particular, complex 3-dimensional puzzles, exemplify a type of assembly that defies immediate understanding. In fact, they are intentionally designed to delay that understanding, to compel engagement with the nuances of their geometric qualities, and to provoke an intense investigation of the dialogue between parts. Their assembly is typically form dependent - meaning their ability to fit together cannot be separated from the nuances of their shape and character. Additionally, the character of their shape, and its proliferationn throughout all of the pieces, serves as a key element in suggesting other possible ways that pieces may come together, thereby increasing their level of difficulty. However, their shape is meaningless if it doesn't ultimately allow parts to be joined - in other words, assembly supersedes form. This studio will look closely at the sculpture of Miguel Berrocal as well as a range of threedimensional puzzles - we'll interrogate them, understand their limits, modify them based on that understanding, and consider ways or extracting formal, spatial, and programmatic ideas from them. The studio will approach the puzzle as something with the ability to exist. at multiple scales, as we move in non-sequential ways through a range of architectural issues.
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Above: 3D Puzzle Model Photographs- Elevations Spray Painted 3d prints and CNC-milled wood 8” x 8” x 8”
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3D Puzzle Model Photograph Spray Painted 3d prints and CNC-milled wood 8” x 8” x 8”
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Top: 2D Puzzle Model Photograph- Fully Assembled Spray Painted 3d prints and CNC-milled wood 24” x 16” x 1” Left: 2D Puzzle Instructions 8 abbreviated steps for solving the puzzle
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2D Puzzle Model Photograph- Close Up Spray Painted 3d prints and CNC-milled wood 24” x 16” x 1”
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Top: 2D Puzzle Model Photograph- Disassembled Spray Painted 3d prints and CNC-milled wood 24” x 16” x 1” Left: 2D Puzzle Model Photograph- Close Up Spray Painted 3d prints and CNC-milled wood 24” x 16” x 1”
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“One of the more inescapable realities of realizing buildings is the assembly of parts. This is true at numerous scales, from the scale of a handrail to the building massing, and in the types of parts being joined.”
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SITE MODEL RENDER
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“The building can be seen as in an act os assembly or dissassembly as pieces begin to be pulled apart from each other, creating new, public interstitial spaces bvetween the chunks.”
Left: Site Model Model Render
On the site in Taylor Yard, the building, a natural history museum, uses similar strategies and formal properties found in the puzzles, like rotations and striations to embed itself into the landscape. The proposed site is bounded by sports fields, playgrounds, and the LA river, but currently lacks clear access to any surrounding amenities. The natural history museum and surrounding landscape extends into the existing park and facilitates connections and movement between the park, future development sites, and the river, which was previously isolated and inaccessible due to train tracks. Near the museum, the ground slopes down to create a plaza, outdoor theater, and extension of the park while the landscape rises up to ground the building. Using graphic strategies found in the 2D puzzle, hardscapes cut into the landscape to create skylights, paths, planters, and large public gathering spaces that currently do not exist at Taylor Yard. Marks and cuts on the landscape suggest past rotation of the building pieces as they have been placed into the ground, and are used to make connections and integrate between disparate pieces to a unified site. The entrance into the building happens along the public plaza edge where the building cuts into the
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landscape and is accessible from the park. From the road, ramps connect a dropoff/ pickup area. The building can be seen as in the act of assembly or disassembly as pieces begin to be pulled apart from each other, creating new, public interstitial spaces between the chunks. These voids spaces also function to establish internal circulation that follows the innate formal characteristics. Poche, a direct result of the rotation, produces challenging fragments of space, but becomes productive with vitrines and exhibition spaces embedded and interlocked within the whole. The tilted posture of the building also allows for connections and views into other galleries and exhibit space and makes it appropriate for viewing larger exhibits inherent to a natural history museum, such as the display of massive skeletons. The indexing of movements is marked by reliefs,cuts, and material changes with scoring found on the 3D puzzle used to becomes slots of fenestration in the building
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“Marks and cuts on the landscape suggest past rotation of the building pieces as they have been placed into the ground, and are used to make connections and integrate bewteen disparate pieces to a unified site”
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Top: Section Model Model Render Dissassembled Pieces Left: Section Model Model Render Dissassembled Pieces
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Section Model Model Render Fully Assembled Section Cut View
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Stair Models Model Renders Main stair model (Front) Detail Stair Prototype (Back)
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“The stairs act as an additional piece that inserts into the building. It presents itself as a series of pieces maked by slight moves of rotation to make the stair more dynamic as it interlocks into the floorplates and connects to adjacent exhibits”
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Futurality: Strategy and Space Towards a New Design Interface Professor: Peter Testa In Collaboration with Jordan Scheuermann Studio 3GAX - Autumn 2020
From the course syllabus: The studio project appropriates and transform objects, figures, and devices drawn from Le Corbusier’s unbuilt project for Olivetti Center for Electronic Calculation. Taken as a whole, this collection of architectural objects brings together all the basic building blocks and tropes within Le Corbusier’s oeuvre complete. The studio aims to mobilize these syntactical elements in two basic ways in order to uncover unseen architectural and formal possibilities. The first act of re-seeing, using specific tools developed by Testa & Weiser, challenges LC’s compositional syntax by introducing a new type of volumetric compositing. Working with wholes rather than parts, this non-referential architectural position sets objects into new relations — opening architecture to contemporary formal possibilities. With an interest in legibility and the creation of a new spatial type, designers are to treat architectural objects as a kindof unknown ‘X’ whose properties are distributed between ways of seeing and representing. New modes of seeing not only change the perception of the object but are also the basis for a future paradigm. Neither mimetic nor semiotic, representation may now be understood as a system of exchanges that takes place within objects themselves. The second act of re-seeing situates this new syntactical apparatus within the contemporary zeitgeist and transforming material culture. Arguing for a non liturgical, quasi-autonomous architecture, objects are noncorrelated and open to new ‘fictions of function’ and scenarios. Where the first repositioning focuses on shifting models of space, the second focuses on contemporary strategy including transforming and Post-Anthropocene concepts of labor, aesthetics, material culture, and organization. 42
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The Warehouse (Archive)
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“Divisions between time periods and genres have collapsed. From the archive, anything is a conduit. there is no use for claiming an enclosed territory.”
Olivetti has always had an interest in merging a design aesthetic with functional objects. This includes graphic design, industrial design, and architecture. However, now Olivetti is not solely an electronics company, but a design firm that can build upon those previous interests. Instead of informing a niche market, they can expand into new design territories by utilizing an archive to promote a strategy of upcycling and reconfiguration. This online archive includes past Olivetti products, architecture, and graphic design and produces a representational space for forming new syntactic relations between objects. Divisions between time periods and genres have collapsed. From the archive, anything is a conduit. There is no use for claiming an enclosed territory. This design strategy for the new headquarters can be applied at all levels of design, from building design to the types of products Olivetti produces. In this space, there is no principle authority and no recognized arbitrator.
Right: The Warehouse (Archive)
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Top: The Warehouse (Archive)
Left: The Warehouse (Archive)
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From the constantly expanding archive, the proposed Olivetti Headquarters designed by Le Corbusier is inherited and includes the massing and site in Milan. The Olivetti Headquarters is just one possible point of departure.
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Tweening between different views and masking create ways of re-seeing and extracting new forms. Here, multiple variations of one set of objects are superimposed onto one another so that different readings make new syntactic relationships. Soft, pillowy edges are confronted by hard, jagged lines, and lines can now streak through previously solid forms. Boundaries are now seen as thresholds into spaces that employ a new set of formal qualities. Objects move through masks and change qualities so that their color, boundaries, and line weights are never static. Time, like the objects, is flattened to enable multiple readings to be seen at once.
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On the site in Milan, we can deploy the graphic strategies of tweening and masking to consider different site plans generated from a single graphic. While we are not proposing a single building for their headquarters, we can establish a strategy and interface from which it can manifest. The ability of the graphic to be read in different ways produces variations in figure and ground from which multiple site configurations can emerge.
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New material logics are introduced that begin to promote an ever-changing database and archive by creating ephemeral forms. New materials utilize sensing technologies to provide real-time feedback for user customization. Production now becomes decentralized and the role of Olivetti is to create conditions in which user-defined content creation can emerge.
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Design Interface Infinite Matrix of Possibilities
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Top: Design Interface Factory Customization Left: Design Interface Factory Customization
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“The factory is not as an assembly line, but a melting pot where it can serve simultaneously as the point of design intervention and production. A curated architectural landfill is created within the warehouse from the infinite growth of upcycling. Values in sustainability are implemented at the design level, where even processes of making becomes upcycled. The feedback loop within this design strategy leads to things making things or building making building as new things made from the archive are upcycled. The result is new things formed from syntactic relationships. Rather than a design strategy of synthesis, the syntactic relationships is what allows for a sustainable design strategy for Olivetti.”
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Everything Is A Performance And Everything Feels Alone Professor: Kordae Henry In Collaboration with Alonso Alonso and Santiago Sanchez Visual Study Seminar
From the syllabus: "The lines between the real and the virtual are steadily dissolving. Through social media apps, augmented reality all within popculture, we find our bodies are actually performative and are the epi-center of experiencing new worlds in real time. Combined with video game technology we find that media inhabits our space, they reflect what's in our mind, what we believe in and what we hope for. These images and experiences are now an intimate part of our world . How do we reflect on them now? WHat do these experiences do to us emotionally and why? The projects are intended to repurpose synthetic game engine environments and technology as we explore new manifestations of the human body." Performance and narrative are explored here through a short animated film and serves as a visual minifesto.
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Above: Kevin Beasley was born in 1985 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He lives and works in Queens, New York. Since earning his BFA from the College for Creative Studies, Detroit in 2007, and his MFA from Yale University in 2012, Beasley has created sculptures and installations made from found materials, including clothing, sports equipment, personal artifacts, and cultural ephemera. Using polyurethane foam and resin to give these objects their own solidity and form, Beasley molds them into wall assemblages and standalone sculptures. T-shirts, colorful house dresses, and durags take their own haunting shape, referencing the bodies that may have once inhabited them. These items weave together Beasley’s own memories and experiences, along with historical and cultural references, in order to examine the role of power and race in American society. Beasley also incorporates microphones, audio processors, and mixers into his works, activating the sculptures through live performances. Interested in the tactile dimension of sound, Beasley connects sound production and the movement of the physical body through his performances and sound installations.
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Above: Concept art for character design inspired by the works of Kevin Beasley.
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Still from the short Film, ALONE
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“I am a prisoner, and this is a kind of prison. But I am not alone.
I am alone but not alone. I roam the streets but the streets roam within me. I stand alone and walk alone. Something which I cannot measure. Something that should, and always will, increase my happiness.
I am a prisoner..”
And what do they say? Because I walk alone, my good and bad thoughts and action turn into a single thought. Cannot carry me anywhere. I want someone else, to love me unconditionally and to commit to them no matter what.
But, what to tell if I'm actually alone for anything? Would the audience care? I think not. If they say, I am by myself, or I am alone for no reason and a reason without sense. If they say I am alone because I am strange or unusual, the feeling is fake and artificial. If they say I am not alone for anything, because I am sure something somehow makes me feel free or other. They said I am alone, but is that not a false statement? Is it not a priviledge? And what do I do then?
Left: Still from the short Film, ALONE
What then, can I do? And are I capable of telling a lover I am not alone for anything? Are I capable of showing them my weaknesses, my weaknesses to their face, because that is the only way for them to know if they are not alone for something else?
After all, can I do that for someone that is alone for never anything? Often I will lose track of time, too, and eventually will get sidetracked by the shifting shadows of an abandoned street. This is the pardox. I don't understand it. But I can't find an answer to it. I've just given myself so many different things to do and so many different questions to answer. I am a prisoner, and this is a kind of prison. But I am not alone. I am a prisoner... (**Narrative written with the help of GPT-2)
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“I am alone but not alone. I roam the streets but the streets roam within me. I stand alone and walk alone. Something which I cannot measure. Something that should, and always will, increase my happiness”
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Still from the short Film, ALONE
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2GBX Geological Fictions LACMA Re-design Professor: Ramiro Diaz-Granados In Collaboration with Allison Hoagland Studio 2GBX - Spring 2020
From the course syllabus: “With the 2GBX studio, the curriculum shifts its attention to the study of the relationship of architecture and the spatial expression of collections of artifacts. The studio project challenges the outdated notion of encyclopedic museums in the age of internet and makes a proposal for LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) in Los Angeles, CA, to replace the existing William Pereira–designed structure. The project is to be conceived in relation to the current controversy surrounding the status of the future building designed by Peter Zumthor and scheduled to be finished in 2023. The studio’s main focus is on disciplinary questions of the relationships amongst typology, program, and aesthetics. These questions will be considered as they relate to current issues of social media, technology, and access to visual literacy.” Encyclopedic museums are tied closely to their imperialistic history. They Present a unified collection, a world history of art and culture summarized within bounding walls. The out of context quality of their collections perpetuates oversimplified narratives and notions of understanding detached from reality. Their absolute definitions limit discussions; their curatorial categorizations based on geography and chronology are stagnating.
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TERRAIN 01
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Right: Google Earth captures of terrains from around the world- The primary interest was in terrains with seemingly unnatural hues of color. The more vibrant, the better. Some of the most vibrant terrains come from South America and that is where all of three of these are sampled from. TERRAIN 01 13°53’57”S 71°19’07”W Chachacomayoc Mountain located in Cusco Region of Peru TERRAIN 02 31°48’54”N 115°6’32”W Unknown mountain range in Baja, California
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TERRAIN 03 27°1’44”N 113°33’57”W Unknown canyon in Baja, California
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BOTTOM TERRAIN
ROOF TERRAIN
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EXPLODED AXON
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ROOF TERRACE: The roof terrace places individuals amongst artificial mountains with a view of the real mountains
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“The artificial terrains allow for a posthuman reframing guided by three moments of optical collapse: flattening, reflecting, and augmenting”
Left: Augmented view within the app interface.
This project abandons the concept of metahistory, the false narrative artificially created through the presentation of progress. It attempts to reveal what Anna Tsing describes as “the divergent, layered, and conjoined projects that make up worlds”, a genealogy that does not reduce history, art, culture into one of victors and losers. The hierarchies still are present, inherent to the museum; however, there is more to be uncovered and it is worth exploring the largely unplanned assemblages. The new museum of LACMA is one of a Geological Fiction. Hyper-real terrains frame and inform the spatial workings. The artificial terrain allows for a posthuman reframing guided by three moments of optical collapse: flattening, reflecting, and augmenting. Flattening occurs in elevation where the terrain of the roof is indistinct from the mountains that surround the city. The collapse produces an effect that renders artificial against the real. Reflecting occurs through an aerial view and on the site itself. Worlds are flipped when ground renders as sky and terrains flip against this backdrop. The final collapse occurs through an app that augments the experience of the building.
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The museum further resists the presentation of a metanarrative in this way and dynamically alters the space past its physical construction. As exhibitions change, the projected surroundings evolve and provoke altered states of time. It is possible to simultaneously exist within multiple narratives. The existing condition of the museum withdraws into the background and new possibilities are brought forward. Through the app the visitor is able to curate their own path through the building guided by landmarks and their own interests. Circulation through the museum involves continuous negotiation between the highly structured space of matrices, enfilades, and circuits, the loosely organized fragments, and the ephemeral digital space of the app. These regions meet unexpectedly and partially recontextualize the categorizations of the encyclopedic museum, allowing for the categorizations to continue to exist but not absolutely. The sectional activation prompts disruption of rigid curatorial framework. By revealing alternatives to existing categories the integrity of the established condition is put into question. The geological fiction culminates on top of a synthetic mountainscape as all moments of optical collapse converge simultaneously.
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Elevation North Elevation along Wilshire Boulevard
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FLATTENING
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Top: Exterior view in the outdoor plaza on the mirrored surface Left: Exterior view underneath the inverted bottom terrain. The ceiling reflects against the mirrored surface
REFLECTING 86
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PINK SALT MINE AUGMENTATION FILTER
WINTER AUGMENTATION FILTER
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BEACH AUGMENTATION FILTER
AUGMENTING
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SPRING AUGMENTATION FILTER
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Section Longitudinal Section along Wilshire Ave
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INFORMAL GATHERING / AUDITORIUM
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GALLERY SPACE
GALLERY SPACE W/ TRACES OF TERRAIN FRAGMENTS CONTAMINATING THE SPACE
“It is possible to exist within multiple narratives. The existing condition of the museum withdraws into the background and new possibilities are brought forward ”
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Birdseye View The mirror surface shows how the inverted bottom terrain flips against the reflected sky
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inVisible VS 4201 Professor: Elena Manferdini and Andrea Cadioli In Collaboration with Charlene Chen VS4201 - Spring 2020
From the course syllabus: This tactical unit departs from the assumption that today color is the sharpest tool in the box. And the way to look at color is subjective and variable depending on medium, lighting, tools and cultural context. The seminar will engage in the conversation on the democratization of colors we have witnessed in the past decade and their unparalleled ability to produce new forms of imagination. The first part of the seminar is a survey engineered to help students understand the potential of optical effects in a digital and physical environment and become familiar with color interactions and digital real time simulations. During the second part of the class, students experiment with invisible ink printing in order to produce invisible landscapes that come alive under various light conditions. The subject matter of the digital and physical landscape simulations will be flickering between a utopian and dystopian “messa in scena”. Students will investigate and identify disruptive patterns of global change (climate, waste, congestion etc) and envision visual responses that enhance the quality of living in the future. This seminar believes in the political power of images in architecture to represent a multitude of faceted realities, and engages in the risky business of communicating with a contemporary audience.
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Environment creation inspired by Wistman’s Wood in England using colors to simulate infared photography
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Top: Environment creationRocks and ground close-up Left: Environment creationRocks and fern close up with, the misty forest expanse looms in the background
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Top: Midreview inVisible ExhibitionPrints of the environments simulating infared photography Left: Midreview inVisible ExhibitionPrints of the environments simulating infared photography and monitors showing animated pans through the space
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Aerial view into the dense, foggy forest
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Nature takes over a deserted home as Spanish moss and trees grow and degrade the building
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“The notion of the Anthropocene brings to mind the power we have over nature. However we must stop to consider the power it has over us”
The notion of the Anthropocene brings to mind the power we have over nature. However, we must stop to consider the power it has over us. Left abandoned, nature quickly takes over what human beings left. From an aerial view, it begins with a descent into a lush forest. We see the ruins of a deserted location and signs of human’s intervention in nature. And now nature is taking over, as Spanish moss grows on beams and trees penetrate through walls. Wild animals are still habituating here harmoniously. As we ascend back above the treeline, in the distance, the city, soon to expand and take over the forest, creating a new urban scene. If this is an irresistible trend, can we imagine a more harmonious relationship between city and nature? A lush forest that co-inhabits a lush cityscape in which people and nature could coexist and live together without any boundary and spatial limitation. The landscape of nature seamlessly extends to the cityscape. The ground allows for growth while the city of the future takes to the skies. Hover cars zip through the air and elevated roadways keep the forest floor clear. Below the tree line, the sounds of the city are muffled and the sounds of nature take over.
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Right: Emerging out of the top of the tree line to see the skyscrapers the ascend above
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From the forest on the outskirts, the city skyline is seen beyond
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DESERTED LOCATION - NATURE TAKES OVER
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ABOVE THE TREE LINE IN THE CITY
BELOW THE TREE LINE IN THE CITY
“The ground allows for growth while the city of the future takes to the skies....Below the tree line, the sounds of the city are muffled and the sounds of nature take over.”
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Top: Black and White print under UV Light Courtesy of Andrea Cadioli Left: Black and White print Courtesy of Andrea Cadioli
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Photogrammetry Workshop 2GAX Studio Professors: Marcelyn Gow, Ferda Kolatan, Angelica Lorenzi, Rachael McCall, Casey Rehm, Jenny Wu Studio 2GAX - Autumn 2019
Sampling from the area of Chinatown in Los Angeles, as series of photogrammetry scans are combined to create unique compositional objects. This disrupts the notion of image and instead conflates multiple images together to form an odd artifact of Chinatown. The image is further blurred as resin drip techniques were used to create a messy layer of uniformity. The site is composed of a sort of fossilized ready-made condition of random objects and toys. Transitions between high resolution and low resolution create a unique site condition that vaguely references the vacuumed objects. A series of graphic overlays reference the process the image distortion through clear distortion of familiar graphic tropes.
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COMPOSITE 01
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Left: Three photogrammetry composites. (from left to right) COMPOSITE 01: An amalgamation of details extracted from a intricate dragon column from a temple in Chinatown COMPOSITE 02: A formal restructuring together of different facades scanned throughout Chinatown.
COMPOSITE 03
COMPOSITE 03: A fusion of roof elements and ornate details from the buildings of Chinatown.
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Top: Model Detail Media: 3d print dipped in resin, spray painted vacuum formed acrylic 12” x 12” Left: Model Detail Media: 3d print dipped in resin, spray painted vacuum formed acrylic 12” x 12”
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Model Detail Media: 3d print dipped in resin, spray painted vacuum formed acrylic 12” x 12”
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2GAX After Images Co-Work Office Building Professor: Jenny Wu In Collaboration with Jordan Scheuermann Studio 2GAX - Autumn 2019
From the course syllabus: The studio After Images questions the contemporary status of the image in architecture. Images permeate our daily interactions, whether mundane or extraordinary, and our engagement with and through them exerts unprecedented pressure on architecture’s historical identity as the locus of the real. The stability and immutability of Vitruvian firmitas has effervesced into in-numerous bits of data that congeal in myriad forms to comprise, describe and construct various aspects of our environment. We are challenged to re-imagine and to consider what is architecture after images; to invent the new stories that demand new forms, aesthetics, and ways of being in the world. The 2GAX studio will work after images and through after-images [a visual image or other sense impression that persists after the stimulus that caused it is no longer operative] reflecting on the idea that the capacity to describe an object through images may be such that the description of the object begins, in some instances, to coincide with the object itself, to augment it or to completely supplant it. Taking as a premise Jacques Rancière’s definition of images as “operations that produce a discrepancy, a dissemblance,” the studio will examine how the process of documentation of sites, objects, and spaces becomes deliberately misconstrued to engender multiple authenticities. We will perform acts of architectural duplicity that allow us to cut through the assumed real and discover the possibilities of architecture after images. Our focus is on the aesthetic dimension of architecture and the possible production of new modes of being in the world. We take Los Angeles as our site of inquiry, action and architectural speculation.
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128 COMPOSITE 02
COMPOSITE 01
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COMPOSITE 04
COMPOSITE 03
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STYLE TRANSFER
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STYLE TRANSFER
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cycleGAN style10
Ostagram
Texture map produced from cycleGAN
Texture map produced from Ostagram
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Web-like moments extracted from the Ostagram maps
Ostagram and cycleGAN maps spliced together
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FACADE DETAIL AT NIGHT. Portions of the texture illuminate to create a new sign to LA
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“Discrepancies re-contextualize the stock image of architecture form something highly ubiquitous to a sort of new semiotic - a representation of machine semiotic”
Left: Street view at night. The building is read against the signs of the building.
Our project is about images that through operations result in discrepancies. The result of the image processed and the inherent tension produced is what we define as AFTER IMAGE. We are interested in the discrepancies produced using operations of photogrammetry and AI image processing. Discrepancies result from the comparison of two things and with image processing, they are often between the original and the resultant. Our composition becomes an amalgamation of high fidelity and low fidelity components inherent from operations of photogrammetry that begin to produce a sidedness or in other words having distinct sides. A sidedness between facades. Each facade is very different from its adjacent facades yet works together to construct a coherent whole. A sidedness between each side. There is a void side and a solid side. The voided side becomes an elevated courtyard for the public while the other side is the co-working and office spaces. Discrepancies are also produced with the envelope and texture of the building The texture begins with a stock image of architecture - Stock image in the sense that it is generic and ubiquitous. Two variations of machine vision are implemented to produce a discrepancy of fidelity. Fidelity can be looked at as having two variations here. One instance maintains fidelity to the building and the other maintains fidelity to the image. One is highly articulated to the building Ahmed
and distorts the stock image to reflect the form. And one that is a loose interpretation and maintains the original quality of the image. One shows instances of the original image and has more variation (ostagram) while the other creates a field condition of overall coherence with local difference. (cycleGAN). This multi reading of fidelity begins to blur the line of which image takes priority within AI image processing and allows us to consider the potential of the discrepancies produced Discrepancies re-contextualize the stock image of architecture from something highly ubiquitous to a sort of new semiotic - a representation of machine semiotic. At night the texture becomes a new sign to Chinatown. The glowing texture produces a new semiotic language. One that takes into consideration the past context but re-imagines it through a post-digital lens. In this way, the original culture is not lost. If semiotics is about understanding then we are making known the presence of machine thought. By using a stock image of architecture, the image of architecture evolves through the relinquishing of a top-down human hierarchy. Rather than adding to the realm of stock images, we feed it through a new lens in order to free the image from the world of stock images. This project posits human agency as an after process of machine thought.
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South Elevation Two types of AI image processing combine to make up the texture of the building
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Section Interior Vignette Informal meeting spaces overlook one another
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Top: Plan Office spaces and informal meeting spaces Left: Section interior vignette of lecture/ meeting steps
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WEST ELEVATION DETAIL CLOSE UP
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OBLIQUE STREET VIEW
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“If semiotics is about understanding then we are making known the presence of machine thought. By using a stock image of architecture, the image of architecture evolves through the relinquishing of a top-down human hierarchy”
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Render: South Oblique View The building stands out in the city and emphasizes the discrepancies produced by image processes
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Top: Model Photo 3d printed parts Laser cut acrylic roads Scale 1’=1/16” 36” x 36” Left: Model Photo 3d printed parts Laser cut acrylic roads Scale 1’=1/16” 36” x 36”
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SLICE-IT VS 4200 Professor: Andrea Cadioli and Curime Batliner In Collaboration with Jordan Scheuermann VS4200 - Autumn 2019
From the course syllabus: “Playing in the game of part to whole, the course looks at the potential of a gestural cut as a device for the production of dualities in an ontologically weak system. Concepts of inside/out, open/close, right/wrong are challenged in a surface in continuous evolution in between opposing identities. Following the contemporary explorations of the 2.5D canvas in post-digital area, the project investigates the architectural facade as a space of multiplicities and singularity, deeply public and in an infinitely state of fluxation.”
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2.5 D GRAPHIC: offset lines projected onto a sphere
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“We are living in the mechanical age. Painted canvas and standing plaster figures no longer have any reason to exist. What is needed is a change in both essence and form. What is needed is the supercession of painting, sculpture, poetry, and music.” - Lucio Fontana
Left: 2.5 D graphic: a series of lines and hatches are projected onto a cube
Projections onto a rotating three-dimensional canvas produce an state of fluxation between 2D and 3D. A gif like animation shows this condition as edges and faces briefly reveal themselves for a fleeting moment with the projected lines wrapping and distorting around the invisible canvas. Hatches and offset lines add a layer of graphic tropes while also further indexing this invisible canvas. This halfway state between 2D and 3D is born out of an ontologically weak system that inherently allows for the production of a dual relationship, one that is halfway or oscillates between the two. Snapshots of these moving drawings were used to create stickers and panels that saturated the walls and floors of the gallery space. Similar to their creation, projected outlines and graphics were overlayed atop the physically cutouts.
were able to be tested by using a robot arm to simulate the position of each unit in a given tessellated system. Each single position was then digitally stitched together to visualize the facade as a whole. This process inherently produced local nuances that added some more complexity and variation to the overall whole. These nuances included, reflections off acrylic face plates, bent flaps of canvas, and gaps between the tessellated units.
In parallel with these graphic explorations, the projects ultimate goal was to, “investigate the architectural facade as a space of multiplicities and singularity, deeply public and in an infinitely state of fluxation.” The creation of a single panel with the ability to be tessellated allowed for the unique exploration of facades. Multiple configurations
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Top: Slice-it mid review exhibition Stickers and panels cover the floor and walls and accompanied by projection overlays Courtesy of Andrea Cadioli Left: Slice-It mid review exhibition Detail of floor sticker and wall panels Courtesy of Andrea Cadioli
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Right: Final facade composition from the single tessellated panel Left: Robot Lab The robot arm rotates the single panel to each location within the tessellated system
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Top: Facade composition from a tessellated triangular panel
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Right: Slice-It Final Exhibit Final built column showing our final composition Left: Slice-It Final Exhibit Columns dispersed through the gallery with a different composition on each side
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Tectonics Musee De Confluences Case Study Professor: Maxi Spina and Randy Jefferson In Collaboration with Allison Hoagland, Jordan Scheuermann, and Hans Steffes Advanced Systems Materials and Tectonics - Autumn 2019
Beginning with an intense study of a chunk portion of the Musee des Confluence’s envelope system and assemblies, the most iconic portion of the building is what the firm calls “The Crystal.” Afterwards we were tasked with redesigning an intervention the building envelope. From Coop Himme(l)blau’s website: The Crystal performs like an urban square, receiving visitors and preparing them for the museum experience. It is oriented toward the world in which we daily evolve; its contours are precise; its form is crystalline and measurable. This crystalline nature results from its glass-and-steel construction. Large panes of glass are mounted in steel frames: assemblages that, by virtue of being resistant to flexion, make the various folded surfaces seem reflective. The Gravity Well —a central element— provide a refrain both to the structural efforts and to the luminous sculpture.
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Original Musee des Confluences crystal chunk detail
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Adjustable Aluminium Blinds
Extra Clear Single Glazed Panels
Tensile Steel Cables
Adjustable Aluminium Blinds
Composite Aluminium Panels
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Steel Decking Tapered HEB 400 Steel I-Beam
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400 x 200mm HSS
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PRIMARY STRUCTURE: 400 x 200mm HSS
SECONDARY STRUCTURE: 100 x 100mm HSS
GRAVITY WELL STRUCTURE
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Top: Render by Coop Himmelb(l)au Oblique view of the”Crystal” atrium Courtesy of coop-himmelblau.at Left: Breakdown of the main structure types, primary and secondary as well as an isolated Gravity Well detail
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Adjustable Aluminium Blinds
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Steel Decking
Tapered HEB 400 Steel I-Beam
Composite Aluminum Panels
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12mm Weld Plates
Extra Clear Single Glazed Panels
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Extra Clear Single Glazed Panels
Composite Aluminum Panels
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100 x 50 mm HSS Steel Decking
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100 x 50 mm HSS Primary Structure
400 x 200 mm HSS
Welded Connection
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100 x 100mm HSS
Mullion / CNC Cut Extruded Aluminum
Extra Clear Single Glazed Panels
Aluminium Gutter Aluminium Gutter
Curved Glass
Drain Pipe
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100mm x 100mm Hollow Steel Tubes
Aluminium Gutter
Extra Clear Single Glazed Panels
3-mm Stainless Steel Plates
100mm Steel Plate
Curved Glass
EPDM Rubber Locked Gasket
400mm x200m Hollow Steel Stube
Aluminium Clips
50mm Hollow Tube Drain Pipe
400mm x 400mm Hollow Steel Stube
50 mm Hollow Tube Drain Pipe
Light Well
Light Fixture
EPDM Gasket
Light Gauge Rebar
Steel Decking
Moisture Barrier
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ETFE Cushions
Composite Aluminium Panels
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Steel Decking Tapered HEB 400 Steel I-Beam
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Crystal Chunk Envelope redesign: ETFE envelope and new panel pattern drastically reduce the structure of the building
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CNC Cut Extruded Aluminium Mullion
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ETFE Structural Ribing
ETFE Inflation Pipe
HEB 400 Steel I-Beam
Steel Decking
Light Gauge Rebar
Aluminium Panel
ETFE or Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene is a fluorinebased plastic polymer that has recently found usage in architectural glazing applications. It can be formed into a single layer membrane or multi-layer cushions supported by an aluminum frame. A standard three layer cushion can achieve a U value of 1.96 w/mK, which presents a better insulation value than triple glazing when used horizontally, as in much of the Crystal of Musée des Confluences. ETFE transmits up to 95 percent of natural light, while weighing approximately one percent of the weight of standard glazing. Because of this, by replacing the glazing of the Crystal with ETFE the primary and secondary structure and foundation can be significantly reduced. One design struggle recognized in Coop Himmelb(l)au’s Musée des Confluences was the maintenance of the glazing on the exterior of the gravity well. In the built project this was resolved with a bridge that connects the interior ramp to a trapdoor that leads outside. ETFE features a unique low friction coefficient that prevents dust or dirt from sticking to its surface and would remove the need for such a maintenance intervention to occur upon the design. Removing the bridge would allow the ramp to wrap around the gravity well uninterrupted and in a more
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aesthetically pleasing manor. Additionally, the ETFE allows for the curvature of the gravity well to be a continuous uninterrupted surface. The original glazing in comparison required triangulation and thus more structure to make the same geometry.
“The Crystal becomes a light cloud that connects the Musee des Confluences to it’s surrounding”
For the redesign of Musée des Confluences ETFE creates the opportunity to accomplish more with the building façade as an entire composition. Instead of existing only as a transparent barrier between interior and exterior, the panels are elaborately patterned and stretch across the new simplified structural system. The Crystal becomes a light cloud that connects the Musée des Confluences to its surrounding.
Right: Envelope redesign: Gravity Well and ETFE envelope chunk detail
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STAIR AND FACADE DETAIL
6mm Rebar
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400 x 200mm HSS
Double Layer ETFE Cushions
Single Layer ETFE Membrane
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ETFE Inflation and Gutters
100 x 50 mm HSS
Steel Decking
Tapered HEB 400 Steel I-Beam
Composite Aluminum Panels
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Double Layer ETFE Cushions
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ETFE Inflation and Gutters
Double Layer ETFE Cushions
Composite Aluminum Panels
100 x 50 mm HSS Steel Decking
400 x 200 mm HSS
ETFE Membrane w/ Frit Pattern
Aluminium Cap Seal
Flexible Hose
Composite Sheet-metal and Plastic-sheet Gutter Steel C Channel Air Supply Tube
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HT 2201 Divided Realities Abstract Professors: John Cooper, Erik Ghenoiu Final Research Project MAGAZINE The world today exists in many different states and temporalities. Humans are living in a state of fragmentation and divided existence. Many artists and writers have acknowledged this condition. Hito Steyerl speaks specifically of the speed at which images and media travel giving way to the creation of what she calls “the poor image”.1 This proliferation of media is what has produced our current state of fragmentation. Joshua Cohen frames this similar condition as a state of distraction. He states that “this ever-increasing amount of information coming at us at this ever-increasing speed rendered us unable to attend to our own divided presences, let alone to a world that, though it wasn’t united, was suddenly “global”.”2 As designers, recognition of the world’s many temporal states is crucial. In light of recent events following the coronavirus pandemic, has quickly become apparent the many modes to which we exist, particularly our virtual existence. People simultaneously exist physically and digitally. It is hard to imagine a world without the internet, without screens, and without our global connectedness. The distractions are here to stay. However, Joshua Cohen reminds us that “digital technology is not at fault. Rather, to blame digital technology is to blame ourselves.”3 Our collective urge to seek out information, to constantly be wired, and to divide our attention is what drives technology and inherently leads to our distraction. With this as our reality, how do you design for such distractions? Is it possible to attend to our multiple states simultaneously? How does experience vary between these multiple states? These are questions that many multimedia artists are tackling. Analyzing these works as case studies and clues, multimedia artists prove that architecture can transcend its conventional physical construction to one that can straddle the line between physical and digital.
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Image Object: Photos of objects with digital overlays. Courtesy of artievierkant.com
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“Vierkant is standing in as a mere actor in this cycle to his own work.”
Steyerl, Hito. “In Defense of the Poor Image.” e-Flux Journal, no. #10 (2009). 1
Cohen, Joshua. Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction. (New York: Random House, 2019) 3. 2
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Fure, Adam. “Aesthetics Post Digital.” Aesthetics Across Disciplines. Ed. Mark Gage. (Cambridge: MIT Press, forthcoming. print. 2019) 104. 4
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Left: Image Object: Photos of objects with digital overlays. Courtesy of artievierkant.com
IMAGE- OBJECT: ARTIE VIERKANT Artie Vierkant’s image-object has emerged out of the ideas pertaining to “post-internet.” I use him as an example to point out how we don’t belong to one single reality but platforms like the internet have allowed us to live through multiple mediums. Adam Fure states that “the term “post-internet” has surfaced in recent years to describe a group of artists who consider the Internet to be a mundane backdrop of reality.”4 Vierkant attends to our states of reality through a unique take on authorship. Realizing that his art would maintain an additional life on the internet apart from its life in a physical gallery, he circulates digitally altered photos on the internet. In this way, the two states in which the artwork exists are very different. Rather than using the internet as a means to document the work, he goes further to present it as a new piece separately. These digitally altered photographs are what he calls “imageobjects.” Fure further explains that “ Vierkant’s work undoes long standing binaries of “original” and “copy,” as each stage in the process becomes a new object that needs not refer to something else.”5
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The internet today proliferates images and media through means of copies. Media is constantly being uploaded, downloaded, altered then uploaded again; the cycle continues infinitely. Vierkant is standing in as a mere actor in this cycle to his own work.
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Right: Image Object: Photos of objects with digital overlays. Courtesy of artievierkant.com Left: Image Object: Photos of objects with digital overlays. Courtesy of artievierkant.com
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Nike, 2018 - Theo triantafyllidis: Augmented Sculpture. Courtesy of slimetech.org
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THEO TRIANTAFYLLIDIS Theo Triantafyllidis’s work distinctively exists in multiple states and temporalities. He makes this explicit in his use of an avatar for when he creates art in a virtual reality (VR) space. In many of his work’s he documents their creation as a performative piece in which he is portrayed as his avatar, an Ork. In VR space, you can be anyone you want to be and Theo takes this to an extreme with how absurd and fantastical his avatar is. Similar to a person’s identity on the internet, VR creates a space that frees people to adopt new identities. Maybe a person’s identity in these different versions of reality are their truest form? Apart from the form he takes, Theo’s virtual spaces are based entirely on reality. The space that his avatar inhabits is also the same physical space that a viewer would experience the work. Theo states in an interview with Faith Holland that he’s “interested in bringing objects across this physicalvirtual divide and seeing how they mutate each time they are recreated.”6 The physical-virtual divide that he sets up almost creates a sort of multiverse that collapses the physical onto the virtual. All of a
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sudden a studio space with the finished sculpture is cluttered with the fragments of the unfinished work as you peer into the temporal space it was created. Holland describes Theo’s Role Play project as being in dynamic tension, “where everything is partial, made temporarily complete only through the presence of the viewer.”7 I argue that rather labour continues with or without the viewers presence. This is why the idea of temporality is very interesting in Theo’s work. The VR space alone maintains multiple points in time simultaneously. First, at the actual creation of the work, which is always implied. Next during the viewers presence to experience the work. An anthropocentric mindset would have one believe that this virtual recording only exists when they see it. However, the final temporal space exists in an infinite loop on replay forever making and remaking art in his studio. It continues regardless of if we see it or not. Theo shows us that VR is just another reality that exists alongside the many others but also has implications of our physical reality to contain worlds within worlds.
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“ The physicalvirtual divide that he sets up almost creates a sort of multiverse that collapses the physical onto the virtual.”
6 “Queering Ork Aesthetics & Existing beyond the Virtual: Theo Triantafyllidis in Conversation with Faith Holland.” atractivoquenobello, July 23, 2018. https://www. aqnb.com/2018/07/23/queering-ork-aesthetics-and-existing-beyond-the-virtual-theo-triantafyllidis-in-conversation-with-faith-holland/. 7
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Right: Painting, 2018 Theo Triantafyllidis Wall Mounted Mixed Media Piece Courtesy of slimetech.org
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Studio Visit, 2018 Theo Triantafyllidis Site Specific Mixed Reality Installation Courtesy of slimetech.org
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Novel. Robots and AR simulations. Courtesy of novel.af
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“The layered physical world that comes out of mixed reality implies the many lenses needed to view the world of the future.” Kruysman, Brandon. “Why We Traded In Our Video Cameras for Game Engines.” Medium. HackerNoon.com, April 30, 2019. 8
Left: Novel Augmented Reality- exploded virtual elements Courtesy of novel.af
NOVEL Novel studio works a lot with augmented reality (AR) but does so in a way that there is also a physical component to them. The physical component could be a light pulse, physical gestures, sounds, etc. These micro bridges between augmentation and physical reality help to collapse the divide between the two. Novel realized that visualization and simulation are restricted to the space of the screen. In lieu of this, they are more “interested in the potential of the game engine to not only influence the virtual and what we see on our screen, but also the physical environment.”8 In their There Not Here experiment, they synchronize physical elements to AR simulations. The precise coordination between the two worlds creates effects where the physical reacts to the digital and vice versa. Through this continuous negotiation, digital slips into the physical and physical slips into the digital. The two merge together and create an experience that is not binary between both conditions but instead produces a true mixed reality. The layered physical world that comes out of mixed reality implies the many lenses needed to view the world of
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the future. What you see is not all there is to see. AR creates an ephemeral environment around us. With helpful coordinated clues manifested in the physical environment, their presence is made known.
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Rachel Rossin: LOSSY, 2015, @ Zieher Smith & Horton, NYC 2015. Courtesy of rossin.co
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RACHEL ROSSIN Rachel Rossin’s project, Lossy, has another take on virtual reality. Her VR paintings provide an expanded view of the flattened physical canvases that she exhibits alongside the VR experience. The canvases present the viewer first with this relatively stable image but a look into the virtual world reveals that these paintings belong to a fragmented and dynamic environment. She describes the project in an interview that “worlds are set loose on themselves: gravity finds itself inverted and once strictly 2-d paintings are repurposed in cloth dynamics simulations...The paintings are thus subjected to repurposing with the final result being work on canvas made from these virtual tableaus––manifesting what was previously digital into physical.”9 The 2D canvases are limited in their ability to convey the true nature of the space but at the same time are framed and composed snapshots that present themselves as the ideal view. In this way, both the physical and the digital peer into each other, providing each with a new frame of reference. The project also speaks to our relationship to screens as the ultimate way to escape and move
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into different conditions of reality. Rossin says in the same interview that “the exhibition posits that our relationship with reality isn’t comprised of a separate virtual and real but looks more like a gradient between the two––with most of our modern lives being lived in the action of hopping from screen to screen.”10 The screens in this case are the canvas and the oculus rift VR goggles. While they can exist separately, they cannot be fully understood without the other.
“In this way, both physical and the digital peer into each other, providing each with a new frame of reference.” 6 “Queering Ork Aesthetics & Existing beyond the Virtual: Theo Triantafyllidis in Conversation with Faith Holland.” atractivoquenobello, July 23, 2018. https://www. aqnb.com/2018/07/23/queering-ork-aesthetics-and-existing-beyond-the-virtual-theo-triantafyllidis-in-conversation-with-faith-holland/. 7
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Right: Rachel Rossin: LOSSY, 2015, @ Zieher Smith & Horton, NYC 2015. Courtesy of rossin.co
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Rachel Rossin: LOSSY, 2015, @ Zieher Smith & Horton, NYC 2015. Courtesy of rossin.co
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“Architecture is not confined to the “here and now””
Smithson, Robert, Robert Smithson, and Jack D Flam. Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings. (berkeley: University of California press, 1996). 17. 11
Cohen, Joshua. Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction. (New York: Random House, 2019) 159. 2
Left: Rachel Rossin: LOSSY, 2015, @ Zieher Smith & Horton, NYC 2015. Courtesy of rossin.co
ARCHITECTURE “Often the false has a greater reality than the true.”11 The “falseness” of the virtual and digital have just as much weight in our definitions of reality as the physical does. So how can these projects inform architecture? Architecture’s manifestation is largely through physical buildings. As we move towards the future, augmented reality and virtual reality will become more ubiquitous in everyday life. We are already starting to see AR on a regular basis from Snapchat filters to a measuring tape in your pocket. It is no surprise to speculate that other forms of reality will begin to alter the spaces we experience today. The world today is often described by how connected we are. I can open up google maps, and “walk through” street view to experience a new city. You can even step into prominent buildings and explore from within. Similarly, VR enables users to virtually transport at a global level. Our presences are continually being divided, split and even multiplied across all the platforms of reality. Architecture is not confined to the “here and now”. It can exist through expanding realities of AR and VR. Reality need not be
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limited to just the physical spaces, it can become layered as different forms of realities collapse onto one another and we experience a convergence of worlds, temporalities, and ephemera. The ability to overlay fictional and fantastical worlds onto mundane spaces also can be a powerful notion within architecture. It conveys an idea of impermanence onto long lasting structures as well as provokes altered states of time. It is possible to simultaneously exist within multiple narratives. Flattened physical objects and spaces become expansive through AR and VR capabilities. Almost like a sort of data file where multilayered collapse of folders becomes unlocked and expanded through alternate realities. Maybe this is just another means to our distraction but it is ultimately the course of our future. “We’ll inevitably either crash into our own representations, or just swerve at the ultimate moment toward the precipice instead, from which we’ll fall––we’ll fall–– which is the sole process by which realism becomes reality.”12
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Cohen, Joshua. Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction. (New York: Random House, 2019) Fure, Adam. “Aesthetics Post Digital.” Aesthetics Across Disciplines. Ed. Mark Gage. (Cambridge: MIT Press, forthcoming. Print. 2019) Kruysman, Brandon. “Why We Traded In Our Video Cameras for Game Engines.” Medium. HackerNoon.com, April 30, 2019. “Queering Ork Aesthetics & Existing beyond the Virtual: Theo Triantafyllidis in Conversation with Faith Holland.” atractivoquenobello, July 23, 2018. https://www.aqnb.com/2018/07/23/queeringork-aesthetics-and-existing-beyond-the-virtual-theo-triantafyllidis-in-conversation-with-faithholland/. Smithson, Robert, Robert Smithson, and Jack D. Flam. Robert Smithson, the Collected Writings. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996) Steyerl, Hito. “In Defense of the Poor Image.” e-Flux Journal, no. #10 (2009). ZieherSmith. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://ziehersmith.com/exhibition/139/lossy.
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HT 2200 Anthropocentrism Towards AI in Film and a Shift to Posthumanism Professor: Marcelyn Gow Theories of Contemporary Architecture I Autumn 2019 ABSTRACT The concept of the Posthuman is not one that is other to the Human. The Posthuman is rather the evolution of the consciousness of humans. Cary Wolfe describes posthumanism as a new mode of thought after humanism.1 Heavily dependent on the concept of object-oriented ontology, the evolution from human to posthuman first involves the decentering of the human. In a world that is becoming more technologically advanced, our acknowledgment of this decentered position becomes ever more apparent alongside the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is not a simulacrum of human intelligence or consciousness. Instead, it is another diverse way of thinking. AI thinking and intelligence that we as humans can not fully access, but as posthumans, we can be aware of as well as use to expand our own intelligence. “No single neuro-anatomical disposition has a monopoly on how to think intelligently”.2 In a way, this acknowledgment brings forth inherent darkness. The uncertainty of a knowledge that we can not access but are fully aware of presents certain psychological impacts—a fear of this uncertainty (a remnant of the human condition). This fear is very present in cultural imagery. Specifically in film. Films like Ex Machina and Her deal with AI but still do so in an anthropocentric view. In reality, I argue that a world in which AI is advanced and ubiquitous, the notion of an anthropocentric world is impossible and the Posthuman must emerge.
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FIGURE 02: Caleb talks to Ava form behind the glass to perform the Turing test in Ex Machina
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“Should complex AI arrive, it will not be humanlike unless we insist that it pretend to be so” - Benjamin Bratton
Left: Ava Breaks free from her containment in the movie Ex Machina Garland, Alex. Ex Machina. Universal Studios, 2015. 3
Vinge, Vernor. “The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era.” VISION-21 Symposium, March 30, 1993. https:// edoras.sdsu.edu/~vinge/misc/ singularity.html. 4
Benjamin H. Bratton, “Outing AI: Beyond the Turing Test,” (New York Times, February 23, 2015), 4. 5
Garland, Alex. Ex Machina. Universal Studios, 2015. 6
“If you’ve created a conscious machine it’s not the history of man… that’s the history of Gods.”3 This quote from Ex Machina depicts our current view of AI in film. It is anthropocentric and driven by both ego and fear. Science fiction films also seem to point to what futurists term, The Singularity. The Singularity is when technology begins to advance at an exponential rate, specifically with the emergence of super-intelligent AI. The term’s first use in the context of technological advancement was in an essay by Vernon Vinge in which he says that shortly after the creation of a superintelligence (The Singularity), the human era will be ended.4 Instead of the literal end to humans, this should be seen as an end to humans and evolution to posthuman. Countless examples of AI in film have portrayed the Singularity in an Anthropocentric light. While most AI in film is anthropocentric, it is important to understand that the notion of AI transforms the human to posthuman and leaves to question, how do we engage in a posthuman world?
when Caleb refers to the creation of a conscious machine as being in the history of Gods. But it still begs the question as to whether it is necessary. Benjamin Bratton notes that “should complex AI arrive, it will not be human-like unless we insist that it pretend to be so.”5 This depiction of AI in our own image reflects a narcissistic view of our own intelligence. A reading into it suggests that the only form a machine or being with super intelligence could take is one that is human. Not only does AI look like humans but they also have an affinity towards humans. While Caleb is performing the Turing test on Ava, he asks her where she would go if she went outside. She responds, a busy traffic intersection in the city. “A traffic intersection would provide a concentrated but shifting view of human life.”6 While people watching is a nice way to pass time, are we so self centered to suggest that the first thing a superintelligent machine would want to do outside is concerned with humans? Caleb points out that it is an obvious choice. However, there are far more interesting places to visit. A better example of AI’s affinity shown towards humans is the movie, Her.
One of the key features in movies and how they depict AI is that they are always in the image of the human. Perhaps this is a biblical reference, why do we create AI in our own image? This is certainly referenced in Ex Machina
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SPIKE JONZE. Theodore first installs the new artificially intelligent operating system
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In the movie, Her, Samantha, a superintelligent operating system (OS), never has a physical form.7 But she develops a relationship with her owner, Theodore, and other people too are doing the same. The OS’s are given personalities and emotions. Here we see AI almost yearning to be human and to have a body. In fact, there is a scene in which Samatha hires a woman to be her surrogate body. Her is interesting though in that the users do not show fear towards the idea of a superintelligence that is able to communicate with people on an emotional level. I’m sure not all the users were quite as pleasant as Theodore is to Samantha. Imagine what could happen if one of the OS’s got angry. It could be quite a different movie and on par with something like Terminator. However, Samantha comes off as human in how she talks, feels and expresses herself. For a moment, one might forget that she is an OS. It’s almost like Theodore does when he comes to find out that Samantha is in love with six-hundred other people and thinks it’s insane. Instead of realizing the capacity she has to think and communicate with the world, he amounts it to an act of cheating. The whole movie could be redone except with the minor change of Samantha being someone that Theodore meets online and develops a long distance relationship with. This goes to show how anthropocentric
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AI in the movie Her is, despite the fact that she never has a physical form. While most depictions of AI are all human-like, in the movie Interstellar, robots, TARS and CASE, take on a more robust and functional look.8 They are large, rectangular boxes that split into four legs. Perhaps this is the best example of AI in film that most accurately represents the AI of the future. TARS doesn’t pretend to come off as human. Although he does communicate at a level that understands the intricacies of the human condition. For example, he has a humor setting to help relax the team. In the end, TARS is used to sense and transmit the quantum data from within the black hole—something that humans could not do. There was a reason TARS was brought on the mission. He is valued for something other than his ability to replicate human thought. The idea that a way of thinking is valued alongside human thought is essential to being posthuman.
“The advancement of AI will for the first time present humanity with an intelligence superior to ours”
Right: Theodore with the surrogate that Samantha hired in Her. She visibly wears an earpiece and camera for Samantha to interact with Theodore Jonze, Spike. Her. Annapurna Pictures, 2014. 7
Nolan, Christopher. Interstellar. Paramount Pictures, 2014. 8
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Why is it that the AI will transform the notion of human to posthuman? Tim Morton says that “OOO radically displaces the human by insisting that my being is not everything it’s cracked up to be- or rather that the being of a paper cup is as profound as mine.”9 Humans might have a hard time wrapping their head around a paper cup being as profound as being human. However, the advancement of AI will for the first time present humanity with an intelligence superior to ours. Maybe the transformation will be an act of conceding, but the realization will cause an overall decentering of the human. It’s like when someone is the star athlete on a track team in high school. They have natural talent and need not put in much work. They easily win every race and break school records. Their success earns them a recruitment and scholarship to a major university. However, upon competing at this higher level, they learn that talent is not enough, there are people better than them, and suddenly they become decentered. Now they are just like everyone else. Just as this person would evolve, maybe become more humble, and be motivated to work harder so too would humanity when faced with The Singularity. But this analogy only takes into account something that is seemingly smarter than humans. Ironically, the evolution of
human to posthuman sort of relies on us being human in the first place. Our egos so high that the realization that we are not the center of everything comes when we are essentially defeated. But this sense of yielding to a higher intelligence should not be the stepping stone into posthumanism. With how abrupt The Singularity sounds and is predicted to happen, our shift to posthuman should be a smooth and positive one. Development of advanced AI should not trigger our shift to posthuman. Rather the development of AI should always be posthuman.
“ Ironically, the evolution of human to posthuman sort of relies on us being human in the first place”
Morton, Timothy. “Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World.” (university of Minnesota Press, 2013), 17. 9
Below: SPIKE JONZE. Theodore with the surrogate that Samantha hired in Her. She visibly wears an earpiece and camera for Samantha to interact with Theodore.
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FIGURE 03: Astronaut stands next to a similar AI robot to TARS named CASE
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Now that we’ve established that the evolution to posthuman is inevitable with the advancement of AI, then what? How do we engage in a world that is posthuman? Cary Wolfe exclaims that “the nature of thought itself must change if it is to be posthumanist.”10 The nature of thought now seems to be as movies depict it–human centered. However, thought must change to be on level ground with all things. This change needs to happen with the advancement of AI not after. If not, the image of AI could very well be human. “We should see AI not in terms of how we think what we think... but as something that embodies another position than we do along a shared continuum of material intelligence.”11 With all the fear and anxieties portrayed in so many movies it neglects to see the positives of shifting to a posthumanist view. Intelligence is not owned by humans, but instead we see the different ways of thinking and the fluidity of intelligence. Even with something as simple as style transfer on images with the AI today, one already begins to learn how a machine’s thinking is different than ours. How a machine reads and interprets an image is different than ours. “The real philosophical lessons of AI will have less to do with humans teaching machines how to think than with machines teaching humans a fuller and truer range of what thinking can be.”12 Being posthuman
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means being open to all the things around you, including modes of thought different to ours. We engage the world as posthumans through a give and take. We initially train machines but in the end they end up teaching us. Another way to look at it is to consider how a machine thinks. A machine thinks because it’s ability to sense and learn from that stimuli. A machine senses are different than ours and thus its thinking is different than ours. Training an AI on the same stimuli that humans perceive would not yield the same results because ultimately, AI sees the world differently than us. And this is something we can learn from. How we engage with the world as posthumans will have a significant impact on our relationship to AI because AI is inherently posthuman. It will not be as science fiction has depicted it. The power in AI is where it is different to ours. The goal is to solve problems that we could never think of. Human’s expanded thought is simply a result of the realization that there are other ways to think—right in front of our eyes. AI might be feared as the last invention humans will ever make and this is true but only because we will have evolved into posthumans.
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“The real philosophical lessons of AI will have less to do with humans teaching machines how to think than with machines teaching humans a fuller and truer range of what thinking can be” - Benjamin Bratton
Right: Inside the tesseract in Interstellar. This is where TARS analyzes the quantum data needed to transmit across time. Wolfe, Cary. “What is Posthumanism?” Minneapolis, MN: (University of Minnesota Press, 2009), xvi. 10
Bratton, Benjamin. New Geographies 09: Posthumanism. “Geographies of Sensitive Matter: On Artificial Intelligence at Urban Scale.” (New York: Actar D, 2018), 30. 11
12 Benjamin H. Bratton, “Outing AI: Beyond the Turing Test,” (New York Times, February 23, 2015), 5.
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House of Hyper Pop Intro to Digital Design Professor: Andrea Cadioli and Rachael McCall IDD- Intro to Digital Design Summer 2019
“While cuteness traditionally entails an absolute lack of anything threatening ... noting that objects are cutest when maimed or hobbled, Murakami’s stylistic mutilation (of cute characters) ... calls attention to the violence always implicit in our relation to the cute object while simultaneously making it more menacing to the observer. The more a character appears to be the object or victim of aggression, the more it appears to be an agent of aggression. Murakami’s painting suggests that it is possible for cute objects to be helpless and aggressive at the same time.” - Sienne Ngai From the course syllabus: House of (Hyper)Pop will mix studies of pop objects, gaming aesthetics and hyper graphics. Continuously juxtaposing smooth rendered hyper-real objects with flat wallpapers, super graphics and augmented textures at low and high resolution.
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Full composition showing the multiple “windows” into the different worlds
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Right: Second World: World of carnivorous plants and cut picman creatures. Left: Third world: zero gravity world with playful Murakami characters as they float amongst bubbles
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© 2021 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission of copyright owner. Southern California Institute of Architecture