Kyle Steinfeld, 2020
I am not an imaginary person.
I am an Associate Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley, where I've been teaching for just about ten years.
My work centers on the dynamic relationship between the creative practice of design and computational design methods.
While one of these is often characterized as a direct determinant of the other, my work seeks to demonstrate that...
The interplay between new technologies of design and the culture of design practice comes into sharp contrast at intense moments of technological or social change. In my career as a student and a scholar of architectural design, I have witnessed two such intense moments.
The first was in the mid-1990s, when, as an undergraduate student of architecture, I was a part of a transitional generation that saw the shift from analog to digital representation.
The second was in the early-2000s, when, as a graduate student and young professional, I saw the adoption of computational techniques in design, such as scripting and parametric modeling.
These moments are what the historian Mario Carpo has called the "two digital turns". Based on my experience, It seems to me that we are at the cusp of a third.
I think so based on what has been happening across a range of creative fields.
Catalyzed by new advances in machine learning, and the development of methods for making these advances visible and accessible to a wider audience, the past seven years has seen a burst of renewed interest in generative practices across the domains of fine art, music, and graphic design.
I'll offer here a quick overview of the short history of these tools in creative practice, and will highlight three precedent projects that I find particularly relevant.
Here, the drawings of an author are augmented with predictions of what is to come next. The model underlying this tool was trained using Google Quickdraw.
The same model as in the previous slide, with this visualization showing many possible futures for the sketch. The model underlying this tool was trained using Google Quickdraw.
Here, an ML model has been trained to understand the transformation from a line-drawing of a cat to a photographic image of a cat. Once training is complete, this model will attempt to create a cat-like image of any given line drawing.
Neil Bickford, 2019
NVIDIA, 2019
Tom White is an artist who is interested in representing "the way machines see the world". He uses image classification models to produce abstract ink prints that reveal visual concepts.
Scott Eaton is a anatomical artist who uses custom-trained transfer models as a "creative collaborator" in his figurative drawings. His large-scale piece "Fall of the Damned" was the inspiration for the Sketch2Pix tool developed for this course.
Scott Eaton, 2019
Perhaps the most ambitious of the precedents I'll show today comes from the tech-forward band YACHT, who produced a concept album titled "Chain Tripping" in which AI played a role at every step. This included:
The machine-generation of melodies and beats based on the band's previous recordings
The machine-generation of lyrics and song titles from the band's previous albums
The collaboration with AI artists in the design of the album cover and promotional materials.
In a sentiment we hope to emulate in this studio, Claire Evans states: "We wanted to understand it. We knew that the best way to do that is to make something."
Koki Ibukuro, 2019
AI-generated material might hold utility as a provocation at the start of the design process - as a way for us to shake off our preconceptions.
Jeremy Graham, 2019
Erik Swahn, 2019
We might find utility in the application of an AI-completion model to fill in the low-level details of a design based on high-level human gestures.
Stanislas Chaillou 2019
There are those that advocate for the more comprehensive automation of broad portions of the design process. I am not such an advocate.
This undergraduate studio offered in the Spring of 2020 proceeded through a series of lightly-connected "propositions" that explore the potential role of an AI tool in design.
Thematically the studio focused on the Northern California Landscape, and on the interface between the built environment and the natural environment. Or, rather, on the interface between the artificial built environment and the artificial natural environment.
Bay Raitt, 2019
Here, an ML model has been trained to understand the transformation from line drawings to a whole range of objects: from flowers to patterned dresses. Deploying this model in the service of a creative design tool, Nono Martinez Alonso demonstrates the potential of computer-assisted drawing interfaces.
Rose Wang, 2020
I primarily teach two types of courses in the Department of Architecture: core courses in design and architectural representation, and topical research studios and seminars in Design Computation.
I primarily teach two types of courses in the Department of Architecture: core courses in design and architectural representation, and topical research studios and seminars in Design Computation.
