LandscA.I.p: Chickens, Eggs, and the Futility of it all explores the validity of A.I. as a generative design tool
An Apple. An apple in a bowl. A few red apples in a blue bowl. Ten blue apples in a white, clay bowl painted in the style of Van Eyck. The mental images conjured by verbal descriptions parallel the dichotomies between less-than-descriptive design presentations and shiny-for-shiny’s-sake design imagery; what you see is not what you get. This studio will evaluate contemporary design imagery and identify the areas of inexactitudes that are in direct contradiction of all design institutions’ reactionary statements regarding equity, inclusion, public space, and environmentalism. In crafting an honest space using all basic methods of communication [reading, writing, speaking, listening, and visualizing], students will make and re-make digital spaces using Artificial Intelligence text and image generation tools. This exploration will culminate in a digitally assisted exhibition that will make use of current 3D modelling, rendering, and animation techniques.
This studio was written and taught by me in the Fall Semester of 2022 at Cal Poly Pomona.
Space Combat 02
Oh, the dreaded 9 to 5. Waking up and waiting in traffic every morning just to be stuck in a gray cubicle under bright fluorescent lights until the sun sets, only running on break room snacks and stale coffee. This cycle will repeat itself every day until either I quit, get fired, or die. I stare at a spreadsheet on the monitor in front of me that I’ve been working on all day. I look at the clock - it’s only 2pm. I only have 3 hours left of this grayish beige purgatory until i can go back home and fall asleep in front of the TV, and get up and do the same thing over again tomorrow. Since that was my routine last night, I start feeling drowsy and can feel myself start to doze off. I fall alseep for a while, but this feels different from a regular nap. Suddenly, I feel a gust of wind against my face and I Hear birds in the distance. But I’m too itred - I want to stay asleep. I feel something in my hand, I open my eyes and get up quickly; I’m holding a long white baton. I can’t recall where it came from. I look around at my surroundings, and I recognize the scenery. The bright green, geometric landscape, floating in an endless galaxy - I am inside my favorite childhood video game, Space Combat 02. My attention slowly turns to the sound off footsteps approaching me. I turn around and see afigure walking towards me, he has a similar large pole-like weapon in his hand. He stops about 10 feet away from me. Suddenly, a loud voice booms above us - it’s counting down from three. The person gets into a fighting stance, I assume to fight. I reluctantly get into a stance to fight as well. When the voice gets to zero, I see him charging towards me, ready to attack me. I start running toward him too, preparing mostly to defend myself. Then suddenly, I feel as though I can’t control my body. My arms and legs are moving on their own. I start swinging and stabbing aimlessly as if I am being controlled by a child on a computer making attacks by smashing their keyboard against their head. But when I look in from of me, I see the figure also making attacks towards nothing in particular, and they’re getting closer. I give up struggling to regain control and rely on the erratic final blow, straight towards my chest - this is it, I am dead. As I fall to the ground I hear the voice boom again “YOU LOST” followed by a melodic ending tune. My back hits the ground, and I’m laying in the position that I woke up in, my eyelids getting heavier, and I see the figure above me doing a victory dance. As I close my eyes to finally lay to rest, my final thoughts are “at least I don’t have to commute to work tomorrow.”
Project by Safiyah Rasheed, Fall 2022
Spider and Me
There is a spider spinning a web designed for living and catching food. The spider is a designer. The space you are experiencing right now is a designed space, but it is created by AI. When the spider creates a web intended for a purpose it is included in the natural processes of the world. But spaces created by people are not, furthermore spaces generated by AI are considered unnatural, or uncanny. As you journey through the palins of snow warped to mimic a ski mountain, you will begin to realize the small details of the space that lack the essence of what it is meant to represent. The structures that run towards the centerline of the space are supposed to evoke the feelings of a snowy cabin, but as you get close you realize that instead you are experiencing a disorienting perspective of mangled cubes. You realized the space itself is constructed where there is no discernable way to perceive distance or scale. Its jarring and disorienting, so you seek shelter. Like the spider you are looking for a designed space. A space intended for human use, but as you continue your journey you are left with an uneasy feeling from a failed simulacrum. The AI failed to capture the essence of what it is meant to represent. Unlike the spider designer or the human designer, the AI could not successfully replicate the feeling of what it’s like to visit a snowy ski lodge. Or in general, could not replicate the human aspect of a designed space.
Project by Jenna DoQui, Fall 2022
Lost At Sea
How big is the sea? Am I afraid of the sea? Will the sea be it for me? They say the key is to be patient. How can I be patient in the moving, trapping, sucking water. They say be calm and forget. How do I Forget the sounds of the crashing waves and the chirping of the passive birds? Looking up and out I forget this is a frightening place. The beautiful sunset reminds me this is a wonderful day. Here I can decide. Is it a good day? Is it a bad day? This is where I choose how to feel in the water.
The sea is where some people go to see a beautiful way to be. At this moment, there is nothing else but the sky, the trees, and the water. Diving deep into the sea discovering new moments to take a leap. Reaching up not so high there begins to be some breeze. The chills start to set in, of being in an unseen, unheard, and new scene. Looking around to find a thing I know or a feeling I’ve once felt or something I might have heard before. Just searching for that one thing. Once settled in, the newness begins to slow down and feel familiar again. How do we stay in the fresh, open, initial tenderness?
The beginning, the middle, and the end. Let’s stay in the middle for as long as we can. Where we are looking ahead without fear of what has passed and gone. While thinking about the way it began and how it has come. Spinning round and round about the next step. Is this the patience they mentioned? In between the waves, am I stuck or am I brave? Let’s sit here and take it all in. There’s no need to rush. The beginning worries. The following excitement. The lasting fear.
It has come full circle. I still don’t know how big the sea is. I am still unsure about my fear of the sea but I have now been here long enough to know how to be. The wonderful day will not always be the day I came to sea. I no longer see the fear of being lost at sea. It is now the water and me. I came and saw. And now it is time for me to leave.
Project by Jennifer Sarabia, Fall 2022
I Am Vacant
I wake up, and nothing is as it seems. The bridge between reality and fiction blurs across my own eyes. Do my eyes even see? This is a question amongst many I do not know the answer to. Whether I can believe it or not, I am here now; here is somewhere unfamiliar to my senses. Sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste, my state of being is overwhelmed by the rigid unfamiliarity. With what I see, no existing thing in my mind can register. Shades of purple, yellow, red, and blue fload within view of where I stand. My bare feet on the cold, uncompromising ground curl at the sensation. Almost too late, and edge appears amidst the dark sky as my body hovers accross the surface I inhabit. All that can be heard is my unsteady breath and heart. All that I can taste is the warm, metallic blood from biting the inside of my cheek. That warmth I so desperately hold onto is fleeting. There is no one here. Wherever here is, I am alone.
Loneliness chases me. Breathing a callous, sharp air on the nape of my neck. I can’t see, hear, smell, taste, or touch it. But I FEEL it. Feel its tendrils grasping for a piece of me. Its home is everywhere that darkness consumes the landscape. There is no pure light here. Shades of purple, yellow, red, and blue exist in a void of black. Slowly and cautiously, I walk across the floating iridescent floor I stand on and see that nothing is connected here. From one side to another, nothing links the other existing shapes across the vast landscape. I am at a loss. Where do I go"? What do I feel? I don’t even know whether this is all true. There are other shapes in the void. Maybe if I jump? In this world, perception is deceptive. The space between where I stand and another land is unknown, just like the rest of everything in this place.
My feet feel warm and fussy. Cracked and delicate, they slowly excrete metallic warmth onto the hard ground. Lost in my escape from loneliness, I failed to acknowledge my physical existence. Pain lingers where my journey hasn’t succeeded. Running, walking, and standing it is all so exhausting. Maybe I should jump? I can see far below me the other land where perhaps there is hope. If I jump, the journey will continue aching, but there is hope. If I jump, there is an end. In the end, beginning, or whatever this is, is it even my decision? Are my limbs and mind mine? So many questions with no one to answer them.
Project by Maia Marin, Fall 2022
Reminisce on the Refrigerator
Today is a busy day as we prepare for the seasonal gathering tonight. This is a big event where everyone in the neighborhood contributes something to celebrate the beginning of the new season. My mom told me to go to the river to catch as many fish as I could hold. As I was packing my things I looked outside, my friend a few houses down came by my window and asked if I could play. I told him about my chores and he wanted to come with. I grabbed my lucky fishing rod while he grabbed a net and we both started heading towards the river. With the amount of times I heard coyotes howling in the distance, I'm glad my friend is coming with me. At this time of year, animals can become aggressive if they think we're going after their young. I've heard too many stories of someone accidentally walking into a wolf's den. Those stories did not have happy endings.
The sun hasn't risen yet so we still see all the stars in the sky. My papa tells me stories about the constellations in the sky. Last time he told me about Hercules and the crab that bit his foot. As we're walking up the river, we see a bunch of people also doing last minute preparations. At the bottom of the stream I see a few families using washboards to clean their dress clothes. Other people have started collecting the ripened crops. Some of the berries harvested get eaten or they get turned into dyes for clothing or to draw paintings. One of my favorites foods is the banana yucca, it gets mashed and then made into cakes and I grab a bunch of them because it's the only time of year people make them. We found some cool sticks and naturally we fight with them until one of them breaks. It's almost sunrise so we walk and fight. The more and more upstream we get the louder the roaring of the water crashing on the rocks becomes. We can even see the fish from the top of the cliff. There's so many fish the water looks like it’s dancing, but we have to hurry as there's already a bunch of groups who made it here before us. Usually we climb down the mountain from the far end, but we're in a hurry so we climb down on the rocky side. the rocks pierce my feet as I try to climb down carefully. My friend finds a steep slope and decides to slide down, his clothes coated with red, chalky dirt. His mom wont be too happy about that. We spend the next few hours fishing until we have enough. The walk back is the worst part about going to the river because its all uphill, but eventually we make it home. After preparing and cooking the fish we join the celebration. There is a lot of great food and my friend and I end the night off staring out on the stars eating banana yucca cake.
Project by Sam Case, Fall 2022
Life’s a Game
Entering new places that you have never been, can be intimidating and frightening. Having your feet take you somewhere without you really paying attention to where you are going is an interesting feeling. Being confused on where you are is scary. I for one have been in that moment wondering why I am here and how I got here. Often entering foreign spaces can lead to new adventures and experiences that can be a fun part of life. I had thought of a game that a group of friends play when they are blind folded and one of the friends are throw on to a train and are told to get off once they hear the 5th ding giving them the signal to get off. The first person to be blindfolded puts his blindfold on and gets on the train, 5 dings later he hops off in a location where he has no idea where he is at. Stepping off the train all he can do to try and narrow down where he is by smelling and touching around to try and feel textures, and to walk around hoping certain parts of the place give him ideas. He begins to walk around trying to get a sense of where he is at, smelling and touching around to get hints before he takes off his mask. Walking around and touching the buildings he begins to get a feeling that he’s not in the suburbs and probably more city like. Feeling around he notices it is more glassy concrete texture making up the space he is in. After spending time trying to figure out where he is, he is ready to take off his mask and see if his assumption is correct. He takes off his mask and has a look around and figures out he was spot on. The gloomy, grimness of the sky is almost blocked out by the illumination coming from the buildings right as he opens his eyes, the light is almost blinding. The buildings are lit up in each room with people causing commotion and enjoying one another’s company. The buildings are so tall that he looks up to see the top but can’t even see the top of them. Playing this game with his friends helps one to learn to be comfortable with new surroundings and help get them out of there comfort zone. Learning to adapt to new situations by doing unnormal things helps us learn to problem solve using different angles and directions that we might no use in our daily life. Taking away our sight makes us use everything else such as touch and smell to figure out what is going on. In life, situations are thrown at you that you at first don’t know how to deal with, but overtime we keep pushing to find the solution. That’s why after playing this intimidating game, he now knows how to use his resources and he figured out what space he was placed in and can now get back on the train and tell his friends what this experience was like. Feeling intimidated by new situations helps us to be strong in the real world, life can be scary but does not have to be.
Project by Oscar Maxwell, Fall 2022
Art of Growth and Self Development
As a seed is planted and watered, it must need the care to flourish and blossom with its colored petals it will confer when the day comes. Of course, there are multiple steps when it comes to taking care of a plant, weather conditions, water requirements, and the type of soil one must need to thrive. Constant days will pass, it will begin to sprout, and little by little, develop leaves, and of course, bloom when the time comes. Yet, what if one day, the flower begins to wither or dry? Is it to much water that was given? Was it underwatered? Maybe the weather has affected it as well. More so, a plant like this should not be put to its deathbed, it must live.
This plant itself may have to thrive in specific locations so it grows and develops properly, and with many trials and tribulations, there will be a guarantee that a plant may flourish. Of course, even travelling towards a specific location like a barren mountain with specs of luscious greenery sprouting within may be the only place where it can prosper. However, it can be accomplished if one can strive to push the boundaries to let this plant live. There may be tons of paths that can block your way from planting it on this land, whether mentally or physically, one can overcome the difficulties even if someone has or has nor accomplished them. The thoughts of feeling that going on a journey to let this plant prosper may feel to you like a waste of time and express a lot of frustration, however, we must understand that we shouldn’t let too much of our emotions get in the way or even think of scenarios to prevent you from going through with it. There may be rough obstacles ahead to finding a perfect planting spot such as steep cliffs or rugged paths that make it it impossible to go through. However, we must not stress and tire ourselves out over this predicament. There can be many ways to find an alternative or a solution to go through it. Whether it means climbing up cliffs, hiking a rugged path, or even looking for a new path, teaching yourself to thrive and understand these dull, superabundant environments can teach one how it might feel to be like a plant that can live in these types of areas. As we venture towards the peak of these dull mountain ranges, there may be a spot waiting for that plant to be buried and thrive in this lush, barren environment. This is where we can see, it begins to grow upright and not wither anymore. It is as happy as birds in the spring, where this plant finally met its requirement to live and even lay out and abundance of itself all over these mountain ranges through time. It may have provided and overwhelming coaster of emotion or even pain, but there was still a way one was able to embark and get it done, creating a sense of accomplishment over something that one might think cannot be done.
With patience, understanding, and the willingness to learn how to fix these issues or create alternatives, one can figure out ways to solve them and move forward with them. Things won’t be accomplished if they are just left aside, there must and always be a way to answer them, even if it will take them to new destinations that cannot be recognizable. Where now someone can realize they have fulfilled their goals one they have finished it.
Project by Nathan Bugarin, Fall 2022
Unparalleled
Last night, I experienced a most captivating dream. I found myself transplanted on an otherworldly planet; feelings of euphoric bliss washed over me upon inhalation. The air seemed to be made of nitrous oxide and a mother’s embrace. The surface of the environment around me - the plants, the rocks, the water - felt connected to my skin, as if my nerves were somehow interconnected. The sun is shining, everything looked brighter than it had before as the sky was painted a baby blue. It was more vibrant than anything I’d ever seen before.
As I explore my surroundings, I take in the richness of varying colors on the trees. It’s almost Earth-like in a way, but their strange shape is unfamiliar. I could not help but reach out and run my hand along passing foliage - familiar yet novel. The water of the river flows in between every living thing here. I crouch down to take a sip. It’s cold, pure, and refreshing. As I stand back up, I look into the distance and take the extraordinary view. It was both alien and familiar here.
Project by Clay Reyes, Fall 2022
