Workshop on Generative Machine Learning for Architecture and Art, Spring 2023

Along with my colleague Ben Aranda, we hosted our inaugural Workshop on Generative Art, Architecture & Engineering Collaboration. Leading practitioners in the field of generative art, design and machine learning presented their work and engaged in a discussion led by students. This workshop was an extension a multi-year effort to explore generative algorithms and Machine Learning at Cooper Union through a series of interdisciplinary seminars and studios, where students from the art, architecture and engineering schools work together.

Our panelists included:

Adam Berninger, Founder, Tender

Neta Bomani, Artist, Learner, Educator

Andrew Kudless, Professor University of Houston, Founder Matsys

Zach Lieberman, Artist, Professor MIT Media Lab

Ingrid Burrington, Writer, Artist

Marcelo Coelho, Head of Design at Formlabs, MIT Department of Architecture

R. Luke DuBois, Artist, Associate Professor of Integrated Design & Media, NYU

Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Artist, Learner

As part of this workshop, we also exhibited the work from our Generative Machine Learning for Architecture and Art course. Some of the work is shown below.

Emotions

The user sits inside a mirrored chamber, where an AI detects their emotion. These cues are fed to a generative algorithm which creates images illuminating the chamber.

Team: Sue Zhou, Nicole Joseph, Anne He

Replacement

This piece classifies the users age, gender, race, and emotion. It then replaces the users face with a generated version of themselves as the AI sees them. It can be deeply unsettling to see yourself replaced, particularly when the biases of AI are revealed in the process.

Team: Aiden Shankman, Garret Ingman, Samuel Finley

Stable Blocks

This project allowed users to play with simple kindergarten blocks, take pictures, and ask them to be realized into architectural buildings

Cellular Automata

This video uses 3-dimensional cellular automata and generative images to envision the growth and decay of buildings:

Team: Daniel Matallana, Leslie-Fairuz Abad-Neagu, Gavri Kepets