Dreamscapes
This art piece is entitled “Dreamscapes ” It contains 49 images that are arranged in the shape of an arch. Each individual image represents a new possible design idea for an Ismaili Center in East Africa. Each AIgenerated design idea is an entirely novel building form but that captures the atmosphere found in the Swahilli architectural tradition through the texture of coral rock, light and shadow, earthy tones, intricate screens, symmetry, monumentality, and integration with surrounding landscape.
Picture yourself exploring the narrow winding streets of Stone Town Zanzibar or sitting within the calm and cool atmosphere of the Great Mosque of Djenné. Where would your eyes dart first if you had the chance to experience a Moroccan medina’s vibrance and vigor? Imagine your eyes travelling up the soaring shape of Al-Azhar Mosque’s luminous minarets! Africa is a treasure trove of some of the world’s most creative examples of Islamic architecture!
However, many architects have recognized that contemporary Islamic building projects on the continent rarely capture the grandeur and cultural significance described above. Contemporary African mosque designers, for example, often uncreatively mimic the shapes, forms, and symbols of historical Islamic buildings, with little thought of how well these integrate into today’s context. Despite changing building technologies and evolving societies, modern mosque design in Islamic Africa is sometimes caught in a time capsule, constantly copying the same minarets, arches, and domes of the past.
As a new technology that relies on existing input data sets and images, the use of AI image generators to imagine a novel Ismaili Center in East Africa is quite paradoxical, as much of the input imagery used by these generators is based on the styles and shapes of existing constructed mosques. For example, when I used AI prompts that included words such as “mosque,” I quickly observed that my new AI generated imagery was frequently biased towards the shapes and forms of “stereotypical Islamic Architecture,” in some ways reflecting the general landscape of contemporary mosque architecture in Africa! The AI generators, just like many African mosque designers, too easily copy the same minarets, arches, and domes of the past!
How then do you collaborate with AI generators? Instead of general words like “mosque,” and “African,” I found that highly specific input prompts related to particular buildings, distinct colors, specific materials, or even the styles of individual architects were much more useful. As the artist, I had to imagine and then articulate in great detail my visions for an East African Ismaili Center. After much experimentation, I therefore wrote highly specific AI prompts that were inspired by the Swahili architectural traditions found in Lamu, Zanzibar, Mombasa and other parts of the Swahili coast!
While historical wisdom in the design disciplines says that great architects must excel at graphical and visual communication, the Sinan of the near future might also have to be a conscientious wordsmith and profound poet, using carefully considered words and phrases to master the use of AI generators.
Jaroslav Pelikan once said that “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” This art submission seeks position Swahilli East African Architecture as the former of these two. Unlike many mosque designers today, Dreamscapes asserts that our architectural traditions can only be truly lasting if they are interpreted for the present context, sometimes with modern technologies. This art submission is therefore inspired by the notion of “care for heritage.”