PROJECT 07 DIGITAL FABRICATION + AI INFLUENCE

YEAR: 2022

INSTITUITION: TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY

PROFESSOR: SINA MOSTAFAVI

TEAM MEMBERS: ABEL GONZALEZ, EDGAR MONTEJANO, MATT

STEVENS, BENJAMIN VARNER

We considered the design to at first be a canopy before shifting the direction towards more of a pavilion, finally settling on a walled-off bench that would serve as a pleasantly shaded sitting area amidst the columns below the bridge. The crucial component of our team’s project revolved around Artificial Intelligence (AI). Therefore, its development began by us feeding certain terms and keywords (mainly composed of nouns and adjectives like “steampunk” and “canopy”) into an AI-based image generator called “MidJourney”. To create new images, the prompt would have to be changed at least slightly. Several artistic renders were subsequently produced by the AI, each deriving elements from existing patterns and images found throughout the internet. Additionally, with each image produced, one out of four variant images –each one showcasing more detail and expanding upon the original prompt but in a certain way – were chosen. This sub-process repeated for three rounds until the final product was solidified, though all selected iterations of each prompt would still be considered as a later basis for the team’s final design.

After acquiring a grasshopper definition that could interpolate a pattern of circles from the appearance of any picture, we then ran each chosen image through said definition. The patterns generated, however, proved too unsatisfactory to the scope of our concept – as the desired shape needed to possess more complex and linear edges. More sides, we figured, led to more detail being integrated into the final product, but not too many. Therefore, we optimized the definition to extract hexagons from each of the images. Through this change, we finally decided upon an image and supporting prompt that did not want for hexagonal geometry.

From this final selection, we started to distort the density and quantity of the polygons produced by the definition into an amalgamation of shapes arranged into a solid form with varying depths, some of which were deep enough to pierce the overall fabric of the design itself and thus create void-like areas. We applied the layout of this new form onto our concept for a walled screen with a bench, the organicism of the pattern channeling down from the screen into the extruded profile of the bench itself. Juxtaposed to this development was the creation of another grasshopper definition that would help simulate any climate changes produced by the finished installation in its proposed environment. After review however, it was decided to simplify the depths of the referenced pattern into only a few, further abstracting the form into different tiers of geometries. These tiers would consequently serve as toolpaths for a 3D-printing concrete machine to move along in testing their feasibility. With only a few batches of concrete, the traced sculpture turned out to be a success.