ARC 180 Computation and Design

Module 1:
Artificial
Intelligences
Module 2:
Algorithmic
Design
Module 3:
Designing with
Code
Module 1:
Artificial
Intelligences
Module 2:
Algorithmic
Design
Module 3:
Designing with
Code
Module 1:
Artificial
Intelligences
Web-based AI Module 2:
Algorithmic
Design
Module 3: Grasshopper
Designing with
Code
Processing
[…] systemic literacy is the thinking that deals
with a world that is not computable, while
acknowledging that it is irrevocably shaped
and informed by computation.

James Bridle,
New Dark Age
What is a system that you interacted with
today?
It is increasingly necessary to be able to think
[of] new technologies in different ways, and to
be critical of them, in order to meaningfully
participate in [their] shaping and directing.

James Bridle,
New Dark Age
How might we be critical of new technologies?
A simply functional understanding of systems
is insufficient; one needs to be able to think
about histories and consequences too. Where
did these systems come from, who designed
them and what for, and which of these
intentions still lurk within them today?

James Bridle,
New Dark Age
How can we think about histories and
consequences in our design processes?
How might this research result in inequality?
“Across professions, successful
simulation gives the sense that digital
objects are ready-to-hand*.”

Sherry Turkle in
‘Simulation and its Discontents’
‘Ready-to-hand’: from Heidegger,
describing something immediately and
physically useful
“Echoing the concerns of architects who
create beautiful computer drawings of
buildings not yet designed, Diane Griffin
complains that in protein crystallography
beautiful images mislead because they imply
a finished result even when research is at an
early stage.”

Sherry Turkle in
‘Simulation and its Discontents’
a building
designed by
Robert Venturi and
Denise Scott
Brown with a large
sign that reads
“DUCK”
“So we now on purpose make ugly figures to
show it’s not really done yet because they
don’t listen to you when they see it with their
eyes. You have to show them something ugly
if you don’t want them to set on it and have it
be the truth forever.”

Diane Griffin, protein crystallographer,

as told to Sherry Turkle in ‘Simulation and its
Discontents’
“The fact that Xerox photocopiers use a
lossy compression format instead of a
lossless one isn’t, in itself, a problem. The
problem is that the photocopiers were
degrading the image in a subtle way, in
which the compression artifacts weren’t
immediately recognizable.”

Ted Chiang, in
‘ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web’
“If the photocopier simply produced blurry
printouts, everyone would know that they
weren’t accurate reproductions of the
originals. What led to problems was the fact
that the photocopier was producing numbers
that were readable but incorrect; it made the
copies seem accurate when they weren’t.”

Ted Chiang, in ‘ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of

the Web’
How is ChatGPT like these Xerox
photocopiers?
Is ChatGPT’s ‘blurriness’ apparent for those
using it?
Artificial Intelligence,
Machine Learning,
Neural Networks…
Artificial Intelligence,
Machine Learning,
Neural Networks…

“The theory and development of computer systems able

to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence,
such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-
making, and translation between languages.”
OED
Artificial Intelligence,
Machine Learning,
Neural Networks…

“The use and development of computer systems that are

able to learn and adapt without following explicit
instructions, by using algorithms and statistical models to
analyze and draw inferences from patterns in data.”
OED
Artificial Intelligence,
Machine Learning,
Neural Networks…

“A computer system modeled on the human

brain and nervous system”
OED
 Artificial
Intelligence
Machine
Learning

Neural
Networks
 Artificial
Intelligence
Machine
Learning

Neural
Networks Genetic
Algorithms
 Artificial
Intelligence
Machine
Learning

Neural
Networks
Artificial
General
Intelligence
Genetic Algorithms &
Neural Networks
Mimic evolutionary behavior in biological populations
“Survival of the fittest”, writ large
Optimization through random mutation
Excellent for finding a solution when none is
apparent
Often relatively slow, but capable of open-ended
discovery

Genetic Algorithms &

Neural Networks
 Random generation
Variation
Evaluation Fitness?
Selection

Output

Genetic Algorithms &

Neural Networks
Mimic the function of your brain’s neurons
Able to distill complex data into simple output (ie.
image recognition)
Requires “training” – a set of example data
Excellent for applying pre-existing knowledge to
similar problems
Very fast

Genetic Algorithms &

Neural Networks
Genetic Algorithms &
Neural Networks
Genetic Algorithms &
Neural Networks
Image Classification
Image Generation
Image-to-Image Prediction
Image-to-Image Translation Network2

Isola, Phillip, et al. "Image-to-image translation with conditional adversarial networks." Proceedings of
the IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition. 2017.
Text-to-Image
a collage designed
by alison and peter
smithson depicting
a housing estate in
London
a brutalist building
with bright green
accents on the
edge of a cliff at
the seaside
a six-storey community
center in Toronto, tall and
narrow building, award-
winning architecture, wide
angle aerial view in glowing
magic hour light with a forest
in the foreground.
photographed by Iwan
Baan. The building is split
into two distinct volumes,
stepped halves, that appear
like staircases sitting on top
of one another. the
architecture is striking and
contemporary.
a six-storey community
center, tall and narrow
building with a view of
downtown Toronto in the
background. wide angle
aerial view in glowing magic
hour light with a forest in the
foreground. photographed
by Iwan Baan. The building is
split into two distinct
volumes, stepped halves,
that appear like staircases
sitting on top of one another.
the architecture is striking
and contemporary.
a six-storey community
center, tall and narrow
building with a view of
downtown Toronto in the
background. wide angle
aerial view in glowing magic
hour light with a forest in the
foreground. photographed
by Iwan Baan. The building is
split into two distinct
volumes, stepped halves,
that appear like staircases
sitting on top of one another.
the architecture is striking
and contemporary.
a six-storey community
center, tall and narrow
building in suburban Toronto
with a view of the city in the
background. wide angle
aerial view in glowing magic
hour light with a forest in the
foreground. photographed
by Iwan Baan. The building is
split into two distinct
volumes, stepped halves,
that appear like staircases
sitting on top of one another.
the architecture is striking
and contemporary.
“So we now on purpose make ugly figures to
show it’s not really done yet because they
don’t listen to you when they see it with their
eyes. You have to show them something ugly
if you don’t want them to set on it and have it
be the truth forever.”

Diane Griffin, protein crystallographer,

as told to Sherry Turkle in ‘Simulation and its
Discontents’
2020
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”

George Box
Conor Stevens
Conor Stevens
2021
Jiayao He
Jiayao He
2022
Raymelene Apil & Victoria Yan
Raymelene Apil & Victoria Yan
2023
Romina Mehrbod
Romina Mehrbod
AI + critical intervention
AI + critical intervention
Assignment 1, due 28 September— 10 %
Assignment 2, due 26 October—25 %
Assignment 3, due 23 November—25 %
Final Project, due 18 December—40 %
 Assignment #1:
A Thousand Words
First, find a partner.

Select an image of architecture, whether

representation or photography.

Think critically about the image you

select. What does the image mean? How
does it relate to our in-class discussions?
Using a text-to-image AI model of your
choice, recreate your image as closely
as possible using a text-based prompt.
Using a text-to-image AI model of your
choice, recreate your image as closely
as possible using a text-based prompt.

Run that same prompt through a second

text-to-image model.
How do the two images differ? How are
they similar? What can we infer about
bias from the results?

Submit your images and a 100-word

narrative in a combined PDF to Quercus
by 9:00 am on September 28th.

This assignment is worth 10% of your

final grade.
AI for Image Research in
Art and Architecture

Cathryn Copper, Zhenxiao Yang,

University of Toronto Master of
Libraries, Eberhard Architecture,
Zeidler Library Daniels Faculty