Diffusions in Architecture: Artificial Intelligence and Image Generators
by Matias del Campo, Lev Manovich
Digital Spoliare
Dustin White
Memories, experiences, thoughts, and questions all play a significant role in the process of generating Diffusion models. We can now combine our dreams, experiences, random thoughts, and technical prowess with a human touch to enrich our architectural design process. With this fusion, we can make our aspirations and experiences a reality, bringing to life designs we never believed possible. The future of material practice and manufacturing has made it feasible to achieve aesthetics of complexity with simplicity, providing a unique opportunity to delve into the history of architecture and generate new possibilities for form and ornament. In my personal experience making thousands of AI‐generated images and sketches, I, like many others, have been exploring a varied spectrum of topics, but a constant thread of language concentrating on pieces, components, materials, and compositions directly tied to the idea of “spolia” has emerged. Spolia can be defined, in archaeology and art history, the phrase refers to the reusing of architectural elements or inlaying the memory of earlier projects onto new ones for decorative effect.
The relationship between diffusion models produced by Midjourney and the concept of spolia revolves around the idea of reuse and preservation of memory. AI diffusion models produced by Midjourney aim to simulate and understand the spread of AI technologies in complex systems, such as organizational networks and social networks. ...