The Advance of Artificial Intelligence
Due to AI’s influence on the visual arts, questions have been raised about issues of creative freedom, originality, ownership, and censorship. The field of architecture is fraught with challenges that are not seen in any other field. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies like Midjourney, DALLE 2, and Stable Diffusion may help architects and designers broaden their creative possibilities by providing a fast conceptualization/sketching medium.
What is Midjourney?
Midjourney is a text-to-image diffusion model powered by AI and hosted on a Discord server. You use it by inputting some kind of textual description or suggestion. These suggestions illustrate the main controls that may be modified (aspect ratio, how much creative leeway the AI has to ignore sections of your text, etc.). The AI bot will produce four different iterations in under a minute (depending on your chosen settings and the server’s availability). Expanding on any of these four outcomes by increasing production volume or introducing new variations is possible (of course, there are more technicalities to prompt craft which everyone is still exploring).
Hassan Ragab explains why Midjourney is an exciting new research tool by pointing to its many features.
A fusion of physical space-free design with artistic surrealism and abstract motion.
Originating one’s drive from one’s family history. Today, when virtual worlds and cutting-edge buildings are the norm, it is more important than ever to look at things from many angles. He believes that valuable visual awareness may be attained by blending classical architecture with modern art movements and contemporary design language such as computational design aesthetics.
When you utilize these instruments for more than just drawing and painting, you’ll discover not just the democratic potential but also the profound processes they enable. These methods are typically seen as “parametric copy-pasting,” an exaggeration of the concept that all art is related. The signals you use, your judgements in selecting variations, and your evaluations form the backbone of trained AI models. As a consequence, the outcomes of your decisions are being shared with other users of the system as well as with you. Because of the integral role each of us plays in shaping our collective imagination, we are all contributing to the development of these tools.
Since we are now in the middle of examining a technology that is itself in its infancy and developing at such an unprecedented pace, it is impossible to form a clear judgment on it.
The first impressions made on Hassan Ragab are both pleasant and bad.
Pros
Unlike Stable Diffusion and DALLE 2, Midjourney models are fine-tuned to prioritize “beautiful and artistic” results above photorealism, which is why they have become more popular in recent years. He feels it’s more beneficial to utilize AI as an extension of your imagination in the creative process, rather than concentrating on accurate portrayal, which can be done with other methods. To him, the speed with which these systems can generate photorealistic representations is incidental rather than essential to their use.
Easy to use, take with you, and inexpensive; your capacity to generate ideas rapidly is unparalleled. The fact that all you need to play along is the Discord software on your smartphone is another way in which this instrument amplifies human creativity.
Clever back-and-forth: to him, creating art and designing objects has always been a conversation between the creator and the medium rather than a transaction. This is the impression that AI leaves us with, as it enriches our thoughts in ways we could never have imagined.
The MJ group is holding weekly open office hours. At these events, the company informs its users about its operations, business strategy, and future goals and solicits their opinions and recommendations. In addition, enormous networks connecting designers, architects, artists, and even amateurs worldwide have been and are continuously being established. All group members may participate in any discussions or group initiatives (especially on Instagram).
The discovery of this unknown land offers hope that, despite the many problems in the world, people from all walks of life may come together to create something more significant than the sum of its parts.
However, existing Midjourney models lack personalization choices that might appeal to a broader range of consumers. There’s a constant effort toward creating a unified theory that combines the best parts of several approaches. The development of realistic results is a top priority in their latest V4 release, which they say might be achieved “potentially through macro sampling.” However, the new model’s concept of “artistic vibrations” becomes less distinct. A new remastering tool has been released, allowing images originally made in V3 to be recreated using V4’s improved capabilities. Hassan Ragab is not happy with the V4 release. He believes the process of creating models will strike a balance between creativity and reality. One should also keep in mind that there are other AI systems that excel in post-processing. One such example is the brand newOutpainting function in DALLE 2. He was allowed to experiment with Outpainting in the Midjourney results. He was really impressed with the end effect.
Cons
According to Hassan Ragab, a new benchmark has been established by the speedy execution of so many ideas by any author utilizing any AI text-to-image. Consumers become more discerning as a result of these factors, which might dampen their enthusiasm for the tool as the novelty wears off. Since this is a brand new medium for us, it may be some time before we fully understand the present.
Being a public good (available to everyone who wants one), there are already too many great ideas for AI generators. Because so many people can rapidly produce brilliant ideas, the standard is always increasing. While encouraging healthy competition is desirable, it comes at a real cost to the AI developers. This makes them concerned that their rivals will pounce on their ideas and news if they don’t.
He said that our feedback is included into the Midjourney models for future improvement. This eventually evolved into a “universal/apocalyptic aesthetic.” That’s because Midjourney doesn’t provide you many opportunities to tailor the experience to your own tastes and preferences because to its limited customization choices. According to him, this is a huge warning. We risk losing the uniqueness and diversity that make art so interesting if we don’t take this seriously.
The collection may have attracted a more homogenous user base due to the lack of non-Western architectural icons. As a result, these two factors may have a negative impact on the potential for diversity and inclusion in this technology. Having to work with Midjourney is a pain for him mostly because of this issue. As an Egyptian, his home country is a never-ending well of innovative aesthetic inspiration. Egypt has a rich architectural heritage, but he can’t seem to figure out how to incorporate Egyptian cities and villages into his projects. Many Egyptian and international producers face serious challenges due to a lack of databases covering specific regions, architectural and creative styles. Due to a lack of complete representation in the model dataset, some users may be discouraged from pursuing these tactics in favor of looking for alternatives like Zaha Hadid’s.
Conclusion: despite the ongoing debates and dire predictions, he believes AI technologies are here to stay. It has already begun to make ripples in the creative world and is knocking on the door of the architectural industry. Incredibly innovative new tools are being developed at an incredible pace. The widespread interest in art today is redefining what it means to be creative and making many formerly useful skills obsolete. Though we must use prudence, he believes these tools have the potential to change us for the better.
Hassan Ragab says we need to examine our assumptions more closely when utilizing these kinds of tools. As innovators, we will fail if we are not open to learning and changing with the times.
About Hassan Ragab
Hassan Ragab is an Egyptian-born, California-based designer with a background in architecture. In addition to his experience in the construction of buildings and the design of exhibits, objects, furniture, textiles, and digital artwork, he also has a wide range of other design experience. He does better job describing it as including computing, experimentation, digital manufacturing, and the exploration of visual linkages in architecture, history, and the arts.
