Items 1-10 from Proxima Utopia, on display at the Architecture After the Future exhibition 23 Jun - 30 Jul 2017 at Haus der Architektur in Graz.
“At the exhibition in HDA, we present around fifteen fictional or utopian objects. Together they form a kind of classical vitrine display, popularised by museums and natural history collections. Laid out on a neutral grey fabric with exhibition labels, each object is meant to read as evidence of speculative future scenarios. The items range from books and other printed objects to memorabilia and souvenirs of utopian futures. They are presented together, even though their storylines might be contradictory or improbable.”
A reconstruction of the Towers of Bologna in the 12th Century. One hypothesis for the prevalence of the structures is their utilisation by wealthy families for offensive/defensive purposes.
One cannot help but to conjure images of Corbusier’s ‘La Ville Radieuse’ or the Futurist cityscapes of Antonio Sant’Elia
Items 1-10 from Proxima Utopia, on display at the Architecture After the Future exhibition 23 Jun - 30 Jul 2017 at Haus der Architektur in Graz.
“At the exhibition in HDA, we present around fifteen fictional or utopian objects. Together they form a kind of classical vitrine display, popularised by museums and natural history collections. Laid out on a neutral grey fabric with exhibition labels, each object is meant to read as evidence of speculative future scenarios. The items range from books and other printed objects to memorabilia and souvenirs of utopian futures. They are presented together, even though their storylines might be contradictory or improbable.”
Interview about our project Proxima Utopia with curator Ana Jeinić in the new blog launched as part of the Architecture After the Future exhibition at Haus der Architektur in Graz.
Project illustrations by Andreas Töpfer. Exhibition design by Ana Dana Beroš. Web programming by Nice Department. Graphic design by milchhof:atelier. Editing by Dawn Michelle d’Atri.
AI isn’t known for being able to solve the big problems, but what about the VERY large problems, such as possible futures to strive for? I decided to find out if I could get GPT-3 to come up with new ideas for utopias.
Since GPT-3 works by predicting what text comes next based on its training on online text, to get it to generate utopias I had to first give it some examples. Here’s what I gave it, aiming for futures that are utopias but not TOO perfect.
List of Utopias and short descriptions: 1. Agrarian Utopia - Everyone lives on a farm and there is plenty to eat. The geese are a menace, but otherwise life is good. 2. Techno Utopia - Sophisticated 3D printers make us everything we want. Occasoinally they glitch and we get chocolate socks, but at least they’re tasty.
Here are some of GPT-3 DaVinci’s completions - surely among these you can find a utopia made for you:
Robot Utopia - Robots do everything for us automatically. Occasionally they attack us with lasers, but otherwise it is a nice place.
Zombie Utopia - The zombies take over, but the way they do it is clever, and the background radiation from the nuclear power plant is no longer a problem.
Magical Utopia - We’ve got a wizard living in the shed, who occasionally comes out to do magic and eat cheese sandwiches. He has a very limited repertoire of spells, but at least it keeps the goats happy.
Beerocracy - Everything will be fine once we sort out our beer supply.
Burnination Utopia - Everything is burning, but it is all very controlled and everyone wears asbestos tight pants.
Kitten Utopia - Everyone wants to have a kitten. Please let me have a kitten. This is the Kitten Utopia.
Magnetic Island - Australia has literally moved to the North Pole, cooled itself down and become paradise.
Bits Utopia - Everything is bits, bits, bits. There is an excess of poetry. But inside every bit is another bit and we’re always exposed to bits from the past.
There is No Utopia - This place sucks. One robot makes the entire place go and even he’s on the fritz.
Nature Utopia - The goats are carrying parasols and enjoying picnics in the seedpod forests.
Steampunk Utopia - All the cool guys have airships, all the dames have giant hats. Everyone has goggles.
Paranormal Utopia - A world very much like our own, but with an inconvenient poltergeist that makes a really mess of everything.
Norse Utopia - Assuming you start near the top of the tree when you fall off, there is ankle support almost all of the way down. Furthermore, the squirrels are making a new tractor.
I found that to generate even somewhat coherent utopias, I had to use the largest GPT-3 model, DaVinci. When I tried downsizing to Curie, things got weird:
The Applesauce Utopia - Quantum shearing maintains everyone’s hair nicely. If a few people go bald, they just have newspapers printed with computer facial filters.
Avarianian Utopia - Different birds live different lives. Weather changes the ooze into perfect snack for each species.
Post Industrial Utopia - We make our own medicine with Robots. Every Tuesday, someone slips on the banana skin, and we get one more robot.
ALT
