We ask three Singaporean women to share their take on AI art—in the first of this series of three stories, see how industrial designer Karyn Lim envisioned Snøwood, a fictional resort realised with Midjourney, which takes inspiration from the snow fungus, a mushroom often used in traditional Chinese medicine
When Disneyland was first built, it was met with a mix of both derision and amusement by European thinkers Umberto Eco and Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard saw such theme parks as an “imaginary world” that is a “perfect model of all the entangled orders of simulation”, presenting attractive forms of escape from the drudgeries of the real world by amplifying qualities that inspire feelings of happiness and excitement. “You risk feeling homesick for Disneyland... Disneyland tells us that technology can give us more reality than nature can,” wrote Eco in his book Travels in Hyperreality, commenting wryly on the irresistible attraction of these entertainment venues. Looking at recent technological developments, it’s easy to see some of the parallels between Disneyland and the metaverse.
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Where Disneyland brought childhood tales and fables to life, artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse are now doing the same with virtual realms and generative designs. Like Morpheus, the king of dreams and nightmares in Greek mythology, artificial intelligence can be seen to be pulling together elements of man-made creations online to assemble both bizarre and intriguing collages. Amid the upheaval that AI-enabled platforms such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion have brought to the worlds of art and design, lies also the potential for creativity; even as the heated debate rages on about the artistic merit and integrity of these works.
These generative design systems continue to evolve and improve with every input and interaction that we feed to them. At the same time, the users can also benefit from this process. The unexpected results produced by machines can inspire divergent thinking and spark new ideas. The results can tease our curiosity and perhaps encourage more adventurous leaps with the things we build—whether in our abodes or cities.