AAA Experiments in AI, Art and Architecture / Kunsthalle Zürich
AAA Experiments is an innovative exhibition at Kunsthalle Zürich, co-created by ETH Zurich's students, researchers, and professors, under the curation of Daniel Baumann and Adrian Notz. It features the 'Mehrwerk' stand, constructed from repurposed materials by Professor Catherine De Wolf and her students, serving as a venue for public talks and seminars from October 7. This dynamic space acts as both a real and imagined structure, blending art with science, where ongoing student-led projects evolve the exhibition content. Embracing the philosophy of improvisation and action over rigid planning, as inspired by architect Yona Friedman, AAA Experiments serves as an open platform for experimentation, learning, and interaction, encouraging visitors to engage with an open mind for an experience that could range from mundane to inspirational. The Kunsthalle’s website updates visitors on the schedule of events.
AAA Experiments is made up of four elements: the grandstand 'Mehrwerk', Seminars, Public Talks, and an evolving exhibition. In this video we attend the opening reception of the exhibition and speak with Co-curator Adrian Notz, Vanessa Schwarzkopf and Tim Cousin (both Circular Engineering for Architecture, D-BAUG, ETH Zürich) about the project. The exhibition runs until January 19, 2025.
AAA Experiments / Kunsthalle Zürich. Vernissage, September 27, 2024.
AAA Experiments is made up of four elements: the grandstand 'Mehrwerk', Seminars, Public Talks, and an evolving exhibition. In this video we attend the opening reception of the exhibition and speak with Co-curator Adrian Notz, Vanessa Schwarzkopf and Tim Cousin (both Circular Engineering for Architecture, D-BAUG, ETH Zürich) about the project. The exhibition runs until January 19, 2025.
AAA Experiments / Kunsthalle Zürich. Vernissage, September 27, 2024.
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CreativityTranscript
00:00The title of the show is AAA, Experiments in AI, Arts and Architecture, and the idea
00:16behind it, as the title says, is that it is mainly a big experiment over the next, what's
00:22that, four or five months to January.
00:26It is AI, art, and architecture because I was working at the ETH in the AI center and
00:34built up an AI and art program, and Daniel had this idea of having a school of schools
00:42or an academy of academies, and we were talking about this for a while, and then, like, first
00:49he wanted to invite a couple of different schools, and then finally we came up to the
00:53point where we said, let's just do the AI, art, and architecture experiment school, so
00:59to say.
01:00And with my job at the ETH, which is over now, I had access to a lot of different faculties,
01:06so I was visiting a lot of these faculties trying to see who's interested in art and
01:12who uses AI in what field, and out of this we could then extract different professors,
01:18faculties, labs, researchers, to come here and do seminars, and also to do public talks
01:26during these four months.
01:39So the experiments have, I wouldn't say chapters, but maybe like four elements.
01:44One of them is a big stage, it's called Mehrwerk, which has been done by the Lab of Circular
01:52Engineering and Architecture, where they reuse material to build this stage or tribune.
02:00And the idea over there was, at the very beginning, that Daniel and I said, we need a seminar
02:06space in the Kunsthalle for these seminars that will take place, which is the second
02:11element, and so we asked Katrin de Wolf, professor of the Circular Engineering and
02:16Architecture, to build a pavilion, and this is now, let's say, the first very strong element
02:25of the experiment.
02:28The second part is, as I mentioned, seminars, so there will be weekly seminars where we
02:34basically invited different professors from the ETH to do the seminar here at the Kunsthallen.
02:43So there's one on Tuesday afternoon, which is with Vanessa Schwarzkopf from the Circular
02:48Engineering and Architecture Lab, there's one on Wednesday morning with Philipp Ursprung
02:54from the Theory of Art and Architecture, Theory and History of Architecture, then there's
03:00one with Tiziano Derme from Professor Dillenburger's lab, where it is about using mushrooms and
03:07mycelium networks for construction material in the inside.
03:13Then on Thursday there's one that I am giving in the, that's the Department of Information
03:20Technology and Electrotechnics, and it's computer scientists, I don't know the clue of computer
03:24science, but I'll work with them on the idea of creative thinking.
03:30And last but not least, Daniel, we appointed Daniel now, Baumann, to be a lecturer at the
03:35ETH in the Architecture Department, and he is doing a course or a seminar which is called
03:42the School of Subcurating.
03:45And this School of Subcurating will then create another element, also the seminars, which
03:50will be small exhibitions happening during this time.
03:55So with the School of Subcurating, the students will present art projects that have been published
04:01already in magazines and use these magazines and books and online publications to create
04:07an exhibition, basically bring it from 2D into 3D again.
04:13Also Tiziano Derme will present, together with the students, models of constructions
04:20where you have mushroom growing around them.
04:23So it will be four terrariums, which have also been now shown at Ars Electronica a couple
04:30of weeks ago.
04:32And also Vanessa with her students will be experimenting on how to construct playgrounds
04:38and use generative AI as a creative medium for architecture.
04:44And the fourth element, and that's maybe the most public one, is that we have every Thursday
04:51night, always at seven o'clock, starting on the 10th of October, we'll have professors
04:57and artists engaging in conversations from a lot of different departments.
05:03So it's from, it will be the first one is Eleni Khadzi from Structural Mechanics and
05:07Monitoring.
05:08We'll have somebody, Inge Hermann from Nanoparticle System Engineering.
05:12We'll have Bob Samner and Fabio Zünd from the Informatics and Game Technology Center
05:20and so on.
05:21There's like a lot of evenings happening like that, yeah.
05:25We'll also have artists like Yaniv Oron doing sound or Ljot Grever who works with robots
05:32painting them or Alexander Mordvintsev who's from Google Deep Dream who developed one of
05:38the very first generative AI programs.
05:43So yeah, the experiment means that one has to come a lot of times, basically every Thursday
05:49and dive into these different worlds of research and art.
06:19So here we are reusing old materials from former ateliers from the ETH campus and as
06:44you can see there are former trusses from a roof and now they are transformed into a
06:49seating element.
06:50Yeah, the idea of these former pavilions that were built on the campus of Angerberg is that
06:54they could be used temporary and then disassembled and reused but it's not really what happened
07:00to them and here what we're trying to show is that we can use these materials over several
07:04cycles and build different structures with them.
07:07So everything is thought in the detail so that we can reuse the material several times.
07:12In particular the trusses, we try to as much as possible not drill or cut into them so
07:18all the joints are kind of bracing them in a way that they're not harmed and we can really
07:24reuse them as many times as possible.
07:27And then at the same time it serves as a kind of platform for all the students to sit next
07:32fall semester so we will have all our lectures here and all our courses and also other courses
07:37from different professors that we will teach here and also build something with the students
07:42together which will be also then part of the exhibition.
07:56So starting actually now we will design with the students playgrounds and every student
08:04group will do a playground element and then all together it will be assembled as a playground
08:09and they will use all certain types of digital advantages.
08:15So we will use AI, we will use computer vision and XR and many different types to kind of
08:22see the transformation of a circular design or circular design strategies and so this
08:27is what we will do with the students and the final design will be these playgrounds.
08:41The idea is a bit that we kind of touch the surface of everything so the students get
08:47to know everything they can work with later so they kind of get introduced to all of these
08:53ones.
08:54Of course we in our lab we are using those tools in a more specific way but with the
09:01students we kind of wanted to introduce them to these technologies to kind of have the
09:05first step so it sounds complicated but the course will not be so complicated so we will
09:11do it like a low threshold so everyone can participate.
09:25So we are both working for Catherine de Wulf in the lab for circular engineering for architecture.
09:30I'm doing a PhD on generative AI for circular design strategies.
09:36I just started so the specifics will come a bit later but we are all working on a different
09:45type of technology and so I'm working on generative AI and I have a background in architecture
09:50so it's more about how does generative AI kind of shape the design of circular design
09:56strategies.
09:57Is it even possible to use it for circular design and yeah.
10:09I think there's been like definitely a rising interest over the past decades or so in trying
10:13to implement circular design in the industry.
10:16Of course there's many challenges with that on the sourcing of material, the storing,
10:21matching demand and availability and I think it's one it's actually the mission of the
10:26lab to try to find solutions for that to really implement in the industry these circular methods
10:32and the way the lab is doing this is through digital tools and trying to find how different
10:38digital strategies can actually help this transition and this implementation of circular
10:43design in the industry.
10:45So that's also what the class is going to be trying to introduce the students to different
10:50digital tools that can help towards the transition and the pavilion is also a kind of demonstrator
10:56as a first step towards this direction.
11:00So this is basically an experiment to see how it goes, how we can reuse materials, what
11:05are the limitations, what kind of problems do we have to solve so it's more like a smaller
11:13scale project but of course we want to upscale it so that would be great.
11:18So it's a first step.
11:29I mean especially the architecture and construction industry is the industry that is most harming
11:37the earth so I think it's one of the main sectors that we really have to shift towards
11:43a more sustainable thinking.
11:45Yeah there's definitely a crisis in the mind of architecture students who know they are
11:49being trained to design buildings but these buildings are using resources and like Vanessa
11:54said harming the environment and so I think in this moment material reuse and circularity
11:59comes as a very interesting direction for students to actually find a meaningful way
12:04to engage and to use their design skills and training in a way that's more sustainable
12:11and that makes sense for the future of this industry.