UNIT 1
JUNE 12-16
AA Campus, London + Online
BRIEF
Unit 1 will introduce students to critical Anthropological theory on the socio-cultural dynamics of designing for the built environment and using artificial intelligence tools, with an emphasis on designing for the radical context of Earth’s moon.
We will critically examine and unpack the biases, assumptions, and ‘playbooks’ through which AI software is used and produces images. We will interrogate algorithmic technologies from a social science perspective, thinking through how one locates the ethics, morals and responsibilities for the use and outputs of AI based design in the context of future living on the moon. We will focus on the relationship between the body and the built environment, and we will use the body as a research tool to think through how we might understand AI derived design for other worlds, using AI as a tool to imagine future narratives and envision possible world systems. We will ask if non-corporeal AI can produce meaningful environments for the human body. How are Earthbound design practices and techniques recontextualised for off-world living? What might it mean to ‘thrive’ in settlements off-world, rather than simply survive, and how can designers embody that value in their work?
Classroom discussions and debates will be bolstered with experimental practice in the streets of London and practical study and use of AI design technologies. Students will develop, but also critique, their own narratives of living off-world through the images they create. The students will then consider how they might manifest and embody the themes of the unit into architectural output, informing the design practice of Part II of the Moonshot Visiting School.
TUTORS
DAVID JEEVENDRAMPILLAI, PHD.
Dr David Jeevendrampilai - is a Senior Research Fellow at UCL Anthropology (ethnoiss.space). His work considers emerging notions of the human in relation to outer space. Specifically he considers novel configurations of the human body, ideas of post-Earth citizenship and issues around off-earth living for human society. He is the director of UCL Centre for Outer Space Studies, and works with space agencies and organisations regarding habitat design and community building off earth.
AARON PARKHURST, PHD.
Dr Aaron Parkhurst is Associate Professor of Biosocial and Medical anthropology at UCL. His current projects include study of the human body onboard the International Space Station, and the complex networks of life-science research conducted on the ISS. He works in the intersection of health, wellbeing, and culture, with a foci on chronic illness, bioethics, the intersection of technology and the human body, and outer-space studies. He is editor of the Journal of Anthropology and Medicine.
JOHN CLAYSON, BSC.
John is an architectural designer at AL_A. He studied architecture at the undergraduate level at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture. His personal work looks at expressing the boundary between analogue and digital through computation and AI. Currently working on the Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall, John has worked on a range of stadium projects at his previous placement at Populous. John also co-founded his design studio KR3N, who have investigated modular assemblies and their use in extreme landscapes.