What would the architecture look like in the virtual domain? See inside a new show of gravity-defying, AI-generated designs

As the virtual world has grown in size and complexity, it has become another space we can inhabit. But what does online design and architecture actually look like? A new investigative exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts Vienna (MAK Vienna) reveals how this new simulated world has appealed to creators who like to work without the practical constraints that would limit their IRL imagination.

The exhibit, titled “/imagine: A Journey into the New Virtual,” is named after the “/image” command that is used to input text prompts into Midjourney, a generative AI tool particularly popular among artists. interested in world building. . It’s just one of many design strategies included in the show, from CGI rendering and 3D animation to VR and AR technologies.

Highlights include MMaterial speculation: ISIS (2015-16), a project by Iranian-Kurdish activist and artist Morehshin Allahyari that demonstrates the potential of technology for cultural conservation. In a process she called “digital decolonialism”, she created 3D-printed replicas of 12 valuable artifacts that had been destroyed by ISIS and stored in each a memory card containing rich contextual data from his own research.

The more fantastical and surreal possibilities of technology are evident in the creations of digital artists like Andrés Reisinger, whose Hydrangea chair went viral in 2018. Immersive “dreamscapes” that bring the magic to life, Other Worlds includes a pastel-toned reimagining of Marseille’s famous calanques in Neo-chemosphere (2023) by Charlotte Taylor and Anthony Authié, and the verdant tennis courts of Smokebush Court (2020) by Studio Mary Lennox.

To help translate these digital creations into a traditional gallery context, the museum engaged architectural firm Some Place Studio, who built a custom display inspired by the way virtual worlds tend to appear on screen.

See more images from the show below.

Alexis Christodoloulou, Quantum Express (2022) at “/imagine: A Journey into The New Virtual” at the MAK Museum. Photo: © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK.

Leah Wulfman, My mid-term trash heap (2022) at “/imagine: A Journey into The New Virtual” at the MAK Museum. Photo: © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK.

Simone C. Niquille, HOME SCHOOL (2019) at “/imagine: A Journey into The New Virtual” at the MAK Museum. Photo: © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK.

SPAN (Matias del Campo & Sandra Manninger), The niche (2023) using images generated using Midjourney at “/imagine: A Journey into The New Virtual” at the MAK Museum. Photo: © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK.