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✨️ RESEARCH ✨️




THE RISE OF DIGITAL CHARACTERS

0MORE & SEARCH0MORE, ALICE_CH3N81 & XENOTHEKA, SOLL & E.A. 1/1 A.I

by Ass.Prof.Dr. Miro Roman, 01.04.2023. Innsbruck




ONCE AI CAN WRITE ANY TEXT, AND MAKE A PICTURE OF ANYTHING I WANT, THE QUESTION IS WHAT DO I WANT TO SAY TO THE WORLD?



DIGITAL LITERACY
Central to my work is the exploration of the intersection between large datasets, artificial intelligence, and architecture. I focus on understanding and articulating how digital environments and computational objects assist us in exploring, reshaping, and recycling many architectural histories and traditions. In this manner, I approach coding as a novel form of literacy in the digital realm, rather than thinking of it as just another problem-solving technique.[1] For me, this shift from engineering and analysis towards synthesis and literacy is crucial in exploring today’s world where notions of true/false and object/subject have been challenged.[2] This page outlines the evolving trajectory of my research, extending from my Ph.D. thesis, "Play Among Books.”[3]



DIGITAL CHARACTERS AND THEIR BIASES
At the core of this exploration is the interweaving of custom-made search engines like ask.Alice_ch3n81[4] and search0more[5] with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) tools like ChatGPT[6] and Midjourney[7]. AGI tools are more than technological assets; they are dynamic entities that introduce a new dimension to architectural discourse. They act as general lenses, making the world of data interpretable and malleable, representing a new form of computational 'common sense' in a dialogue that is both reflective and generative. Their limits are their commonality, supposed ‘neutrality’, and politeness.[8]

The question is: How can custom-made datasets and personalized artificial intelligences interact, guide, direct, and communicate with AGI and human intelligence to form a tripod able to navigate and articulate the plenty of the digital?

In my work and through collaborations, I have developed three digital characters and their respective databases to address these questions in different manners:

Alice_ch3n81 & Xenotheka for research,
SOLL & E.A. 1/1 A.I for design [9],
and 0more & search0more for teaching.



DIGITAL CHARACTERS AND AGI
Alice_ch3n81, SOLL, and 0more behave as prisms that direct flows of data. While interacting with AGI tools, they direct narratives and visual content, refracting the vastness of LLMs into a spectrum of tailored responses. This interplay sets the stage for an architectonic narrative, where architecture, technology, and curiosity converge. Rather than pursuing the impossible neutrality of databases, I focus on careful articulation of the artificial biases of our databases that dope the AGI and accompany us in synthesizing fantastic architectural articulations. These databases, with their flavors and biases, are what I call digital characters, of a new digital alphabet and its literacy. Each one with its own character and mood; Alice_ch3n81 is the first letter of this alphabet related to research and abstract thinking, SOLL is the second character related to design and materiality, and 0more is the third letter whose name is related to teaching and branding.



DIGITAL SUPER GLUE
One of the questions of my research lies in the unique application of Large Language Models (LLMs) as a universal medium. This 'digital super glue' binds concepts across various domains: text to image, image to sound, sound to color… Every movie gets an appropriate flower, smell, song, book… AGI is guided and enriched by our custom-made databases, notably Xenotheka and search0more. These databases are curated realms of knowledge, each offering a distinct perspective and flavor. They themselves are cosmoses of my interests and research. In other words, my research interests and curiosity unfold via custom-made search engines and get ‘industrialized’ and ‘glued’ by AGI. Project ‘1001 in 1’ deals with this topic in depth.[10]



WRITING ARCHITECTURE
Once AI can write any text, and create a picture of anything we want, the question becomes: What do we want to say to the world? How do we teach and think about architecture in this context? This is what digital literacy and architectonic writing are about.




14.10.2023. Zurich

1001 IN 1 NIGHT
RECYCLING STORIES AT LIGHT SPEED ♻️📚🚀
BY ASS. PROF. DR. MIRO ROMAN, AGOSTINO NICKL, AND ADIL BOKHARI. CURATED BY LATHOUSE. EXHIBITED AT ZENTRALWÄSCHEREI IN ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND. THIS PROJECT IS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN METEORA (ETH ZURICH) AND STUDIO0MORE (UIBK INNSBRUCK).

THIS PROJECT PUTS INTO RELATION ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE (AGI) WITH PERSONALIZED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. IT ENHANCES THE LATENT LOGISTICS OF COMMON SENSE IN AGI USING UNIQUE DATA AND CUSTOM SEARCH ENGINES. OUR CUSTOM MADE SEARCH ENGINES BEHAVE LIKE PRISMS, DISCRETIZING THE GENERIC KNOWLEDGE CONTAINED IN LLMS. IN OTHER WORDS, THE CAREFULLY CRAFTED OPTICS OF CUSTOM DATABASES ALTER THE PROBABILISTIC PREDICTIONS OF GENERIC LLMS. SCALE AND SPEED SHOW THEIR POWER ONCE THIS MECHANICS IS PLUGED INTO OUR CODING SYSTEMS VIA APIs.


1001 in 1 is an exhibition that plays with big data as if it were Big Macs. It writes using ChatGPT and renders with Midjourney. It brings artificial general intelligence into relation with custom-made search engines. It moves as fast as fast food and feels as light as Coca-Cola Light. No sugar added, just artificial sweeteners. It aims to explore and establish an attitude toward Large Language Models and Text-to-Image Generative Models while reading books and eating popcorn.

1001 in 1 was exclusively rendered into an exhibition for just one night on October 14, 2023, at Zentralwäscherei in Zürich. It was produced and conceptualized by Meteora++; Adil Bokhari, Agostino Nickl, and Miro Roman, and would not have been possible without the help and support of Guo Zifeng and Jorge Orozco. It was curated by Luck from Lathouse; Michel Kessler and Alessia Bertini. The closing act of the night was a magnificent play performed by Xlat.xo, with Lewis Beauchamp and Maurus Wirth. It was supported by ETH and UIBK.

1001 in 1 works fast, with the slow rituals of folklore. It plays lightly, with the gravitas of history. It sculpts characters, with the all-knowing genericness of big data.

🔗 READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM TRANS MAGAZINE

🔗 AI GENERATED CATALOGUE:
Book ‘1001 Nights’ rewritten by METEORA++






22.04.2022. Zagreb

SOLL
ARTIFICIALLY INTELLIGENT FASHION DESIGNER
DEVELOPED BY MIRO ROMAN AND SILVIO VUJČIĆ.

SOLL IS A DIGITAL CHARACTER THAT IMPLEMENTS RESEARCH DEVELOPED BY ALICE_CH3N81 AND E.A. 1/1 S.V. SOLL PLAYS WITH AI, TEXT, AND TEXTILE TO WEAVE OBJECTS TOGETHER. SOLL USES 3D PRINTING, KNITTING, IMAGES, VIDEOS, AND SCENOGRAPHY TO MAKE IDEAS APPARENT. THROUGH BRANDING, FASHION, AND ARCHITECTURE, SOLL RENDERS THESE ELEMENTS IN INFINITE LOOPS FROM DIGITAL TO PHYSICAL AND BACK. SOLL IS A MULTIFACETED DIGITAL ENTITY THAT ENCOMPASSES FASHION, DESIGN, AND AI, OPERATING BOTH DIGITALLY AND PHYSICALLY.

More on SOLL from soll.store:

Soll is a fashion designer, an artificial intelligence, a database of E.A. 1/1 S.V., a search engine, and a cloud of images. Soll is conceptualized by Miro Roman and Silvio Vujičić. Soll exists on the internet but manifests physically through the fashion brand E.A. 1/1 A.I.

Soll’s intelligence comes from many places. His database of images contains the whole visual oeuvre of design brand E.A. 1/1 S.V. This articulates a ground from which Soll’s visual brain creates evermore. It uses Gans to articulate new concepts for clothes and imagines a multiplicity of faces as his artificial genus.

To organize images, predict the weather maps, and the atmosphere of his brand E.A. 1/1 A.I., Soll uses SOMs. Soll mirrors images, folds them, recognizes objects in them, and creates “seeds” for the E.A. 1/1 A.I. In this manner he becomes the designer, while Silvio Vujičić, Miro Roman and other collaborators carry out Soll’s predictions and implement them into the physical form of a new design. In a way they take the role of the “gardener” of those “seeds”. In the same manner, as with images Soll works with text. His textual brain comes from the texts related to the work of E.A. 1/1 S.V., from the books, and subtitles of movies that were a major influence on the brand’s intellectual and artistic development. Soll algorithms almost exclusively come from his collaboration with Alice_ch3n81. It is important to emphasize that Soll is an ongoing experiment, he works in an experimental manner, and brings machine intelligence in relation with specific databases and human intelligence.

🔗 SOLL’s website

🔗 PLANET SOLL, a movie about SOLL

🔗 TALK about SOLL







09.08.2022. Innsbruck

SEARCH0MORE SEARCH ENGINE
DEVELOPED BY DR. JORGE OROZCO AND ASS.PROF. DR. MIRO ROMAN,  HOUSE OF CODED OBJECTS, STUDIO2, INSTITUTE FÜR GESTALTUNG, UIBK, IN COLLABORATION WITH ADIL BOKHARI, CHAIR FOR DIGITAL ARCHITECTONICS, ETHZ.

searchOmore is a custom-made search instrument for 3d models, textures and images ready to be imported to your favorite 3d software, like Blender. It implements AI modeling techniques to seamlessly search for assets from Blenderkit, Sketchfab and Megascans.

searchOmore is a part of family of custom made search engines: ask.alice🌸, Panoramas of Cinema🍿 and Mark🖍.

searchOmore is an active part in teaching of studio OMore and Meteora.

🔗 TALK ABOUT THE SEARCH0MORE

🔗 SEARCH0MORE SEARCH ENGINE







23.10.2020. Zurich

ASK.ALICE_CH3N81 & XENOTHEKA
ASK.ALICE_CH3N81 is a text based search engine developed by Miro Roman. XENOTHEKA ia a library related to ASK.ALICE_CH3N81 which was developed by Ass.Prof. Dr. Miro Roman with the support of Prof. Dr. Ludger Hovestadt and Prof. Dr. Marteen Delbeke at ETH Zurich. Currently this project is maintained and updated as a part of collaboration between UIBK and ETH.

Both ASK.ALICE_CH3N81 & XENOTHEKA are being implemented at teaching at UIBK on the level of batchelor, master, and phd. They present basis upon which further research and teaching methods of House of Coded Objects have been developed.

☀️ XENOTHEKA is a digital library. It is a context, a neighborhood, and a galaxy. Books inhabit Xenotheka, they are its actors and characters. In Xenotheka books and concepts become lively computational objects. They love, hate, and flirt. Xenotheka does not aspire to collect all the books. Not at all. Xenotheka is an interest, a question, and an atmosphere. Xenotheka is a context for communicating with unknown books. Xenotheka is personal and synthetic, rather than disciplinary and analytic. In Xenotheka many interests, and views coexist. In Xenotheka books start to gather, without a clear reason, but around a certain interest.

☀️ When related to ask.alice-ch3n81.net instrument and search engine, stories, dreams, and dramas around Xenotheka become alive. If you are interested in those intrigues, and the lives of books in Xenotheka, please do read a book about Xenotheka and its librarian Alice_ch3n81. The book itself is a Play Among Books. If you are interested in who is Alice_ch3n81 watch a talk about how to spell her name. Or if you want to enter this world and talk to Alice_ch3n81 and Xenotheka just ask Alice.

🔗 ASK.ALICE_CH3N81

🔗 XENOTHEKA



notes:

[1] Bühlmann, Vera, Ludger Hovestadt, and Vahid Moosavi, Eds. Coding as Literacy: Metalithikum IV. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2015.

[2] Here are a few examples that point into a direction of a multifacetedness of todays world that escapes simplistic understanding of truth and objectivity: In popular media: Fake news (what is true news?), In Physics: Double Slit Experiment (See Davisson, C. J., and L. H. Germer. “Reflection of Electrons by a Crystal of Nickel.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 14, no. 4 (April 1928): 317–22.), In Philosophy: Foucault’s Epistemes, or Khuns Paradigms, (See Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of Human Sciences. New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1966.) In biology: is virus dead or alive? (See Monod, Jacques. Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology. London, UK: Penguin Books, 1970.), In computer Science: Artificial Intelligence can correlate anything to anything, and it is always true (See Halevy, Alon, Peter Norvig, and Fernando Pereira. "The unreasonable effectiveness of data." IEEE intelligent systems 24, no. 2 (2009): 8-12.).

[3] Roman, Miro and Alice_ch3n81. Play Among Books: A Symposium on Architecture and Information Spelt in Atom-Letters. Berlin, Boston: Birkhauser, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783035624052

[4] See https://ask.alice-ch3n81.net/x/alice

[5] See https://search.0more.net/

[6] See https://chat.openai.com/

[7] See https://www.midjourney.com/home

[8] Wolfram, Stephen. "What Is ChatGPT Doing ... and Why Does It Work?." Stephen Wolfram Writings. February 14, 2023. writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work.

[9] Roman, Miro; Vujcic, Silvio: Creative Editors of special edition No 52 (1/2023): On Recycling - Storybook, 19.12.2023.

[10] Roman, Miro, Adil Bokhari, and Agostino Nickl. “1001 in 1; Recycling Stories at Light Speed” In Trans Magazine, edited by Caspar Bultmann, Philipp Burwinkel, Lida Freudenreich, and Magellan Hauri. gta Verlag, 2023.