Columns of Tomorrow
Strong story-telling has the capacity to shift opinions, sell or imagine new ideas. We’re currently at the start of what’s truly possible with image-making from artificial intelligence, some of which confound our legal and social systems. A.I. image generative programs rely on very specific prompts; garbage in, garbage out. It currently cannot infer what one is trying to say and can only bring out the possibilities based on the author’s inputs.
So what if story and world-building was the starting point for prompts? The approach for this competition was for story-building to push the design. The resulting images came from a discovery process in generative storytelling.
Center of Missing Persons
The Center of Missing Persons was established as a physical beacon for those to come to gather when loved ones are missing whether caused by natural disaster, human catastrophe, or simply lost on vacation visiting one of the many Megalopolises that now exist across the globe.
Columns support the Center of Missing persons which are structurally embedded with various audio and visual technology. Holograms of the missing along with any descriptions and contacts that family members may leave are projected out of the columns. The physicality of the columns disappear behind the veil of virtual data projecting off of the columns. The holograms create an ephemeral affect as if the building is being supported by the power of data alone. Structure that is typically scene vanishes leaving behind that which usually is not seen, virtual data.
Neutrino Energy Columns
2655AD
Our story begins about 100 years ago when countries lost meaning as organizers of human society. Governments and political institutions proved themselves to be ineffective against the steady march of geopolitical problems, including a fast-changing climate and energy crisis.
Political institutions allowed themselves to be influenced so much by corporations for centuries to a point of becoming more of a nuisance for these companies and quite frankly, simply an overhead expense. They bought land, air rights, and old institutions.
For better and worse, corporations or Corporate States became more effective entities that provided basic resources and care, all in exchange for a subscription fee. One such resource was energy. When the oil dried up and many parts of the planet’s surface became unstable for living, these Corporate States competed to find profitable alternative solutions fast.
The Reines Company pioneered many technological innovations but the most significant was the invention of the Neutrino Column in 2557. These slender chrome sentinels began showing up in different landscapes(more in deserts) and harvested subatomic neutrinos from the sun and converted them to energy at such low costs that they grew a formidable monopoly over that sector. Global networks of neutrino columns emerged and established Reines the most dominant corporate state with the largest population of subscribers(formerly known as citizens). The faster-than-light properties of these so-called ghost particles opened opportunities for the Reines Company into advanced communications and space travel, all with the neutrino column infrastructure.
Place: Earth
Year: 2023
Client: Non-Architecture
Status: Story & Concept