Selected excerpt “…the “synthetic” is a genuine and meaningful version of something that was deliberately created (such as a laboratory-grown diamond identical to a “natural” one at the molecular level). Thus, artificial intelligence merely seems smart, but synthetic intelligence really is. We should be pursuing synthetic intelligence, not artificial intelligence.” Chat GPT4_Itemization of ideas Synthetic … Read more
“The women argued it was not a bad thing to be able to know instantly by scanning who one is dealing with. Someone remembered a proposal that democracy might best be served by opening up the data banks to everyone rather than trying to do without them or, even worse, pretending they did not exist. … Read more
The image was created to depict an exaggeration of a Lagos market scene. In Lagos Nigeria, there is an obsession by the state to build “ultra-modern“ shopping facilities to house commercial activities. However, due to the high cost of rent of these facilities as well as the culture of traditional markets in Nigeria, traders and … Read more
Critical urbanists are empowered by theory, constrained by history, and valued by their ability and will to negotiate opportunities. The powers of theory are defined by Brenner and Roy as that of critical imagination and rejection of definition; contexualized as historically urban and increasingly planetary by Harvey, Brenner, and Schmid; and actualized by Kaika and … Read more
Community is mostly depicted as a unifying tool that brings a sense of belonging, but does it also act as the root of urban conflict by defining who is an outsider? Through the use of AI, the text Cites or Urbanization? by David Harvey was reimagined as a part of a political discourse and represented … Read more
Introduction Embarking on the odyssey of urban studies, this blog post endeavors to unravel the intricate tapestry of urban theory. At its core, urban theory seeks to comprehend the dynamic relationship between cities, nature, and design, viewed through the lens of recent discussions within the realms of urban and environmental studies. The journey is marked … Read more
‘ The blurring and rearticulation of urban territories. Urbanisation processes are being regionalised and reterritorialised. Increasingly, former “central functions,” such as shopping facilities, company headquarters, research institutions, prestigious cultural venues, as well as spectacular architectural forms, dense settlement patterns, and infrastructural arrangements, are being dispersed outwards from historic central city cores, into erstwhile suburbanised spaces, … Read more
Harnessing AI to deconstruct text to visuals Introduction Welcome to our exploration of urban theory, where we decipher the complexity of urban theory through the lens of imagery and aphorisms. We—three students with diverse perspectives—have delved into the intricate narratives and critical readings to let us translate them to critical urban thinking. This blog post … Read more
Welcome to the world of advanced computational tools, where we delve into the intricacies of Grasshopper, a graphical algorithm editor tightly integrated with Rhino’s 3-D modeling tools. This blog post will guide you through the learning process, focusing on the fundamental aspects of Grasshopper and logical representations. Grasshopper Fundamentals Grasshopper is a powerful tool that … Read more
Between groupthink and individualitythe conflicting human impulses toward civilisation and social organization”(William Golding, The Lord of the flies, 1954) -How does collective design ensure/produce better environments?-How collective intelligence can affect design decisions?-How top-down and bottom- up projects are implemented?–Open data vs privacy | Participatory vs autonomy | Crowdsourcing / Crowdfuding Introduction To what extent collective … Read more
