Archinect - Features

AI Bias and Digital Colonialism; A Conversation with Morehshin Allahyari

2023-10-16T08:16:00-04:00

Whether through her art, writings, or lectures, Morehshin Allahyari's work evokes a range of emotions among its audience. There is wonder and intrigue at her reinterpretation of centuries-old Middle Eastern stories, images, and artifacts. There is introspection on our preconceived views on concepts from open-source data to digital archiving. Finally, there is a blend of frustration and motivation to act as Allahyari takes us on a journey through the exploitative history of colonial power relations between the West and the Middle East.

Using 3D simulation, video, sculpture, and digital fabrication, Allahyari warns us of a modern landscape in which power dynamics straddle both digital and physical worlds, articulating her theory of Digital Colonialism as a "framework for critically examining the tendency for information technologies to be deployed in ways that reproduce colonial power relations." In an age of artificial intelligence, the messages and critiques found within Allahyari's...

Screen/Print #32: NAAM's "On the Edge of Architecture"

2015-05-13T09:16:00-04:00

In our scope of Screen/Prints, architectural writing runs the gamut from object-oriented and project-specific analysis, to the fantasy realm of future conjectures and other worlds. The pieces can’t be generalized by topic or style, only by approach – taking on any genre with architecture as the protagonist. Our featured issue of NAAM, “On the Edge of Architecture”, embodies that spirit wholeheartedly.

Prototyping: "Architecture in Digital Fashion" makes parametricism personal

2014-08-29T11:18:00-04:00

Fashion design may seem far removed from architecture, but both disciplines have the human scale at their centers. One intimately wraps the body, the other moderates its passage through the world, but both are occasions for self-expression and vital to survival. The organizers behind Parametrica [Digi Fab School]’s “Architecture in Digital Fashion” workshop are encouraging architecture and design students to apply their skillset in these overlaps, to explore how wearable materials and architectural forms can inform one another.