Christina Shivers  









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Title: How to Trick Your Algorithm

Category: Research conducted as part of the Ventulett NEXT Fellowship at Georgia Tech
Year: 2023-present

This project asks what potential AI poses for the development of new material and craft practices in architecture, and how these practices can better integrate ecological goals than existing techniques. In exploring this question, I have developed a process of critical interrogation of AI algorithms used by popular programs like Midjourney and the visual data with which it is trained. As AI is continually marketed as a super-human, magical technology, it is easy forget that it is built upon an accumulation of immense amounts of data created by humans; an interrogation of this data can reveal larger political priorities and the AI algorithm is a method to extract, simplify, and sort this data. Furthermore, AI is ecological in that it draws things together in unexpected ways, and this process attempts to redirect AI’s objectives toward emergence, as opposed to the “rational calculative methods” it is currently engineered for.

Recycled Plastic Pavilion


Camouflage Model
A “turquoise and green plastic bag”, produced in Canva AI 
Hybrid image of the plastic bag and camouflage model, produced in Midjourney 
Architectural pavilion, produced in Midjourney 
This process began with the fabrication of a “camouflage model” designed using a combination of computational drawings created using “noise” algorithms and spatial manipulations in Rhino. Drawings produced with “noise” are capable of confusing AI image recognition and machine learning algorithms, causing incorrectly identified images. This technique was used in order to push the AI algorithms beyond the boundaries they are engineered to exist within. Additionally, the process of artifact making relied on spatial manipulations intended to introduce another unexpected visual element to confuse the algorithm.

Once the “camouflage model” was completed, I asked an AI program to describe it. In this first exploration, the AI program presented several options but consistently labeled this image as a “turquoise and green plastic bag”. While the camouflage model is an abstract construction, the AI algorithm consistently attempted to identify it as an object, and continuously defaulted to one of the most ubiquitous items littered across the earth: the plastic shopping bag. This result was particularly revealing, in that the default to the plastic bag provided a peak into the data upon which the algorithm was trained.

Four-color 3D Printed Physical Model

Elevation Drawings, constructed and produced by author


The first pavilion is constructed from a series of 2’ x 2’ modules. Each module is made up of a custom, recycled plastic sheet created using a heatpress; shredded LDPE sheets are heated and pressed into a sheet. Once fabricated, the sheets are then reheated in the press in order to be molded on a cardboard formwork, as depicted to the right. The formwork and bent sheet are then bolted to a wooden frame, and subsequently encased using another 1/8” recycled sheet.
Plastic recycling construction process



Mycelium and Recycled Styrofoam Pavilion



Camouflage Model
A “colorful computer monitor”, produced in Midjourney
Hybrid image of the colorful computer monitor and the camouflage model, produced in Midjourney
Architectural pavilion, producedin Midjourney 




Four-color 3D Printed Physical Model


Elevation Drawings, constructed and produced by author


Mycelium and styrofoam construction process

The second pavilion utilizes mushroom mycelium as a construction material and the pavilion consists of 2 ’x  2’ modules consisting of a styrofoam core surrounded by a thin layer of mycelium. Mycelium blocks researched in architectural practice currently require significant amounts of heat and electricity to bake and to avoid using significant amounts of electricity, this fabrication process relies on the reused styrofoam core to allow for a thinner membrane of mycelium, which can subsequently be baked in the sun. 




Recycled Paper Pavilion


Camouflage Model
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Four-color 3D Printed Physical Model




The third pavilion consists of 2’ x 2’ modules of recycled shredded paper which is subsequently laminated with glue and molded using custom 3D printed molds. The construction process for each pavilion is described on each of the boards displayed across the exhibition.

Recycled paper construction process