Seminar Architectural Criticism: Dear Artificial Intelligence, how do I write about Architecture?

Abstract

If you ask ChatGPT how to write about architecture, the OpenAI program provides tips. You have to “understand” architecture, “read books” and “visit buildings”. Only then should one proceed to “description” and “analysis” and “link everything to society”. Sounds good? The only question is: How can AI writing programs help us with this? This Architectural Criticism seminar aims to find out.

Objective

In this seminar writing is tested and taught as a personal expression and as a technical AI tool. In on-site exercises, students learn to experience architecture with their senses and to grasp it in speech, and then enter into a dialogue with writing programs such as ChatGPT. Text production is defined as a process and therefore will be systematically documented and analyzed.

Content

If you ask ChatGPT these days “How to write about architecture?”, the OpenAI program provides some tips. One must first “research” architecture, “read books, magazines and online articles”, “visit different buildings” and “sketch” in order to somehow be “inspired”. Only then should one move on to the "description" and "analysis", preferably "emphasizing the unique" and "linking everything to society". Sounds good, right? The only question is how can ChatGPT and other AI writing programs help us in doing just that? This fall semester's seminar on Architectural Criticism aims to work out the balancing act between writing as a personal expression and as a technical AI tool. Ever since OpenAI and other “Large Language Models” were launched, they have terrified universities. There is sometimes a justified concern that scientific work would be delegated to machines and thus no longer learned from scratch. Literary theorists also argue whether AI might have sealed the so-called “death of the author” once and for all, which was first proclaimed in the second half of the 20th century. "Postartificial texts" can no longer be decoded in terms of their authorship, argues the AI ​​philosopher and media scientist Hannes Bajohr, who will give a theoretical and practical introduction about AI-text-production at the beginning of the semester. The students will then start their own dialogues with ChatGPT and Co in order to generate reviews and essays. A number of excursions are planned – in the end, the sensual experience of architecture shall not be neglected.

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