Sentient architecture promises insight into our evolving relationship with AI

Abstract

As the sun set on April 11, 2018, around 400 people gathered in Indiana University’s Luddy Hall, anticipating a sort of birth. There, in the home of the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, all eyes pointed to Amatria , a woven cloud of white Mylar and clear acrylic plastics, wire, glass, laser-cut stainless steel, and electronics hanging from the glass ceiling. Amatria , a new work of “sentient architecture” by Philip Beesley and others in LAS, is at once art installation, architectural prototype, and test bed for artificial intelligence. Image courtesy of Philip Beesley (photographer). This new work of “sentient architecture” by multidisciplinary researcher and artist Philip Beesley of the University of Waterloo and colleagues hung still. Then Beesley reached up. Sensing his movement, Amatria shuddered. Vibrations near Beesley’s hand rippled outward accompanied by bursts of warm light and sounds ranging from otherworldly clinks and bellows to natural gurgles and hisses. Amatria is at once art installation, architectural prototype, and test bed for artificial intelligence. Beesley created the sculpture in collaboration with researchers at Indiana University, as well as electrical engineer Rob Gorbet of the University of Waterloo and other members of Beesley’s Living Architecture Systems group (LAS), which includes an international team of 90 architects, scientists, engineers, and sound artists. The goal of the LAS group is to make buildings come alive, revolutionizing built spaces and our relationships with them. The group aspires to create an architectural structure that is more integrated with the natural world, a metabolism that enables self-renewal, and an artificial intelligence capable of curiosity and even empathy. LAS has exhibited more than 50 installations around the world. But Amatria is unique in that it functions as a permanent test bed in an academic community where it can evolve. As researchers collaborate with the sculpture’s …