yongwook seong imagines banff as extraterrestrial eco-park in new AI-generated series

yongwook seong imagines banff as a surreal eco-park

Continuing his exploration of the intersection between design and artificial intelligence, Yongwook Seong presents a new sci-fi architecture series titled Banff Extraterrestrial Park, developed using Midjourney. The AI-generated project unfolds as the flying saucer Extraterrestrial 006 visits the Canadian city of Banff and terraforms it to develop an eco-tourist park as part of an Earth revitalization project. In an effort to enhance inter-galactic travels and maintain an ecological equilibrium, the Extraterrestrial Architects begin to construct this new landscape using autonomous stardust drones. While one project sees a futuristic inter-galactic communications tower emerging from Banff’s mountainscape, another sees a giant spaceship-like Observation Tower perched atop a steep ridge, offering unobstructed panoramic views of the city.

all images by Yongwook Seong

an ai-generated extraterrestrial intervention

The AI-generated images depict the landscape of Banff becoming transformed by an imagined extraterrestrial eco-park. The flying object 006 hovers above the city, releasing floating spheres made of stardust which are able to transform into any object in earthly time and space. On the ground, terraforming drones and ground bots have been released by the aviation division to conduct research and construction. Altogether, the Extraterrestrial Architects construct a surreal inter-galactic structure emerging from the contours of a rocky mountaintop, a futuristic Sky Hotel providing anti-gravity suites for 006, and mycelium fungi towers soaring above the landscape. 

Banff Extraterrestrial Park was generated using Midjourney, a culmination of a process of inputting text-based prompts from alien-related keywords into the program. To begin with, Midjourney triggered many creative iterations of extraterrestrial design which extended beyond the designer’s original intention. However, he soon realized the limitations of making use of human-made algorithms to envision architecture produced by aliens. ‘Materials collected by AI are earth-bounded, and largely based on human knowledge and imagination. These subsequently caused the scope of the project inherently limited,’ comments Yongwook Seong.

Further, within his AI-generated sci-fi series which features extraterrestrials as a protagonist, Seong is careful to avoid depictions of the beings themselves, choosing to illustrate their surreal architectural marvels instead. He chooses to avoid painting an invasive and ‘otherized’ nature of aliens as seen in H. G. Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’, wherein monstrous Martians with giant tentacles have greatly influenced perception towards aliens from an early time. Seong proposes: ‘anthropogenic and Eurocentric data selection has given birth to skewed results of alien design during the creation process. This would show that the lack of diversity in data will keep posing fundamental questions towards AIAD (Artificial Intelligence Aided Design).’

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project info:

name: Banff Extraterrestrial Park
designer: Yongwook Seong

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