Transient Realities
The Virtual Architecture of Non-Places.

Study, 2024

Non-places, a concept from Marc Augé‘s work “Non-Places”, are functional spaces characterized by their anonymity and the absence of identity, history, and personal connection. Examples include airports, highways, parking garages, large shopping malls, and hospitals. These spaces, arising from increased mobility and standardized processes, reflect the impacts of globalization and the capitalist system, which have led to the proliferation of such non-places.

Since the economic crisis of 2008, and intensified by the pandemic, there has been a trend towards de-globalization. This trend is driven not only by geopolitical decisions but also significantly by digital technologies. Similar to physical non-places, which promote mechanical interactions over human encounters, digital technologies enable smoother operations in virtual non-places. The conductor has been replaced by ticket machines, which are now being supplanted by online platforms.

This work explores the phenomenon of non-places in the virtual realm. The two-part series on parking garages was created in the first part using artificial intelligence (AI). The second part consists of my own architectural photographs, which aesthetically align with the previously generated images.

The creation of images by AI can be seen as the epitome of a digital non-place. Using large image databases, the AI generates a standardized, identity-less, and history-less depiction of parking garages. These automatically generated images simulate ostensibly existing places without individual characteristics.

To create these images, text elements called prompts are used, which are transformed into visual representations by a text-to-image AI. To develop these prompts, another AI (GPT – Generative Pre-trained Transformer) was used to generate a summary of Marc Augé‘s work and subsequently create precise formulations used for image generation.
The architectural photographs presented in the second part reference the previously created AI-generated images, thus becoming part of a digital, artificial conception of this place.