Artificial Intelligence for Bio & Growing Design Applications

Artificial Intelligence has quickly become one of the most advanced (and scary) technological shifts of our Anthropocentric, contemporary era. Various tools and software have been built upon self-learning algorithms to improve our capacity of applying knowledge. AI enables to use information in shorter amounts of time, for example it can facilitate the development of concepts and the generation of images. ChatGPT, is a very popular example in which the AI is capable of answering questions arguing a wide range of scientific, technical or religious topics. Yet, there are exciting ones, the so-called »Image generating AI software«, like Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney. Throughout prompts, defined as ‘specifically written descriptive phrases’, these software generate various iterations of representative visualizations based on what you are imagining, translating the text in images in only a few seconds.

The tutorial session focused on using Midjourney in Bio & Growing Design research. Indeed, the powerful tool could help researchers in creating convincing contents showing futuristic scenarios where materials and products are grown, how different growing materials, and products could look like (e.g. bacterial cellulose or mycelium composites). As such it can foster the exchange of interdisciplinary knowledge between creative and scientific fields, providing network opportunities. It is strategic to acquire such skills as they would probably be highly demanded in the next years. It is crucial at same time, to approach and use AI tools as MidJourney in a responsible way that is compatible with the principles of good scientific practice.

The workshop guided the attendants to the world of Midjourney providing the theoretical and practical basics. Participants included PhD Students from various disciplines, students from the Open-Design Master, members of the Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity. Through case studies and an exercise, images were generated and some examples are showcased in the post below.

Workshop structure

• Brief introduction to AI
• Specific introduction to Midjourney software (free trial)
• Case studies MidJourney used in design fields.
• How it works (step-by-step procedure from ideation, prompt structure, and generation)
• Prompt writing demonstration and explanations
• Final exercise (each attendant will develop an image based on their own research project, and then will present it to the rest of the attendants)
• After the workshop, a booklet containing all the generated images could be produced and published.

Organization

Emma Sicher and Franziska Wegener

Workshop trainer

Nicholas Rapagnani is a designer focusing on footwear design, (bio) materials research, and Artificial Intelligence concepts generation. Being an extrovert person and an empathic networker, he has a background in Industrial Design at the Sapienza University of Rome, moving then to the master in Eco-Social Design at the Free University of Bolzano. He currently is a Research Fellow at the Free University of Bolzano, where he does theoretical, practical, and experimental research on sustainable materials for the Material Library of the Faculty. In the meantime, he focuses on merging traditional crafts techniques with microbiological experiments, while including AI-based processes inside his design methodologies. Furthermore, he has presented his work at BASE Milano during the Design Week exhibition in June 2022, at HBBE ArcInTex Symposium in October 2023, at the 4 Elements of Fashion conference at IUAV in March 2023, and right now at ADI Design Museum for the exhibition »Italy: a new collective landscape«.