The importance of architectural visualization is widely known but cannot be overstated. Architects trade may be in buildings but rarely is a building built today before a rendering of that building is produced. Rendering or image making is used as a design tool to evaluate work, a marketing tool to sell designs and a communication tool to execute constructions of those designs.
Since the developments of computer-generated images, ‘renderings’ have appeared in many forms with styles of lighting, trends in entourage and techniques of post processing. Preceding but intertwined with the history of rendering is the history of photography as the preferred medium for capturing and documenting the built environment. The combination of photography, rendering and post processing techniques and advancements in software have brought photo-realistic renderings to a level sometimes indistinguishable from photographs themselves. Most recently developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence have allowed for the creation of deepfakes, a form of synthetic media that combines video and imaging of real individuals with artificially created content. While the motivations behind these artifacts vary from political strategy to social agendas, the underlying intent remains the same: to deceive.
This course will not be exploring machine learning but its fundamental aim shared by deepfakes: complete and total deception. How far can you push architectural rendering, in combination with photography and photo editing? How much can you leverage the power of commonly available software and downloadable images? Can you deceive your peers with your new found skills?