Mohammad Qasim Iqbal: Another Midjourney exploration, this is an extension to the Silk & Stone series but this time I mixed my prompts with both Renaissance and Baroque style qualities. In addition, I generalised the silk draping to a more generic approach of any fabric, this was in hope that the AI would then treat the fabric in any direction and manner it saw fit rather than just draping them.
The main idea remained like the previous Silk & Stone experiment, to juxtapose the rigidity and hardness of the stone facades with the organic, fluid, and random form of silk fabric. I further added a tensile structure in the prompt to try and push the AI to think of creative ways to merge the multiple structural qualities I desired. The beauty of this series comes from the merging of qualities between the stone and fabric materials, fabric becomes stone, and stone becomes fabric. It is in those moments that one begins to question the Architecture, the material, and its detailing, as all good Architecture should.
The façade for me sits in the “blurred zone” between things, the grey area, between reality and concept, between a definite and ambiguous solution. It offers the viewer a chance to explore and question as they should. It uses familiar styles such as the Renaissance and Baroque and involves the unpredictable nature of fabric, a dynamic material that moves with the wind and weathers through the seasons. Set against a hard stone façade, one which resonated with strength and durability. It forces the viewer to look between two completely different materials, against each other but also complementing one another. It pushes viewers to /imagine something which they would only dream of.
