In 2012 I wrote a short essay, “rendering drawing,” for the
@clogclogclog journal issue on rendering. There is so much in that publication that’s relevant today in the context of generative AI. Latent image cultures, mistrusting refined and realistic images, anxiety about relinquishing control, standardization of style, and an oblique curious optimism. I don’t think AI was mentioned much, if at all, in the issue, (there’s an excellent
@clogclogclog on the topic of AI six years later) but reading it today, it’s hard not to see most of that discourse with an AI frame. In 2012 I was interested in rendering geometry that wasn’t a building, wasn’t a construct, and wasn’t even material in some sense. Looking back, my rationale was sound: using technology to disrupt the legibility of technology in creative practice is imperative. However, I’ve not really ever been satisfied with the result of “rendered drawings” because drawings are meant to be read, not translated, extruded, etc. I’m now thinking about the digital space of rendering as though it IS a drawing and it is real. Instead of a-material these are hyper-material. There’s ink, servo motor sounds, a substrate, etc. It’s all digital, of course, and all the materiality a fiction. But I’m about to co-teach a Drawing with Robots class at
@utk_arch and with very physically material and very real robots. I’m looking forward to a controlled mess… (and very little overt AI)
