Future Architecture

This scene was designed and created for display on the "Metropolitan Living Homes" Website in the AI movie's interactive fiction Web promotion.

One of the puzzles in the promotion was an "International Association of Sentient Architecture" password, which (once discovered, and entered into the appropriate place) permitted one to list an entry in the "IASA Annual Debutante Ball" for up-and-coming Apprentice Architects. Some people posted pictures of their houses, others posted random images.

Since the "Puppet Masters" running the game had put a lot of effort into backstory, events and people contemporary with the game (which took place in 2142), I decided to run with it.

I put up the Shipbrook Architecture Home Page in the root directory of my Web site, and posted a link to it on the IASA Ballroom page. The entry itself (below) contained a number of references to people, places and events named in the game:

Designed primarily around restful curves, Morpheus was entirely planned by our newest Apprentice Architect, MOXON. Outwardly unassuming, the floor plan was laid out to provide a restful environment, with both living facilities and work areas (shown here) providing spectacular views of the surrounding hillside.

Even the furniture was designed by our talented AI; Dr. Kimo Hookamalii, Director of the Catskill Seaview Clinic, requested modern designs to complement his collection of antique furniture.

MOXON's work has already been featured in Living Homes and Gardens; we invite you to view some of his other work (as well as that of some of our other architects) at Shipbrook Architecture.

Except for the table in the foreground, and the lute, all of the furniture and props were designed completely from scratch. The sailboat picture at the left of the image is a picture of the "Cloudmaker", the sentient vessel owned by Evan Chan, one of the main characters in the AI game (sort of; the game started out with his murder).

MOXON, the AI Apprentice Architect, was named after Joseph Moxon, who wrote "Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctine of Handy-works" (which included a section on architecture) in the late 17th century. I was extremely surprised to discover that Ambrose Bierce wrote a story involving an artificial intelligence, one of the main characters of which was named Moxon.

In a further display of bizarre synchronism, one of the later puzzles in the AI game involved lutes.

Because the scene was only meant to be viewed in a wide shot, I didn't put a great deal of effort into fine texturing of the objects. Still, I was a little disappointed that some of the detail I did put in was too small to show up, so here are a couple of the objects in the scene (click the thumbnails for the full-sized images):

Data Terminal — One of the images discovered in the course of the AI game was a picture of one of the game's characters — Jeanine Salla — sitting at a futuristic computer terminal (which appeared to be a graphics tablet and a plexiglas screen with a hex grid on it, with text overlaid).

This is a re-creation of that terminal, showing the Cybertronics logo on the screen. The picture next to the terminal is that of "Laia Salla", Jeanine's daughter and one of the game's primary characters.

Data Terminal — Another one of the data terminals, showing the IR data/power ports on the wall, and the view out the window. The hex grid was slightly more opaque on this one, in the mistaken hope that it would be visible in the wide shot.

Diploma — A diploma from "Bangalore World University", where Jeanine Salla worked. The black "bubble" on the wall is one of the sentient building's holocameras, through which the AI interacts with the inhabitants.

Future Architecture

Details