arXiv subjects

Anca-Simona Horvath

Publications and source records attributed to Anca-Simona Horvath.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Words, Spaces and Generative AI: Layers of language in contemporary architecture

Language can be considered a design material in architecture, and in the context of text-to-X generative AI models becoming a common tool for architectural practice, looking more closely at language is more important now than in the past. After describing some of the important developments in linguistics starting from Wittgenstein, and including the work of Chomsky, Lakoff, conceptual and generative metaphors as proposed by Schön, this chapter connects them to contemporary architectural design and generative text-to-X tools. The chapter builds on the idea that three main forms of language intertwine in architectural design done using generative AI, namely (I) discourse (or natural language which can contain professional terminology specific to our field), (II) programming languages (which are artificial languages sitting at the basis of all computational systems), and (III) annotations (as language elements attached to pieces of data). It concludes by outlining a research agenda for connecting generative metaphors to generative AI: (a) conducting corpus linguistics studies on architectural texts (using quantitative tools such as topic modelling, and qualitative tools such as discourse analysis); (b) bringing communication theory and information studies closer to architectural research and (c) taking into account that different (natural) languages come with different affordances meaning generative and conceptual metaphors differ in relation to this.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2026

Latent-surrealism: Revisiting surrealism and its aesthetics in relation to contemporary AI-Generated cultural production

This chapter examines AI-media objects - creative and artistic outputs generated through generative artificial intelligence in the form of text-to-X tools - in relation to three avant-garde movements of the twentieth century: Dadaism, Surrealism, and Conceptual Art. Drawing on Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass as an early precursor to these three movements and to anti-rationalist aesthetics, and on three case studies in AI-generated conceptual architecture - Matias del Campo's "Deep House" and Hassan Ragab's "Post-Pharaonic Architecture" and "A State of Decay" - the chapter develops the concept of latent-surrealism. Latent-surrealism includes a set of aesthetic and methodological conditions inherent to creative AI-media objects. These include the use of readymade datasets reassembled through collage-like processes, the absurd as an aesthetic quality of machine hallucinations, and the decoupling of craft from artistic value. The chapter further argues that AI-media objects represent a shift in the conditions of creative production: where earlier computational tools required graphical interfaces and programming literacy, natural language now functions as the operative medium. This repositions the prompt (as language-based instructions) in the center of the creative process, in continuity with the legacy of Conceptual Art, and signals a linguistic turn across creative fields that make (use of) AI-media objects.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Toward Site-Aware MR Art Exhibitions: A SLAM-Based Deployment Pipeline for Spatial Coherence and Exhibition Experience

Mixed Reality (MR) is increasingly being used in exhibition settings to bring digital artworks into relation with the physical environment. However, existing MR exhibition systems are often confined to prototypes or case-specific deployments, offering limited guidance for large-scale practical implementation. To address this gap, this paper presents a practical pipeline for designing and deploying large-scale MR art exhibitions, treating spatial alignment not only as a technical mechanism but also as an experiential design decision. We first conducted a pilot study comparing marker-based and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)-based alignment methods in an MR exhibition setting. Based on the results, we developed a SLAM-based pipeline for MR exhibitions that integrates technical deployment with exhibition curation. We then evaluated the pipeline through both system overhead measures and users' experiential feedback. The results show that spatial alignment influences not only technical stability, but also overall exhibition coherence, visitors' sense of continuity and immersion, and artwork interpretation. These findings provide an empirically grounded reference for future large-scale MR art exhibition deployment.

cs.MM↗

arXiv2026

Urban to Rural Migration in Eastern Europe: Unpacking digital ruralities through TikTok video analysis

Urban to rural migration is a less-researched phenomenon compared to its counterpart: rural to urban migration. In parts of Europe, an increasing number of people living in big urban centers within the country, or moving from other countries decide to relocate to rural areas. In this paper, we examine this phenomenon by analysing content posted on TikTok that documents this transition. We collected a corpus of 901 videos posted until late 2025, documenting urban to rural migration in Romania, under three hashtags, which have collectively been played a total of 24 million times at the time when we gathered the dataset. We analyse this corpus both quantitatively and qualitatively and discuss our findings through the lens of digital rurality - a theory based on Harvey's and Soja's spatial triad, applied to rural spaces, and based on the role of digital technologies as (re-)mediators of everyday lived experience. Specifically, we analyze the corpus as: (a) digital rural localities, (b) formal representations of the digital rural, and (c) everyday lives of the digital rural. We find that (a) Social media platforms enable new forms of paid labor that sometimes involve the commodification of the self in rural areas, although many of the creators we analyze do not explicitly acknowledge this with their audiences. (b) The digital rural gains new forms of representation, and rural areas in remote Romania are highly data-rich across TikTok. (c) The everyday lives represented through the digital rural are sometimes idealized or romanticised. However, they serve as promoters for tourism and are used as sites to document and discuss a variety of topics including giving ample health advice, typically by non-specialists and sometimes criticizing Western medicine, expressing and promoting religious and political views but also acting as forms of general self-expression.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Bio-crafting Architecture: Experiences of growing mycelium in minimal surface molds

This study documents a three-week workshop with architecture students, where we designed and 3D printed various minimal surfaces using wood-based filaments, and used them as molds in which to grow mycelium. We detail the design process and the growth of the mycelium in different shapes, together with participants' experiences of working with a living material. After exhibiting the results of the work in a public-facing exhibition, we conducted interviews with members of the general public about their perceptions on interacting with a material such as mycelium in design. Our findings show that 3D-printed minimal surfaces with wood-based filaments can function as structural cores for mycelium-based composites and mycelium binds to the filament. Participants in the workshop exhibited stronger feelings for living materials compared to non-living ones, displaying both biophilia and, to a lesser extent, biophobia when interacting with the mycelium. Members of the general public discuss pragmatic aspects including mold, fragility, or production costs, and speculate on the future of bio-technology and its impact on everyday life. While all are positive about the impact on bio-technologies on the future, they have diverging opinions on how much ethical considerations should influence research directions.

cs.HC↗