Spiller

I have encountered a number of notable thinkers and architects. Neil Spiller stands out as being one of the most fascinating encounters I have had. Carried out entirely virtually, in the cyberspace communiqué of email, he was the first editor to scrutinized my AD Chimera Issue submission, "AI SAPIEN Portraits: A Machinic Maneuver" (AD Vol. 96.2).

As a young undergrad, I was often fascinated by Spiller and the work coming from the Bartlett. The mixture of hard stuff, such as virtuosic draftsmanship, and soft stuff, such as text that had as much to do with myth and fantasy as it did with parameters and codes.

As the first, second, and third waves of the digital have arrived, now culminating in a tsunami of Generative AI, Spiller's stoic optimism in the face of vast new space seems prescient as much as truthful.

Much gratitude to Neil for his editorial work on my essay and his approval of my images.

Included with this text is my variation on Neil's visions for a city of the future.

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Image made in collaboration with Midjourney and text edited by Claude and Gemini