Artificial intelligence designed a wall created by art and architecture students for Sculpture Milwaukee

Sculpture Milwaukee on Monday unveiled “Wall-E,” a nearly-20-foot, artificial intelligence (AI)-designed wall submitted by the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (UWM) School of Architecture & Urban Planning with the help of solid-surfaces manufacturer Vendura Industries at the 3rd Street Market Hall in downtown Milwaukee.

“Wall-E” is part of the “Dear Nature” exhibit, which features work from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, UWM Peck School of the Arts and UWM School of Architecture & Urban Planning (SARUP.)

The name comes from the artificial program DALL-E, which students used to design the wall using 200 architectural examples of walls, UWM staff Karl Wallick told The Daily Reporter.

“We fed in something like 200 different famous architectural examples of walls, and it gave us a picture. We took that picture and put it into a software program that could convert it into lines. Then Vendura milled it out for us,” Wallick added.

Vendura hopes to pitch the idea to Children’s Wisconsin and other hospitals to incorporate into the design of their mental and behavioral health centers, BreakthrU Family of Companies owner Jerry Jendusa told The Daily Reporter. Vendura is a subsidiary of BreakthrU. The sculpture is designed with grooves to have a calming effect and can help people dealing with anxiety or suicidal thoughts for example, he noted

“There are a lot of extreme situations where people just have to be calmed. With art, lighting and music as a backdrop, you can do some magical things,” Jendusa added.

The project was important not just for connecting architecture and urban planning students with jobs, but also the effort for those roles to learn about building spaces and materials, SARUP Interim Dean Mo Zell said at a news conference. UWM students’ projects make up six of the 11 pieces of art featured in the exhibit, she added.

“The idea was, can we bring students from different backgrounds together – architecture, engineering – who are going to create the future built environment for Milwaukee and make it a creative, exciting place to be. The idea is to start with the folks who are going to build the future and bring them together,” Sculpture Milwaukee Executive Director Brian Schupper told The Daily Reporter.