A Cornell Arts Quad installation is inviting visitors to use their phones and artificial intelligence to create a shared digital image across blue and green fabric arranged on the lawn.
“Vibe Coating,” created by architecture faculty members Suzanne Lettieri and Michael Jefferson, opened Aug. 30 and will remain on display through Sept. 20, Cornell announced.
The installation includes roughly 30 pieces of chroma-key fabric designed to be used as blankets or worn like capes. The blue and green pigments work like the screens used to add backgrounds in television weather reports and movie effects.
Visitors scan a QR code to open a web app and describe a mood or atmosphere with phrases such as “rainy day,” “golden hour” or “neon glow.” After users choose a blue channel, green channel or both, a phone camera overlays the fabric with an AI-generated image based on the group's recent prompts.
The downloadable image changes as participants add new descriptions. Cornell said the project periodically moves around the quad to protect the grass.
Jefferson said the designers want to use phones as a tool for bringing people together in a shared place. The accumulated prompts create a changing visual atmosphere rather than separating each participant into an individual digital experience.
Lettieri and Jefferson developed the Cornell project from an installation shown last year at Exhibit Columbus in Indiana. Both pieces examine how older chroma-key technology and newer digital tools can be combined to create public spaces shaped by their users.
The fabric pieces were designed by Cedric Lalanne and Lewis Campbell of USEISM, while visiting architecture critic Ryan Whitby programmed the web app. Cornell undergraduates Kalven Owen, Annie Wang and Joe Yuan also worked on the installation.
The project name refers to “vibe coding,” in which natural-language prompts are used to produce code with artificial intelligence, as well as the ability to wear the fabric. The designers said they are exploring whether the same principles can support educational programs and workshops.
Lettieri is scheduled to discuss the work in a talk titled “Social Surfaces” at a Pratt Institute symposium. She also wrote about the earlier Indiana installation, “Apart, Together,” in the journal CriticalProductive.
The Cornell Council for the Arts supported the project. Its location and QR-code access are available at the installation on the Arts Quad.
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