Resonances between the work of E. L. Moore and that of Kim Adams and Bodys Isek Kingelez

Awhile back I asked ChatGPT and Gemini what they knew about E. L. Moore. Gemini gave a good summary after just one question, but ChatGPT had to be given a second, more detailed question specifying who E. L. Moore was before it gave a reasonable and accurate overview of his work. 

Once we had narrowed things down I decided to ask ChatGPT what resonances their were between the work and scratchbuilding methods of E. L. Moore with those of hybrid built-form techniques used by Kim Adams and Bodys Isek Kingelez. ChatGPT classified the work of Adams and Kingelez in the genre of 'Hybrid / Found Material Art' and produced a rather interesting analysis which I'll show here:

1. Materials as expression

• Moore primarily worked with balsa wood, cardboard, paper, and small scraps — materials that were cheap, widely available, and easy to manipulate.

• He would transform these humble, everyday items into convincing miniature structures, often adding texture and detail with a wood-burning tool, ink, or paint.

• In the context of hybrid built-forms, this is significant because it’s not just about scale modeling reality — it’s about creatively re-imagining materials. Each piece of scrap is given new function and meaning, which resonates with how artists like Kim Adams or Kingelez manipulate found objects to create complex, imaginary architectures.

Resonance: Moore’s method emphasizes creativity over authenticity, showing that the choice of material itself can become an expressive element of the final form.

2. Modular and additive construction

• Many of Moore’s buildings are built in simple modules — walls, roofs, doors, windows — that are then assembled into a final structure.

• Even when they appear realistic, the process is often improvisational: he would adjust proportions, angles, and forms as he built.

• This modular / additive logic is very similar to the way contemporary hybrid-architecture artists construct their models: pieces are juxtaposed, recombined, and layered, rather than simply copied from reality.

Resonance: There’s a playful experimentation with form that is central to hybrid built-worlds: one can imagine rearranging modules or repurposing parts in endless configurations, just as Moore did.

3. Economy of means = visual inventiveness

• Moore had to work within tight spatial and material limits (apartment-sized layouts, inexpensive materials), yet he produced structures that were highly detailed and visually compelling.

• Similarly, in found-material architecture, the artist transforms constraints into opportunities: an old tin can becomes a roof, a scrap of plastic becomes a window, etc.

Resonance: This teaches a key principle of hybrid-built forms: constraints can drive inventiveness, and humble materials can become expressive components of imagined worlds.

4. Narrative embedded in structures

• Moore often paired his structures with a short, whimsical story or anecdote about the fictional owners or uses of the building.

• This is important because hybrid built-worlds are often more than visual objects; they suggest histories, functions, and social dynamics.

Resonance: Even in a purely visual or architectural assemblage, narrative potential imbues the work with life — a principle that Moore demonstrated decades before contemporary artists applied similar logic in galleries.

5. Imperfect realism = imaginative space

• Moore’s buildings are never perfect replicas; he exaggerates certain forms, simplifies others, and sometimes improvises with textures.

• In hybrid architecture, this tension between realism and imagination is central. Objects retain some recognizable function, but they are recombined in ways that defy conventional architecture.

Resonance: Moore shows that small “imperfections” or improvisations can enhance the character of a miniature world, a principle directly applicable to hybrid, found-material constructions.

Summary of Resonances:

Materials 

Moore: Balsa, cardboard, scraps 

Found-Material Art: Reclaimed, found, discarded items

Construction 

Moore: Modular, additive, improvisational 

Found-Material Art: Layered, recombined, experimental

Scale & detail 

Moore: Small-scale, highly detailed 

Found-Material Art: Often small-scale but can exaggerate or abstract

Narrative 

Moore: Light stories for each structure 

Found-Material Art: Implied or explicit narrative through form

Creativity vs. realism 

Moore: Prioritized inventiveness over strict realism 

Found-Material Art: Similar, reinterprets materials into new forms

Constraints as opportunity 

Moore: Cheap, limited materials / space 

Found-Material Art: Similar, materials define form and inspire ideas

Some of the above is obvious, some vague, some questionable. However, when I read this I'm not necessarily looking for facts, but ideas that I hadn't thought of that might stimulate new avenues to explore (like the foundational articles idea). For example, I liked the analysis on narrative that Moore would create a story for a structure, and in the found-material art approach the narrative might instead be expressed through the form of the object instead of being superimposed on it with a story. Mr. Moore wasn't a complete stranger to that aspect of design. It does get touched on in his Rube's Rhubarb Plant for example. My main concern though with this type of output is I assume the vast majority of users, assuming they ask such questions, might take the answers as unquestionably factual instead of as a jumping off point for further contemplation or investigation.

Revisiting the Sharbot House

Main floor stacked on basement. They aren't glued together.

Back in early 2017 I started work on building an HO scale model of the house I grew up in. I stopped once I had the foundation and floor made. I was getting bad vibes from the build and decided to set it aside for awhile. 

That awhile has lasted all the way to this late date in 2025. I thought if I'm going to build a Taronna layout it isn't going to be complete, or meaningful to me, without my old house somewhere on it. 

Left: basement | Right: main floor

I needed a different approach than I took with the first model. The plan with that one was to build it in a conventional manner, with walls built around a floor complete with a removable roof to showoff the interior. 

Main floor

While I've been revisiting a number of E. L. Moore posts during my AI investigations I took an interest in Mr. Moore's Clarabel Hotel project. It had a highly detailed interior, and its overall form was based on the fourplex he was living in. It seemed a shame though that its fantastic interior would be blocked from view most of the time.

The hotel has a roof that lifts off so one can look in on the second floor, and the second floor is removable to make the first floor detail visible. It also has an elaborate interior lighting system. I started to think, what if I built the next attempt at my house model completely from the the inside out, and when the interior was finished then decide if I should build an external 'wrapper' to enclose the interior or just leave it open. Leaving it open would be rather unconventional, but it's in the spirit of model buildings that butt up against a layout's edge that leave off the wall that would run along that edge so viewers can look in. I'm not sure how my house model's variation on this idea might turn out, but I'm going to pursue it for awhile.

Left: Main floor from 1st attempt | Right: All styrene main floor for 2nd attempt

I didn't reuse the floor from the first attempt. I liked the look of the wood flooring, but I didn't laminate it properly to the styrene substrate and the whole thing ended up warping like crazy.

Floor from the 1st attempt after considerable flattening!

I couldn't flatten the floor no matter what I tried so I decided not to reuse it. I simply cut all the pieces for the new model's main floor from sheet styrene: 0.060" thick for the floor and 0.040" thick for the walls. It'll be a challenge to paint the walls and floor, or add some sort of floor laminate, but all the pieces are more-or-less square and solid without warps, so at least the structure on this attempt is sound.

Basement

Unlike the 1st attempt this model will have a basement. I envision the layout having a below grade level with some sort of subway station modelled, so since I'm already in excavation mode :-) I thought why not try to incorporate the house's basement. It's going to be a challenge, but I'm game - for now :-)

Gemini enhances the realism of Cal's Lumberyard

Gemini's version of a more realistic, more prototypical version of Cals Lumberyard

I've been participating in a discussion over at the MRH Forum about Cals Lumberyard, E. L. Moore, Art Curren, and my E. L. Moore eBook. It got me thinking what Cals might look like if I asked Gemini to make a more realistic, more prototypical, image of Cals as I asked it to do with Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant. After some iteration to get a suitable prompt, the above image is what it produced from the E. L. Moore photo shown below.

A photo taken by E. L. Moore of his Cals Lumberyard model

A Gemini prototype of Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant?

A photo of the 'prototype' of Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant as envisioned by Gemini

Yesterday Paul asked "...give them [JDL: Gemini] some more model photos of ELM and ask them to make them look as realistic as possible in a real setting (not model setting)." 

I decided to give it a try. Since Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant is my favourite E. L. Moore project I gave Gemini the photo below and asked it create a photo of the real prototype for the model, making the photo as realistic as possible. You be the judge.

An E. L. Moore photo of his model of Bunn's Feed & Seed Plant

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13 Nov '25, afternoon update: Our VP of AI research asked Gemini to create a sign for Bunn's and this it what it came up with:

Gemini creates an E. L. Moore diorama

A diorama created by Gemini using photos of actual E. L. Moore building models

A couple of years ago I shot this photo of an E. L. Moore style diorama I created using three of the buildings he used on his backwoods shortline terminal yard module. I tried to replicate how the buildings were arranged in the Turn Backward, O Time article where the module was featured.

I thought I'd do a little experiment where I gave Gemini a single photo of each of the three models I used in my diorama and ask it to create its own diorama. Here are the photos I gave it:

Dilly's:

McGee's:

Central Warehouse:

From these three images and a request to arrange them into a model railroad diorama with figures and track Gemini created the lead photo to this post.

I then asked Gemini to remove the water tower (I speculate that it added the water tower as those structures might be thought of as stereotypical features of a model railroad, so one was included for 'authenticity'). In the process it also removed the smoke from the locomotive's smoke stack so I asked Gemini to restore it. This image was produced:

A variation on the original diorama made by Gemini

Both images are quite acceptable even though they could still use considerable refining. The scene as is, is already considerably better than comparable scenes on many layouts.

One glaring problem though is Gemini didn't translate the Central Warehouse properly to the image's perspective. The side shed is missing. Gemini noted in its commentary to this post that these types of perspective translation errors are common to AIs. I suspect there are very sophisticated graphics-oriented AIs out there that don't have this problem. Fascinating results nevertheless.