October: proposal finished
Doing the short proposal helped me finally landing on one of the ideas. I have decided to do a workshop in Glasgow, talking with people about problems of the graphic design industry as it is, and how we can support more just futures. Participants will then submit a piece of work informed by the workshop. I will collect the works and put them into a book/zine. This project will focus on the co-creation process as well as the results. If I have time, I can organise a small exhibition or launch event. This might happen next year after my final deadline.
November: thinking about AI
Not entirely related to my project, but I completed an art project for University of Nottingham’s ARTificial research project that explores how artist uses AI. See the process and the result here. This project consolidated my thinking on authenticity and AI. I believe how AI’s “thinking” differs from human’s is crucial in how we move forward as human artists and workers. If AI is replacing designers, is it because the design industry operates in a mechanical and predictable way? Can we be more human? I think I can make this a theme of the workshop: using AI as a reflection tool to think about the current problems of the design industry.
During my elective course Narratives of Digital Capitalism, we read an article by James Bridle, as well as another text that introduced his work. He used a ring of salt to trap a self-driving car, and made chairs in collaboration with chat bots. I felt very inspired by how he engages with new technologies through art, and I would love it if my workshop can spark similar unexpected and thoughtful outputs like his work.
December + January
I got in touch with my supervisor and we had a nice chat. She’s happy with my progress and advised me to start the ethical approval process. The ethics form is so detailed, and it forced me to think about my workshops in more details. I proposed running up to 3 workshops (because I worry I won’t have enough submissions for my book) at Glasgow Zine Library or a similar artsy space. I have no experience running workshops but I have been to quite a few and I feel relatively confident. In November, I did a presentation and a panel talk with Nottingham University, and I was surprisingly not nervous, so I think the workshops will be fine as long as I know what I’m doing.
My 3 potential workshops:
- Design fiction about branding in an utopian world. Hopeful and motivating. Participants submit short stories or other forms of artefacts.
- Tools for action. What are some of the things we could do today for commoning, hacking, vandalising, reimagining? Participants submit a single page poster introducing a tool they’ve found/invented.
- AI as a reflection prop. How does the threat of AI tell us about how the graphic design industry works? This workshop draws parallel between text and image generation technologies and the design industry, and asks participants to use AI as an anchor to explore how the design industry could change. Participants submit a short piece of writing.
Idea 1: informed by Speculative Fictions course I did, Speculative Everything (from last year’s Interdisciplinary Futures and Building Near Futures reading list), and lecture nots from Utopia and the Future.
Idea 2: inspired by my Dear Barcode project for the Story Roots for Sustainable Futures course. I also I received a book as birthday gift: The Craftivist Collective Handbook. This book talks about fun crafts you could do to quietly protest or encourage a better future. My favourite example is the author organised a group of people to stitch personalised and friendly letters to M&S board members, asking them to pay a living wage to their staff. I’m currently volunteering at Glasgow Zine Library, and I’m also renting a desk space at an open-access riso printing studio. Pater in Caps Lock thinks the nicer future in graphic design lies in commoning. All of the above makes me think there are tools we can share to build a better future for design.
Idea 3: inspired by my Seven Pigeons project, and I also read James Bridle’s book Ways of Being. He talked about different examples of non-human intelligence, from apes, trees to machines. He argues that engagement with AI forces us to consider intelligence that’s different from our own, and gain new appreciation of the intelligence in the natural world. He also talks about how technologies often have military origins, and that doesn’t mean they can’t be repurposed to do something else that’s good.
I need to get my ethical approval first, then see if people are interested in these workshops. If there are more interests in one of the topics I could make that my main focus.
I messaged Glasgow Zine Library and haven’t received a reply. It might be too late to work with them as they have a very full schedule and I didn’t contact them early enough. My back up option is to do it at Inkling, the riso studio I’m desking at.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading xx
