From Slop to Treasure
The importance of human designs in the age of AI
Unless you’ve been living under a rock (with no internet connection), you would have noticed the avalanche of AI-generated content creeping into every corner of our lives. A recent study estimates that up to 33% of videos shown by YouTube to new subscribers are AI-slop. The Velvet Sundown, an AI-generated band with a folksy vintage-chic image, has accumulated over 10 million plays on Spotify. Even architectural firms such as Zaha Hadid freely admit to using AI in their work. AI is an undeniably useful, epoch-making and superlative-beating tool, much like the internet and the printing press before it; but the sheer quantity of low quality AI-generated content sloshing around is giving it a bad name. For some people, the fact that Zaha Hadid Architects designs its multi-million dollar buildings with the help of the same AI tools that create videos of dancing cats somehow makes the former look a bit cheap. The perception is that generative AI takes originality out of the equation, making the creative process so effortless as to debase its outputs. This is particularly problematic for purveyors of luxury goods, including design furniture. In a future where more and more products are created with (at least the help of) AI, might AI-free designs command a premium much like the way organic foods cost more than their genetically modified cousins? If so it will become ever more important for designers to assert their “real” creativity.
Craft Revival
One of the best ways to demonstrate your human-design credentials is to focus on craft. After all, your AI chatbot might be great at planning your trip to Venice but it won’t be able to make that mouth-blown crystal vase for you. Products made by hand, especially those requiring professional training and years of practice, will become ever more sought after. A great example is Sydney-based designers Adam & Arthur. They are masters of straw marquetry, a highly specialist craft where individually dyed and flattened rye straws are inlaid meticulously onto a wood surface to create mesmerising patterns. Their works have revitalised this traditional craft, combining contemporary abstract designs with dazzling colours to create unique cabinets that play with our sense of form and perspective.
Another remarkable craft hero is textiles artist Alexandra Kehayoglou. She uses scrap materials from her parents’ carpet factory in Buenos Aires with traditional weaving and tufting techniques to create stunning rugs and tapestries inspired by the fragile beauty of nature. Like Adam & Arthur, her design process is very much tied up with the physical creation of the product itself. This magical blend of creativity and artisanal expertise is the essence of craftsmanship, a feat not likely attainable by AI any time soon.
Creative Storytelling
AI-generated designs are inherently imitative and their outputs tend to be rather bland. The best way to outfox AI is therefore to unleash unbridled creativity, creating designs that capture our emotions and imagination. A good starting point is for designers to elaborate the inspirations behind their works. Very often it is the way these stories resonate with our experiences and emotions that make the products feel precious to us. The master of storytelling through design is Philippe Starck. One of his recent architectural projects is Maison Heler, a hotel in Metz featuring a nondescript block with a traditional style mansion perched improbably on top of it. He conceived this remarkable design by creating a fictional character, Manfred Heler, and designed every element of the building around his imaginary life. There is the charming backstory of how Manfred, an eccentric inventor, was daydreaming in his armchair when his mansion was extruded up to the sky, “as if a cookie-cutter had arrived from below, cut off the Earth’s cap and mounted it vertically.” Whimsical objects such as a crystal hammer and inverted rocking chairs add to the surreal vibe, whilst old coins and quotes scattered around the building reminds us of its imaginary owner. Starck even wrote a novel, “The Meticulous Life of Manfred Heler”, to document his hero’s adventures. This level of immersive design creates a connection with users far deeper than any AI-generated content can achieve.
This points to the ultimate riposte against a world of AI-generated blandness: real life experiences are, for now, impossible to replicate in the digital realm. As consumers tire of the endless loop of dancing cat videos flooding their mobile devices they will yearn for something new and unfamiliar. A visit to an IRL shop or pop-up event at a gallery perhaps, where they can engage all their senses to evoke the most powerful stimulant of them all: their own imagination.
For more creative products and design inspirations with not a dancing cat in sight come visit us (virtually) at www.do-shop.com.
Super interesting. Yes, always more and more challenging to identify when it is reality and when it is AI generated.
Need to keep a very big, attentive and inquisitive eye.
Like a cat - which I would call Manfred. 😼