Part of the
4TU.
Design United
TU DelftTU EindhovenUniversity of TwenteWageningen University
4TU.
Design United
Close

4TU.Federation

+31(0)6 48 27 55 61

secretaris@4tu.nl

Website: 4TU.nl

HomeProjectsCeci n’est pas un chaise: AI as a tool for framing

Ceci n’est pas un chaise: AI as a tool for framing

How can an AI with eyes become a creative collaborator that offers alternative insight, inspiration or provocation?

A study of the  use of AI in design reveals a tendency to isolate specific tasks within the design process and then try to find a role for AI to support or substitute those tasks - for example as a moodboard-maker, PowerPoint slide suggester, or t-shirt generator. But to come to true creative collaboration with AI as a designer and a creative maker, AI could then become a companion that not only merely offers a solution or the ‘right answer’, but challenges and proposes an alternative surprising view on a design situation.



“If an AI takes part in a creative process, how should it be trained and used?”
Vera van der Burg

As part of this project, we analysed what an object detection model detects when looking at creative content like images of paintings and design. As the model is placed outside of its context, the AI ‘mislabels’ parts of the images. This mislabelling, however, can be seen as providing an alternative view of the design output, which in turn could activate reflections and directions for the following process. In a first explorative experiment, a designer tried to ‘recreate’ what an AI could have seen in an image by adjusting an artefact (in this case a chair) according to the labels given by AI. The goal is to see if, after interpreting the AI ‘image’, the designer is stimulated to perceive a new space of possibilities.

“Can the development of more subjective AI become relevant for a creative design process?”
Vera van der Burg

The project investigates how a designer can interact creatively with an AI-system, and how an AI-system could be trained and used to take part in a creative process. What new practices for a designer could emerge with AI input?

Contacts

  • -
    Vera van der Burg
  • -
    Almila Akdag Salah
  • -
    Peter Lloyd
  • -
    Senthil Chandrasegaran

Participating universities

MoreLess
Related projects
All projects