Volume 40: Artificial Apotheosis
An Introduction from the Editor
During my first week at the College of Design, I picked up a copy of volume thirty eight of The Student Publication. I read a couple articles and enjoyed them thoroughly, but never considered joining the student group. That volume then found a home on my bookcase until the summer before my final year. It was then I was presented with the opportunity to assume the role of editor after some peers found themselves struggling to get volume forty off the ground. I saw it as a chance to apply everything that I had learned thus far from my time being a design studies major. Additionally, I was about to start my senior capstone. These two would be sister projects; one informing the other.
The Student Publication is a long standing tradition for the College of Design, going back to the first issue in 1951. With each volume, it aims to critically evaluate emerging themes and topics in design practice that influence the way we learn, think and talk about process, practice, and theory. Currently in the design world artificial intelligence is one of those topics. AI is automating repetitive tasks, providing data-driven insight, and provoking discourse about what defines creativity, and enabling us all to generate ideas at the speed of thought.
This volume represents a year of my life dedicated to an idea:
- What will life look like generations from now after the exponential development of these artificial intelligences has become commonplace? What are the preferable futures we want, and how can we make them actually plausible?
Heavily inspired by Victor Papnek’s essay Towards the Spiritual in Design, I found myself a starting point. I then started attending any event with the words “AI”, “technology” and “future” in the title, and pitching the idea to anyone who would listen long enough. Momentum grew from there as I was given recommendations and tips on who to contact.
The internet is a wonderful tool in bringing ideas together.
From my search that took nearly five months, the fifteen contributors featured in this publication were assembled. I can not thank each one of them enough for their patience and generosity. While some of them may not directly engage in the AI discourse, they share one thing, the concern for humanities wellbeing amidst technological progress.
This publication is broken down into four chapters based on four archetypes that were briefly mentioned in the foreword of Otherworldly: Avant-Garden Fashion and Style. Here, George French states:
- “..the moment in which we currently find ourselves is not a point of departure from the general course that we have traveled thus far…..This interaction between [design] and the otherworldly can be seen most clearly in times of great subcultural revolution. The desire to change that which is, is an inherent part of the human psyche. Acting on that desire is a necessary step in the evolution of our species. The individual, the outsider, the pioneer, and the mutant: these are the characters who so frequently lead that mutiny”.
Having no more than that to work with, how these archetypes are explained are in my own words and perceptions. While each contributor could be rationalized into portraying any one of these archetypes, I placed them into what, I think, best exemplifies the intention behind their work and their relationship to the design world.
As you read this publication, I encourage you to ask yourself, what qualities do you embody of these archetypes? Do not limit yourself to just one, in fact, I would even encourage developing your own archetypes of what it means to a designer working towards cultural revolution. Share your ideas with others, build communities, and strengthen your own connection with how you decide to define spiritually.
