Within the modern world, our technology evolves at an unprecedented pace. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as both a revolutionary tool and a polarizing force within the design world. As a society, it is essential to understand how these technologies impact our daily lives as more and more, they further infiltrate development of innovation and tradition.
The Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design presents the exhibit, AI + Design: Student Exhibition.
Isabel Bo-Linn, Assistant Professor of Art + Art History + Design, teaches the special-topics course, AI + Design.
“This course introduced students to the fundamental principles and techniques of AI as it pertains to the disciplines of art and design,” Bo-Linn said. “Students explored topics related to the implementation, impact, ethics and collaborative opportunities of AI and its various forms.”
Bo-Linn conceived the course upon observing student interest in AI and its future role within the field of design, creating the space for conversation and exploration around AI in design.
“Students began the course with a variety of perspectives and opinions on AI. Some were fearful, some mistrustful, some excited and some a mix of things,” Bo-Linn said. “Through our hands-on explorations of AI in use, specifically generative AI in use, students discovered the ‘magic’ behind AI was not actually very magical.”
Tom Hines, Professor of Interaction Design in the Graphic Design program at PSU describes how AI has impacted the design community.
“… [AI] has opened a lot of doors for people to be able to create things without having a budget to pay for professional creators or to have to learn skills that might take years to master,” Hines said.
Featured in the exhibit is the project, Orchid Resonance, a co-written story created by Quinn Richards and AI.
“[Richards] outlined the story, wrote the story, and served as creative director and editor for the image production and design of her book,” Hines explained. “AI was more of a junior designer, taking direction. Another student, Patrick Tebbs made a video educating viewers about destructive climate change impacts of AI and Heather Sutherland also made a video addressing bias in AI.”
Hines emphasizes the dedication to the craft that Graphic Design students at PSU commit to.
“Our students go through four years of schooling before they get a graphic design degree…” he said. “Anyone can ask for AI to get that result just by giving a good prompt….There’s something to be said for struggling with working through a problem and understanding the problem by doing things the hard way and doing things the way that don’t work out successfully.”
Failing can aid in the process of understanding the boundaries of both craft and skill.
“AI can be a really big crutch, potentially,” Hines said. “It can be something that people learn to rely on and get good results, but might not necessarily help you build the pathways in your mind, might not help get you the muscle memory to be able to figure out how to solve problems that it maybe can’t overcome or to develop the skills necessary to do something more advanced and complex…that maybe AI just won’t be able to work well with…”
Using AI as a crutch to “excel” in the moment may hinder learning necessary skills for many processes. The intention behind the usage of AI plays a primary role in the ethics behind the usage of the technology.
Hines emphasized the indescribable intention and impact that may come from. According to Hines, there are some areas where AI could be considered appropriate as an aid for traditional, human art.
“It depends on the level and depth in which we utilize it,” he said. “If we are using it to enhance certain things or to expand an image to fill some spaces, to make it a little bit bigger or to make it so we can enlarge it without looking pixel-y, it does seem like the original intent of the creator is still going to be coming through.”
However, he is sure to mention many instances where the ethics of AI usage are questionable.
“There’s a lot of generative AI that’s being used to create things from basic prompts…” Hines said. “Did the person who created the prompt create that piece, or was this based on potentially thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of artists whose work was incorporated into this giant ball of inspiration that will never be attributed properly? So it’s hard to say where one thing ends, where one thing begins, what that spectrum looks like, where it’s appropriate and where it’s inappropriate to use.”
Professor Bo-Linn highlights concerns for the use of AI- “The unethical market of stolen art and design currently being used to train the AI systems..,” and “the ownership/authorship issue as it relates to AI art that is produced – who owns the right to those images and what is the ethical stance on commercial profit? Many moving pieces and a lot to keep our eyes on at the moment.”
As a result, within the special topics course, Bo-Linn, “…adamantly encouraged and reinforced literacy skills, critical thinking skills, and social/ethical considerations within AI. We engaged in discussions about training bias, unethical uses of AI, copyright, authorship, ownership, climate change, surveillance….and many other related topics.”
Within the course, as students submitted images to AI, students relied on their own designs or public domain images in order to “develop clear approaches for the responsible use of AI in our design practices and in our everyday lives.”
AI has the potential to be used as a tool for enhancement of work or, “visualizing conceptual ideas, speculative ideas (like designing speculative futures or futures-based worldbuilding). Simultaneously, there is tremendous potential for harm to the craft. Some of that is out of our control as this technology is still very much connected to Big Tech…” Bo-Linn emphasizes.
Hines says that the internet and markets have been flooded with AI content in recent years, creating challenges for traditional creators to stand out, build audiences and establish their voice.
Nevertheless, Hines describes that as the human brain is so complex and can attach meaning to so many past experiences, both personal and collective, not only as a broad society but also as a school, as a class or as a town. This process of thought, Hines argues, AI can never completely replicate.
Bo-Linn echoes this sentiment for the students in the special course. Often, AI could not adequately capture what the students envisioned. Bo-Linn says, “Students found aspects of AI to be frustrating, clumsy, often incorrect and occasionally humorous. I think working with AI allowed the students to face the emerging technology that is becoming increasingly inevitable in our design software, and develop a firmer, more critical perspective of the technology.” Students revised the work that was generated through abode, photoshop, and other art foundations to fully create their desired product.
In a design landscape driven by relentless technological advancement, the use of AI can overshadow not only the foundational crafts, but also forms of the community and connectivity that has made design innovation possible. Hines says, “We might be letting certain muscles atrophy. We might be making it so that if we were to try to go about and do this in a non-AI focused way, making something might be really hard…We’re creating new kinds of relationships with AI and with each other. Without being able to work with the tools that we had in the past, I think we are eventually going to find that we are limited in other new ways.”
While the technological advancement of AI offers new possibilities, it is a source of fear and worry about the future of art and design. Hines says, “I think one of the fortunate sides to our human brains is that we have a natural prevalence to appreciate things made by other people, that there’s the humanity of things that we connect to. Even if AI could mimic that somewhat, I still think that we find value in certain things being made by hand or being made from a person that we can see a face and attach a name to.”
AI can resemble the mystique of “magic” however, Hines continues, “I do think that there’s always going to be a place for people making things in an audience for people wanting things made by people.”
AI + Design: Student Exhibition will be facilitated in the Spring of 2025 by Professor Bo-Linn through the Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design.
