Artificial Future

University of Greenwich | Undergraduate 2017/18

This year Unit 3 is explored exquisite making and the craft of drawings with a focus on what this means in a future dominated by artificial intelligence. This year we explored the aspiration behind craftsmanship and the evolution of techniques based on material and geometric constraints. We asked what is ‘craftsmanship’ to the ‘Digital Age’ where tools such as artificial intelligence, digital fabrication and robotic modelling are stretching the boundaries of the design and production process.

As an initial departure students were asked to examine their future world by comparing human memory versus machine memory. These observations were used as a gateway to their vision of the Artificial Future.

In order to explore this vision further students were then tasked with designing a future work place. This work place could be a space dominated by artificial intelligence involved in tasks traditionally performed by humans. Or it could be a space for humans who have been displaced and are learning new skills where emotion, imperfections and intuition are valued over precision and efficiency. It could be a space where humans and highly evolved technology live and work side by side in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. To inform their projects students questioned the type of spaces that humans and AI operate in as well as the wider environmental, technological, political and cultural context in which they exist.

Our projects were located at the soon to be vacated Museum of London site. The museum is located close to the Barbican Centre overlooking the remains of the Roman city wall and on the edge of the oldest part of London, now its main financial district.