Prototyping speculative ai summer school
At the beginning of September, I had the immense pleasure of hosting and running a one-week intensive summer school on “Prototyping Speculative AI”. This was just the result of four months of planning for which I collaborated with a brilliant group of colleagues from various places in Europe: Dave Murray-Rust (TU Delft), Serena Cangiano (SUPSI), Alice Mela (Arduino), Andrea Di Salvo (Polito), Willem van der Maden (IT Copenhagen), Lenny Martinez (Sorbonne University), and Elena Cavallin (IUAV).
We opened the program with an inspiring lecture by Dave Murray-Rust on “Relational AI Design”. He illustrated how design approaches can be used to inform the creation of AI systems, with the hope of creating more resonant and humane technologies. He also showcased several experiences and methods experimented in design education, that look at how students with varying levels of technicality can engage meaningfully with AI and machine learning systems.
Dave Murray-Rust giving his lecture on Relational AI Design
The program went on with lectures from other members of the teaching team: I gave a lecture on Speculative Design; Serena Cangiano gave a lecture on the History of Classification in the Arts and Design; Andrea Di Salvo gave a lecture on the History of Cesare Lombroso; Willem van der Maden gave a lecture on Translating Human Experience into Observable Metrics for AI, and Alice Mela gave a lecture on The Value of Prototyping.
Along with lectures, everyday students we exposed to different design methods and invited to carry out different hands-on exercises, with the ultimate goal of developing prototypes of Speculative AI projects.
As a closure to our summer school, on the last day, we also hosted a seminar titled ‘Design & AI: what futures?’. On this occasion, we invited international speakers to discuss how the design field, both in research and practice, is evolving in response to the latest advances in generative AI. We opened the program with a plenary talk by Dave-Murray Rust and followed with a panel discussion with Serena Cangiano, Alice Mela, Luigi De Russis, Associate Professor at Polito and Vice-President of ACM SIGCHI, Damiano Gui, Head of Experience Design at Havas CX, and Gabriele Gambotto, co-founder and CTO at Leva Engineering. We ended the seminar with an exhibition showcasing students’ projects developed during the summer school.
