Transformations in design practice between the Dotcom Crash and the rise of machine intelligence
As technology becomes more complex and opaque, how will we as designers understand its potential, do hands-on work, translate it into forms people can understand and use, and lead meaningful conversations with manufacturers and policymakers about its downstream implications? We are entering a new technology landscape shaped by artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and synthetic biology.
Historically, design has transformed and generated new disciplines during times of fast technological change. Through conversations led by Tellart, this project explores and documents transformations in design between the Dotcom Crash and the rise of machine intelligence. Through reflections on key projects from this period and interviews with a community of today’s top design practitioners, Design Nonfiction explores the future of design practice. It emphasises the timeless need to make the invisible visible and the immaterial tangible, in order to sketch and build with emerging technologies.
Design Nonfiction is funded and produced independently by Tellart. The video media are available for free download and distribution through the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license. Contact us with ideas for other forms you imagine this content can take!
The Foundation for Public Code Director, The Foundation for Public Code, Faculty at Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design. Formerly Co-founder and President of TEEM, Design Fellow at Samsung. Formerly, Advisor to Foresight Group at Arup, Board Member Grey Area, Director of Experience Design Lab at Frog Design, Co-founder of Flickr.
Creative Coding Amsterdam & Tellart Artist, Technologist at Tellart, and Co-founder of Creative Coding Amsterdam, a monthly meetup for creative coding enthusiasts. Verhage frequently visits and volunteers at media art and technology events throughout Europe.
Naspers Limited Global Lead Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Naspers Limited. Founder of Numerico, Co-founder of Data Science for Social Good, Board Member and Advisor at Collective Sensing Research, Professor of Data Science and Geoinformatics at University of Salzburg. Formerly Vice President at Zebra Technologies. Ph.D. from Tinbergen Institute in Economics.
Tellart Strategy Director at Tellart. Formerly Senior Consultant at XPLANE, Senior UX Consultant at Dynamic Diagrams, Visiting Lecturer at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Visiting Lecturer at Umeå Institute of Design (UID), Adjunct Faculty at Rhode Island School of Design. Ph.D. from University College London in Computer Science on virtual environments.
Dynamic Diagrams Graphic Designer and Information Architect. Co-founder of studio Dynamic Diagrams. Professor of publication design at Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, and of typography and information design at Rhode Island School of Design. IBM Fellow. Honorary Doctorate Degree from The Academy of Fine Art in Katowice, Poland. RIP 2018.
Tellart Cottam is the Co-founder & CDO at Tellart, and Faculty at Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design. Scappaticci is the Co-founder and CEO at Tellart, and Adjunct Faculty at Rhode Island School of Design.
Google Creative Lab Creative Director at Google Creative Lab in New York. His projects explore how music and code is interconnected and include mta.me, baroque.me, Les Paul Doodle, Chrome Music Lab.
Oslo School of Architecture and Design Co-founder of Voy, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Interaction Design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Organiser and Host of digital urban life conference Digitalt Byliv. Ph.D. from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Interaction Design (AHO) on networked cities, social media and design.
Google Creative Lab Creative director of Google Creative Lab in Sydney, after founding Google Creative Lab in London. Her projects include Editions at Play, Hangouts in History, Dream40, Chrome Web Lab, Life in a Day, and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Board Member at Biennale of Sydney. Formerly Royal Academy of Arts, the Wellcome Trust, Random House, and Christian Aid. Coming soon
Near Future Laboratory Founding partner of Near Future Laboratory, Associate Professor at the Geneva School of Arts and Design (HEAD). Formerly curator of LIFT conferences. Ph.D. from the University of Geneva in Social Sciences, as well as a Ph.D. from the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Human-Computer Interaction.
Kimchi and Chips Co-founders of South Korea-based experimental art studio Kimchi and Chips and winners of the Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica. Woods is a digital media artist and has extensively contributed to the openFrameworks and VVVV creative coding platforms. Son is an artist and Adjunct Professor at Ewha Womans University, Seoul.
Changeist Founder and Managing Partner of Changeist. Lead Instructor in Strategic Foresight/Futures at Dubai Future Academy, Visiting Professor in Innovation & Futures Thinking at IED Barcelona. Formerly Visiting Lecturer at School of International Futures, Lead instructor at the Futures Institute at Duke University TIP.
Cornell Tech Assistant Professor in Information Science at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech in New York City. Formerly Executive Director of Interaction Design at the Center for Design Research at Stanford University, Associate Professor at California College of the Arts. Ph.D. from Stanford University in Design, Mechanical Engineering.
Near Future Laboratory Co-founder of Near Future Laboratory, and Co-founder and CTO of Omata Inc. Formerly artist-in-residence at Eyebeam, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) Interactive Media Division. Ph.D. from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) in the History of Consciousness.
Near Future Laboratory Co-founder and Partner of Near Future Laboratory. Formerly Co-CEO at BBVA Data & Analytics, Co-creator of Quadrigram a visual programming environment to sketch with data. Ph.D. from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Computer Science and Digital Communications.
Tellart Design Director at Tellart. Zuilhof works closely with clients, partners and Tellart's internal team, to give form to strategies, installations and exhibitions. She frequently teaches workshops at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design.
XPLANE Founder of XPLANE, Founder and CEO at The School of the Possible. Author of Selling to the VP of NO, Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers, The Connected Company, and Liminal Thinking.
Line Co-founder of Line-us. Formerly Designer at SAM Labs, Designer at BERG, Partner at Luckybite, Interaction Designer at IDEO, Co-founder of Itch, Researcher at Royal College of Art, Visiting Researcher at Interval Research, and Designer at Apple Advanced Technology Group. Visiting Faculty at Copenhagen Insititute of Interaction Design.
LiveWork Partner and Design Lead at PwC Norway, Board Member of No Isolation, Founding partner of Live|Work, the world’s first service design agency. Co-author of Service Design from Insight to Implementation, and Service Design for Business. Formerly Board Member of DOGA, Visiting Professor at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea.
Feltron Designer translating data into objects and experiences. Author of Feltron Annual Reports credited to have inspired the design of Facebook’s Timeline, Co-founder of Daytum, and Reporter App. Named a top 50 designer in America by Fast Company. Work in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Formerly Product Designer at Facebook, Adjunct Professor NYU.
Bauhaus Dessau Foundation Head of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation Academy. Professor and Developer of postgraduate programs in design, Bauhaus and architectural research. Curator of numerous exhibitions on Bauhaus and the cultural history of modernism. Ph.D. from the Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt Universität in Berlin in Cultural Anthropology.
Playdeo Co-founder and CEO at Playdeo, Visiting Faculty at Copenhagen Institute of Interactive Design. Formerly Co-founder of Ottica, Co-founder of BERG, Co-founder of Schulze & Webb, Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Arup Associate Director at Arup, Visiting Professor at Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, and Adjunct Professor at RMIT, Mayor of London's Design Advocate. Formerly Executive Director of Future Cities Catapult, CEO of Fabrica, Strategic Design Lead at Sitra, Head of Interactive Technology and Design at BBC.
PARC Head Of Design at PARC, a Xerox Company. Co-founder of design consultancy Adaptive Path and ubiquitous computing device studio ThingM. Author of Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research, and Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design.
Interaction Design Institute Ivrea & Iuav University of Venice Crampton Smith, Honorary Professor at University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, was Professor of Computer Related Design at Royal College of Art. Tabor was Director of Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. They taught at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, of which Crampton Smith was Founder-Director, and established Interaction Design masters programmes at Iuav University of Venice and tech accelerator H-Farm.
Experientia Co-founder and Creative Director of Experientia, and Visiting Professor at Domus Academy. Formerly Visiting Professor at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Visiting Professor at Banff New Media Institute, Senior Associate Professor at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Assistant Professor at Rhode Island School of Design.
NYU ITP Igoe is an Arts Professor at NYU ITP, Core Partner at Arduino LLC., Author of Making Things Talk. O'Sullivan is Associate Dean at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and Chair of NYU ITP, Co-author of Physical Computing with Igoe. Formerly Fellow at Interval Research, Eyebeam Artist in Residence, Research Scientist at Intel, Microsoft, Developer of QuickTimeVR at Apple.
Scatter George is a Co-founder and CEO of Scatter, Co-founder of Depthkit, Adjunct Professor at NYU ITP. Porter is a Co-founder and CPO of Scatter, Co-founder of Depthkit, Adjunct Professor at NYU ITP. Elayat is a Co-founder and CMO of Scatter, Adjunct Professor at NYU ITP.
School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University Futurist and Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon University School of Design, Director at Situation Lab. Formerly Foresight and Innovation Leader at Arup, Professor in hybrid design-futures approaches at leading design schools around the world. Active actor in the establishment of Experiential Futures. Ph.D. from University of Hawaii at Manoa in Futures Studies.
MIT Enchanted Objects Vice President Vision Technology at Warby Parker, Lecturer and Researcher at MIT Media Lab, Author of Enchanted Objects. Formerly Board Member and Instructor at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Futurist in Residence at IDEO, CEO of Ditto Labs, CEO of Vitality, Founder and CEO of Ambient Devices, Lecturer at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Carnegie Mellon University Artist, Professor of Electronic Art at Carnegie Mellon University, and Director of the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. Formerly Adjunct Faculty at Parsons School of Design, and Interaction Designer and Research Scientist at Interval Research.
Superflux Jain is a Co-founder and Director of Superflux, and Professor of Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Ardern is a Co-founder and Designer of Superflux. Work exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the National Museum of China, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Goldsmiths, University of London Senior Lecturer, Head of the Department of Design, Goldsmiths, University of London, Co-founder of DWFE. Formerly research affiliate at MIT Media Lab, and Interaction Design at Royal College of Art, Design Researcher at NCR Knowledge Lab.
Playdeo Co-founder of Playdeo. Formerly Co-founder of Ottica, Creative Director at BERG, Visiting Faculty at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Visiting Lecturer at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, and Umeå University. Ph.D. from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO).
Author Writer and singer/coauthor of the pop group YACHT. Founding editor of Terraform, VICE's science-fiction vertical. She is the former futures editor of Motherboard, and a contributor to VICE, Rhizome, The Guardian, WIRED, and Aeon. Evans is an advisor to design students at Art Center College of Design and a founding member of the cyberfeminist collective Deep Lab.
openFrameworks & Design IO Watson is an Artist, Co-creator of the openFrameworks programming language for creative coding, Partner and Creative Director at Design I/O, Associate at YesYesNo. Gobeille is an Artist, Partner and Creative Director at Design I/O, and Associate at YesYesNo.
Marshmallow Laser Feast McNicholas is a Founder and Creative Director at Marshmallow Laser Feast. Ersin is a Partner and Director at Marshmallow Laser Feast. The collective specializes in virtual reality, augmented reality, haptic technology for social good.
Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design Co-founder and CEO of Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. Formerly Faculty at 180° Academy, Lecturer at Designskolen Kolding, Associate Professor and Researcher at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. Ph.D. from Politecnico di Milano in Industrial Design and Multimedia Communication.
Stanford University Visiting Lecturer at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) and d.school. Formerly Area Chair at Interval Research, Interaction Design and Human Factors at ID2 (now IDEO), Human Factors Researcher at Xerox. Ph.D. from MIT in Mechanical Engineering on man-machine systems.
Bio–hacker Transdisciplinary artist and educator. Her work is held in public collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the New York Historical Society, among others. Heather is an artist fellow at AI Now, an Artist-in-Residence at the Exploratorium, as well as Science Center, and is an affiliate of Data & Society.
openFrameworks Artist, Co-founder of the School for Poetic Computation, Co-creator of the openFrameworks programming language for creative coding. Formerly Assistant Professor of Computational Design at Parsons School of Design, resident at Ars Electronica Futurelab and Eyebeam.
Rhode Island School of Design President of Rhode Island School of Design. Founder of the Furniture Design department, Co-editor of The Art of Critical Making, and maintains her professional studio practice Rosanne Somerson Furniture. Formerly Professor, Department Head of Furniture Design, Provost at Rhode Island School of Design.
Processing Artist, Co-creator of the Processing programming language for the visual arts, and Professor at University of California, Los Angeles. Work in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Formerly Associate Professor at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea.
Google AI Principal Designer, Google AI, Advisory Board Member at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. Formerly Design Director at Google Research & Machine Intelligence, Principal at BERG, Visiting Tutor at Royal College of Art, Co-founder and Lead Designer of Dopplr, Internet Portfolio Executive at BBC, UX director at Nokia.
Within Artist, Co-founder and CTO of virtual and augmented reality company Within. Work in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Centre Pompidou. Formerly Director of the Data Arts Team, at the Google Creative Lab, Abramowitz Artist in Residence at MIT.
Compilation Part 4 of 4 Design’s traditional role was to create solutions for people using appropriate tools and materials. As our social and environmental challenges grow in urgency and complexity, our tools and materials become increasingly intelligent and autonomous. Today’s designers may play a pivotal role in society by giving emerging technologies tangible form and helping people grasp the downstream implications of today’s choices—creating preferable futures for humanity and the planet.
We now enter a new technology landscape shaped by advanced robotics, machine intelligence and synthetic biology. As technology becomes even more complex and opaque, how will designers experiment with it hands-on, in order to understand its potential and give it useful and culturally relevant form? Is this simply the next technology revolution, or are we now entering uncharted territory for design?
Artist Artist and writer working across technologies and disciplines. His artworks have been commissioned by galleries and institutions and exhibited worldwide. His writing has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Wired, Domus, the Atlantic, the Guardian and the Observer. He lectures regularly at conferences, universities, and other events.
Studio Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg Artist, Director of Studio Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg Ltd., Design Fellow of Synthetic Aesthetics at University of Edinburgh and Stanford University, Author of Synthetic Aesthetics: Investigating Synthetic Biology’s Designs on Nature. Ph.D. from Royal College of Art in Design Interactions.