Co-Creation of New Visualisations for AI in Dialogue between Science, Design and Society

Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) is trans­form­ing our soci­ety at ground­break­ing speed – but the images and visu­al asso­ci­ations we asso­ci­ate with AI are strug­gling to keep pace: They are heav­ily influ­enced by tra­di­tion­al sci­ence fic­tion motifs and ste­reo­typed rep­res­ent­a­tions such as blue brains or white robots. In addi­tion, we some­times encounter very dif­fer­ent and some­times con­tra­dict­ory ideas and asso­ci­ations con­nec­ted to AI in research and society.

Creative Hackathon: New Perspectives on AI

In order to engage in a fresh and effect­ive dia­logue on AI and sup­port import­ant dis­course on its devel­op­ment, we also need new and more appro­pri­ate images for AI. This is the start­ing point of our pro­ject "New Per­spect­ives on AI", which was developed in col­lab­or­a­tion between Michael Pelzer (RHET AI Cen­ter) and Prof. Dr. hc. Patrick Thomas (State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart).

As part of the Sci­ence & Innov­a­tion Days at the Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, nine design stu­dents from the State Academy of Fine Arts (ABK), four AI research­ers from the Cluster of Excel­lence "Machine Learn­ing" (ML) and four wild­cards from the inter­ested pub­lic came togeth­er in a cre­at­ive hack­a­thon on 17 Novem­ber 2024 to jointly devel­op new ideas and designs for the visu­al­isa­tion of AI. In four diverse teams, the par­ti­cipants took on the chal­lenge of devel­op­ing ideas and ini­tial drafts for new visu­al­isa­tions of AI that go bey­ond estab­lished stereotypes:

• Blue team: Luca Caru­bia (ABK), Jonath­an Körner (ABK), Juan Mar­mol (Wild­card), Luca Schmidt (ML), Clara van Han­del (ABK)

• Team Red: Alex­an­der Conzel­mann (ML), Nad­ine Lahn (Wild­card), Nina Maise (ABK), Max­imili­an Mess­er (ABK)

• Team Green: Nina Effen­ber­ger (ML), Lev­in Jaensch (ABK), Luis Schulte Kelling­haus (ABK), Chris­ti­ane Söll (Wild­card)

• Team Yel­low: Kath­ar­ina Eggen­sper­ger (ML), Emil Hödl (Wild­card), Laura Klasch­ka (ABK), Theresa Nürk (ABK)

Addi­tion­ally, we would also like to thank the KI Maker­space team for their great support!

Start­ing with a chal­lenge pitch, the par­ti­cipants first got to know each oth­er and presen­ted their per­son­al view of AI with the help of ini­tial sketches. After brief impulses from the per­spect­ive of design, AI research and sci­ence com­mu­nic­a­tion, the joint, co-cre­at­ive work in the teams began. At the end, the first res­ults were presen­ted: From vis­ions of AI as a fun­nel, mir­ror, or plant nour­ished with data, to an explor­a­tion of pat­terns and organ­ic­ally grow­ing pixel struc­tures, to the first drafts of an "Atten­tion! This product con­tains AI!" info label, a wide range of ideas came togeth­er. And there was a clear con­senus in the final light­ing round: the trans­dis­cip­lin­ary exchange around visu­al­isa­tions opens up new per­spect­ives – and helps to bring sci­ence and soci­ety togeth­er to dis­cuss the oppor­tun­it­ies and risks of AI.

Presentation of results & opportunity to join in:
Launch of a collaborative online design session on 4 December 2024

We will be giv­ing a closer look into our res­ults as part of the Inter­dis­cip­lin­ary Pro­ject Week at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stut­tgart (Am Weißen­hof 1, 70191 Stut­tgart). The present­a­tion will take place at 6 pm in Neubau 2, room 1.15. We will shed light not only on our visu­al res­ults but also on the pro­cesses behind our inter­dis­cip­lin­ary exchange. Every­one inter­ested is cor­di­ally invited to join!

The present­a­tion also is the launch event for an accom­pa­ny­ing ses­sion on the online plat­form Open Col­lab, where any­one who would like to par­ti­cip­ate can con­trib­ute and explore fur­ther designs and ideas. You will find the link to take part right here on Decem­ber 4th.

Togeth­er, we will cre­ate new imagery and visu­al meta­phors around the top­ic of AI.