Skyler.AI

Hi, everyone. Thanks for attending my thesis inquiry. To begin with the presentation, I would like to ask everyone a few questions.

Technology. What appears in your mind when you think of technology? Please take a few seconds to make a mental note. 

How about artificial intelligence? What are some impressions and stories you have? Please take another few seconds to think about it.

    I believe more than 80% of you have negative connotations with this word. We are more comfortable and familiar with the word technology. The definition of AI is a computer system able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making. There are common fears toward AI and the unknown future around this topic, such as the fear of humans being substituted by AI and the fear of the losing meaning of human existence as AI becomes more prevalent. How can we re-examine the our relationship between machine and human? Now, I am going walk you through the creative partnership between machine and us from my perspective.

My name is David. A second-year graduate student in BU graphic design. I used to study law and economy, but for the reason of personal interest in exploring aesthetics, I decided to study fashion design at the beginning of my college. Fashion design is a field that has all the possibilities.

Here was the show from Moschino, Spring 2021, in which Moschino used puppets as substitutions for human models. I started to think about that what if other brand imitate this, using robots instead. Would that work better only showing the human body shape without factors of human appearance and personality, leaving the essence of the spirit of clothing?

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I did more research about the role of AI behind the scene, it is evidenced by popular fashion brands to use AI in their business models, such as the usage AI chatbots, personalisation, or trend forecasting. Here is a model who is generated entirely by AI, Miquela Sousa, who has 3.1 million followers on Instagram. During the pandemic, brands were often unable to bring models for photoshoots, which posed a serious issue as model shots can make items up to 60% more likely to sell.

I really enjoy the process of creation and exploration. However, my hand craft was poor, which it is not suitable to create fashions. After listening to a guest lecture from Roderick MartinezI, my future graphic design professor, I decided to transfer my major with great determination. I had no idea about graphic design, but I felt more comfortable working in digital space in the digital world.

There are three layers of meanings for the term “digital world” in my understanding. The first layer of is creations with technologies like computer and laptop, which is different from analog design. The second layer is related to what is called "computer accent" that we can feel certain contend are not generated by the hands of human but AI with from its database. The last layer is related to NFTs (digital properties) and the Metaverse, in which humans and AI together create a digital world and digital properties that are not tangible, which is a parallel version of the physical world.

Most designers are comfortable working within the first layer of the digital world. I had work projects graphically for years, never thought of using alternative technologies as experimentation. Here is a futuristic UI/UX interface I designed in my undergraduate program, which is an app that can utilize AI technology to detect that health statistics, nutrition level, and even the emotion and feelings of your pet.

I gradually found out that, especially in the field of graphic design, that I could explore a lot of experimental works, and the audience could just be myself, not the market. More importantly, I started gaining the ability and ideas to shape my audience’s perspectives and evoke their sensory experience with my design and style  using technologies and mediums.