Designers used to turn to books and magazines to search for inspiration. Now they primarily search online, using social media tools like Pinterest and Instagram. These social media platforms use “everyday AI”, including Natural Language Processing (NLP), machine learning and computer vision. Their use in design research may influence what is sketched, prototyped and ultimately produced. My doctoral research at the Oxford Internet Institute is investigating how this “everyday AI” is changing design inspiration.
AI is evaluated critically in many contexts, from facial recognition to election misinformation. If the platforms designers use for inspiration are the very same ones culpable of well-established biases in other areas, it stands to reason the design process also deserves our attention. It is more difficult to identify what may potentially be insidious about the distribution of photos of monstera plants, coffee shops or cool jumpers. But the design industry is huge, valued at $162 billion in 2021, and this is an applied context of AI in use that enacts upon the buildings, products and services we use worldwide.
"It is more difficult to identify what may potentially be insidious about the distribution of photos of monstera plants, coffee shops or cool jumpers. But the design industry is huge, valued a and this is an applied context of AI in use that enacts upon the buildings, products and services we use worldwide.."
In art and design, negative space is the empty space around an image, the white background surrounding a black shape. When it comes to thinking about bias in the context of design inspiration, digital negative space is a helpful framework. There are billions of images online, but what don’t we see when we search online?
Take the contrasting examples of Dutch and Indian design on Pinterest. A search for Dutch design returns sleek contemporary design, not wooden shoes. On the other hand a search for Indian Design returns handcrafted traditional block printed textiles, saris and hand carved furniture. Modern Indian product designers exist, but it is much harder to find them online. Who gets to be modern in this context, and who gets to influence contemporary design? A fetishized, colonial version of India narrativizes what users of social media platforms see, and what they don’t. Chasing Innovation outlines how national identity and the politics of aesthetics affect the “Indianness” in the design process more broadly. My research focuses this query on what designers see when they are searching for inspiration. Dutch designers are renowned and among the most financially successful in the design industry. AI may be unwittingly reinforcing their success while marginalizing contemporary Indian designers, relegated to digital negative space.