Places and spaces for ideas

Although ideation is situated not only in the design studio, but in many "other places", the traditional studio represents a place, space and setting where designers typically ideate through sketching, building physical models and proposing projects in a shared creative environment. Indeed, in the context of education, the studio embodies the creative learning process where, moreover, there is no clear border between theory and practice. But in the digital age, designers, both in professional practice and education are experiencing how studio practices are changing effected by hardware and software choices and the use of online platforms and AI technologies. And so, the concept of the studio is changing too, including both physical and virtual settings. However, designers, as problem solvers, are apt at adjusting to new materials and technologies, changing conditions and methods resulting in the networked, hybrid design studio that bridges the physical and virtual worlds of creativity.

Human-AI symbiosis

Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, opens up new perspectives for designers by offering them unprecedented technical, performative and aesthetic possibilities. Indeed, GenAI is transforming design ideation and communication. But how does GenAI differ from classic human creativity? Research suggests that the answer lies not so much in difference as in symbiosis*. That is, designers and GenAI work together to jointly solve problems and perform specific tasks. That is, by facilitating ideation and broadening the field of possibilities, GenAI provides designers with a creative platform to more quickly produce, say, sketches, prototypes or different strategies to develop a given theme↟. Human - AI symbiosis, then, has the advantage of combining the power of AI with the human domain expertise to improve performance and create added value, particularly for commercial purposes. But more than this, GenAI can hallucinate and create things that do not exist beforehand. GenAI, then, as an agent for change, raises important concerns, such as the question of the originality and authenticity of the works generated, the question of responsibility and transparency in the creative process, copyright and intellectual property, or even the risks of manipulation. * https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3542698  ↟ https://www.sorbonne-universite.fr/en/news/when-art-meets-artificial-intelligence