Abstract
If AI is usually represented as an immaterial and deterritorialized agency, this paper seeks to rematerialize the development of this technology, making visible water consumption in AI model generation. Drawing on studies of post-anthropocentric design and the notion of more-than-human interdependencies, we describe Hybrid Ecologies, an installation that problematizes the relationship between AI and the more-than-human agency of water. The installation is a design exploration to overcome the dichotomy between nature and technology, evidencing how AI inhabits a hybrid ecology, made of interdependent relationships between human agencies and terrestrial ecosystems. We try to move the reflection on AI from a human-centered-design approach to a planet-centered design based on the idea of interdependence and more-than-human futures. Hybrid Ecologies is an experimental effort to open the discussion of the terrestrial condition of AI, urging design to use its capacities to generate better alliances with the more-than-human worlds we inhabit.
Keywords
interdependencies; ai extractivism; research-creation; hybrid ecologies; planet-oriented design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1104
Citation
Tironi, M., and Garretón, M. (2024) Hybrid Ecologies of artificial intelligence: prototyping terrestrial practices through a design installation, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1104
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Hybrid Ecologies of artificial intelligence: prototyping terrestrial practices through a design installation
If AI is usually represented as an immaterial and deterritorialized agency, this paper seeks to rematerialize the development of this technology, making visible water consumption in AI model generation. Drawing on studies of post-anthropocentric design and the notion of more-than-human interdependencies, we describe Hybrid Ecologies, an installation that problematizes the relationship between AI and the more-than-human agency of water. The installation is a design exploration to overcome the dichotomy between nature and technology, evidencing how AI inhabits a hybrid ecology, made of interdependent relationships between human agencies and terrestrial ecosystems. We try to move the reflection on AI from a human-centered-design approach to a planet-centered design based on the idea of interdependence and more-than-human futures. Hybrid Ecologies is an experimental effort to open the discussion of the terrestrial condition of AI, urging design to use its capacities to generate better alliances with the more-than-human worlds we inhabit.