Shifting from Creativity to Sympoiesis: A Site-Oriented Design Inquiry of More-than-Human Creative AI

Authors

• Petra Jääskeläinen, Division of Media Technology and Interaction Design, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SwedenFollow
• Lisa Boulton, School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Simon Fraser University, CanadaFollow
• Ron Wakkary, School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Simon Fraser University, CanadaFollow
• Gillian Russell, School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Simon Fraser University, CanadaFollow

Abstract

@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-469750017 -1040178053 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; border:none; mso-border-alt:none black 0in; padding:0in; mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 0in 0in; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-font-kerning:0pt; mso-ligatures:none; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;}.MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; border:none; mso-border-alt:none black 0in; padding:0in; mso-padding-alt:0in 0in 0in 0in;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} Creative AI technology (AI used in creative practices) is predominantly designed through human-centered approaches, and more specifically human-centered framing of creativity. Drawing on More-than-Human (MTH) design, in this paper, we argue for the need to shift from designing for human-centered creativity to designing for sympoietic making-with within situated ecologies, when it comes to creativity technology. We approach this through a relational, site-oriented design research inquiry that starts with a multispecies ethnography in a local ecology. Through this, we develop insights of more-than-human co-creation processes within the environmental ecology and bring these insights to a materialized form in fabulations to examine them further. Subsequently, we examine the fabulations through the critiques of human-centered conceptualization of creativity, providing an analytical tool for examining human-centered vs. more-than-human-centered notions of creativity in the design processes of creativity technology.

Keywords

More-than-Human Design; More-than-human AI; Multispecies Ethnography; Creative AI

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1902

Citation

Jääskeläinen, P., Boulton, L., Wakkary, R., and Russell, G. (2026) Shifting from Creativity to Sympoiesis: A Site-Oriented Design Inquiry of More-than-Human Creative AI, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1902

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License