Still going to DRUM

Abstract

This project explores through design the transformative impact of artificial intelligence and automation on labor, particularly within creative fields, through the lens of artisanal AI, AI systems developed with a focus on personal craftsmanship and ethical data practices. Through design speculations rooted in an autoethnographic approach, it explores creative practices, and implications of AI on the creative human in a future post-work society where AI has largely automated labor. Employing drumming as an embodied method used to generate data for artisanal AI algorithms, a counter hegemonic and ethical alternative to dominant data practices and AI driven narratives is presented. Through these algorithms, which are embodied and mediated through an artisanally crafted drumming robot, the project raises several important questions that challenge the prevailing perception of AI, contrasting and highlighting the role of authenticity, ethics, agency, alienation of labor, creativity in contrast to mere utility, and the human element within creative practices. Situating the project within ethical AI and post-work discourses, it seeks to not only envision future roles of the individual creator, but also engage in the bigger discussion on the entanglements of technology and humanity within a data driven society. By merging the artisanal with the algorithmic, this project offers both critique and also a vision for a future where technology ethically amplifies human agency and creativity.