More-than-Human Re-Imaginaries of Creative AI

QC 20260814

Abstract

In this doctoral dissertation, I explored what design knowledge(s) could facilitate bringing More-than-Human (MTH) commitments into the design of Creative AI technology. The work is theoretically aligned with more-than-human feminist posthumanities, and frames MTH design as an emerging and alternative design paradigm to predominant human-centred design approaches in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The central contribution is more-than-human re-imaginaries, an approach which aims at re-configuring the design practices of Creative AI towards alternative ontologies and aesthetics by examining imaginaries. The imaginaries are materialized through methods, such as fabulation, sketching, and speculative prototyping, across five design cases. More concretely, the dissertation introduces three critiques of current design practices in Creative AI that do not support MTH design: 1) human-centred conceptualization of creativity, 2) rationalist conceptualization of ecological relations, and 3) values of self-interest that are embedded through human-centred design practices. It also provides seven pathways for ontological and aesthetic more-than-human re-designing of Creative AI: 1) more-than-human conceptualization of creativity, 2) cultivating more-than-human aligned values, 3) situated designs in specific ecologies, 4) embodied more-than-human care, 5) nonhuman cultural practices, 6) more-than-human visual aesthetics, and 7) more-than-human data practices. These seven pathways are contributed as directions for further design inquiry within MTH Creative AI. They include specific design qualities and knowledge, and work as leverage points for entering into situated and nomadic more-than-human design practices of Creative AI.

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