I love design, art, craftsmanship, and conceptual thinking. In short, I love creating beautiful things. And so, I want to approach the questions I mentioned above through these very fields.
Why? Well, because these are the fields I know and have an authentic connection to. But above all, because these are the very things that make me who I am.
And that is precisely what I want to explore.
One might assume that, at this point in time, there are many other fields far more relevant to answering questions about humanity and its future than art, craftsmanship, or design.
First and foremost, of course, artificial intelligence – undeniably one of the greatest phenomena of our time, as heavily hyped as it is demonized.
However, as I already explained in my previous post, I neither can nor want to approach these questions exclusively through AI in particular or technology in general. It is not my area of expertise, nor do I intend to make it one.
I do have a basic understanding of how large language models and neural networks work. But when it comes to engaging with these technologies in a truly critical and informed way, there are people who have devoted far more time and attention to them than I have.
Still, allow me one personal observation:
To me, our current situation with AI feels like humanity’s endlessly recurring dance on the edge of a volcano. We are feverishly experimenting with something whose full implications we cannot yet comprehend. At the same time, there seems to be enormous pressure to move forward faster and faster. Who will get there first? Who has the most powerful technology? Who will gain the greatest influence?
I consider these developments and their potential consequences enormously important. But I don’t believe I can make a meaningful contribution by trying to answer the same questions as people who have spent years studying these technologies from a scientific and technical perspective.
So, back to my own approach to research.
I want to explore what makes me the person I am. Or at least gain a better understanding of the abilities and experiences that allow me to do the things I love doing as a human being. The things through which I express myself. Through which I share my thoughts. Through which I connect with the world around me.
And I’m not only interested in the act of creating itself.
I’m also fascinated by why some of the things we humans create mean so much to us.
Why do some things move us while others leave us completely indifferent? Why do we perceive something as beautiful, as right, as special? Why do we develop a deep connection to certain objects, spaces, or works of art – but not to others?
And could what we perceive as beauty play a role in this?
Perhaps it is precisely through our relationship with the things we create and surround ourselves with that we can discover something about what moves and enriches us as human beings.
At least, that’s the assumption I’d like to start with.
With this in mind, I’ve put together a small research plan, which currently revolves around the following questions:
Is there a certain kind of beauty, an aesthetic quality, that resonates beyond short-lived trends and personal preferences?
Can such a quality foster a sense of connection, appreciation, care, and longevity?
Can intentional design bring about this quality – and thereby perhaps encourage people to value, care for, and preserve things for longer? Could it even have an impact on our well-being?
I don’t want to set these questions in stone as my definitive research questions. For now, they are simply my starting point. An initial, simple structure to guide the beginning of my exploration and help me discover where it might lead.
In conversations with some of the speakers, I was told that the number of people expressing their fear of an uncertain future and a present that is changing at incredible speed was higher this year than ever before. Fear of too much technology, moving too fast, becoming too intelligent. Fear of becoming replaceable and losing their jobs.
It feels like a cynical race driven by fear.
New technologies seem to emerge almost every week. In response to trends, as answers to new developments, or simply because others are doing it too. Desperately, we try to keep up; to stay up to date through courses, workshops, studies and training, only to realize that by the time we finish, the next technological phenomenon has already arrived.
Like flies, we humans currently seem to be circling around the phenomenon of technology.
Over the past week, I have heard Product Designers ask how we can design better products, UX Designers ask what the User Experience of tomorrow might look like, User Researchers ask questions specific to their own field – and all of them, together, ask what the big technology of tomorrow might be.
And at some point, I started wondering: if we want ro put humans at the center – why do so many of our questions begin with technology?
I was afraid of the Future Product Days. Afraid that the talks wouldn’t mean anything to me and that, in return, I would have nothing to say to all those highly qualified people there.
Now I am very glad that I went, because I came away with an important realization:
I can set out in search of an answer through the things that personally interest me, the things move me and the things I am good at. In search of an answer to the questions of what the future is and who human being of the future will be.
As I mentioned before, I work with UI/UX and Product Design, but I have never really felt at home in any of these fields.
All my life, there has really only been one thing I wanted to do: create beautiful things. Things that inspire, touch and enrich.
Whenever I have gone deeper into some of the fields mentioned above, I have encountered an enormous amount of technology and optimization. So often, it is about optimizing products, User Experiences and interfaces further and further: making them more efficient, more intuitive, more frictionless, more scalable or more commercially successful.
But where is the beauty? Where is the thing that truly touches me as a human being? That enriches me, that makes me grow, think and feel?
I was always frustrated because I wasn’t happy and because I thought I had to fit in somewhere in order to be able to do exactly that.
That was roughly the emotional state I was in when I arrived at the Future Product Days. Not exactly the best starting point when you’re attending an event where the majority of talks revolve around UX, AI and Product Design, right?
But then something very important happened for me.
At first, that realization was frightening, but then it became incredibly liberating.
I don’t have to fit into these circles. I am free to approach the question of the future through what interests me and what I am good at.
The beautiful thing was that Don Norman said something similar in one of his talks: Do what genuinely excites you.
What exactly this approach – or rather, this search for answers – will look like, I don’t know yet. I will probably read a lot and spend a lot of time thinking. But that’s okay if it feels meaningful.
Not because I think I already have the answers. But because I am curious about what might happen when other people contribute their thoughts, experiences and perspectives.
If these questions occupy you too, if you have read or experienced something that might relate to them, or if you completely disagree with me at any point:
Write to me. Challenge me. Think further with me.
I am not looking for confirmation. I am looking for perspectives that expand or challenge my own. I would love to hear from you.