Into the Gateway: Taiwan Design Week 2024 Takes on AI

The second edition of Taiwan Design Week offers a vivid exploration of AI’s vast possibilities and fraught limitations, as interpreted by artists, designers, and digital creators

Words The Kanto team
Images
Patrick Kasingsing

One line from the Taiwan Design Research Institute’s (TDRI) exhibit notes stayed with me: “AI is you, and it’s me.” It captures the duality of AI, its transformative power lies in collaboration, but so does its potential for harm. What we create defines its impact.

Last December 12, Taiwan Design Week 2024 kicked off with a dazzling ceremony at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. Energy coursed through the space as international representatives from countries like Guatemala, Italy, South Korea, and this year’s partner country, Poland, joined the celebration. With this dynamic start, the event invited visitors, local and global into The Gateway.

This year’s theme, The Gateway, portrays AI as a tool that opens portals to new possibilities. The exhibition dives into this idea through collaborations between professional designers, emerging talents, and digital personalities, each exploring AI’s capacity to reshape creative expression.

Curated by Tsung Yen Hsieh, the show unfolds within an immersive, jet-black environment designed by Studio Superb under Eric Yu’s creative direction, with visual design contributions from Weijhe Lin. Mirrors and light rods create a space that feels both futuristic and reflective, drawing visitors into the dialogue.

As we explored the exhibit, running from December 7, 2024, to February 2, 2025, a key insight emerged: the true significance of AI lies in how we use it rather than in its inherent capabilities. From student projects imagining ethical futures to professional works stretching the limits of creativity, the displays question what AI can do and what we want to achieve through it. In speaking with Chi-Yi Chang, president of the Taiwan Design Research Institute, we briefly touched on AI’s fast-evolving role in today’s creative landscape. Chang undelines that while AI offers powerful tools, it’s ultimately humans who must define its purpose.

Here’s a refresher on the simulations and interactive displays that await attendees of The Gateway at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park:

The Poland design contingent’s ongoing exhibition ‘Ghosts of Tomorrow,’ at Not Just Library
Clockwise, from top: Tsung Yen Hsieh, Eric Yu, and Weijhe Lin

The exhibitions showcase mind-opening projects that combine AI-driven technology with imaginative artistry. Some of the installations to watch out for include:

Taiwan Design Week 2024
The Semantic Seeker + Synthetic Storyteller by Studio MMR and Jimmy Wei-Chun Cheng

The Semantic Seeker + Synthetic Storyteller by Studio MMR and Jimmy Wei-Chun Cheng: This interactive experience uses AI to analyze visitors’ subconscious responses to create visuals that can be turned into 3D-printed objects. This project merges personal expression with cutting-edge technology, turning abstract ideas into physical forms.

Taiwan Design Week 2024
The Digital Nomad’s Playground

New Taipei Station: The Digital Nomad’s Playground by Tunghai University: A reimagining of Taipei’s central station as a futuristic, adaptable space reflecting the fast-paced, fragmented nature of modern life. AI simulations transform its structure to address the needs of a global, tech-savvy population.

Every Building’s OOTD

Every Building’s OOTD: An exploration of how textile patterns inspire architectural designs through AI, creating a unique fusion of fashion and urban design.

Taiwan Design Week 2024

Infinite Evolution: Local Mascots: A study on how AI helps traditional symbols evolve for modern relevance, blending cultural preservation with innovation.

Project Patching: AI & Geo-cultural Bias: A critical examination of AI’s inherent biases, with solutions for integrating local cultural characteristics to promote inclusivity.

Taiwan Design Research Institute president Chi-yi Chang

This year’s Taiwan Design Week focuses on AI—a timely and provocative topic, especially with the debates it sparks among creatives. Do you see a distinctly Taiwanese response or approach to AI in design? Are cultural or industrial factors shaping how designers engage with this technology here?

Chi-yi Chang, TDRI President: Taiwan is small, so we respond to challenges and opportunities quickly. Last year’s Taiwan Design Week was about bringing everyone together, and this year, we’re tackling AI, which is a global issue. Taiwan has always been strong in manufacturing and high-tech industries, so when AI became important, we naturally saw our role in the AI supply chain, especially for hardware. But beyond that, Taiwan’s designers are very open to applying AI in their work and daily lives. This year, we want to encourage designers to see AI as both a challenge and an opportunity, to embrace it and make it part of their process. Like how computers changed how designers worked, AI won’t take over; it will help us work together, combining artificial and human creativity.

AI can speed up workflows and make processes more efficient, especially in architecture, which is the industry you hail from. But some worry that streamlining might reduce those “Eureka!” moments of serendipity that lead to innovation. How do you think AI can coexist with human spontaneity in the creative process? Do you think integrating a model of ‘spontaneity’  incompatible with AI models, and should stay a human quality?

That’s a good question. Architecture is something we think of as timeless, lasting decades or centuries. AI won’t replace the real materials or the human element behind that, and it never will. But it does open new possibilities, adding richer sensory and experiential dimensions. I think of this as moving from “human-centered design” to “humanity-centered design.” It’s no longer just about humans but about the entire ecosystem and sustainability. AI doesn’t narrow creativity but it broadens it. It can enhance spontaneity by offering unexpected tools and options while still leaving space for human ingenuity and those unplanned moments of discovery.

Taiwan Design Week 2024 naturally doesn’t offer neat answers to the big questions surrounding AI, but The Gateway makes its uncertainties and opportunities tangible, framing a conversation that extends well beyond the exhibition’s walls. It offers an intriguing starting point for designers, offering directions ripe for exploration, while providing a tantalizing glimpse of the possibilities that emerge when humanity encounters a tool capable of empowering us to dream bigger.

For more information, visit TDRI or follow @designintaiwan on Instagram. •

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on whatsapp
Share on linkedin

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *