Prophetic automations
The hallucinated cosmological mediocrity of the project
Abstract
Generative artificial intelligence is often presented as a tool that enhances creativity and accelerates innovation in design practice. This article offers a critical perspective, arguing that AI reveals design's fundamentally statistical and non-exceptional nature. Drawing on the principle of mediocrity, Hito Steyerl’s notion of hallucinated mediocrity, and Marxist theories of alienation, the paper interprets design as a recombinatory practice embedded within probabilistic systems. It further examines the emergence of a new form of cognitive alienation, in which the generation of solutions is increasingly delegated to machines while human actors retain the responsibility of interpreting, legitimising, and justifying their outcomes.
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