Details
The Chicago Graphic Design Club read the book Ways of Being (Macmillan, 2022) by James Bridle, which is an exploration of different kinds of intelligence—plant, animal, human, artificial—and how they transform our understanding of humans’ place in the cosmos.
We’ll discussed ways in which we can draw inspiration and insight from methods, philosophies, and wisdom from areas traditionally left out of graphic design discourse — these areas include: natural systems, technology, literature, ecology, and more.
Our book discussions are virtual, informal, welcoming, and open to everyone.
Book description
What does it mean to be intelligent? Is it something unique to humans or shared with other beings— beings of flesh, wood, stone, and silicon? The last few years have seen rapid advances in “artificial” intelligence. But rather than a friend or companion, AI increasingly appears to be something stranger than we ever imagined, an alien invention that threatens to decenter and supplant us.
At the same time, we’re only just becoming aware of the other intelligences that have been with us all along, even if we’ve failed to recognize or acknowledge them. These others—the animals, plants, and natural systems that surround us—are slowly revealing their complexity, agency, and knowledge, just as the technologies we’ve built to sustain ourselves are threatening to cause their extinction and ours. What can we learn from them, and how can we change ourselves, our technologies, our societies, and our politics to live better and more equitably with one another and the nonhuman world?
The artist and maverick thinker James Bridle draws on biology and physics, computation, literature, art, and philosophy to answer these unsettling questions. Startling and bold, Ways of Being explores the fascinating, strange, and multitudinous forms of knowing, doing, and being that make up the world, and that are essential for our survival.
Stay connected with us
Follow The Chicago Graphic Design Club on Instagram and join our
Discord.
