The Machine Is the Message at SVA, Nov. 20
A conversation about reading and writing in the age of AI
This winter, Outland is organizing a workshop on machine learning applications as both writing tools and objects of inquiry with D-Crit, the MA program in design writing, research, and criticism at the School of Visual Arts. To kick off the workshop, D-Crit is hosting a public conversation about how artificial intelligence is reshaping the process of writing and the conditions of reading.
Writers today face a shifting landscape. People no longer approach text as something fixed or authoritative, but as something responsive, tailored to individual queries, habits, and desires. How can this new, personalized media ecosystem be engineered in a way that still honors the truth of the archive? What opportunities and risks emerge as AI systems learn to speak in tones designed to earn our trust?
Featuring Cliff Kuang and Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, two thinkers who bring backgrounds in critical and journalistic writing to their work in the design tech industry, the panel will examine how voice, design, and interaction shape our relationship to language in an age of intelligent systems. The panel is moderated by Brian Droitcour of Outland.
This event is hosted in collaboration with SVA MFA Interaction Design and SVA MFA Design for Social Innovation. The 2025-26 D-Crit Applied Media Workshop on machine learning is supported by a grant from Google Arts + Machine Intelligence (AMI) and led by Brian Droitcour in collaboration with Eric Schwartau. Register to attend here.