51吃瓜

This fall semester, 51吃瓜鈥檚 (FSC) Memorial Gallery is proud to present a special, two-part interactive exhibition designed to explore the evolving relationship between human creativity and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated design as well as fonts and typesetting systems that support better reading performance.

Exhibition visitors are first greeted by Font Flow: Typographic Experimentation in the Age of AI, which features the work of four professional typographers alongside AI-made posters. In a direct challenge with AI, each designer had 90 minutes to create and submit their posters, which advertise a hypothetical college lecture. The same prompt was processed by a large language model (LLM), which generated its own design interpretation, promoting the fictitious event. The resulting human and machine-made artworks appear side-by-side throughout the Hale Hall gallery, stripped of attribution. As the viewer guesses, 鈥渉uman or AI?鈥� interactive digital kiosks beside each pairing reveal the author origin of each design.

鈥淕allery visitors can confront their assumptions about authorship, creativity, and the future of typography,鈥� said Beth Giacummo, Memorial Gallery director and curator. 鈥淢any visitors are surprised when they are unable to guess which design is AI-generated. The act of distinguishing human from AI work becomes a meditation on intelligence, intuition, and the essence of typographic excellence in a post-AI design landscape,鈥� she added.

This unique infringement on viewer perceptions is "by design," confirmed Thomas Jockin, professor of graphic design at Mount St. Mary's University and the exhibition鈥檚 lead artist. 鈥淒esign is very invisible sometimes,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his exhibition is designed on an expectation that users are going to get a sense of violation. That sense of, 鈥榦h no,鈥� where they think something was human, but it was actually AI, and vice versa.

鈥淎nd once you get that reaction, the hope is you get to the second act of the exhibition and you see the directions designers are going in response to this new environment,鈥� Jockin added. 鈥淭hat violation of expectation arouses surprise. You can then direct the viewers鈥� attention to new possibilities. You grow that spirit of curiosity.鈥�

The exhibition continues with Typography for Reading: Human Ingenuity in the Age of AI, which showcases design interventions at multiple scales including typefaces that support handwriting development, an innovative eye-guiding color gradient, and paragraph-level typesetting that enhances reading comprehension, a vital area of ongoing research. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), two out of five U.S. schoolchildren are not proficient readers鈥攁 status that often persists into adulthood.

鈥淭he four displayed approaches offer evidence that, despite advances in AI, human creativity remains a powerful force in shaping how people read, write, and interact with text,鈥� said Giacummo.

In addition to Jockin, the exhibition鈥檚 participating artists and designers include Hrant H Papazian, Miguel Escamilla, Kateryna Kovalevska, Nadine Chahine, Nick Lum, Renato Casutt, and Underware (Akiem Helmling, Bas Jacobs, and Sami Kortem盲ki). 
The exhibition also featured an artist's lecture in the Campus Center Ballroom where Jockin spoke on its creation, his extensive data testing and research, how to better identify "AI slop" and machine-made content, and how to stay competitive in an ever-changing industry.

鈥淎s designers, what we鈥檙e actually providing is enthusiasm,鈥� Jockin said. 鈥淸Compared to AI], when students and designers get captured by an idea, when they see a vision, they just run with it. They are just way more attuned, and their work shows it. There鈥檚 an attention to detail, a vivacious lavishness. Their design is expressing an idea in a way that gives life to it,鈥� added Jockin, who noted that, when data tested, the human-made posters were preferred over the AI designs eight out of 10 times. 
Looking ahead, Jockin encouraged FSC鈥檚 students to believe in themselves and 鈥渞un to your passion.鈥�

鈥淚n the face of AI, we want to have a life of creativity, of inspiration,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd we feel like AI may kneecap us from ever getting that. The antidote is you have to run ironically deeper into the passion. You have to listen to yourself and basically say, 鈥楴o, I dare to love.鈥� Put yourself into a mindset to be inspired. In a post-AI world, education and the arts become more important than ever in the pursuit of truth, and goodness, and beauty.鈥�

Student Perspectives
鈥淭oday鈥檚 lecture was very informative and it gave me hope for the future of the industry,鈥� said Brendan Ruddy, 鈥�29, a visual communication: art and graphic design major. 鈥淚t really helps getting a view of the outside world, especially from someone so experienced.鈥�

鈥淔or me, I found it interesting to see the human and AI comparison,鈥� said Natalia Jimenez, 鈥�27, a visual communication: art and graphic design major 鈥淲e always have more opportunities for creativity than AI can generate. With graphic design, you can do almost anything. And [after today] I feel so much better. I have more hope now. Because there is always that fear, what if we don鈥檛 get that job because people think AI can do it. Having this type of guidance is so helpful to me to understand the field that I am in.鈥�

鈥淚 felt it was insightful,鈥� agreed Aidan Ronquillo, 鈥�26, a visual communication: art and graphic design major. 鈥淚 liked what [Jockin] said about niches and having separate areas of expertise. I was recently talking to a classmate about new 鈥榖lue oceans,鈥� which are unsaturated markets with a bunch of opportunities. We have to think about what on the internet can be a blue ocean. I don鈥檛 know what my niche will be yet, but after today I am going to think about it even more. By offering students these types of exhibits and presentations, FSC really does go by the motto that is displayed in the font of the Campus Center, 鈥楲et each become all one is capable of being.鈥欌��

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