I have been experimenting with artificial intelligence since 2023. I believe designers should engage with emerging technologies critically. We have to understand what these tools can do—and sometimes push them too far—in order to understand where responsible boundaries should exist.

I do not use generative AI to develop or generate my scenic designs. The ideas, research, spatial decisions, drafting, modeling, and development of the design remain part of my own creative process and my collaboration with directors, fellow designers, craftspeople, and other artists.

I do, however, use AI selectively as a technical tool. This can include creating or extending textures from source imagery, refining portions of renderings, assisting with image processing, and exploring more computationally efficient ways of completing tasks that might otherwise require extensive rendering. I consider the environmental cost of digital production when choosing between workflows, while recognizing that both conventional rendering and AI systems consume computational resources.

Where I find AI most exciting is not in having it design for me, but in giving designers access to capabilities that were previously difficult to build ourselves.

I am particularly interested in automation and what I think of as the niche app movement: small, purpose-built tools designed to solve specific problems rather than increasingly large software packages in which we use only a fraction of the available features. Designers are trained to identify problems and develop creative solutions, but most of us are not trained to write software. AI is beginning to bridge that gap.

It can also help independent designers navigate the technical work surrounding a creative practice—building and maintaining websites, SEO, accessibility, publishing, organizing information, managing repetitive tasks, and developing new digital tools.

I believe experimentation is necessary to determine where these technologies belong. Like Frankenstein, experimentation occasionally creates a monster. The important part is recognizing when that has happened, learning from it, and being willing to change course.

My interest in AI is ultimately about giving designers better tools, not replacing designers. I want technology to reduce the friction surrounding creative work so that more of our time, energy, and attention can remain focused on the fundamentally human act of designing.