Art Thinking: creating desirable futures in the AI era
Have you ever thought about hiring an artist for your team? OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has just taken this step. But what does this mean?
Our history is filled with technological revolutions that have changed the way we live, work, and interact. From the Industrial Revolution to the internet boom, each new technology has brought a paradigm shift, replacing old habits and creating new behaviors.
Beyond Design Thinking, artistic thinking has emerged as a powerful driver of critical thinking amid the rapid changes brought about by new technologies, especially artificial intelligence.
In this text, we will discuss the difference between the two approaches and go through three brief examples of how art is being used creatively in business to achieve truly disruptive results. We will cover:
- Design Thinking and Art Thinking
- Art and the ChatGPT
- Art in Airbnb’s disruptive process
- Art to question realities
Let's begin!
Design Thinking and Art Thinking
Design Thinking is a widely known and applied approach in the business world to solve practical problems with a focus on people. Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, and David Kelley, co-founder of IDEO and the d.school at Stanford, are prominent figures behind this approach. Generally, this approach involves:
- Empathy: Deeply understanding the users and their needs.
- Definition: Clarifying the problem to be solved.
- Ideation: Generating multiple creative possibilities and selecting the best ones.
- Prototyping: Creating prototypes of the selected solutions.
- Testing: Testing the prototypes with users and iterating.
Art Thinking, on the other hand, is more about creative exploration and disruptive innovation. John Maeda, former president of the Rhode Island School of Design, for example, can be understood as one of the icons of artistic thinking. Here, the approach is more open and flexible, encouraging new perspectives and questioning.
- Inspiration: Free search for new ideas.
- Creation: Artistic expression without the pressure to solve something specific.
- Reflection: Critical analysis of the creations.
- Intervention: Using the works to provoke changes in thinking.
Creative questions vs. Creative solutions
Design Thinking is about creating efficient and practical solutions, always with the user at the center of everything. Art Thinking values the subjectivity of the artist and ambiguity, promoting cultural transformation and disruptive innovation.
It’s a subtle difference, but one can notice a shift in focus: while in Art Thinking, the emphasis shifts more towards subjectivity rather than the end user.
But what does this mean in practical terms?
At the end of the day, with Design Thinking, we build Creative Solutions, and with Art Thinking, we are focusing on Creative Questions.
Beyond methodological purities, Art Thinking can be understood as an exploration so that, before solving the problem, we investigate possibilities to understand if we are addressing the right problem.
Art and the ChatGPT
Recently, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, welcomed Alex Reben to their team, an artist studying the role of humans in an increasingly machine-dominated world. This isn’t a new concept. Major companies like Google, Autodesk, and Microsoft have already embraced artists within their teams.
In recent times, we’ve seen artists testing and contributing to the development of innovative products like GPT and the image generator DALL-E. It’s an intriguing collaboration that is pushing creativity to new heights.
And for those who still think art and technology don’t mix, consider the book “Vamos Comprar um Poeta” ("Lets buy a poet") by Afonso Cruz. It transports us to a society dominated by materialism, where families have artists instead of pets.
In this world, where every space has a sponsor, every step is meticulously measured, and even the exchange of affections is accounted for, a girl asks her father for a poet — and from there, everything changes.
The presence of this artist transforms their lives, bringing questioning, affection, and a new perspective on the world. The book shows us that living a life while ignoring even the smallest amount of culture can lead to a sense of emptiness.
It’s a powerful reminder of how art can alter reality and connect us with our humanity.
And according to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, in a world flooded with AI-generated creations, the quest for human connection only intensifies. For artist Alex Reben, this opportunity is not just a chance to enhance his art, but also to pose new questions to the world.
Art in the Airbnb Process
The Airbnb business model itself, the place where you can feel at home even when you’re away from home, was crafted by an artist.
Yes, we’re talking about Brian Chesky, CEO and co-founder of Airbnb, who holds a degree in Fine Arts. Brian not only applied his artistic skills brilliantly in Airbnb’s early projects but also completely reshaped the rules of the business game.
The Airbnb business model revolutionized traditional hospitality by allowing ordinary people to rent out spaces in their own homes to travelers. This new concept not only created a shared economy but also redefined how people can monetize their existing properties.
And just as an artist takes care of every detail of the experience their artwork will provide, Airbnb has meticulously designed every aspect of the user experience. This ranges from website navigation to interactions with hosts and the atmosphere of the rented spaces.
Brian attributed artistic thinking as the influence behind the company’s most innovative decisions, such as creating custom Airbnb-branded cereals early in the company’s history and offering free professional photography for hosts. After all, aesthetic experience matters greatly when renting a home, doesn’t it?
Art often reflects, responds to, or influences the cultural and social context in which it is created.
Similarly, Airbnb has not only changed how people travel but has also deeply impacted communities, local economies, and even housing regulations. This amplified effect is comparable to that of a powerful work of art that challenges and transforms perspectives.
And the innovation doesn’t stop there. Just like art, which never settles for the status quo, Airbnb continues to innovate and expand its business model. From offering unique travel experiences to introducing more sustainable hosting policies, the company keeps evolving and adapting, staying ahead in the tourism and hospitality industry.
Art to question realities and create new paths
Now, a break from business and company references to mention the very important story of Mr. Lauro.
He was a taxi driver very proud of knowing all the streets of his city, which at that time must have had around 1 million inhabitants. Seu Lauro was a reference at the taxi stand, he helped younger taxi drivers and everyone trusted him to know the best route. He was almost retiring when Waze came along.
Sometimes I find myself imagining how he must have felt. I imagine it’s similar to what some graphic designers felt when using Midjourney for the first time, or when some of us realized that ChatGPT could be part of our work.
With the emergence of Waze and Google Maps, we no longer need to memorize street names — or even routes. We become co-creators by interacting with these tools and end up being rewarded with the best route guidance to avoid traffic.
We can give up or panic, or we can use critical thinking to create new possibilities.
That’s what the artist Simon Weckert thought when he placed 99 smartphones connected to Google Maps in a handcart and walked through the streets of Berlin. The map showed a major traffic jam where, in reality, there was no one.
By the way, did you know that Google Maps itself was inspired by a group of artists in Berlin in the 1990s? They created TerraVision, a virtual view of the Earth that proposed using geolocation long before it became an everyday tool. They even suggested that airlines use this technology so passengers could track their flights in real-time, an idea dismissed at the time as impossible but now a reality.
These three brief examples show us that questioning reality is an inherent human skill, but it becomes even more evident in artistic thinking. So, are the worlds of business and art really so distinct? Or do both ultimately seek to create, transform, and impact society in innovative and meaningful ways?
More than answers, we need to keep thinking about which questions will lead us to more interesting realities. Could art and business be one of them?
Do you have any questions or want to talk more about innovation? Feel free to send me a message!
References
- Art Thinking Research, ARS Eletronica Future Lab
- Usuários sintéticos: a próxima revolução da pesquisa em design?, Carolina Guimarães
- Inovação tecnológica: colocando em prática, Carolina Guimarães
- OpenAI hires Artists Alex Reben, MIT Review
- “Vamos Comprar um Poeta” ("Lets buy a poet"), Afonso Cruz
- The difference between Art Thinking e Design Thinking, Lindie Botes
- Art Thinking and the importance of inventing point B, Tim Leberecht
- Why artists are becoming less afraid of AI, MIT Technology Review
