Communication Design School of Design
Sara Lucy
✽
I am a Scottish designer-researcher exploring speculative technology, design paradigms, and storytelling. My graduate research focused on generative technology and artificial intelligence, leveraging text as a tool for iterative image-making processes. Language was central to my practice, serving as the primary medium for creating and engaging with generative art and design. Through research, writing, and image-making, I examined the interplay between designer and machine, using AI to bridge virtual and physical realms, and produce visuals that challenge conventional beliefs on the use of generative technology in contemporary design.
The collections presented here highlight a small selection of works from a larger body of research and design-focused practice.
Tranquil Technospheres
Select spreads
text-prompt: electronic design new york and hong kong exhibitions 1983, in the style of medicalcore, tranquil still life, gossamer fabrics, lightbox, iso 200, mandy disher
This publication documents the iterative process of generative text-to-image technology, where an AI algorithm transforms words into visual art. The process begins with four initial images, each embarking on its own creative evolution in dedicated sections. Through labelled functions and variations, each image generates further sets of visuals. The journey of each set concludes with an enlarged fourth image, selected for further generative development.
This iterative process is essentially infinite, continuously evolving and recreating the original image until it becomes entirely separate from its starting point. As a designer, my role was to guide the AI’s creative process, then refine and curate the evolving imagery. Each iteration reflects a balance between human intention and machine autonomy, with my interventions shaping the direction of the visual outcomes. The photobook’s layout was designed to capture this journey, showcasing the transformation of images over time while highlighting the interplay between designer and AI. The iterative structure underscores the dynamic and collaborative nature of this process, where both creativity and control are negotiated. I would like to highlight the use of floral photographer Mandy Disher in my text-prompt – this publication has been created in admiration, for non-commercial academic research only.
Degree Show Identity
Select images
Images of Fashion
Images of Fashion was born from an image-making project set by local designer Tom Joyes exploring fashion and art direction. Due to the viscerally visual nature of editorial fashion, I wanted the outputs to involve fantasy and surrealism, and this led me to research fairy tales.
I often find myself drawn to the preternatural aspects of life, the ways in which we inherit belief and folklore, and then subvert those stories for modernity. I created a playful interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s characters from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; and the application of generative AI and speculative technology felt apt for these themes of belief, inherited narratives, and unreality.
🐇