Eversince The Matrix film series debuted on our screens in the late 1990s and early 2000s, conversations around the likelihood of humans existing in a simulation—either veritably or metaphorically—have had little chance to die down. This has further been boosted by the rapid progression of virtual systems and realities that engage a great deal of our attention, consequently leading to a deeper disconnect with the real world. With more hours of work and leisure being spent in front of a screen that supplies hyperstimulation, the disillusionment from reality is inevitable. The digital medium, infiltrated with dark design features, has managed to pull us away from corporeally experiencing life.

Identifying this disconnect between human beings and the natural world, Chinese multidisciplinary designer Zhaodi Feng created Promptac, a tool that she defines as "an exploratory kit that discovers intuitive ways to communicate with generative AI through physical sensations." In replacing the traditional codes of command with actions, Feng has managed to create a product design that urges its users to go back to traditional modes of creating—with hand.

Promptac is the result of what started as a research on traditional crafts, by Feng. When the Chinese designer was looking at the history and evolution of design tools, she charted various phases, such as the role of hands as tools; the development of simplistic apparatus to shape early utensils and weapons; machines that bore the strength of carrying weighty reinforcements; machines that can mass produce objects; as well as digital design and AI-assisted generative designs that are popular today. The product designer noticed that the shift in design tools, apart from improving efficiency, has resulted in a changed means of production—one that has led to our gradual disconnection from the physical world, and resulted in a catalytic ‘deskilling.’ Feng, who currently resides in London, UK, questions, “How might we bring physical sensations back to our creative process and mediate our relationship with technology?”

Feng’s exploration of crafts and design tools used throughout history also helped her understand the shifting roles of designers and makers. While earlier periods of civilisation seldom saw a differentiation between the two roles, our medieval history informs us of designers and architects as entities that are separate from the makers and craftspeople. Perceiving the possibility of merging these roles, once again, with the advent of artificial intelligence, Feng asserts, “When generative AI came out, it gave us the possibility to merge designers’ roles and makers’ roles once again. With AI assisting, one person can be a team. This makes me think that there might be an opportunity to bring traditional ways of making and physical sensations of making back to our creative process and mediate our relationship with technology.”

Feng’s Promptac serves as an attempt to combine a tactile interface with AI. It invites users to go back to the physical world, touch different materials, observe the plethora of hues imbuing the atmosphere, and utilise these observations to create. This method stands in contrast against the language-based inferences that demand the entry of textual codified commands to receive an output. In doing so, the digital tool manages to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds, while also minimising the users’ reliance on text inputs when generating images or designs. Delineating the subsidiary benefits of a tactile tool such as Promptac, Feng shares, “Most current generative AI applications rely on natural language-based interfaces and require explicit textual descriptions and precise modification of prompts. By reducing this reliance on text, Promptac has the potential to benefit individuals with disabilities in text communication, fostering inclusivity of technology in the potential future scenario of widespread usage of generative AI tools.”

The six pieces that, as of yet, comprise Promptac, are crafted using foam clay and silicone. Their shapes and forms are inspired ‘from intuitive ways of hand manipulation to represent multiple types of touch.’ Feng further plans on conducting workshops that can help her explore dexterous movements, and create variably shaped prototypes that can serve as sensors for designing objects of disparate forms.

The current prototypes developed by Feng follow a simple operation logic. The first step involves users typing in basic text to convey what object they intend to generate. This may include a jug, car, phone, vase, chair, clock or something completely fantastical. This will give the users a base image for further modification. The next step involves the usage of colour sensors and RFID sensors developed by the designer (in the form of the fingertip controller) for signal input. While the colour sensors help catch the exact hue from the natural world and integrate it into the image being generated, the RFID sensor recognises materials from a palette with material samples that have individual RFID tags attached. These signals are then interpreted into text prompts, which can then be entered into the AI image generation tool. The result is the creation of a design with the desired colour and material palette. The hand-manipulation sensors also enable users to input information concerning the shape of the three-dimensional models. This instruction can then be blended with the previous AI-generated image to iterate the final designs.

Upon being asked about softwares that Promptac is compatible with, Feng shares, “I used Midjourney and InstructPix2Pix in the prototype development for testing. Currently, this kit is still a very early prototype. It only acts as a translator (hand-manipulation to texts) for the users and connects several natural language-based AI models to work together. However, it’s feasible to train a new model that directly translates hand manipulations or other tangible interactions to images.”

The current prototypes developed for Promptac are suitable for creating product design renderings. They can be used in assisting CMF design. Feng also enunciates the design tool’s potential for improving client instructions as well as codesign communication, by enabling stakeholders to clearly communicate specifics with regard to materials, colours, shapes, textures, and more. Feng further intends to develop this tool by collaborating with AI researchers. She hopes to explore the creation of prototypes in varying shapes and scales, in order to fend for multiple functions.

While designing Promptac, Feng, who recently graduated from the Royal College of Art, frequently pondered upon the rapid development of AI. "There are a lot of fears and anxiety about AI replacing designers’ jobs. It feels like technology is chasing us and forcing us to fit into a new design world, and people are panicking about being left behind,” she says. Acknowledging the benefits of AI and its provision as a technical tool that allows creativity to flow, rather than limiting ourselves due to a lack of technical prowess, the designer draws focus towards the need to develop ‘better touchpoints to interact with AI and let technology help creativity flow.’