A living plant controlling a machete

(This article was issue 5 of Maps, a newsletter on Digital I co-wrote for Base Design from 2022 to 2025.)

Privacy and AI

If you’ve ever worried about privacy in the digital space, then check out Dries Depoorter’s work. As an artist he focuses on themes such as surveillance and privacy. His latest project is a real gem. For weeks Dries recorded a selection of open street cameras. He then wrote software to find all Instagram photos taken nearby the locations of these open cameras. Next he used AI to compare the massive amount of recorded footage with the massive amount of Instagram photos. The result was shared in a YouTube movie and it is equally entertaining, scary and stunning. (I realized just before sending this email that his video was taken off YouTube, but here’s a low quality gif that still kinda gives you the idea. I wonder if there was a privacy issue…)

Talking about artificial intelligence; the past few months saw a surge in AI projects. We mentioned Dall•e and the likes (impressive text-to-image generators) in an earlier newsletter. Then of course there was Kendrick Lamar’s famous deepfake video, and the one and only Elvis appearing on America’s Got Talent. Yesterday I learned about this AI-generated podcast interview between Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs. And as if we weren’t impressed enough by all that, now there’s text to video. So basically you feed the machine a text instruction and it then generates a video illustrating your command. OMG. Still early stages but check out this, or this demo video by Runway. Is text to brand next?

There is no metaverse

As you can see, it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish fake from real. On that topic; ever since Facebook rebranded to Meta, and Mark Zuckerberg used the term ‘metaverse’ to describe his future vision of the internet, all we hear about is brands entering the metaverse. But there’s a couple of reflections to make here. The main one definitely being that as of today, there is no such thing as the metaverse. (And unless all tech companies work together for let’s say the next two years, it’s not coming in the near future either.) So what exactly do all these brands mean when they say they entered the metaverse?

For now, most of the time, it’s nothing too groundbreaking. Since metaverse has no real definition it became a buzzword attached to hundreds of disconnected projects and ideas. The majority of brand marketeers shouting today created a 3D virtual environment to show you their products in, or host an event of some kind. Save Your World by WWF is an example of that. Credit where credit is due: it is a beautifully designed 3D space to wander around in. You don’t need a VR device, you can explore it in your browser too.

But while it’s definitely interesting to see experiments like these, I doubt their usability and durability. It feels awkward to walk around using your keyboard’s arrow keys in a fake world with a fake avatar just to watch a video on a fake screen, when a simple YouTube link and a place to chat is all you need. It’s slightly less awkward when wearing a VR headset, but still. Mostly, it feels metaverse for the sake of metaverse. (There must be some marketing golden rule that says being amongst the first in a hyped territory equals press and attention.)

The Sorrowverse

Other brands are using already existing 3D environments, most notably games. When done with respect for the game’s community, this may be the smartest move. But when there is no fit with the game’s original culture, it just feels very intrusive and awkward to its community, inducing the opposite effect. You may have seen the video of Walmart’s chief marketing officer on a stage in Roblox introducing its new ‘Walmart land’ experience. Here’s a quote: “How are we driving relevance in cultural conversation? How are we developing community and engagement? How are we moving the needle from a brand favorability standpoint with younger audiences?” Honestly, that all sounds pretty despairing and mismatched to me. In the end all you’re trying to do is sell more stuff to young kids online.

That being said, everything we’re seeing today are explorations into new-ish territory. I think that’s exciting. And we’re all collectively learning from them as designers. They’re paving a new way and I like to believe that it’s just a matter of time before more clever solutions arrive.

On that note; if you want to explore together with us, hit reply! :)

Before we go…

→ Respect: Unless you lived under a rock for the past weeks, you probably heard that Earth is now Patagonia’s only shareholder. Respect. Because if you dig deep enough, you’ll find that many a purpose-led brand is actually a marketing-led brand. However, in Patagonia’s case, when you do a move as bold as giving away an asset (worth around $3 billion) to an organization whose only mission is to save our planet, you cannot say you’re in it for the money. Purpose is a hard beast to fake. You don’t make it up. Because really the purpose of purpose is purpose, not marketing.

→ Random find: Not sure why Ichitaro Masuda created this and for what reason, but Carla’s trail looks absolutely stunning.

→ Different: We have all seen fashion brands like Balenciaga endorse avatars with their garments inside the (so-called) metaverse. Interesting. But what Ying Gao has done is super nice as well. She basically switched things around and took inspiration from the metaverse to design a new physical collection. Robotic clothes, but differently.

→ Fun: If you’re looking for new interior design inspiration, you may as well skip Pinterest all together and directly upload photos of your apartment to Interior AI. It will return you a set of adapted pictures, showing your room with new furniture, windows, curtains, carpets and more. Pretty impressive.

→ Here is a living plant controlling a machete through an industrial robot arm. OK.

→ Unusable: Loving the fresh digital work by Yehwan Song, who is trying to fight usability and seeking uncomfort in the comfortable websites. Pretty sure anti-friendly experiments like these can ultimately give birth to new and usable design patterns.

→ Beyond the screen: A few weeks ago I invited Mark Hinch over in our Brussels studio. He gave an inspirational talk about his work, which is all about connected spaces. By inspecting how we interact in, and with, the spaces we live, socialize and work in, he’s creating more tangible and humane ways to connect with the digital layers in our lives. He is looking beyond the screen as an interface and, instead, using what is already there. Now things like windows, doors, walls and floors can all become alternate ways of controlling and communicating with the digital world. Tweet.

→ To keep an eye on: Base (that’s us!) just launched a placeholder for a test platform that leads to a placeholder. So far everything is holding places perfectly, but of course the objective is much bigger than that. We want to share our experiments, questions and failures with you. We’ll share more in the coming newsletters.

From my camera roll—October 3rd, 09:15, Base Brussels.

Until next time,