Echoes of the Algorithm
A risograph printed publication exploring the existential relationship between creatives and emerging generative AI technology.
When generative AI tools first entered the mainstream we found ourselves asking difficult questions about their place in our industry and practice. Were they collaborators, competitors or simply machines echoing back a poor reflection of human expression? Rather than ignore the uncertainty we chose to explore it.
Echoes of the Algorithm set out to capture this moment of curiosity, doubt and intrigue. In our experimentation we decided to reverse the roles: AI would generate prompts in the form of poetry, and we would respond with human-made imagery shaped from its broken and empty words.
The result is a 58-page risograph-printed wire-bound book combining AI-generated “poetry” with bespoke pixel-based artworks. The constraints of risograph printing paired with a strict blue and orange palette gave the book a digital aesthetic, while exposing its tactile, textured flaws, echoing the contrast between humanity and AI.
Echoes of the Algorithm is more than a book, it documents a moment in time between human creativity and machine generation. Its context of creative unease leads to a realisation of the emptiness of AI generation, while reaffirming the value of human craft. The book resists the hype around AI as a final product and instead uses design as a lens to critique, reinterpret and question its role.
