Between Oh Yes... and Oh No...

The world of visual communication has already undergone several revolutions, but NOW its most defining period is upon us. 

To understand these challenging but exciting times, a unique conference was organized by the Department of Visual Communication in the Faculty of Design to explore the current ‘revolution’ in machine-assisted creation, design and art.

The “Between Dali and Dall-E" Conference was opened by Zachi Diner, head of the Visual Communication department. He spoke about the reactions of the public and the designers' community to the current discourse regarding AI, defining them in their extremes as ranging from “Oh Yes” to “Oh No”. Public opinion is deeply divided about the impact of the ever-increasing number of brilliant innovations on "taking over" our lives.

Zachi Diner

"Technology has always been a catalyst for cultural change and has often led to new visual perceptions," Diner said. "Since the 1960's, various movements were born that engaged in technological research to develop new design languages, tools and processes.

In recent years, the sheer mountains of accumulated data has led to yet another technological leap, making innovative services accessible to all. Tools have been developed that make it possible to create and produce high quality products without prior need for technical knowledge. The designers' public response to these latest innovations ranges from admiration for the huge potential inherent therein, to fear that their professional role as designers is under threat.

The speakers at the conference, all leaders in their field, came from diverse worlds of design, each addressing different aspects of machine-assisted visual design.

Mati Mariansky is an artist and entrepreneur working in machine learning, synthetic media and generative art. He is the founder of the community "The Rise of the Machines", which deals with the interface between culture and artificial intelligence. His work focus on the ways in which beauty and creativity may develop under conditions of competitiveness throughout history.

Mati Mariansky

Mati Mariansky

In his lecture, Mati took the participants on a journey back in time and demonstrated the evolutionary process of visual communication up to contemporary products that leave the viewer speechless.

Ofir Sharif, creator and concept artist, creative director of the news incubator "Paramount" and a lecturer in the Department of Visual Communication, spoke about the many different uses of machines for design and illustration in various media fields.

Ofir Sharif

Doron Baduach Keren, HIT design graduate and co-founder of brands "Maapilim" and "Twenty-nine Palms", lectured on storytelling and the creation of images which create imaginary worlds by complementing and completing the story.

Doron Baduach Keren

Rony Ginosar, is a designer and algorithm engineer based. She holds an M.Sc. and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the Hebrew University, specializing in computer vision and human–computer interaction, as well as a B.Des. in Visual Communications from The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. She specializes in typography, creating intersections between art and code, both in practice and in research, and is a 2019 recipient of the "AAA Award for the promotion of creativity in the field of typography and the Hebrew language". Rony is currently a Computer Vision algorithm engineer at Samsung creating future mobile cameras.

In her talk, Rony spoke about the use of code as a design tool over the years and the close relationship between the two fields in the present and for the near future.

Rony Ginosar

Oren Shvaid, lecturer, entrepreneur and game designer, ‘taught’ the audience how to write a book by conversing with a bot and how to create a comic language with new tools.

Oren Shvaid

The last speaker on the roster, Ariel Verber, director of the Generative AI Israel community, lectured on the GPT AI generator that has been making headlines lately and presented practical solutions for using conversation engines.

Ariel Verber