Humans Need Not Apply

2011

Designed by Scott Burnett, Rory Bradley and Brian Heffernan at Aad

Exhibition Design: Catherine Kramer

Photography: Ste Murray

Categories: Promotional / Exhibition / Identity / Print

Industry: Cultural

Tags: Programme

This 3 month exhibition and programme of events at Science Gallery Dublin, set out to investigate speculative ways in which artificial intelligence might redefine life as we know it. We collaborated closely with their team to design an identity and promotional tools that highlighted our unsettling relationship with technology and bots.

The simplest breakdown of human/machine communications is something we’ve all experienced many times, the crash. The simplicity and recognisability of it felt like the perfect vehicle to drive the conversation. We developed a visual language around typographic repetition, structured grids and twitching glitches. Brought to life across environmental and promotional graphics. Our identity endlessly repeated the event name, sometimes misspelling it, sometimes crashing — giving audiences the feeling of being at the mercy of an out on control machine.

Our communications prioritised technical information over emotional and empathetic information. By putting bots needs first, we hoped to provoke audiences to consider the changing landscape and dynamics around A.I. A simple, slightly strange palette of assets, materials and colour helped us set a suitably unsettling, mechanical tone while also delivering a cohesive experience across communications, campaign and environment.