MORE-THAN-HUMAN: AI for A Living Planet

Digital and Interaction Design

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A graphic poster titled "MORE-THAN-HUMAN AI for a living planet" features an abstract, grainy aesthetic with neon gradients of blue, purple, and acid green that evoke organic or digital forms. The main text is rendered in a soft, rounded white font, announcing the presentation of "8 INTERACTIVE NARRATIVES" for the "FINAL DESIGN STUDIO 2". Practical information at the bottom indicates that the event will take place on Wednesday, January 21st, from 12 PM to 6:30 PM at Polimi Bovisa, ED-ME Lab (B2, Floor -1). A series of institutional and project logos completes the composition, including those of the Politecnico di Milano School of Design, DID (Digital and Interaction Design), and NOVA.

January 21, 2026, from 12:00 pm to 6:30 pm, Teatro Virtuale, ED-ME LAB, building B2, Floor -1, Bovisa Durando Campus, Via Candiani 72, Milan

AI is often presented as something abstract and universal, even though it depends on large planetary infrastructures, energy-intensive processes, and extractive relations with both human and non-humans. In a time of climate instability, ecological degradation, and growing awareness of planetary limits, design must face the environmental and ethical consequences of today’s AI systems.

From these reflections emerges MORE-THAN-HUMAN: AI for A Living Planet, an exhibition featuring eight projects by the students from the Final Design Studio 2, MSc Digital and Interaction Design, Politecnico di Milano. This exploration was promoted by Design Intelligences, the more-than-human collective led by Elisa Giaccardi and Francesco Vergani, in collaboration with Alessandro Masserdotti (Dotdotdot) and Matteo Martignoni (NOVA).

Each installation explores what AI might become when positioned carefully within more-than-human worlds: not as an extractive tool, but as a planetary form of intelligence, capable of fostering new modes of ecological attunement and coexistence with other intelligences. Imagining an AI that manifests through each installation to speculate on its own futures, the exhibition unfolds along three themes:

  • How We Learnt to Care for the Planet Again,
  • How We Learnt to Be Intelligent Together,
  • How We Learnt to Live with Fragile Systems.

Teaching team

Professors: Elisa Giaccardi (course coordinator), Francesco Vergani, Salvatore Andolina

Teaching assistants: Marco Andrea Finardi, Eliška Janečková

Partners: Alessandro Masserdotti (Dotdotdot), Matteo Martignoni (NOVA)