Theoretical Research · 2026
Reconsidering design and intelligibility through complexity, perception, and the emergence of AI.
This theoretical study examines design’s role in making complex relations intelligible and meaningful for human understanding. Bringing systems thinking into dialogue with Gestalt theory, it explores the relationship between systemic organization and perceptual coherence. The emergence of AI shifts the inquiry from the possession of design intelligence to design’s role in mediating relations across human, computational, systemic, and perceptual conditions. The study develops an account of design’s epistemological contribution through this shift in focus.
Conceptual diagram situating design in relation to human experience, systemic organization, relational complexity, and perceptual coherence.
Manuscript
Design as Mediative Intelligence: Design and Intelligibility in the Age of Complexity
Under review