Agentic Creative Intelligence

Designing With AI to Reclaim Human Agency
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-21124-2
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 356 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm

AI is accelerating creative production at an unprecedented scale. As architects, designers, filmmakers, musicians, and writers delegate more to generative systems, meaning erodes through our deteriorating expectations. Creation requires effort, experimentation, and uncertainty. Relinquishing these embodied experiences risks the replacement of creators and the loss of our ways to understand ourselves, remain attuned to the world, and affirm our agency.

Agentic Creative Intelligence responds to this crisis by arguing that creativity can be rejuvenated by configuring our relationships with agents. We propose intelligent intermediaries called dæmons to raise aesthetic awareness, extend engagement, adapt intention, and express influence. Together they converge into a Creative Council that enables a new chain of co-creation: practitioner, dæmon, agent.

Grounded in the practices of iconic practitioners and drawing on Chinese philosophy, the book explores how these capacities can be sustained in speculative scenarios across seven creative disciplines. It then examines human agency where innovators, educators, and changemakers apply the framework for systemic change.

We are in an agentic era, a new Pandæmonium of industry and intelligence, where creation is shared with non-humans. Agentic Creative Intelligence asks designers, innovators, and educators: will we proactively define our relationship between human and machine, or relinquish our agency for good?

Zielgruppe

Professional Practice & Development and Professional Reference

Autoren/Hrsg.

Press, Joseph

Wang, Yilin

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Design Produktdesign, Industriedesign
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Gestaltung, Darstellung, Bautechnik
• Geisteswissenschaften Design Grafikdesign, Kommunikationsdesign
• Geisteswissenschaften Design Modedesign, Stoffe, Schmuckdesign
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Künstliche Intelligenz
• Geisteswissenschaften Design Möbel (Kunst, Design)
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Architektur: Berufspraxis
• Geisteswissenschaften Design Design: Allgemeines & Theorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction.  Part 1: Creative Capabilities in the Agentic Era  1. Extended Engagement: Hands Form the Mind 2. Aesthetic Awareness: When Presence Reveals Clarity 3. Adaptive Coherence: The Thread Through Abundance 4. Expressive Influence: Catalysts of the Social Kind 5. Agentic Creative Intelligence: Creative Convergence  Part 2: Creative Disciplines in a Near-Future  6. The Fine Arts: Image as Witness 7. The Built Arts: Monumental Metabolism 8. The Tangible Arts: Object as Organism 9. The Moving Arts: Fluidity of Time 10. The Sensory Arts: Body of Mind 11. The Playful Arts: Gaming Agency 12. The Performing Arts: Constructing Shared Realities 13. The Reflective Arts: Where Thought Emerges  Part 3: Creative Complexities in Systemic Change  14. Changemakers: Preparing the Terrain 15. Innovators: Augmenting a Maker Community 16. Educators: Growing the Person 17: A Day of Creative Change Conclusion: The Agentic Creative Path Epilogue: Toward an Agentic Transhumanism

Über Autor(innen)

Joseph Press is a futurist, educator, and author. Trained as an architect, he embarked on a15+ year career in management consulting and 10+ years in applied foresight, before turning to creative education. He currently leads the Strategy + Management program at the School of Design at Shanghai University of Engineering Science, where he prepares the next generation of design leaders for the agentic era. He previouly held positions at China Academy of Art, Parsons the New School of Design, Politecnico di Milano in both the Management and Design programs. He has co-authored five books on design, digital innovation, and leadership-led transformation.

Yilin Wang is a designer and lecturer at Shanghai University of Engineering Science, where she joined in 2025. She holds a Ph.D. from the College of Design and Innovation at Tongji University and an M.A. from the Royal College of Art. Her work sits at the intersection of creative practice, community engagement and AI. She represents a new generation of Chinese educators and designers committed to shaping more sustainable futures.