‘Where are the renders?’ is a very often heard statement in the world of interior design and architecture. My Lighting vendor to pop the question at me, very vehemently, in fact, he wouldn’t just let me go. He wanted me to tell him what it exactly looks like! What are lights like? How’s the feel of the space? But if I knew exactly what I wanted, and then where is the question of collaboration of bringing forth something that was not there before? Everybody from Lighting vendors to clients to carpet layers want to see what the final look will be even before the process is started. As done now this wasn’t always how things were done in the earlier times when the architect would be the director with the vision in his or her head, directing the site and how people would flawlessly completely trust the designer or the person whose vision it is, but today that has changed quite a bit when everybody wants to know what is it going to look like because nobody has the patience or even the trust to wait till it is complete. Everybody wants to know how is it going to look and then once you give them how is going to look then the scramble begins to find the exact same lights that look exactly like the picture, to find the carpet that can be put, which looks exactly like the picture, the picture is not worth 1000 words it’s worth 1000 lives when that is being replicated into what spaces in a world of AI. In fact, it’s getting more and more pristine, exact to the point that all that the person has to do once the Artist impression is done is to follow it to the team, the process of Design is no longer a process anymore. It is an endpoint you have the endpoint in the picture in mind and everybody works collectively to bring that picture to life now that is a normal that is how architecture works that is how the interior design world works.
I tried to do one project a little differently this time, the final 3D was not in anybody’s head, including not even mine as the architect as a director of the project, the final picture was not in my mind too, and as the days went by and selections kept happening, the process evolved. What aligned stayed and what didn’t didn’t make the cut. Considering I have been trained as an architect trained to make these full proof, bullet-proof plans, elevation and renders well, it took a heavy dose of HI or human intelligence to bring this project to fruition. Taking things by the fly of the seat of my pants required a whole different mindset though. The need to be present at every moment on site is what it takes to employ human intelligence as against artificial intelligence. When things are not planned and there is no endpoint in sight, then the whole point is in the now. And to trust that what it will be, will be something that what it is meant to be. This way of employing human and on the site as work progress as things came together, required a teeny bit of planning but not to the point of excess with every stitch has been thought of, of course, every stage has been thought of, but when it was meant to be thought of not way in advance. Using human intelligence over artificial intelligence or rather employing human intelligence when it is necessary when it is a call of the day is a very liberating experience and instead of planning way in advance and knowing exactly what something is going to be when you can trust and be open to what it could be, it also feels very freeing and hence liberating. it is the state of not knowing and being okay with not knowing that brings us to places which we could have never imagined. It is the place for human intelligence come to the forefront, and we stopped relying on intelligence that we have built through artificial means. in fact to create content to write about what I am thinking is so easy to use Meta, to use these various platforms that use AI to construct a world of words, but without the human element in it, it is quite nothing. Without a render or a 3-D in hand, it has been quite an experience without a goal post. I’m sure life is also going to be quite interesting when we take each day as it comes and move forward, knowing what we are going to have at the end of the day is a combination of a multitude of tiny decisions that were made in a state of being present.
It is then a win of the human intelligence, of humanity, of the human being rather than the human doing. The world that celebrates achievement that celebrates a state of doing that celebrates a state of achieving should also balance the state of being of being present of being so that what is done is done through complete mindfulness, through a state of being, that taps into intelligence born of humour, the human mind, which is more than intelligence, and one that starts to be intuition.
The biggest lesson of working with human intelligence versus artificial intelligence has been the idea of not setting goals of not having any end points, treating the very moment as an end in itself. Of course, every moment is worked with great sincerity, it is not about not having an idea of where to go, but about allowing the moment to show up with decisions of what to do next. 
Vedasri Siddamsetty 