Designing AI-Based Play (Week #2 Creative Futures Counterstructures)
In week #2 of the Creative Futures Counterstructures, Artist Residency program, we'll have Max Kreminski joining us! In this workshop we’ll explore a playcentric approach to the design of AI-based interactions.
First, the session introduces the framework of “chasing play potentials” and other theory-of-play concepts that the facilitator applies in their design practice. It then explores how play can help participants cope with or embrace the weirdness and glitchiness of AI as a design material.
A design exercise follows, intended to rapidly generate a series of strange project ideas by combining unexpected algorithmic affordances. Afterward, participants will hack on projects using a browser-based sentence embedding model, which takes in pairs of short text strings and outputs a numeric similarity score. This hands-on activity encourages experimentation with unusual AI affordances, moving beyond the typical “text-to-whatever” mindset.
By the end of the workshop, participants will leave with new AI programming skills and a fresh perspective on AI-based interactions as potential sites of play!
Max Kreminski works at the intersection of human–computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and creative practice. Their research explores how machines can become collaborators in storytelling, poetry, and game design—building tools that don’t just automate but expand what artists and designers can imagine.
Currently a Research Scientist at Midjourney, Kreminski leads the Storytelling Lab, where they investigate new forms of narrative and creative support systems. Their work has been featured in The New Yorker, New Scientist, and The Verge, reflecting a broader cultural interest in how technology shapes creative life.
Kreminski holds a Ph.D. in Computational Media from UC Santa Cruz, where they were part of the Expressive Intelligence Studio, and has held roles as an assistant professor at Santa Clara University, a resident at Stochastic Labs, and a consultant across game and tech industries. Across these contexts, their practice remains focused on a central question: how can computational systems serve not as replacements for human creativity, but as partners in it?
The Creative Futures Counterstructures residency, is a 10-week program brought to you by TIAT and the Mozilla Foundation, where artists and technologists explore alternative approaches to AI and culture. Each week during the residency, we'll have public programming that opens a window into the residents’ process and shares tools, ideas, and works-in-progress with the community. Learn more about the residency: https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/creative-futures-counterstructures/
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