"Cultivating judgement in the age of GenAI: the contribution of design"
— Tuesday, 20 October 2026 · Eina Bosc · 11.00 am – 2.00 pm, followed by lunch
— This event is organised in partnership with the Banc de Sabadell Foundation.
— It is included in the OFF BDW programme of Barcelona Design Week 2026.
— Capacity is limited. Please register in advance using this link.
Lluís Nacenta, Isabelita Virtual and Pancho Tolchinsky take centre stage at Eina’s opening event for the 2026–2027 academic year, which explores the role of design in response to the impact of generative artificial intelligence. Three prominent voices from the worlds of culture, digital creation and research will consider how we can cultivate judgement at a time when AI is profoundly transforming the ways in which we learn, research, create and produce knowledge.
Nacenta, cultural manager and director of the Museu del Disseny; Isabelita Virtual, creative director and leading figure in digital creation; and Tolchinsky, cognitive science researcher and expert in artificial intelligence, bring complementary perspectives to an event that seeks to shift the debate away from fascination with technology towards an issue that is fundamental to design: the development of judgement.
At a point in history when intelligence is no longer exclusively human, the central question is no longer what AI is, but rather how we want to live alongside it and what forms of intelligence we want to cultivate collectively.
Faced with tools capable of generating texts, images and solutions instantly, the distinctive value lies less in producing information than in the ability to interpret, contextualise, select, connect and make decisions. From this perspective, the event explores the specific contribution that design — and Eina’s pedagogical and research tradition in particular — can make to the production of knowledge in the age of AI.
Rather than viewing design as a field threatened by these technologies, the event considers how design methodologies, practice-based research, material thinking and experimental processes can become valuable resources for education, research and other fields of knowledge affected by new forms of cognitive automation.
The emergence of generative AI also poses new challenges for learning processes. How can we prevent the constant delegation of tasks from weakening critical thinking or intellectual autonomy? What teaching methodologies can turn these disruptions into opportunities for learning? In this context, design emerges as a particularly relevant practice because of its capacity to engage with complexity, uncertainty and situated judgement.
The event takes the concept of situated AI as its conceptual framework: an approach that contrasts the global, invisible and delocalised logic of digital infrastructures with the multiple forms of intelligence that emerge from bodies, places and communities. The memory of territories, ecosystems, artistic practices, perception, materiality and shared forms of knowledge thus become spaces from which to rethink our relationship with technology.
This approach connects with Eina’s tradition of critical and interdisciplinary thinking, Barcelona’s cultural and urban context, and areas of work related to design for ecosocial transition and sustainable futures. The aim is not to compete in the fields of engineering or technological development, but to use the tools and approaches of design to help imagine more convivial, democratic and emancipatory ways of relating to artificial intelligence.
Ultimately, the event proposes understanding design not simply as a discipline capable of using AI, but above all as a practice capable of cultivating judgement, empowering students and educators, and contributing to a more conscious, situated and shared technological culture.
Places are limited and advance booking is required.
The Inaugural Day is supported by the Banc Sabadell Foundation.
Event organized as part of:
