Data poets: Co-interpreting urban ecologies with generative AI prototypes in psychogeographic walks

The ‘Data Poets’ project proposes a place-based design research methodology that explores the tension between the experiential nature of human sensorial engagement and the potential of generative AI to shape – or distort – socio-ecological knowing in urban spaces. This approach looks to the human as a practitioner and embodied agent, rather than a data source, in exploring urban environments. The project aims to challenge objectivist data narratives of urban ecology (the study of relationships between living beings, here focusing on humans, and the environment), emphasising the subjective, phenomenological aspects of urban life. The Data Poets are AI-powered devices designed for use in psychogeographic walks (produced in 2020, using GPT-2 and Google Vision), as well as an open interactive website inspired by the devices (produced in 2024, using GPT-4V). The devices serve as data collectors and dialogic ‘others’ that interpret, echo or contrast the sensorial experiences of participants. This interaction creates a critical and dialogic space where the AI’s output becomes a reflective text, intriguing for its capacity to both align with and diverge from human perceptions. The article discusses what can be perceived and recalled through human senses and cognition: the smells, sounds, textures and lived experiences of the city, and how AI can provoke dialogues to produce an interpretation of these experiences. Given recent debates about the deployment of AI technologies in urban studies, I aim to critique their epistemological and ontological implications in urban contexts.