Not Knowing to Reimagine. Toward an Ignorance-Oriented Design in Times of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained prominence in public debate, not only as a tool to optimize processes, but also as a dominant narrative of development and progress. These imaginaries, grounded in references from the Global North, tend to define the possible and desirable futures of AI in an exclusive manner. With the aim of decentering these hegemonic visions and creating space for a Latin American situated technodiversity, this article analyzes the implementation of an experimental critical design workshop—carried out with actors from the Chilean technological ecosystem—and its failure to generate alternative imaginaries. Based on this experience, a reflection on the role of failure and ignorance in creative practices is proposed. It is argued that the emergence of failure can activate forms of generative ignorance, opening up fertile methodological and analytical spaces for rethinking our relationship with AI. The article conceptualizes the exploratory notion of an ignorance-oriented design: a practice that learns from excess, stays with the trouble, and recognizes the value of what we do not yet know or cannot anticipate. It aims to contribute to a design epistemology that is committed to the possibilities that ignorance introduces to creative processes.