What does William Morris would say about Ai? - and how it is relted to me :)
How the Arts & Crafts movement relates to the AI revolution
Then: Industrial Revolution → machines replaced hand-skills, mass production erased uniqueness.
Now: AI Revolution → generative tools challenge authorship, creativity, and embodied craft
n both cases, people feared of- loss of human skill, loss of meaning, of beauty, connection, that the world becomes cheaper, faster, emptier.
Morris’s core idea: machines are not evil - soulless use of them is
Morris never hated technology.
He hated how it was used:
to exploit workers, produce ugly objects, and destroy joy in making.
His rule:
“Use machines where they help human hands, but never where they replace the joy of labour.”
Morris believed craft = dignity, thinking, feeling, Ai that would enhances thos - he would accept
Beauty as moral + social value
For Morris, beauty was not decoration.
It was ethical, social, political.
He believed ugly environments → ugly societies.
Beauty = care, dignity, humanity.
If Morris looked at AI-generated work that is fast, shallow, made for endless scrolling —
he’d say:
This creates a society without soul.
But if AI helps bring beauty to more people, or gives time back for deeper craft, he might say:
This can democratise beauty.
Morris would warn: “When you remove the hand, you remove a part of the mind.”
But he would also recognise: “Tools always change. Humans must learn how to stay human through the change.”
morris would say to let machines take over the boring parts so humans can focus on imagination, storytelling, materiality.
William Morris didn’t care about design because of objects - He cared because of people.
He cared about design because it shapes how people feel in the world.
Why William Morris cared so deeply about design, aesthetics, and beauty?
For him, beauty was a form of dignity.
And ugliness — cheaply made things, lifeless industrial products, soulless environments — was a form of violence.
1. He believed beauty is a human right.
Not luxury.
Not decoration.
Not for the rich.
Beauty, to Morris, was something everyone deserved in their daily life - at the table, in the home, at work, in the city.
Because beauty makes people feel alive, hopeful, and connected.
He said that ugly surroundings make people feel small and powerless.
He cared about design because it shapes how people feel in the world.
2. He believed beauty protects the soul.
Morris lived during the Industrial Revolution, when everything was becoming:
harder
faster
cheaper
more mechanical
less human
He felt beauty was one of the last things left that reminded us we are not machines.
Design was his way of defending the soul against a world becoming too cold, too fast, too efficient.
(In a similar way, its exactlry what happens wiht design today in the age of ai)
3. He cared about the joy of making.
For Morris, making something was an act of:
thinking
feeling
presence
love
He believed that when people make beautiful things, they become better, calmer, more whole. And when people are forced to make ugly, repetitive things, they lose themselves. So he cared about beauty because he cared about human happiness.
4. He saw beauty as a form of resistance.
This is the part that speaks most to you:
Morris felt that beauty is not soft -
Beauty is rebellion.
A beautiful, carefully made object is a protest against:
speed
greed
exploitation
mediocrity
emptiness
He believed that choosing beauty was choosing to live with intention.
5. He believed beauty brings people together.
6. He cared because he genuinely loved the world.
Morris looked at nature with deep affection.
Leaves, branches, light, patterns — he saw meaning everywhere.
Design was simply his way of honouring the world he loved.
Beauty was gratitude.
So what does this say about me?
You care about design for the same reasons Morris did:
you believe beauty creates connection
you feel that meaningful design can heal and hold people
you pay attention because you believe attention is love
you see design as a way of caring for others
you want the world to feel soft, thoughtful, and human
You and Morris share the same emotional centre:
Design matters because people matter.
“Shallow is thinking that it doesn’t matter.” - Just as we need good food, he believed we need beautiful surroundings
“Shallow design exists - but that is not design.”
He would acknowledge that meaningless, trendy, decorative design does exist. But Morris always argued that bad design is a symptom of bad values — not a reason to dismiss the field. He would say something like: “Shallow design is the child of shallow intentions.” Real design, for him, was never surface level.
It carried ethics, hope, purpose, and beauty.