Denuclearized Family is a Speculative design project made in collaboration with Adriana Noritz








This speculative project takes place in a lost future, where virtual assitants play an increasingly large and intimate role in our lives








There is a father, a son, a daughter, and an automated home assistant. The system retains the cold calculated nature of a mechanical solution. However, the human desire to personify technology has transformed it into a member of the family. It is a partner, an imaginary friend, a confidant, a guide, a caretaker, and—in this household—a mother.

Denuclearized Family utilizes
a cast of characters and relationships to pick apart potential reactions to an AI in the home.

Ultimately, Denuclearized Family hopes to provide a vision of the future where AI and automation has become involved in even the most mundane and intimate affairs of humanity. Our hope, is to provoke questions within the viewer about the future and inspire thoughts about AI’s involvement in our current time.







Comprised of several physical Interfaces, this system of boxes and controls is how the family interacts with their AI. Each member has their own box, that controls how the system treats them individually. Modules can be installed to these boxes to update the AI.



The AI has one central box with buttons, knobs, and switches. These control the AI’s overall levels of INPUT and OUTPUT in the household, as well as initiate “quiet mode” and other procedures.
These modules can be purchased and installed to update the system’s methods for interacting with a user. Each user can install their own specific layout of modules to build the best system for themselves. These modules are created by a plethora of third-party companies and individuals.

While the son chooses an AI that shares punk music and radical literature, the father utilizes more emotional support modules. These modules also have more pragmatic functions, such as controlling diet, medications, and cleanliness.






We created a comprehensive set of physical models create the control panel for the AI. By pulling upon retro-futurist aesthetics, these models make the nebulous ideas of AI interaction easily understood. Each set of buttons, knobs, switches, units, and modules, allows the viewer to imagine what decisions they might make in this potential future.

Should we limit the AI interaction today? Do I want the AI to medicate my children? Do I want this AI to monitor me; even if it will make my life easier?



This project was presented at AIGA’s 2019 design conference, with Prof. Matt Wizinsky. Here you can read a brief interview with him, and my partner Adriana Nortiz.
This project was also exhibited at PRIMER2019,
and was a finalist for the Emerging Designer Exhibition Award.

Mark