From Prompt Engineering to Prompt Craft

This pictorial presents an ongoing research programme comprising three practice-based Design Research projects conducted through 2024, exploring the affordances of diffusion-based AI image generation systems, specifically Stable Diffusion. The research employs tangible and embodied interactions to investigate emerging qualitative aspects of generative AI, including uncertainty and materiality. Our approach leverages the flexibility and adaptability of Design Research to navigate the rapidly evolving field of generative AI. The pictorial proposes the notion of prompt craft as a productive reframing of prompt engineering. This is comprised of two contributions: (1) reflections on the notion of materiality for diffusion-based generative AI and a proposed method for a craft-like navigation of the latent space within generative AI models and (2) discussing interaction design strategies for designing user interfaces informed by these affordances. The outcomes are presented as strong concepts or intermediate knowledge, applicable to various situations and domains.