TYPO

The weight of words in the age of AI

Michael Kwolek — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 17:41:52 +0000

The weight of words in the age of AI Michael Kwolek Mon, 10/20/2025 - 11:41

Caitlin Rockett

ATLAS Academic Programs

Go to the ATLAS Institute website to learn more about Creative Technology & Design programs including undergraduate major, minor and certificates; professional master’s and PhD.

Info sessions: online sessions on CTD programs are held throughout the year.
Tours: Email atlascommunications@colorado.edu to book a student-led tour.

ATLAS Associate Professor Joel Swanson thinks a lot about the weight of words. He has calculated that an average-length English word on newsprint weighs about 5 grams—a digital word has a nearly imperceptible weight.

But it is the philosophical matter at the heart of the idiom that was the central focus for a recent first-year engineering seminar led by Swanson: What is the figurative weight of words as humans increasingly turn to generative artificial intelligence to write?

“AI is getting so good,” said Swanson, who teaches part of the undergraduate Creative Technology and Design (CTD) curriculum, which has degrees granted by the College of Engineering and Applied Science. “I could use ChatGPT to come up with an essay prompt for my students, and then they would respond to that prompt with AI, and then I would grade it, and back and forth. What does that communicate? It's saying words don't matter anymore. So I was really invested in coming up with a project that would show students that words are powerful—that the words they speak and write are meaningful because they wrote them.”

As a tenured professor in the Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics and Society, Swanson and his colleagues weave humanities and ethics into their engineering courses, with a goal of fostering well-rounded engineers. With that goal always in mind, Swanson asked his students in the First-Year Seminar—a five-week elective for first-year students in Engineering Connections—to write the first sentence of their memoir, “something AI couldn’t do a good job with,” he said. Then students pushed their creativity further by transforming their words into a vibrant, layered image using a Risograph printer.

The task—and the seminar itself—is purposely outside traditional math-and-science-based engineering education, and combined with Swanson’s signature focus on language and technology, students got a firsthand look at life as a CTD student.

Before they wrote their sentences, Swanson’s students—along with more 1,000 other Engineering First-Year Seminar students—spent the first three weeks of the course discussing texts from authors such as Plato, Thomas Merton and Audrey Lorde, zeroing in on university community values like belonging, agency, ownership, inclusivity and service.

“The essays are carefully chosen to challenge these students to think about why they're at the university and what's at stake in terms of higher education,” Swanson said. “The seminar gives students a very high-contact experience to balance out the rest of engineering, which can feel a little anonymous at times.”

Since fall 2023, nearly 70 instructors—with at least one from every major degree program in engineering—have taught 164 sections of the First-Year Seminar, with an average of 19 students per section. Engineering Dean Keith Molenaar has taught a section since the seminar’s inception. Instructors get the last two weeks of the seminar to cultivate the values discussed in the assigned texts through their own areas of expertise and interest. The previous two times Swanson taught the seminar, he used the 1982 dystopian sci-fi film Blade Runner to examine the nature of humanity in the age of AI. But for his most recent iteration of the class, Swanson wanted to do something “a little bit different,” while still focusing on language, creativity and technology.

“We talked about the greatest first sentences in English literature, like ‘Call me Ishmael,’ from Moby Dick,” Swanson said. “It can be confusing, it can be loaded, it can be offensive, but it sets the tone for the rest of the novel.”

Once students had workshopped their sentences, Swanson gave them a crash course on graphic design so they could turn their sentences into Risograph prints, a cross between screen printing and photocopying where one color is printed at a time. Because paper must be fed through the Risograph printer multiple times—once for each color—minor misalignments between layers result in a charming, handmade aesthetic.

“All of their designs impressed me, and some of them brought me to tears,” Swanson said. “I showed them some examples of things I had created and different ways of using the Risograph and then just let them at it. I think students are already so in tune with visual design because they're seeing design of language in social media every day, so they understand what fonts communicate certain vibes.”

At the end of the five weeks, students signed and exchanged prints, then sealed their own design (along with their Blue Book responses to the readings earlier in the seminar) in an envelope with a promise to Swanson to open them upon graduation.

“This is where you are right now—in four or five years, where are you going to be?” Swanson asked them to consider. “I asked them to put it on their calendar to open this package up and think about who they were in that first semester of college.”

For some students, CTD’s focus on project-based learning is a perfect fit, particularly for self-motivated students who want to explore their own ideas. With electives in game design, wearable electronics, big data, virtual reality, neurohacking and more, Swanson’s section of the College of Engineering’s First-Year Seminar can act as a gateway to CTD, where students see and feel the human and artistic side of technology. But no matter their degree focus, Swanson hopes students walk away from the seminar with an appreciation of the role creativity plays in engineering.

“My mantra for this class was: How can I curate the best out of them as humans and as engineers,” Swanson said, “to get them to ask those questions that they're not going to get asked anywhere else in their engineering education.”

ATLAS faculty–led seminar challenges first-year engineering students to explore the power of language in a digital age.

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Denver artist Joel Swanson questions everything

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 17:03:19 +0000

Denver artist Joel Swanson questions everything Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/16/2024 - 11:03

ATLAS associate professor's new gallery show, "Orderings," challenges basic assumptions of everyday order through sculpture, mixed media, video and more.

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Grace Leslie and Joel Swanson selected as Faculty Fellows

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 17:00:44 +0000

Grace Leslie and Joel Swanson selected as Faculty Fellows Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/20/2023 - 10:00

The Research & Innovation Office has announced the 2024 RIO Faculty Fellows cohort, including assistant professor Grace Leslie and associate professor Joel Swanson along with 14 other faculty members from departments and research institutes across the campus.

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ATLAS Associate Professor Joel Swanson Among Arts & Humanities Grant Awardees

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 19:04:56 +0000

ATLAS Associate Professor Joel Swanson Among Arts & Humanities Grant Awardees Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/29/2023 - 13:04

A new Research & Innovation Office (RIO) program provides nearly $100K in combined funding to 19 projects that span disciplines ranging from music and art history to journalism and theatre and dance across the CU-Boulder campus. ATLAS associate professor and TYPO Lab director, Joel Swanson, is among the recipients for his project entitled, "The United States of America, Reconfigured".

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A review by José Antonio Arellano of Joel Swanson's "The Distance Between Words"

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 22:42:02 +0000

A review by José Antonio Arellano of Joel Swanson's "The Distance Between Words" Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 03/25/2023 - 16:42

For well over a decade, Joel Swanson has explored how language and technology structure our lives. His work has appeared in the Denver-land area, not to mention the Venice Biennale.

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Maintaining his momentum, Joel Swanson wraps-up busy summer

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 15:21:35 +0000

Maintaining his momentum, Joel Swanson wraps-up busy summer Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/27/2019 - 09:21

Artist Joel Swanson sustained his momentum over the summer months, adding to his chain of shows and awards both locally and abroad.

An assistant professor with the ATLAS Institute, Swanson's newest commission, Truly/Rural, opened at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver this summer. Another of Swanson's works, "Binary Pronouns," continued streaming through the summer on 150 Mediastream, a 150-foot long by 22-foot high array of 89 LED blades located in the lobby of the iconic 150 North Riverside building in Chicago.

This summer Swanson also showed his work at the Glucksman, an art museum in Cork, Ireland as part of a group show entitled, “Peripheries,” which explored the relationship between literature and technology. Coinciding with Peripheries, he also gave an artist talk at the Electronic Literature Organization’s (ELO) annual conference, also held in Cork.

The future? Besides teaching digital art, media theory and the history of design for ATLAS' Technology, Arts & Media (TAM) program, Swanson solo show, “Eight-and-a-Half by Eleven” opens in December at David B. Smith Gallery in Denver. The gallery is also producing a catalog / monograph of his work covering his work 2010-2020. In addition, Swanson is working on a projection mapping project, “Typography Choreographies” for the Clocktower in downtown Denver, commissioned by the Denver Theater District. The project has a planned launch in early November.

Swanson’s essay on art and language will be published this winter by Tilt/West language. Another essay will be included in the book: "The Future of Text: A 2020 Vision," to be published later this year. The project grew out of the annual Future of Text symposiums.

Swanson, who previously served as director of the TAM program from 2007 to 2016, has exhibited his work extensively, including the Venice Biennale 2017; Republic Plaza in Denver (solo exhibition through June 12); the Broad Museum in Lansing, Michigan; The Power Plant in Toronto; the North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art; and Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art, where he had a solo exhibition.

Artist Joel Swanson, an assistant professor with the ATLAS Institute, sustained his momentum over the summer months, adding to his chain of shows and awards both locally and abroad.

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‘Sticks & Stones’: Art show explores the divisive language of today’s political discourse

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 16:36:23 +0000

‘Sticks & Stones’: Art show explores the divisive language of today’s political discourse Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/17/2017 - 10:36

ATLAS Assistant Professor Joel Swanson’s newest solo art exhibition Sticks & Stones is an exploration of the divisive language dominating contemporary political discourse. Rendering decontextualized words and phrases in photos, neon sculptures, mixed media works and animations, Swanson makes provocative and surprising art from language that is so often used to classify and marginalize.

The show, which opens Friday, Aug.18, at Denver’s David B. Smith Gallery, runs through Sept. 16. One image features an impression of a found soda cup lid with various labeled buttons used to indicate what’s inside, such as “cola,” “diet” and “other.” In Swanson’s image, the “other” button is indented.

“I’m interested in how we mark otherness in society,” Swanson said of his unnamed piece. “It’s just a soda lid, but it makes me think of the ways that otherness is constructed and how certain people and identities are marginalized.”

Swanson’s art has appeared at venues such as the Broad Museum in Lansing, The Power Plant in Toronto, the North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art and Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art, where he held a solo exhibition. His work is currently part of Personal Structures, an official satellite show of Italy’s world-renowned Venice Biennale 2017.

A busy year for Swanson, his next solo show Marginalia is an exploration of linguistic interfaces such as books, paper and computer screens. It opens Dec. 8 at the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder. And he will be showing Zapf Dingbats Revolved Around Their Y Axis as part of the CU Boulder faculty exhibition at the CU Art Museum, running Aug. 17 to Dec. 23.

Swanson’s commissioned work is found throughout Denver, including a wall-sized installation at the Halcyon Hotel in Cherry Creek; a work in Twitter’s corporate office; and a collection of works at the new Hotel Born in Denver, including various smaller works in guest rooms and suites, four larger works and a 30-foot, backlit, laser-cut aluminum wall at the entryway. All the Born Hotel’s artwork was commissioned from local artists and curated by Adam Lerner of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.

At CU Boulder, Swanson teaches courses on digital art, typography and media theory through the ATLAS Institute. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the �Թ�� of California San Diego, where his focus was computing and the arts. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in digital art from CU Boulder.

In all his work, Swanson explores the structures and technologies of language, and his work ranges from digital art and sculpture to interactive installations that playfully and powerfully merge words with meanings.

Watch a short video about Swanson's installation at the Hotel Born

[video:https://youtu.be/MlsB0Xw4bWU]

ATLAS Assistant Professor Joel Swanson’s newest solo art exhibition Sticks & Stones is an exploration of the divisive language dominating contemporary political discourse.

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Joel Swanson exhibits work at Venice Biennale

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 16:55:04 +0000

Joel Swanson exhibits work at Venice Biennale Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/05/2017 - 10:55

Assistant Professor Joel Swanson's work is part of an exhibition called Personal Structures at the Venice Biennale 2017, arguably the most important visual arts event on the planet.

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