CONCEPT
Self-Design
Groys's term for the contemporary requirement that the individual <em>produce herself as an aesthetic object</em> — curating her public presentation with the same imperatives of polish and seamlessness that the museum curator brings to an exhibition.
In the era of total design, the individual is required to be her own designer. This is not vanity; it is a structural requirement of a culture in which every domain of life has been aestheticized. The professional who does not manage her presentation is at a competitive disadvantage. The intellectual who does not curate her public persona is invisible. The LinkedIn profile, the personal brand, the curated portfolio, the managed reputation — these are not optional supplements to professional competence but constitutive of it. Self-design is the cultural operation through which the individual becomes her own exhibition, and AI accelerates the operation by automating the polishing function.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Before AI, self-design required effort. The professional chose her words carefully, revised her drafts, practiced her presentations. The effort was finite, and its finitude served as a natural brake on the logic of self-design. There was only so much polishing a single person could accomplish in a