The House Always Wins

Project & Course Overview

The House Always Wins is a project created by students and faculty from GD-310-01-Fall 25 Prototyping Emerging Technologies. The course invited students to explore the power of design as a tool for imagining, visualizing, and prototyping alternative futures. Anchored in graphic design skills, this course challenged students to integrate speculative design, systems thinking, and critical storytelling to investigate emerging technologies, social trends, and ecological shifts, and to create artifacts from imagined worlds. Through workshops, readings, and hands-on projects, students developed scenario-based prototypes—ranging from design fictions to future-facing toolkits—that challenge dominant narratives and provoke public dialogue. Emphasis was placed on ethical speculation, design justice, and the designer's role as a cultural futurist.

Three Projects

The course was facilitated by three key projects including mini-exercises that supported students in exploring specific conceptual frameworks.

Project 1:
Civic Toolkits

Students individually explore and prototype speculative civic tools that respond to emerging social, technological, or ecological challenges. These tools may include instructions, packaging, interfaces, or other artifacts that imagine how communities navigate alternative futures.

Project 2:
Campaigns

Students build on their individual toolkit explorations to create visual narratives, branding systems, and campaign materials. Deliverables may include posters, social media assets, zines, or motion graphics that communicate the speculative world to a broader audience.

Project 3:
Prototypes

Students integrate their individual contributions into a collaborative, exhibition-ready pop-up experience. This group project transforms the classroom into an immersive speculative marketplace or civic space, showcasing designed ephemera, interfaces, and environmental graphics in a public-facing installation.

Collaborative Narrative

The House Always Wins
by Jack Brock, Leilani Luu, Paloma Talaro

A dystopian future where AI has replaced most human tasks. As employment opportunities have declined, people turn to gambling: wagering on AI, digital casinos, and AI influencers gambling. The thrill is quick, the dopamine hits faster, and the debt piles up endlessly. Big corporations drain the last of Earth’s resources. Agriculture is scarce, water has been rationed, and “nutrient slop” is distributed to keep citizens just above starvation. Malnutrition and scurvy spread as fresh food starts to become a myth. People are dependent on AI companions, comforting them through mental breakdowns and whisper reassurance while quietly surveilling every move. For many, plugging in 24/7 feels safer than facing the barren outside world. The government, of course, owns the gambling platforms, cycling money back into its own hands while citizens spiral deeper into addiction. AI promised efficiency, stability, and comfort — but left humanity broke, dependent, and starving. The only game left to play is survival, and the house always wins.