Creativity revolution: The ring that rules them all
Machines, machines, machines. Learning, Intelligence, Algorithms. As you’ve heard a thousand times, our world is not blossoming into the next technological advancement, it’s leaping, jumping, catapulting. Maybe this is what all the generations have said, but here we are again dumbfounded.
CHI PAT, CAMBODIA
Let’s replace this with an ICEE machine from 7-Eleven. Touchscreen! (May this never, ever happen. Ever.)
While in the villa-speckled hills of Málaga at a friend’s gathering, I was lucky enough to have a conversation with an intelligent international set-only two spoke Spanish. I sat near a man who’d been transferred to Spain from Manila. Ron had “architect” in his title and was accessible to speak of data systems, software engineering, hardware architecture, etc. Great time for questions! I like to find out how entire companies are built from a dependency on infrastructure. To hear concepts which are simple to him, fascinating to me. The terms are foreign and practical knowledge out of reach, giving a creative like me the feeling of uselessness. Without my prompting, he talks about how software is being written to replace the people writing the software. He says he can already see it—machines are replacing humans for writing code. So many have publicly corroborated, but in this conversation, this wasn’t the point. It was simply a given. A statement not meant to be elaborated on because everyone just knew it.
Poolside tech discussion. International diverse thinking; all agreed on yet feared the robot revolution. Creativity can save you.
Forbidden hillside pool. A designer needs to feel the space to make this work for humans. Code cannot be written to rate this experience or recreate the warmth you feel by the Spanish sunshine.
Being trained as a designer and working with consumer perception, the technical knowledge of software engineering feels overwhelming. Somehow you feel left out of the conversation and will never be able to offer anything of value. Emotions are our tools and they’ve been removed from the equation. However, if I might be thought-provoking, what happens when we reach our technology plateau? Maybe not in this lifetime, but it will happen.Our culture, economy and investments are based on constant growth. Stagnation is failure. Can it be possible that once your competitor matches your level of software tricks, user perfection and data divinity that you’ll need a new weapon to stand out? The answer is yes.
Nature must not win the game,
but she cannot lose.Carl Jung, written as a mosaic in the NYC subway system at 42nd/6th Ave.
Human connections. Creativity based on physical experiences. Interactions that happen outside of a motherboard. Connections that are not measured, analyzed and optimized.
BOND STREET GRAFFITI, GOWANUS, BROOKLYN
How about a can on a cherrypicker with 3-D printer software? How will anyone get finger calluses anymore?
GRITTY GRAFFITI
How would a crusty brick wall if it had been decorated by machines? No quivers on paint or uneven framing. The flow that an artist feels in the moment shows up in the art. That unexpected divot can be heroic.
HUMAN EXCHANGES
When you walk your dog, your mind wanders as you visually take in the goings on of city life. Seeing how people glance up at you with a smile in their eyes or a neutral stare gives you knowledge not acquired by data.
Lovable and kooky Austrian opera. Chosen from a data set? Costumes by algorithm? I think not.
THEATRICAL Costumes
Who can design irreverent costumes for a 300-yr-old opera performed for a stuffy, conservative Salzburg trying out a rebellious personality. It’s a squeak of edginess, but it’s certainly out of the Austrian comfort zone.
How can machines replicate this? Because you also are a human with fears, musings, imagination, you gather infinite connections unlike any algorithm. Yes, that algorithm is created by that same human who can feel the look of judgement or a nod of politeness which figures into the formula, but will always withstand. It will never be replaced by code, but emotions will always create the code.