Thought this week​

Introduction

The future whispers to you as a creature of emergence. A new reality is emerging where machines have never felt so creative and our role as human creatives is rapidly evolving. Disruptive change will always happen. Cars replaced horses, Homo Sapiens replaced Neanderthals. Facing such depth an speed of disruption, how do we remain focused in today’s world where we most often feel been fragmented at best.

A few columns ago, I wrote about the Quantum Beauty perspective. This nature inspired approach sees any cutting edge innovation from a whole systems approach, connecting scientific and technological advancements with imagination and resilience.

When looking Creativity and AI, we cannot ignore, the future of culture, ethics, work and purpose. This is impossible to cover in 1 column and that is why we are going to explore AI over a few months together. This month’s issue is dedicated to fundamentals of creativity and explores ‘The machine becomes the hand” and “New craft iteration”. In our next column we’ll explore a day in a future in a speculative fashion future in collaboration with a leading AI artist. In the 3rd wave of our series we will dive into how Ethics and attribution issues, whether Human Creatives will be needed and finally the human as connector.

First when looking at AI, we cannot circumvent the narrative wars clouding our judgment. Over two decades ago, MIT roboticist Rodney A. Brooks prophesized the coming rise of “robot-people” humans enhanced by devices such as cochlea implants, retina chips and next-generation prosthetics. His statement was prophetic and more recently, Brooks warned against conflating AI performance with true competence. Amidst rapid AI-generated media creation and legal battles over its development, influential entities are shaping AI's future with discussions ranging from invoking godly intelligence to setting societal terms, all while creative industry players and artists are challenging tech companies over unauthorized use of their work.

The machine becomes the hand

Launched in 2020 by Serpentine Arts Technologies, FAE is dedicated to building 21st-century cultural infrastructure to support art x advanced technologies (AxAT) for the public good. In the creative and fashion industries there is currently no such project that seeks to explicitly publish a coordinated response to the urgent issues AI and how it is completely disrupting the work of creatives. Involving research, roundtables and interviews with artists such as Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhust, cultural producers, curators, technologists, policy-makers, and legal professionals, FAE is the first of its kind examination of the new infrastructure we must understand. The art of CrossLucid, whom we have previously featured, accompanies the FAE online publication is one of the many artistic voices who inspired the project.  

What is the human touch today? The debate over AI's role in creativity, craft and art reveals a divide between those who view it as a mere imitator and those who see its potential for producing resonant, unique works. This discussion highlights the broader impact of AI on various industries, as it challenges traditional notions of creativity and intentionality.

In his podcast interview with editor Adam Moss ‘This conversation made me a sharper editor”, Ezra Klein and Moss discuss the work of generative artist Tyler Hobbs where “the machine is super important. It becomes the hand. He creates algorithms, gives it to the computer. The computer spits stuff out. He reacts to it, the same way that a painter might react to whatever they’ve painted with their hands. And then he changes the algorithm and just keeps going that way.”

Although generative art forms ranging from music to art have been around for decades, a new creativity is here. Future Arts Ecosystem refers to Synthetic Crafting. At the heart of this are entirely new workflows with daring new AI solutions serving a creativity formula that believes that if you can dream it, you can build it. How the machine becomes the hand also manifests itself in how artists and designers are creating new ways to use AI by combining different algorithms, software and hardware and pushing the limits. This results in diverse cross-pollination between artistic practices and the underlying systems of AI.

With already a year behind us since the first AI Fashion Week, we have now seen numerous fashion AI creations making dreams a reality, expanding far and wide the design palette of creatives. For the Fashion industry, this also means, in one example out of many, AI and AR combinations that could forever modify the processes used in product conception and creation. If the process harnesses an open-source model, it could have more external and public collaborators. This would mean the concept of creative collaboration and creative ownership would forever change.

New craft iteration

Iteration is intrinsic to crafting for humans as much as it is for machine learning. Whether it’s with a brush or with a prompt, it is a constant process of refinement and reflection that produces a variety of results. Multidisciplinary illustrator Khyati Trehan in her It’s Nice That talk ‘How to successfully work with multiple styles and mediums’ discusses the act of using 3D digital technologies to iterate and create serendipity in her work, going as far as using this as a ‘creative doodling approach’ which has become a ritual in her practice and brings freedom to her creative process.

 There is a distinct advantage to the anomalies and edge cases that arise. From unexpected results, the creative expert can deepen capabilities. The notion of 'embracing the Glitch' also highlights a new era of creativity fuelled by mistakes made by AI. Hallucinations and anomalies are inspiring innovative thinking and pushing the boundaries of design. Harnessing these unexpected AI outputs allows creatives to venture into unexplored territories.

FAE argues the intense aggregative creative use of AI will lead to the rise of Recombinant Aesthetics in the New Weird. This also challenges us to think further as to where the content will be pulled from in the future, human or a Recombinant Aesthetic, with FAE remarking “This poses the question as to whether there will be a need for new content ([…] or whether recombinant aesthetics themselves will breed further emergence through mutations”.

A long-term vision for everyone

The Verge and Vox Media conducted a representative study of how adult Americans are using and thinking about AI. In What’s next with AI?, beyond the results, there is a call to action to “be inquisitive and challenging of technology and not hold dear that new technology is a master tool to colonize and commander every aspect of our being. To re-evaluate how technology serves us and determine whatever we build is net positive for the commons and isn’t just beneficial for the select few”

In her piece for Human Futures Magazine, Exploring the intersection of AI Futures for Creative and artistic expression” Eliza Farrow shares “as AI futures evolve, it is essential to strike a balance between leveraging AI’s potential for positive impact on our world and addressing the risks.” FAE describes this as Edging into Unchartered Territory.

We need a long-term vision for how we use AI in the creative industry that is open to all, created by all, so that we can unite around a shared vision of an AI infrastructure. At the moment the fashion industry, when it comes to AI and how it is completely changing our role and value, has zero plan. We are just waiting passively. I hope this will change.

Read the issue available in stands in Japan

By Geraldine Wharry