My Web Summit Chapter 2: How might technology augment creativity?
I always have this feeling when i meet a really creative person that although we seem to live in the same world, they gravitate on a slightly higher parallel (about 0.000333 degrees or so...). From there they see a bit more than us. More of the beautiful, more of the ugly, they see the elephant instead of the cloud, they see the glitters in the dust, and the stardust floating through our daily fog.
I mean, when you think about it, isn’t ‘augmented reality’ the best definition for ART ?
Looking at life from a different point of view, see things that other can’t see, find a unique way to express it and share it with the world.
It’s no wonder that artists are often at the forefront of innovation and no wonder that one of the speakers at the opening night at Web Summit was one of the most talented movie directors of our times, Darren Aronofsky (Mother, The Fountain, Requiem for a dream, Black Swan…).
The perspectives he expressed about the key technologies disrupting creativity were, i think, very clear and true and have been irrigating my thinking throughout the all conference, so you will find many references to it ‘sprinkled’ in this summary.
Towards non-stop inspiration?
I find the topic of inspiration in our digital age so thought-provoking. On one end we are exposed to so much that it can be challenging, when you are a little curious, to deal with the FOMO and amount of possibilities of things to learn, read or make.
I was looking forward to hear Pinterest’s founder, Ben Silbermann’s perspective. I enjoyed this panel and his rather candid account of how Pinterest is focusing on making people more connected to themselves and their creativity (vs other social media that put us in a constant ‘comparison’ mode with others). The main topic was around visual search and the recent ‘Pinterest Lens’ that allows you, just by taking a photo of an object, to identify it, potentially buy it online, and get related ideas and inspiration suggested to you.
It brought up 2 strong feelings in me, the first one being : yes! if i can capture all those daily small moments of inspiration, like the colourful cape this girl was wearing this morning, know which brand it is from and access to a DIY tutorial on how to make one as well that would be awesome and it will save so many ‘wasted’ ideas ;)
And the other angle: Yes i just saw this girl with a great coat. It gave me a burst of joy, and now i’ve moved on…but in the background this pink and blue zebra pattern is travelling in my brain, meeting other objects and thoughts from my ‘mental collection’, colouring them in a new way, and then one day, maybe, those influences will help me create something unique and different.
To me, real inspiration comes when two ideas (or two people) meet that normally would not have met. So until the Pinterest algorithm gives me that level of serendipity, i’m going with my own eyes and synapses first.
A new dimension to arts
I loved this distinction Darren Aronofsky made about experiencing the cinematic experience where you’re in total empathy with a character, feeling ‘their’ emotions as they go through challenges you will most likely never face and Virtual Reality where you get immersed in a new, foreign environment, but as ‘yourself’ and are invited to become an actor and creator of a new world.
The opportunities of VR as a new ‘medium’ are infinite and one great exemples of this alive today in the creative sphere is the Google Tilt brush, that i got the chance to experience myself and witnessed again through a mesmerising performance at WebSummit with artist Anna Zhilyaeva who has been pioneering art in VR and illustrates with majesty this potential to immerse yourself into your own art, change a colour, a texture, zoom in and out to draw a detail or gain perspective.
I also found this video showing various artists discovering Tilt Brush quite cool, and I’m looking forward to see what the creative community will make of it.
Meet your new creative coach
One of the ‘themes’ that was quite transversal at Web Summit is the collaboration between Humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI). In its opening remarks, Darren Aronofsky referred to the example of chess grand master Garry Kasparov who got beaten by IBM’s Deep Blue robot back in 1997. After analysing the reason for his defeat, the player decided to actually form a team with the AI (they call it a ‘Centaur’ team half machine/half human) that would combine access to a huge data-base of chess history with the human intuition and creativity. This strategy has become more and more popular over the years in the chess community, and has had the unexpected effect of augmenting the number of chess player worldwide, with more tournaments than ever and ultimately improving the level of humans players to become higher than ever, so we can see that AI can make humans better at their craft.
Aronofsky’s point of view, which i’d very humbly say i concur with, is that in the end, AI is an amazing tool, but it’s a tool, and when it comes for instance to writing a movie script or editing a movie, the last thing an AI will be able to do is read the emotions, the context, the sense of humour.
I’ll also add that when we go see a great movie or exhibition, of course we go for the story, the actors and the aesthetics, but, as far as i’m concerned, I also go to explore the mind of its creator, to get a glimpse of how genius directors see the world. That’s why i will always look forward to the next Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Julie Delpy movie, because i want a piece of their worldview, and a robot’s worldview just does not cut it for me, sorry ( I know I’m a bit stuck in the early 2000’s cinema-wise…).
However the idea that it can save us years of work by automising recurring/administrative tasks, gain better insights on what works and what doesn’t, and all of this in real time, sounds unbelievably promising.
Blockchain for more sustainable business models for artists
I’m really still a complete outsider to everything crypto, so this panel dedicated to ‘How Blockchain can revolutionise the creative industry’ with Holly Liu, founder of mobile gaming company Kabam and Peter Guglielmino, CTO at IBM, moderated by Sam Yam, cofounder at Patreon, was very enlightening.
One of the main opportunities discussed was around compensation of artists for their work, by creating more transparency in distribution and usage rights in the digital space, which is a major topic today with as an example, the Open Music Initiative founded by MIT , ‘investigating the design of a blockchain-inspired open and interoperable digital rights management platform’.
From idea to execution, there might still be a few years and efforts to make such a vision a reality, starting with making blockchain more ‘user friendly’ ( I heard the term ‘MetaMask’ for the first time at Web Summit). But one point i found quite captivating was to hear that creators, particularly in gaming, are some of the first (along with banking and finance) experimenting with Blockchain, and as masters of entertainment, may be the first ones finding the ways to make the technology appealing for the end users. So definitely an industry to follow closely.
Such a complex topic, art and technology, since it’s where the potential of technology meets its own contradictions. Although i tried to focus today’s article on enthusiastic ideas, I can’t help having this constant swing of ‘good and bad’ in mind, the risk of a ‘standardised creativity’, the irreplaceability of a ‘in real life’ work of art, the need to go yourself through those 10 000 hours of repetitive/mundane tasks to achieve mastery….i guess i’m just programmed that way, but who knows where a 0.000333 degrees shift in gravity may take me (or us).
