The musician Brian Eno has a term for when a group of people come together to leverage their collective intelligence: Scenius. It's portmanteau of the words scene and genius.
This is what Wired magazine says:
“Individuals immersed in a productive scenius will blossom and produce their best work. When buoyed by scenius, you act like a genius. Your like-minded peers, and the entire environment inspire you.”
For the community of explorers and artists who are pioneering the generative arts, it is the mot juste.
What we're experiencing is a quantum shift. It's stunning, a little disorienting, and 100% awesome. It's the future of creativity. This weekly newsletter will provide regular dispatches from the front lines of creativity in the Age of AI.
In this issue we'll talk to Ronnie Allman and see how he is pioneering generative commercial-making. We'll witness a world builder in action as we hear from Bas Waijers live from his Museum of Extraterrestrial History. And from the world of weather and wonder, Bob Bjarke brings us the sublime Impressionist Weather Report.
Finally, we celebrate a literary giant who left us way too soon, but gives us some of the best advice for how to be more human in the age of the machines.
Welcome to Nextness. More than a newsletter, a mindset.
Today we are on the edge of seeing new interfaces seamlessly connect us with whatever we seek. Instead of us adapting to the computer, the computer will adapt to us. And it will do so instantly.
The new interfaces will dynamically morph to reflect our mood and the right tenor in which we would like our information served. In short, successful interfaces will be more about us. As Bob Bjarke says, “I just remember thinking about weather data and wondering: how can I make it more human?"
Bob Bjarke sees a world where the weather is not a collection of numbers and statistics, but a group of feelings. He thinks that maybe our absorption of data may be improved if it can be served in more intuitive forms.
“For me, weather is just kind of like data. I wanted to try and put a human spin on it for dummies like me who don’t love numbers and data but want to see pretty pictures.”
The Impressionist Weather Report is a glimpse into environmental data that gives us the feeling of the weather and perhaps better informs our senses.
“When I thought about it, it wasn’t AI focused, weirdly enough, but the question was how do I use these technologies in a way that tells a story? What I was thinking is how do we squeeze this so something human comes out?”
It’s a seamless experience that beautifully betrays the heavy tech that is happening just under the surface:
“I tried a bunch of different styles and Impressionism was the one that felt the most relatable.”
From there, the hard work began to make the Impressionist Weather both more useful and more delightful.
“The more detailed the prompt, the better output you’ll get. So we converted the times to day parts. So 8:32 a.m. became morning, which means much more to the prompt. Then we added in the location, region, country, etc. Anything that would make the prompt really rich for any location on the planet.”
As interfaces change, elements of humanity and creativity will come to us as never before. Getting this critical exchange right will raise the human experience in truly meaningful ways:
“One of the things that I’ve learned from working at Facebook for so long was that’s it’s not enough just to build great work. I think what I want to do is build work that inspires other people. And that raises the collective quality of the creative, especially in the world of AI.”
Experience it here: weatherpainting.com
Bas Waijers is an art director and lifelong storyteller. He is also a Midjourney pioneer. When Bas got involved with Midjourney less than a year ago, he was stunned by its capabilities. He started by using Midjourney as a tool for illustration.
Soon Bas recognized the unlimited power to create new things. Going back to his childhood fascination with science fiction, he turned to the cosmos and life beyond our planet:
“I love exploring new worlds. And one of the things that fascinates me are some science fiction stories. I remember seeing Logan’s Run, and Soylent Green, and the original West World with Yule Brenner and he scared the bejesus out of me.”
Bas is part of a group of AI artists who are bringing greater storytelling to the generative arts. Pushing the limits of what is visually possible while simultaneously attaching strong narrative.
“I think what I want to try to do is make something that has a storyline or has some meaning to myself. I want to put more emotion into the work. Because I think it is the only way to stand out from the millions of images that are just being churned out every month.”
From the outside, the museum is a modern wonder. Set within the rock formations reminiscent of the American West, the museum presents an otherworldly visage. It's home for a vision that has long been in Bas's mind.
“The museum was something, I’m not sure where it started, but I just had an idea that I’m going to be the curator of a museum of extraterrestrial history. The last iterations were actually a museum carved into a big rock wall.”
With just a little imagination, the Museum of Extraterrestrial History is a place we can all visit. Divided into eight galleries, it is replete with clean white surfaces and reflective floors. In a few darkened spaces, galleries come alive with dazzling displays of never before seen alien phosphorescence:
“And that’s what I love about AI. It makes you see things you have never seen. And it shows you in a believable way.”
The idea is that AI can take us new places and allow us to witness impossible new things.
“That’s what I would hope to be able to bring that extraterrestrial experience to humanity, where people are like, wow, we’re not alone.”
Bas clearly sees AI is a way of overcoming the creative gatekeeping that has excluded people from many of the arts.
“One of the good things about AI is that creativity has been democratized. People who have not been able to create can create things.”
Is with many things in the Age of AI it comes down to mindset:
“I think creativity will always prevail because that is just inside all of us. All you need is a strong will and a belief in yourself to start.”
A good place to find inspiration is any of the galleries contained within the Museum of Extraterrestrial History.
See more of Bas Waijer's work at: bastopia.com
For Ronnie Allman AI isn’t about automating creativity but drawing ideas out into the open and quickly as completely as possible. Ronnie believes we are too frequently being deprived of many outstanding ideas because they perish under layers of bureaucracy before seeing the light of day. Ronnie thinks AI can change all of this:
“In big agencies a lot of ideas go by the wayside and never see the light of day. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t great ideas. But what I’m realizing now is I can wake up in the morning, have an idea, and execute it to its fullest within almost two hours to a point where is seems polished and finished.”
The Bush’s Beans commercial Ronnie recently made convinced him of this. It was completed, start to finish, in under three hours. This is how Ronnie explained things when we spoke a few weeks back:
“So yesterday morning, my partner she woke up, or I woke up, and she was eating beans in bed in a bowl. And I was like why are you eating beans? It's like eight o'clock in the morning and she had a meeting at nine, she says, ‘because I don't know, they just make me more productive.’ I thought that was so funny.”
Most of us chuckle and move on with our lives. But in the world of AI, some pause for a moment, then quickly move into creator mode:
“So while she's sitting there eating, I had this idea, and, I’m thinking I want to make it.”
Ronnie plays down the role of his creativity in this but, regardless, stuff happened quickly:
“So within an hour, we had the script, we had the audio, and we have a 45-second video that we just came up with an hour before, right? That’s honestly how quick it went.”
Twelve months ago, this type of commercial output would have taken the small part of a lifetime:
“We always have this joke that it takes longer to make a commercial than it does to create a baby. And I have no idea why that's the case. I've made very funny commercials that take two seconds to make. Then there are very funny commercials that take nine months to make. I don't know what's the difference is between the two.”
In a world where many ideas die untimely deaths before enjoying their moment in the sun, AI can be the ultimate gamechanger:
“I’m on the side of get it out quick. Let the public tell us if it’s good or not. I just want to get something out there and let the world decide.”
Below is Ronnie's commercial.
There is so much serious conversation around AI, we sometimes completely forget that people are regularly using AI simply to amuse. Thank you Chris Sellek for lifting the mood.
Reading grants us superpowers. In a time when more and more content is being synthetically generated, there is nothing like a classic book to ground us.
This is Water isn't really a book. It's a commencement speech published in book form. It is also a reminder that we all tend to have default settings – a way of looking at the world in a fixed perspective without really thinking how it got that way.
This is Water is a reminder to challenge our default settings. Especially valuable in the world of creativity, and also, in our human relationships. Deep down, the two are intrinsically linked.
Want to be more creative? Show a little empathy. It will immediately have an effect on opening up your mind and allowing you to think freely.
From page 120:
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”
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