“The things that Picasso could see were the things which had their own reality, reality not of things seen but of things that exist.”–Gertrude Stein
In 1964, Arthur C. Danto strolled into the Stable Art Gallery in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He walked out a changed man.
What he had seen was so stunning it took him 30 years to get his thoughts together. When he did, they came packaged in the landmark essay titled “The Death of Art.”
What Danto had seen that day were Andy Warhol's Brillo boxes. What made them so remarkable was there lack of anything remarkable. They were virtually indistinguishable from the Brillo boxes you would seen in any supermarket.
Mind blown.
Warhol’s Brillo boxes convinced Danto that art was dead. That it had become purely philosophical and detached from history.
It seemed now the only requirement of art was theory. The physical art itself was a nice-to-have.
This is what we now call “postmodernism” or, sometimes even more generally, “contemporary art.”
In the world of postmodernism, anything can be art.
Which makes today's debate about generative art being or not being art seem almost superfluous.
Art movements have always been a reaction to the times we live in.
Like the advent of photography or the arrival of the Nuclear Age, big shifts deeply affect culture, civilization, and the human condition.
Many of the things that live behind these changes remain invisible to us until someone can draw them out and give us a means of viewing them.
This is the role of art.
Art can help us see the things that we currently cannot and help provide clues to questions that we can't yet answer.
The question that AI has placed in our lap is a big one. Perhaps the biggest question we have ever stared down: What is human?
It's a big question that comes with an existential need to answer.
Surprisingly, AI's ultimate unintended consequence may be a boon for humans.
AI might compel us to explore our humanness with more gusto than we ever have. And celebrate it as never before.
Art, the new Art, whatever that turns out to be, will show us what it is.
Art has always been the forward scout of science, willing to risk spectacular falls while shining a light in the darkness of the unknown.
Artists will illuminate.
Welcome to Nextness. More than a newsletter, a mindset.
“The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.” – Arabic Proverb
Over the last weeks there has been a great deal in the press about the travesty that is the title sequence for Marvel’s “Secret Invasion.”
The problem is the title sequence was made with AI. And this ain't cool.
One group took particular exception are the animators and illustrators who see AI as an existential threat.
The group even included those closest to the project.
Jeff Simpson, who leads visual development for Secret Invasion, but worked on a different part of the show, Tweeted he was “really concerned about the impact of this.” He completed his thought with “I’m devastated. I believe AI to be unethical, dangerous and designed sole to eliminate artist’s careers.”
Whether are not the accusations are justified (we need to remind ourselves digital filmmaking wasn’t invented yesterday) they are obscuring a more meaningful conversation. Namely what is happening in the new world of films that are almost completely AI-generated.
It seems every week a short AI film breaks new ground. A few weeks ago, a film came out that positions AI not just as a tool for fillmaking, but as a co-director
“Thank You for Not Answering” by Paul Trillo is a shortish film that was made using the generative AI tool RunwayML.
Kyle Chayka, a writer for the New Yorker, describes the opening scene:
“In the first thirty seconds of the director and artist Paul Trillo’s short film 'Thank You for Not Answering,' a woman gazes out the window of a subway car that appears to have sunk underwater. A man appears I the window swimming toward the car, his body materializing from the darkness and swirling water. It’s a frightening, claustrophobic, violent scene – one that could have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars of props and special effects to shoot, but Trillo generated it in a matter of minutes using an experimental tool kit made artificial intelligence company called Runway.”
It's everything you would expect from a Hollywood blockbuster. And less. No cameras. No crews. No motorhomes. No cost overruns. And really no costs. Just generative AI.
It’s as far from a Hollywood production as you can get. And director Trillo likes it that way:
“It is a little boring to do stuff that you could have shot with a real camera and performer.”
Again… “It's a little boring to do stuff that you could have shot with a real camera and performer.”
For many new talents, the old way of doing things just isn't that exciting any longer.
The key difference is the new creative force in the room: AI.
For confident creatives, AI is a blessed co-collaborator. For the more timid, it is the antichrist. AI is the partner that brings crazy ideas 24/7 and whose feelings aren't hurt if you don't like them.
AI just might be the ultimate creative partner.
What is emerging from generative AI is a creative force all its own. Not sub-human. Not super-human. Just different
When generative AI came on the scene it left many gobsmacked.
It was kind of strange. Visually primitive. And totally arcane. Simply navigating Discord to access Midjourney required next-level skills and not a small amount of persistence
Yet some embraced the potential almost instantly.
If you spent a career at the intersection of art and technology, like Brian Sykes has, it was mesmerizing:
“It was such a jump forward. The idea that I could put words into a computer, and it spits out an image was really fascinating to me.”
As he become fluent with the new generative tools, he wondered if those around him were having similar luck.
“I was seeing a lot of people coming into the platform with the same questions I had of “where do I even get started?”
When Midjourney finally proved its readiness for primetime with V3, Brian began making teaching tools that made MJ more than just prompting.
It was also about creating inspiration by introducing some of the AI artists who were conjuring crazy new stuff.
In creating the “A.I. Explore" series, we not only learned next-level tips and tricks, but we got to see the people behind the stuffing new visual expressions.
Suddenly, our world was alive with new names like Jonathan IJzerman, Matt Garbutt, JnGospetl Ebere, Ben Currier, Nejc Susec, Dennis Ascienzo, Margarida Barreto, Amr Tahtawi, Travis Hinke and Sherry Horowitz.
What seemed a little scary at first was transformed into a welcoming
global scene.
For people who have misgivings about embracing the new tools, Brian makes it clear that it’s an enhancement, not a replacement:
“I really think that AI is not going to take your job, but someone using it might. So you need to leverage your skillset with generative AI, and then you can multiply what’s possible. You bring so much creativity, so much experience and talent, that when you combine that with generative AI the results become remarkable.”
As Brian says this, you can tell he is alluding to something bigger than just the surface virtues of generative AI.
“There’s a lot of splash and hoopla out there, but the key is going to be the story.”
It’s a position that had, no doubt, been strengthened by 23 years of having his own advertising and branding company, Ad Journey:
“You can pair a really great visual with poor writing and it’s going to have a limited impact. So it’s the marrying of multiple elements together in the proper context. It’s talking to the right people at the right time with the right message, and having all those things come into play.”
Currently Brian wonders what if these tools could not only be mastered by individuals but by a group? Can AI artistry and application be taught at scale?
“For me, it’s businesses not just wanting somebody who can craft prompts, but someone who’s at the forefront of generative AI. Who can teach these tools to multiply and enhance skills and 10X each one of their employees.”
In yet another case of a visual artist having a surprising love of words, Brian is a committed reader. His father taught him it was the easiest way to get the best knowledge distilled into a form you could act on.
One of his favorite writers is Marty Neumeier who is the author of many books including “Zag” and “The Brand Gap.” Brian enthuses (he jumped up and pulled one Marty’s books off the shelf behind him) that “Marty spent a long time developing his brain through experience, and he’s basically put it in a nice little package for us to grow and learn.”
Brian, age 7, in front of Grandma's Oakly's ride
Brian does a daily post on LinkedIn, has a YouTube channel, and has published many books largely dealing with Midjourney and other generative offerings.
Brian is fond of pointing out that Midjourney is perfectly named. To him, Midjourney is all about fleshing out the space between the initial idea and the final product.
By demonstrating the tools, providing all sorts of tips and tricks, and generally showing us the way Brian is also helping us navigate the middle space.
Brian has recently launched a site for companies that want to take their AI game to the next level: thebriansykes.com
It’s easy to get drawn into a lot of debates about the good and evil of AI in advertising.
Some are absolute believers in AI and are regularly doing amazing things.
Others, maybe worn out by the exponential learning curve and its existential threat to their careers, wish it would all go away.
Somewhere in the middle are most of us.
In its simplest form, today’s world of advertising creativity can be broken down into four general areas.
Zone 1: Story but no AI. This is the world of traditional advertising before generative art and LLMs. It’s where most of the advertising industry remains, held back by steep learning curves and corporate inconvenience.
Zone 3: All visuals. No story and no AI. David Ogilvy would say that this advertising “Skates on the slippery surface of irrelevance.” He said this 40 years ago. He’s been gone for 30. Yet most advertising hasn't removed its skates.
Zone 4: No story but plenty of AI. This is what we will be seeing a lot of over the next few years. As agencies and their clients rush to flex their AI chops, they will forget they are supposed to say something. A lot of awards can be won here, so look for a lot of cool stuff that sells absolutely nothing.
And finally, Zone 2, play angelic chorus, where the future of successful advertising lives.
Succeeding here requires new thinking, new workflows, new structures, new attitudes, and, most likely, new talent.
As they say about science, advertising moves forward one funeral (or retirement) at a time.
“Consider a future device … in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”– Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush was a scientist and mathematician who created an analog machine for calculating differential equations. It was much like picking up where Babbage left off. One of his famous students who worked on the machine was Claude Shannon, the father of Information Theory.
Bush very much presaged the age of startups. He co-founded Raytheon, one of the few companies that is still around after 100 years. He later went on to become the president of MIT.
Vannevar Bush shine most as a patriot. During World War II, he was the head of the Office of Development and Research for the United States government and helped bring to the war effort the proximity fuse that turned the tide in the Battle of the Bulge. He also pioneered anti-submarine weapons that prevented the German Wolf Pack from continuing to wreak havoc on American ships.
Bush had a skill for bringing people together and creating synergies among scientists, generals, and bureaucrats. His egalitarian style was a great contrast to the authoritarian rule of the Nazis – the American approach to teamwork was one of the great strengths against the top-down German approach.
When the war was over, Bush realized that the American system for cross-disciplinary cooperation should not end with the armistice but should be further built upon. It led to the greatest period of prosperity in American history. His essay on this subject, entitled “How We May Think,” went on to become a national sensation.
One concept he outlined was the Memex, which later became the model for personal computer at Xerox PARC under Alan Kay and had a great effect on Apple Computer.
When we celebrate America’s birthday, we should remember the people who got us where we are. Vannevar Bush is definitely one of them.
You may also enjoy his book “Pieces of the Action” most recently published by Stripe Press.
Learn more about the memex:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memex
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