Abstract
Generative AI tools are rapidly transforming creative practice, promising to "turn ideas into reality" and democratize artistic expression. Yet beneath the hype lies a troubling question: are these tools genuinely extending human imagination, or are they optimizing it away? What does it mean to create something new – what, essentially, is the role of process, craft, and emergence in artistic practice? Will computation augment our creative capacities or replace them with efficient content generation? In this talk, we will explore the philosophical and practical implications of how we build creative tools. Current approaches to generative AI treat creativity as a mechanistic input-output mapping – in essence, a prompt box in need of better instructions. Through examples from virtual life simulations, emergent systems, and experimental creative interfaces, we'll consider how to design tools that genuinely enable new forms of thinking and making.
If creative emergence is not a prompt-to-image process, then what is it? This talk draws from nearly a decade of building tools for computational creativity – from massively collaborative platforms to experimental interfaces for craft – arguing that the future of human imagination depends on rejecting content generators in favor of malleable, composable materials that transform how we think, create, and discover the previously unimaginable.
Speaker Bio
Joel is a multidisciplinary artist, toolmaker, and practicing researcher based in Berkeley exploring new metaphors for interacting with technology. He is the founder and director of Morphogen and the creator of Artbreeder, a massively collaborative machine learning/artist interface. His work spans artificial life simulations, generative architecture, creative social networks, and tools for fighting gerrymandering. Previously, he conducted bioinformatics research at Rockefeller University and studied computer science and art at Carnegie Mellon. He is currently part of Stochastic Labs, and his work has been featured at venues including Ars Electronica, NeurIPS, and Science Friday.