Things That Make Me Go "Hmmm!"

How Will Tech Transform Art?

Last night I stumbled on a TED Intersections videos that’s got me thinking.

It featured visual effects artist Rob Bredow (whose fingerprints are all over the recent Star Wars films and series) and curator Nora Atkinson (who brought Burning Man to the Smithsonian).

On paper, the talk was framed as a look into the future of art. But what I took away felt more personal: a meditation on how technology and soul can coexist in creative work.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY = CANVAS PROJECTION + LED WALLS

The talk zigzagged between stop-motion, LED walls, algorithmic art, and more. On the surface, it felt like a tech demo. But underneath was a bigger question: what happens when the tools get so powerful they risk overshadowing the artist?

That’s where it got personal.

I’ve always loved the tactile stuff—sketching, collaging, moving words around on paper until they click. But lately I’ve been leaning on digital tools that let me dream faster, remix more wildly, and share work with people I never could have reached otherwise.

Hearing Bredow talk about building entire universes with LED walls, and Atkinson reflect on curating experiences that blend art with engineering, I kept nodding along.

It’s the same tension I feel: the thrill of invention paired with the responsibility to keep the human heartbeat at the center.

The line that stuck with me was their reminder that technology doesn’t replace the artist—it expands the palette.

Stop-motion doesn’t stop being magical just because AI or photoreal CGI exist. Burning Man doesn’t stop being spiritual just because you can see it in a museum. The soul comes from intention, not the medium.

And that made me go, “Hmmm!”

Maybe the future of art isn’t a tug-of-war between human and machine. Maybe it’s a collaboration. Maybe the artist’s role isn’t to master every tool, but to choose wisely—to know what deserves the messiness of human touch and what can be amplified by the precision of code.

I don’t have answers yet. Just questions and sparks. But art that moves me usually reveals something about the people who made it—even if it’s built with tools that didn’t exist five years ago.

Keep calm and (AI?) art on!
Clint 🌈✌️

P.S. I’m catching up with a friend today who works in AI. We’re planning to talk shop and explore ways to bring new tech into my vintage photo videos. I’m excited to see what ideas emerge from our reunion.

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BIRTHDAYS

• 1828 = Leo Tolstoy = Russian author and playwright

• 1873 = Max Reinhardt = Austrian-born American theater and film director

• 1890 = Colonel Sanders = American businessman and KFC founder

• 1894 = Arthur Freed = American composer and producer

• 1898 = Beverley Nichols = English writer and public speaker 🌈

• 1899 = Neil Hamilton = American stage, film and television actor

• 1905 = Joseph E. Levine = American film producer and Embassy Pictures founder

• 1911 = Paul Goodman = American sociologist and poet 🌈

• 1923 = Cliff Robertson = American actor

• 1924 = Sylvia Miles = American actor

• 1928 = Sol LeWitt = American painter and sculptor

• 1934 = Sonia Sanchez = American poet, playwright, and activist

• 1941 = Dennis Ritchie = American computer scientist

• 1941 = Otis Redding = American singer-songwriter

• 1949 = John Curry = British figure skater 🌈

• 1951 = Tom Wopat = American actor and singer

• 1952 = Dave Stewart = English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

• 1952 = David McDiarmid = Australian artist and activist 🌈

• 1955 = John Kricfalusi = Canadian voice actor, animator, and filmmaker

• 1960 = Hugh Grant = English actor and producer

• 1966 = Adam Sandler = American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter

• 1969 = Rachel Hunter = New Zealand model and actor

• 1971 = Eric Stonestreet = American actor

• 1971 = Henry Thomas = American actor

• 1972 = Goran Višnjić = Croatian-American actor

• 1975 = Michael Bublé = Canadian singer-songwriter

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• 1776 = The Continental Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies).

• 1839 = John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph.

• 1947 = First case of a computer bug being found: A moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University.

• 1956 = Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.

• 1971 = Apple Records releases John Lennon's second solo studio album, Imagine, in the US; it tops the charts in the US, UK, Australia, and three other countries

• 1972 = Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids premieres on CBS.

• 1975 = Welcome Back, Kotter premieres on ABC.

• 1991 = Maury premieres in syndication.

• 2015 = Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria.

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PORTRAIT + QUOTES OF THE DAY

LEO TOLSTOY BY IVAN NIKOLAYEVICH KRAMSKOY (1873)

“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.”
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
Leo Tolstoy