Imagery for Media

Excitement comes along with new tech. Possibilities seem endless and effortless.

Any tech can be used either as weapon or a tool. The person who wields the tech is responsible for what it’s used for.

As I evaluate the landscape of tools on offer, this metaphor resonates, so figured I’d share.

In Sergio Leone’s masterpiece The Good, The Bad and The Ugly the character of Tuco (Eli Wallach) wanders out of the desert and into a general store. He finds himself in need of a new gun (tool/weapon). He’s presented with a heap of mediocre options, mostly cheap novelties.

After showing his distaste for this useless drivel, the shop keep relents and shows him the “top shelf” options. Certainly an improvement but most only have a glimmer of quality. It’s as if each of these crappy swiss-army knives, has only a single useful tool out of the handful. Options upon options are heaped upon the table.

Slow down. Ask yourself how do you use tools as a craftsman?

Problem solving is not shopping. The years spent walking this creative path have led you to certain understanding of how you lean upon tools. Move beyond any sales pitch. The last thing you want to hear is pitches about “corkscrew 2.0”.

Weigh options carefully and deliberately.

Separate quality from hype.

Assemble your bespoke tool out of the resulting quality parts amongst the rubble. Years of experience allow you to recognize potential.

Test relentlessly. Lean on the tool until you can trust it.

With the powerful tools proffered, it’s important not to subscribe to any particular orthodoxy. Any option offered will have weaknesses. Align the tech to how you use it.

Tools that are your own are earned. They are built of parts fused by your experience.

When using power tools, it’s important to recognize what you are bringing to the table. Owning a table saw, doesn’t make you a wood worker. But it can certainly open the door that reveals the path.

AIML tools are very powerful. It’s great for kicking around ideas. When presenting the result of creative work, ask yourself what artistic merit you brought to the process? Why is this yours? Beyond the legal questions, how much have you personally invested or revealed in the work? Great painters aren’t reduced to what brand of brush or the quality of the pigments they select. Creative problem solving is a PROCESS. To understand any process, you need to walk it. Pick it apart, digest it and incorporate it into the work you do. There is no shortcut.

Create and curate your own data.

We look upon a landscape, not unlike painters facing the introduction of photography. Instead of focusing on what it can do cheaply, what possibilities can it enable? Photography created Abstraction in painting. Abstraction included collage. HOW you assemble it, is the personal creative path. Serving a slurry of nonsense isn’t compelling beyond the flash.

Put in the time. Know your stuff. Live the Art Life. Kill orthodoxy. Make it personal.

Know it like the back of your hand.

It’s important to recognize that a lot of data is impossible to verify. I generally lean on open-source solutions for this reason. But it’s important not to dismiss the tech either.

In that spirit….

whenever possible, never give them a dime.