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# Bleeding Edge Technology is Made for Silly Art
- URL: https://www.bramadams.dev/202308192019/
- Published: 2023-08-20T00:42:06.000Z
- Updated: 2023-08-20T18:23:36.000Z
- Description: The only defensible use for bleeding edge tech is play!
- Author: Bram Adams
- Tags: essays, creative-coding

I've had the pleasure this week of going through some of my old creative work while moving my favorite projects to my personal lifelong domain (the website you are reading this on). It feels like the computer equivalent of finding old photos in the attic, laughing by yourself at dusty photos that only mean something to you.

These projects feel like time capsules from a different era. Things have been moving so fast!

While dumpster diving, it occurs to me that many of these are my **favorite** works. These projects are a true representation of both sides of my brain working in harmony with one another. And I really think they are all something special.

Why?

## Why Silly Art and Bleeding Edge Tech Go so Well Together

**Art needs no explanation**. In fact, the best art precludes explanation, it resists summarization.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/2023/08/image.png)

Untitled - Salvador Dali

**Technology**, on the other hand, **craves order; logic**. Software especially.

When technology and art are combined intentionally, they create a **yin and yang** of sorts. There is a **dance** between the explosive spontaneity of human emotion and the cold hard collapse of binary logic. One leads, the other follows. One, two, one, two, one, two. (*or maybe zero, one?*)

Sadly, I've met very few people who see this. There are few who can have their vision in both domains, to look in opposite directions, while seeing the same thing. I've met fewer who can **do** technology **and** art, to take up residence in the paradox, and not be broken by it.

Most often out in the world, technology is paired with "business". You'll see Twitter demos, Hacker News "Show HN" launches, or networking meetups filled with bright eyed CS new grads, each with their unique vision of changing the world. They hope that their software-business model will become a unicorn, attract funding or at least, get a lot of stars on GitHub. [Hell, I've made those too](https://stenography.dev/?ref=bramadams.dev).

But to be honest, that model sucks.

Why?

Business requires a need. Running a business is a **needy** endeavor. All businesses do well by: **1)** solving a problem **2)** not running out of people with that problem to pay for your solution **3)** extracting profit off of the cost of solving said problem.

Indeed, this is why technology (software especially) works so well for business. If you can codify a great solution, you can scale to damn near the entire human population at an extremely low marginal cost per user. Literally killing two birds with one stone.

But again, business itself is **needy**. It *needs* to be seen, it *needs* to be defended against competition, it *needs* to be bought. This neediness rubs off on everyone who comes in contact with it. "*Buy now!*", it screams. "*Work more hours!*", it screams. And soon, everyone is put off, but they can't put their finger on why. It's just…*bleh*?

In addition to the neediness of business, there is the obvious problem. Bleeding edge technology, by definition, is immature. This means that anyone selling you on it *generously* has perhaps 1-3 months of experience with it. They then claim expertise, and expect you to take that expertise at face value. The only way to really learn a technology is to spend time with it, to understand the rules at play. At the bleeding edge phase, most rules have yet to be uncovered. It's the same as trying to guess the ending of a book while you are on page five. Be patient. The rules will reveal themselves.

People rush to making a business when a new technology emerges. I think this is a mistake. You should spend your time making art.

## Examples

### Augmented Reality

[The World’s First AR RapperLook out for M.P. in the XXL Freshman 2021![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/size/w256h256/2023/01/leda-2.jpeg)Bram AdamsBram Adams![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-16-15-00-06.png)](https://www.bramadams.dev/the-worlds-first-ar-rapper/)

[My 27th Birthday PartyInviting all my closest friends to my 27th![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/size/w256h256/2023/01/leda-2.jpeg)Bram AdamsBram Adams![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-16-14-54-23.png)](https://www.bramadams.dev/my-27th-birthday-party/)

### AI

[A Candid Conversation with my Artificial SelfUsing GPT-3 to get to the brass tacks of humanity in an AI world![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/size/w256h256/2023/01/leda-2.jpeg)Bram AdamsBram Adams![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-18-15-15-43.png)](https://www.bramadams.dev/a-conversation-with-my-artificial-self-using-gpt-3-and-arkit/)

[A Skyrim Mod Using GPT-3The rise of the mods![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/size/w256h256/2023/01/leda-2.jpeg)Bram AdamsBram Adams![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-19-20-29-47.png)](https://www.bramadams.dev/a-skyrim-mod-using-gpt-3/)

### Generative Art

[I Must Find A Place For Their Souls To RestI’m done with the feelings I’ve learned to know in paradox![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/size/w256h256/2023/01/leda-2.jpeg)Bram AdamsBram Adams![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/2023/08/2023.08.10-21.20.31.png)](https://www.bramadams.dev/202308102122/)

[Embeddings as Shapes v0.1Embeddings, this time as shapes! (v0.1)![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/size/w256h256/2023/01/leda-2.jpeg)Bram AdamsBram Adams![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0c/cc/0ccc9a8d-054a-4056-b11e-e1bfbbb66387/content/images/2023/08/2023.08.09-13.32.50-1.png)](https://www.bramadams.dev/202308091339/)

[See more examples here](https://www.bramadams.dev/tag/creative-coding/).

## Creators Who Successfully Straddle Art and Technology

This list is not exhaustive!

[Michael Reeves🌰![](https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/510f0670/img/favicon_144x144.png)YouTube![](https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/ytc/AOPolaQIoTcU6bOAV3QMmNXnY2R9oc37BGpKC6uKE8V-fA=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)](https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelReeves?ref=bramadams.dev)

[William OsmanHi, it’s me! Dubious quality. Questionable integrity. Unethical delivery. Sometimes the best lessons teach what not to do.![](https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/510f0670/img/favicon_144x144.png)YouTube![](https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/ytc/AOPolaQ1u4vVqxC3k0LZRaIveqRIIHXqqGrPrsxXvpOufhE=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)](https://www.youtube.com/@williamosman?ref=bramadams.dev)

[shindigs VODsVODs from Twitch Stream https://twitch.tv/shindigs![](https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/510f0670/img/favicon_144x144.png)YouTube![](https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/tMJtR1hNKWADsBuGe-zd7HAPDFpzbMA0vBwhH31BJ3MIW57CL8KMIrrKNQljRS3NY6bdhgGX5Mk=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)](https://www.youtube.com/@shindigs%5Fvods?ref=bramadams.dev)

[Porter RobinsonVideo’s delen met vrienden, familie en de rest van de wereld![](https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/510f0670/img/favicon_144x144.png)YouTube![](https://yt3.googleusercontent.com/h97n6FCo06aQ-TIwW9qzSc5sLwWVdjfCTw8ISj0mUZIAj3iGKxXVdhwXLj2U-tclhSMNEPZhjQ=s900-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)](https://www.youtube.com/@porterrobinson?ref=bramadams.dev)

[Neal.funGames, visualizations, interactives and other weird stuff.![](https://neal.fun/favicons/home.png)![](https://neal.fun/general/mail.svg)](https://neal.fun/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[Kicks CondorLEECHING AND LINKING IN THE HYPERTEXT KINGDOM![](https://www.kickscondor.com/favicon.ico)Kicks CondorKicks Condor![](https://www.kickscondor.com/images/chair-square.png)](https://www.kickscondor.com/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[Tyler Hobbs | Generative ArtThe artwork of Tyler Hobbs, a practicing generative artist, creative coder, and painter, whose work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and has been collected around the world.![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c12933f365f02733c923e4e/82010657-a1a2-4580-9977-db29b2bb340c/favicon.ico)Tyler Hobbs![](http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c12933f365f02733c923e4e/t/60678526f06b4f10344b2821/1659129665972/tyler-hobbs-return-zero-blue-1-small.jpg?format=1500w)](https://tylerxhobbs.com/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[Home | DougDougWelcome to the Honorable Douglas Academy,the home of YouTuber & Twitch streamer DougDoug. Check out DougDoug and find more about him here. Links to his YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Discord & Reddit can be found here.![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/08e73c_37258cf43b3b45c598333c670c693938~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_32%2Ch_32%2Clg_1%2Cusm_0.66_1.00_0.01/08e73c_37258cf43b3b45c598333c670c693938~mv2.png)DougDoug![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/08e73c_682b5422f9494f11ac87b5d41b2454f2~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_96,h_54,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/08e73c_682b5422f9494f11ac87b5d41b2454f2~mv2.png)](https://www.dougdoug.com/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[monolesanArtist and creative technologist focused on artificial intelligence ☾ \*✧.![](https://monolesan.com/assets/kotik_bloknotik.png)![](https://monolesan.com/assets/banner.png)](https://monolesan.com/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[DJ\_DaveDJ\_Dave![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2b0afd822b0f7ca380e4d8a2f13b2dd7c9b11c06b918b6280d190bb83f5aba7a/Screenshot-2023-06-30-at-11.17.05-AM.ico)![](https://freight.cargo.site/i/b0b009f3dc4b9be9d084cddc63e13de8d236cb93975954bcdebfc451e5d2a340/Screenshot-2023-06-30-at-11.44.19-AM.png)](https://djdave.xyz/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[Homepage / LOST PIXELSLOST PIXELS is the online portfolio and store of Digital Artist James Merrill, featuring digital abstract and surreal artwork, experimental short films, and generative algorithmic plotter drawings.![](https://lostpixels.io/fav/apple-touch-icon.png)LOSTPIXELS![](https://lostpixels.io/uploads/34413118_10155637101106344_3376538155212603392_o_huceebf29c2e7e1e87f283785363dcc039_289331_300x200_fill_q70_box_center.jpg)](https://lostpixels.io/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[Lingdong Huang![](https://cdn.glitch.com/6df32ef1-b99f-4c8b-a119-58c1ef7b41bf%2Ffavicon.ico?1545295607333)](https://lingdong.works/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[v3ga — Julien GachadoatGenerative art & plotter art![](https://www.v3ga.net/favicon.ico)v3ga![](http://www.v3ga.net/Data/Img/v3ga_profil.jpg)](https://www.v3ga.net/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[UWTBSending things to Earth... Bits... Html... Rainbows…UWTBMatt Bierner![](https://blog.mattbierner.com/content/2022-01-20-non-flesh-tokens/title.png)](https://blog.mattbierner.com/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[橋本 麦 - Baku HashimotoBaku Hashimoto is Tokyo based visual artist, video director, and creative coder.![](https://baku89.com/wp-content/themes/baku89/assets/favicons/ms-icon-144x144.png)undefined![](https://baku89.com/wp-content/themes/baku89/assets/ogimage_2020.jpg)](https://baku89.com/?lang=en&ref=bramadams.dev)

[Noah VeltmanProjects, photos, fun facts, and other weird internet things.![](https://noahveltman.com/favicon.ico)Noah VeltmanNoah Veltman](https://noahveltman.com/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[Robin SloanThe home page of Robin Sloan, author of the novels Sourdough and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.![](https://www.robinsloan.com/img/dragon-moon-logotype-64.png)Robin Sloan![](https://www.robinsloan.com/img/munch-sun.jpg)](https://www.robinsloan.com/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[ThoughtsMulti-layered calendars (new) The power of defaults Banking on status Chief Notion Officer Is this real life? A meta-layer for notes Proof of X Thoughts on e-commerce (Part 2) Thoughts on e-commerce (Part 1) AirPods as a platform Signaling as a service Superhuman &am![](https://julian.digital/favicon.ico)julian.digitalJulian Lehr![](https://julian.digital/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/julian_digital_og_card.png)](https://julian.digital/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[Irene AlvaradoPortfolio website of creative technologist and UX designer Irene Alvarado. Currently at Google Creative Lab.![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/569d067edc5cb4298588a3d6/1453274600013-XJ44V1358U1GZREWQHU6/favicon.ico?format=50w)Irene Alvaradomachine learning![](http://static1.squarespace.com/static/569d067edc5cb4298588a3d6/t/56b20e8045bf2166272babb8/1454509696663/logo.png?format=1500w)](https://www.irenealvarado.com/?ref=bramadams.dev)

[CharmWe make the command line glamorous![](https://charm.sh/touchicon_180w.6171b4d7a2751a37.png)Charm![](https://stuff.charm.sh/charm-share.jpg)](https://charm.sh/?ref=bramadams.dev)

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