Image © Jose & MidJourney
I sort of assume that everybody is into music. Whis is not the same as saying everybody is into playing music, I know several people that say (and believe) they would not be able to play any sort of musical instrument, that they have no sense of tone, rhythm, etc. I’ve met and engaged musically with some of these folks, and while it might be painful to endure, watch and hear in the beginning, I’ve yet to meet someone who does not learn and evolve in music playing. Most of us will never be the greatest in a particular instrument, but we are all able to be part of the large circle of music, it all depends on context. Even though I’ve been connected to music since I remember, I’m like most of us, meaning I do not excel in any particular musical instrument, I started by singing in a band, but I didn’t have a good enough ‘instrument’, and I have played some form of percussion in my head, in the air, and last 10 years with real instruments, but I still most of us.
My emotional instrument of choice is drums, and though I can’t play the drums, (started learning 2 months ago, the oldest guy at the School of Rock I attend!), I love drum playing and follow many drum players, one of my favorite drummers is Jojo Mayer. He has a rich past in drumming and is known for being always at the bleeding edge of technology, but he is always the ‘human in the loop’ stretching the limits of what technology can do. He always comes across as the ultimate abstract drum painter, who does so after mastering drum painting in the most traditional sense. His latest exploration — not exploitation — is using generative artificial intelligence as a sort of co-pilot to his playing, and he is going all the way, letting AI learn with/ from him and letting Gen AI push his limits, up his game (he mentions the term often and uses cards as an analogy).
I saw an interview by a Swiss channel (he is Swiss but lived in NYC most of his life), a masterclass for designers and others exploring the limits of using Gen AI while evolving as a human being. Several things made me reflect, and some connected to other things I have been reading. One of the most striking things he said, that “opportunism is at the other extreme of making great art”, meaning that opportunism drives people to make safe decisions, and safety is not a good driver for great art, where ‘neutrality’ and opportunism do not play a part, great art requires a personal point of view, sometimes the opposite of what is acceptable and recognized, great art is not safe. This made me think of corporate analogies, like “low hanging fruit’, which is really about opportunism, sometimes necessary to drive instant results, and a means to create space and goodwill for more artistic and creative endeavors, but creating many times a culture of instant gratification, training only those low hanging fruit ‘muscles. He brings in concepts of Exploitation Vs. Exploration, of Interpolation Vs. Extrapolation in connection to artificial intelligence, which designers many times discuss as Divergence Vs. Convergence.
Jojo Mayer is not Steve Jobs, this is not 1993 and Jojo is 61, not 38 like Jobs was when he was interviewed at Aspen and predicted the future of computing, the birth of the smartphone and even Gen AI. But there is something about what Jojo says, just like the famous interview with David Bowie in 1999, when he precited the impact of the Internet in the world.
Jojo is for me a great inspiration in this Gen AI age, here is a human being at the highest level of his instrument, not concerned that machines can do what he does, but using those machines to improve his game, exploring new frontiers of what is possible, deciding to be in control of his own place in the loop. It made me think of all the possibilities and made me wonder about all the new Gen AI professions that will pop up in the next 10 to 20 years. Forget prompt engineering, which is like knowing how to “speak machine” as a toddler, like John Maeda would say, this is a means to an end. What professions were born out of the industrial revolution? And of the Internet? What new professions and skillset’s will be born out of Gen AI? How many of those will be the future of music, and design?
By the way, I am not a drummer, but I hope to be touched by “secondhand drumming” and, perhaps, live longer! https://www.honest-broker.com/p/do-drummers-live-longer
Jojo Mayer: Redefining Drumming with Generative Technology (youtube.com)