I believe that we humans are most aligned with the creative life force around us when we ourselves are in a state of creation — with a serious commitment to exploration, iteration, and risk-taking. Yet, in a world where AI can mimic the sum of human experience and excellence through a couple of typed lines in a generator, what can we still create that sets us apart from the machines?
This past year, I embarked on an audio-visual journey to answer that existential question.
I chose to focus on provenance and authentication — creativity tied to a specific time and place — something not easily replicated. This realization guided me through the production of a 22-minute film, “On the Heights (of Avalon by Ibsen).” Watch it below in HD, if you’ve got fast enough bandwidth, opt to view the movie in 8k on YouTube:
The inspired step-by-step behind this was as important to me as the outcome. I started by recording music in my home studio, using a cardioid microphone to capture the room’s unique acoustics—there’s no other place that sounds like it — to live accompany six original Moog Model 15 synthesizer tracks I had crafted influenced by Isao Tomita, Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. I later traveled to Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula to film its stunning landscapes in 8K, using a manual focus lens to embrace my imperfect grasp of the moment. This approach allowed me to capture more than I could see at the time, leaving room for creative exploration in post-production.
Throughout this project, I pushed myself to stay open to new ideas and tools to keep my perspective fresh. It was during this period of growth that I discovered Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen’s poem, “On the Heights.” Ibsen’s philosophy, to “follow the discomfort of your inner voice rather than the expectations of others,” became a guiding principle for my work.
It highlights our inherent lifelong conflict: do we settle for easy comfort and security of society in the lowlands — or do we make the hard push to “the heights” of the mountain to satisfy that lonely, incessant inner voice?
While I did leverage some machine learning in the project (for research, initial storyboarding and post-production fine-tuning), it supported my storytelling process rather than supplanted it. This video serves ultimately as my statement on the enduring power — and struggle — of our journey as creative beings.
LINKS:
Purchase and download the high resolution audio file on Bandcamp
Access the complete poem of “On the Heights” by Henrik Ibsen