Advisory · Talks · Workshops · Build
I help universities, schools, cultural institutions, and creative teams integrate AI without losing the human — the judgment, craft, and creative friction that make work original.
Professor and Director, Center of Creative Computation, SMU · Author of the first major book on Processing · Creator of the first long-form generative AI NFT collection
The useful question about AI is no longer how fast you can adopt it. It is how to keep people — their judgment, taste, and authorship — at the center while you do.
I have spent three decades in the space between human creativity and computation: as a painter, as the author of the first major reference book on the Processing language and an early contributor to it through examples, tutorials, and workshops, and today as a working AI artist and the builder of an AI studio.
My view is a middle way. Do not ban these tools; do not hand them the work. Teach people — and organizations — to direct and judge them. The most original work still comes from constraint and risk; when you can undo or redo ad nauseam, that risk goes away — and with it the chance to synthesize new, original solutions. Good AI integration protects that productive friction instead of erasing it.
The goal is not to automate creativity. It is to help people and institutions direct AI with judgment, taste, authorship, and purpose.
02 — Work with me
01
Lectures and keynotes on creativity, computation, and the human place in AI.
A 45–60-minute keynote with an optional live demonstration of working AI systems and audience Q&A — for conferences, universities, and company gatherings. Signature talk: The Middle Way — Staying Human as AI Enters Creative Work. Recent talks include Oxford University and TEDxSMU.
02
Hands-on intensives that build real AI fluency.
Half-day to multi-day formats for faculty, students, or creative and technical teams. Participants leave with practical AI literacy, hands-on experiments, and a shared language for human-centered AI practice.
03
Strategic counsel on AI adoption, curriculum, and program design.
A focused engagement that ends in a roadmap, a curriculum or program framework, and a pilot plan. I have built degree programs and research initiatives from the ground up — as an NSF principal investigator — and trained the instructors to teach them.
04
When you need more than advice.
Prototype AI-native tools, creative workflows, and learning platforms — proof-of-concept systems your team can build on. I build the systems I talk about.
Also available for advisory boards, panels, and moderated conversations in art, technology, and education.
Book a conversation03 — Who I work with
You need faculty who can teach with AI, a coherent strategy across schools, and perhaps a new program. I have done all three at a major research university.
You are under pressure to teach AI and train teachers — with evidence behind it. I have taken creative computing into K-12 classrooms and published the results.
Your people, not your tools, are the bottleneck to AI adoption. I help creative and technical teams adopt AI without losing craft.
You want to use generative and AI methods with taste and intent. I am a working artist — exhibited at Bright Moments and Feral File, and a visiting artist at Gazelli Art House.
In 2026, the urgent question is no longer simply how fast to deploy AI, but how people work well with it — which has been my subject for thirty years.
04 — Selected engagements
Course development cut from months to weeks — at a fraction of the cost — using Gogentic CORTEX.
High-school students built complete games, 3D models, and animated storyboards in four days, learning AI literacy on the ij8 studio.
Advisory on data visualization and UI / UX.
A new AI application for early-childhood reading literacy.
05 — Selected work
06 — About
I began as a painter — a member of the Bowery Gallery in New York — and spent the dot-com era in Silicon Alley as Creative Director and Managing Director at H2O Associates, building and directing its digital division. Then I taught myself programming, computer graphics, and mathematics, and made code my primary creative medium.
That arc became a career in creative coding, program-building, and AI art. I wrote the first major reference book on the Processing language and contributed examples, tutorials, and workshops to the project; built numerous academic programs, taught creative coding and data visualization, and trained instructors in both; and created The Oracles, my long-form generative AI series. Today I build ij8 as an AI art, creative-coding, and classroom platform.
The through-line is consistent: computation is not merely a tool. It is a collaborator, a medium, and a way to make human judgment more visible. I have exhibited, lectured, and consulted internationally throughout my career, and I now serve as Professor and Director of SMU's Center of Creative Computation — where art and engineering meet.
07 — Contact
Tell me about your organization and what you are trying to do. Engagements range from a single keynote or faculty workshop to multi-month advisory and prototype builds; scope and fees by inquiry. Send a brief or book a call, and I will suggest the right format. I read every note.