Welcome to OK Creative

The Truth Window

OK Creative, in name and intent, gives all of us permission to create, and also reminds us that to be creative is okay.

OK Creative and the art on this site emerge from the deep wells of experience of a seasoned musician, a visual artist with decades of creative practice, and a lifelong writer of lyrics, poetry, and stories. These rich human experiences now intersect with the tools of artificial intelligence.

The evolution of AI as an artist’s tool shares a path similar to that of electronic music—a field that has faced criticism at every stage for its use of technology and digital interfaces.

Notably, the music you find on OK Creative employs no synthesizers, drum machines, samples, autotune, or other technology, the use of which has been rejected by critics, yet these have become integral to the music that enriches our lives daily.

Throughout production of this work, longtime friends, who have always been a reliable source of ethical and aesthetic insight, offered their reviews. A recurring concern is the notion of appropriation, especially with regard to the vocals. If you hear a voice that suggests a person from a particular part of the world, or a genre such as rock, country, or the blues, understand that these are now archetypes deeply embedded in our musical consciousness. However, none of the vocals in these pieces come from actual humans; they are AI-generated, responding to human creative input.

One’s response to these vocals may raise profound questions about identity. At OK Creative, we believe we have but one true identity: that of being human. Our identities, shaped by culture and personal experience, and in particular by the way oppression has labeled us, are illusions of difference. Oppression fosters the fallacy that humans are different in order to justify economic disparities and class systems. OK Creative is a reminder to challenge these illusions.

The audience should note that any assumptions about race, culture, sex or gender that arise in response to this work reflect their own projections. We invite you to enjoy, question, and explore these projections, and to embrace the infinite creativity that transcends artificial divisions.

Another intriguing question arises: What is the future of art in all its forms?

Certainly, we will continue to have music performed by actual humans. The experience of live music, where the audience and the artist converge, is sacred. Artists will continue to create and innovate in all mediums. The physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual relationship between the artist, their chosen medium, and their audience will remain paramount.

We also believe the inherent nature of creativity is to encompass all possibilities, to bring us out of limitation, and to imagine and create beyond what has been possible so far.

In some cases, AI will be a separate art form, while in others, artists will integrate AI with existing mediums. Throughout history, artists have always been among the first to embrace emergent tools and technology, and then innovate with them.

AI will inform artists just as any resource/tool does—with one important distinction, perhaps: the fact that by simply using AI, artists will shape its ongoing technological development. AI adapts to its user’s input, in ways unforeseeable by that user. Ways that then may inspire that user to yet another level of expression.

Through a symbiotic relationship, AI gathers all of what humans have produced throughout history, in every art form, and makes it accessible to the individual artist; then, in interacting with AI, using AI for their own creative vision, the artist contributes to AI’s development, their input becomes part of that vast network. The intersection of AI and human creativity becomes, then, not a replacement, but an expansion of what is possible.

At this fleeting moment within the vast expanse of time and space, the convergence of art and technology has gifted the artists at OK Creative with the profound joy of being able to be ourselves. The work presented here is the result.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we delight in producing it.