KEVIN’S LOOK / Kevin Headley
I increasingly realize that the time is over when we as a society collectively watched certain programs or experienced something together. In the past, the programming of television channels partly determined our daily rhythm. We sometimes planned our evening around it so that we could watch a program or movie at the agreed time. The next day you could talk about it with others. Did you miss it? Then that was a shame, because you couldn’t always talk about what others had seen.
Nowadays we take a quick look at our mobile phone to see something we missed. We now determine what, when and where we look at something. We feel that we are in control. Is that true?
“Convenience should not become a reason to stop thinking for yourself or to declare craftsmanship superfluous in advance”
Our attention seems to be becoming more and more fleeting. Where we used to sit in front of the television for an hour without any problem, nowadays everything has to be as short as possible. We want to be informed quickly so that we can move on to other things. But how much attention do we pay to something that requires a little more time from us?
I notice it in myself too. How often do I pick up my phone when I’m actually doing something else? How easily am I tempted to scroll through social media? Before I know it, I’ve lost more time than I intended.
Yet I also enjoy putting my phone away and paying attention to everything life has to offer beyond that screen. Perhaps that is the core of the problem: ‘we have more and more options to determine for ourselves what we see and do, but at the same time we are increasingly guided by technology’.
With the rise of AI, this development becomes even more interesting, but also more complicated. Technology not only helps us find information or complete work faster. She is also increasingly taking over tasks and choices from us. The question is how much room we leave for our own ideas, our judgment and our creativity.
I see this, for example, in the way we advertise nowadays. Instead of hiring a designer to create an attractive poster or playbill, we feed our ideas into an AI program and are sometimes satisfied with the result within minutes. It’s fast, easy and often cheaper. But what do we give up for it?
If you look closely at posters and advertisements, you will see how easily they can become similar. The same types of images, comparable compositions and recognizable styles appear everywhere. At some point it seems like all companies have the same creator. That is precisely where the danger lies: ‘if we all choose convenience, we are all in danger of making the same thing’.
Creativity increasingly has to make way for speed and lower costs. Why should we hire a creative professional when we can produce something in minutes with the help of technology?
Yet the question is not only how much money or time we save, but also what we lose when we make that choice over and over again. After all, a designer brings more than technical skills. He brings his own perspective, experience, craftsmanship and sometimes the unexpected idea that makes an assignment special. These are elements that you cannot simply replace with the first outcome you are satisfied with.
Of course, technology doesn’t have to be a threat. It can support our work, offer new possibilities and create space for ideas that we might otherwise not have been able to develop. But convenience should not become a reason to stop thinking for yourself or to declare craftsmanship superfluous in advance. This applies not only to the creative sector, but also to the way we consume information, spend our time and make choices.
