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TIFFANY SORICELLI HAS A MISSION : #NOMORESTARVINGARTISTS

July 26, 2023 By Corey Aldrich

Tiffany reached out to me last year to meet up and talk about ACE! Like many folks I connect with these days she wanted to know more about the mission and how she could pitch in and help. A lifelong singer and seasoned NFP navigator, (Also a 2022 40 Under 40 Alum) Tiffany is now directing her career on helping other artists gain financial literacy…something they don’t teach you in music school. And boy is she doing it well, current clients include the likes of the METROPOLITAN OPERA and CHAMBER MUSIC AMERICA.

Please state your name, company and position. Also, can you also tell us a little about your background?

Tiffany Soricelli, Principal & CEO of Virtuoso Asset Management, LLC and President/ CEO of Virtuoso Advising for Artists. I have a Bachelors and Masters of Music from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. I’ve been a singer all my life and started performing professionally at the age of 8. I’ve worked in every facet of the performing arts – artist, administrator, manager, board member, fundraiser, etc. I came to financial advising after 10 years of fundraising and development experience in the nonprofit sector. I believed that everyone deserved to have a robust financial plan; not just the philanthropists and foundations we were working with so I decided to shift my career in a different direction and become a financial advisor.

Over the last few years my work has garnered recognition at both the local and national level. In 2022 I was recognized by the Albany Business Review as one of their “40 under 40” honorees and just last month, Investopedia named me one of their Top 100 Financial Advisors of 2023 and one of the Leading Women Advisors of 2023 recognizing me for my efforts in furthering financial literacy in our community.

Can you share with us a little about what your mission and goals are with your company?

I became a financial advisor to help others achieve their personal, professional, and financial goals. Early on in my financial career I realized that financial literacy and business acumen were NOT topics I studied with my music degrees. So, I started out by teaching some core financial concepts in small group settings, locally presenting a few small ‘lunch and learns‘ and working with other small business owners. Then I expanded to Opera America and served as a resource to their community. My work spread from there and in 2018 Virtuoso Advising for Artists was formalized.

The mission of Virtuoso Advising for Artists was to provide education and income opportunities for fellow artists. What started as a “passion project” and a side hustle quickly grew. Over the last year we served over 26 different organizations including The Metropolitan Opera, New World Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Chamber Music America, the Recording Academy, Houston Grand Opera and more – reaching hundreds of performers through our individual coaching and seminars.

Through all this, I kept my “day job” as a financial advisor. I worked for larger companies until 2021 when I branched out on my own and founded Virtuoso Asset Management LLC (VAM). I believe we’re the first RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) in the country exclusively dedicated to serving artists and supporters of the arts through financial planning and asset management services. My goal in starting my own investment firm was to have the freedom of working with the artists and individuals I felt called to support but also to create a greater impact in our community by starting our 1% For the Arts initiative. As individuals, yes, we need to save money and invest for the future, but what if we invested with a firm that gives back and creates an impact in the areas that matter most to us? Both Virtuoso companies donate 1% of their gross revenue to an arts 501c3 that’s nominated and selected by our “VAM Fam“- the clients and stakeholders we serve. This allows us to “do well while doing good” which is at the heart of both of our companies.

I’ll add that in my experience, I’ve seen too many talented, amazing artists leaving the industry due to fear, frustration, and burnout caused by financial inconsistency. My hope is to build a whole generation of empowered, savvy artists who have the knowledge-base and systems needed to master the financial side of their career. The world needs art and beauty and we need to ensure that the creators and artists behind that essential work are living a sustainable lifestyle.

You shared with me about your recent work on recording video tutorials and plans for a subscription service. Can you share a bit about that?

There’s only so much I can cover in one 90 minute workshop or seminar, so I created The Virtuoso Academy as an online learning place where artists could go deeper into the topics that most resonated with them. It’s a series of different modules that can be watched in succession or viewed a la carte with downloadable templates and tools. Essentially, it’s the semester-long class we didn’t get in school with over 20 hours of content and topics geared toward the freelancing creative professional.

Currently, the Academy is closed as we update a few classes with the changing financial rules from the Secure Act 2.0 and last year’s tax law changes, but we will re-open this fall as part of a larger Virtuoso Membership program – essentially, we’re dropping the price and adding more content including LIVE workshops on organizing your business, accounting and tax prep, starting your side hustle, and more. Right now, the materials lean heavily toward freelance performers but we’re already working on diversifying the offerings for arts administrators, studio artists, and more. Essentially, the new iteration is a more engaging online community where artists can learn about and talk about all things money!

As an artist you have a great perspective on the particular financial challenges they face. How has that helped you in the development of your vision?

Everything we do is to try to solve a problem or address a need. Virtuoso Advising for Artists started by wanting to help artists feel more empowered and informed around the financial aspects of their career and I’m constantly asking myself “What more can we do? How can we reach and help more artists? Where’s the need?” In my seminars and coaching, I always ask participants what’s “top of mind” and those questions and concerns become the seed for the new course, or the new topic area we need to develop – to put answers out there and provide clarification where needed.

Anything you would like to share that you have coming up that would be of interest to our community?

I’m excited to share that I’m singing again after a 8-ish year hiatus in which I started my family and built my businesses. I suppose I share this to say that a career in the arts is not always linear! I had the chance to participate in the Mostly Modern Festival this year in Saratoga Springs and be a part of the inaugural year of their Modern Vocal Projects initiative. I’m looking forward to more performances and collaboration in our local area and hopefully a holiday concert or Messiah as the year-end rolls around!

Marion Roach Smith : International Author Cultivates a Crop of Creative Success

June 29, 2023 By Corey Aldrich

Last month I received the most wonderful surprise in my email inbox. It opened saying, “Corey, many thanks for the vibrant newsletter bringing me up to date on ACE. Nicely done!” It continued, “If there is a place for my expertise through ACE, I’d be glad to share it.” This was followed up by an offer to meet, which as you can imagine, I readily accepted!

Marion Roach Smith is the author of four books, including ‘The Memoir Project’ and ‘A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life.‘ A former staffer at The New York Times, she has been a commentator on NPR’s ‘All Things Considered‘ and a talk show host on Sirius Satellite Radio. ACE! caught up with her to find out more about her foray into online teaching and why she is so passionate to share what she has learned with early career and established creatives alike.

Marion Roach Smith : Author and Founder at The Memoir Project | Image: Provided

Can you please state your name, title and what you do? And can you tell us about how you got to the development of your educational business, ‘The Memoir Project?’

I’m Marion Roach Smith. I’m a writer, memoir coach and memoir teacher, the author of four books, and the principal of The Memoir Project, where we teach memoir in all its forms digitally to clients worldwide.

I began writing memoir in my 20s, when I wrote a piece for The New York Times Magazine that turned out to be the original first-person account from a family coping with Alzheimer’s disease. I wound up on NBC’s Today Show the day after it was published (the first of my four appearances on the show). A few days later, a colleague at the Times said to me, “Nice piece of memoir,” and I thought, “I wrote memoir?” Against all the advice I was getting, I quit the newspaper, and before I was 27, I was a freelancer in New York City.

A writer has to support herself, so along the way I’ve published four books that covered my interest in nonfiction, the most recent of which is The Memoir Project, A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life, published by Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group, which is now in a recently updated 2^nd edition.

The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy NY | Image: Corey Aldrich

What made you decide to start teaching memoir writing?

In the early 1990s, I was a board member of The Arts Center of the Capital Region, including the period where it moved from the grand old brownstone on Washington Square Park to its place on Monument Square, where I’m proud to note that it anchored the rebirth of downtown Troy. During one board meeting, I was complaining yet again that the writing program was less about practical skills than about what we might call woo-woo, and the then-president, Raona Roy, said, “If it’s not what you like, why don’t you teach here?” So…I taught memoir there for 21 glorious years.

Why did you make the move to online teaching?

Around the dawn of the internet, my sister, Margaret Roach, was Editorial Director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and one of her accomplishments was creating the digital presence for everything Martha. After she left that job, she invited me, with two other women, to start The Sister Project, a blog where we wrote about women and their bonds to one another. She suggested I write a post on memoir, which I did, and it went viral. So did the next post on memoir. Then she said, “Why don’t you write a book on memoir?” It was during a recession, and even though between the two of us we had published six books with major publishers, there was no enthusiasm for the idea. So we turned to The Troy Book Makers, and published my little book under the title Realia: Writing What You Know. We sold every copy. When the recession started to lift, I took the book to my agent at ICM/CAA, who said, “Let’s take this to market.” The book was renamed and reissued under its current name, The Memoir Project.

It was my sister who said that the online teaching market was just about to explode. So, I got started in 2015, with a single, entry-level course, which I still teach under the title “Memoirama.” My overhead was $49.95 a month for a program called GoToWebinar.

We’ve grown course-by-course and student-by-student, and now we have a global reach, so that I hear muzzeins in Karachi and say good morning to students in New Zealand as the day is winding down in Upstate New York. I teach four different live classes online and have five recorded classes. I’m really proud of Qwerty, a podcast by, for and about writers, which just dropped its 100^th episode. More than 1,000 students take our classes and webinars each year, and the bookshelves in my office hold more than 70 volumes written by my students and clients. Books are only a part of memoir, though. Three students have published Modern Love columns in the New York Times, and I’ve lost track of how many pieces our students have published on op-ed pages and websites around the country.

Authors Marion Roach Smith and William Kennedy | Image: Provided

Can you give us an example of who you work with?

All of my classes are taught assuring my clients of confidentiality. This brings out the truth and supports the intimacy of their tale. We do not use a camera in my classes – that is, no Zoom – and we use only first names, which sometimes aren’t the clients’ real names. That supports the writers completely, and it enables them to write their stories without fear.

Of course, some authors offer me credit. Like Kirsten Gillibrand, our U.S. Senator, who says she kept my little book at her side as she wrote her book, ‘Off the Sidelines.’ But I don’t want to take credit for the work of my students because, in the end, what is published is absolutely their work.

Authors Huma Abedin and Marion Roach Smith | Image: Provided

Do you teach in person anymore, or is your work only online?

Well, I’m often invited to interview writers on public platforms. For the New York State Writers’ Institute, for example, I’ve interviewed Huma Abedin and Paulina Porizkova, among others, and I’ve led workshops on memoir at the A lbany Book Festival.

Authors Marion Roach Smith and Paulina Porizkova | Image: Provided

This year will be the 8^th annual Brava!, a program I founded that is now a partnership between the YWCA of the Greater Capital Region and The Arts Center of the Capital Region. It takes place at the Arts Center, and this year’s will on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 9. It’s a night of curated readings about the role of brassieres in our lives, and the admission requires the donation of a new brassiere for people in need of a new bra.

It began when my family wanted to donate to the Y’s holiday gift program, to benefit families living at the YWCA-GCR. The family we drew listed presents the mom hoped to give her three kids and, for herself, she wrote, “I would like a bra. I don’t have one.” And I thought, “Without a bra, a woman can’t go on a job interview, and most of us can’t present ourselves in public.” So far, we have raised 4,000 bras for people who need them. Every year has featured readings that bring the house down – with laughter and tears and simply wonderful storytelling. This year promises to be nothing less. Tickets will go on sale in October.

Brava! A Fundraiser for the YWCA of the Greater Capital Region | Image: Provided

Any thoughts on how upstate artists might get involved with online teaching?

Absolutely. It’s still a growing industry, and it is a way for a creative person to make a living while working from home. It begins by finding your market differentiator: What are you good at? What can you teach? And how can you start small and envision growing to the correct size so that you don’t take on too much too fast? These are the questions I’d suggest any artist be prepared to answer.

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to own the business myself, and not teach on one of the large sides, like Udemy or Thinkific, because when you teach on those sites, they own your mailing list and the titles of your courses. I wondered what might happen if we built this ourselves from scratch. So I started with a small mailing list and did everything myself – hand-registering every student. I began with a weekly newsletter and one course, and grew it, student-by-student, from there. I eventually took on a virtual assistant, a woman in the Pacific Northwest who specializes in handling online writing teachers, and an operations manager in Nashville, a writer himself who specializes in online marketing.

Here’s the thing: E-learning is projected to be a $350 billion industry by 2025. I think creative people ought to be fully invested in that.

In closing, how can someone learn more about your courses?

The way my courses are structured, writers begin learning the principles of writing what you know, and then they can work all the way through the structure of a whole book in a course we call ‘The Master Class.’ Once they have that first draft, they can then work with one of the several very talented editors who work under our Memoir Project umbrella. Courses are at different price points, and offer regular online free webinars.

All the courses are listed at marionroach.com. Make sure to join the mailing list for regular updates and info.

Olivia Clemente : Synergizing Community One Event at a Time

June 29, 2023 By Corey Aldrich

I met Olivia in person earlier this year as I needed to coordinate with her for a series of events that I am producing in Franklin Alley in downtown Troy and wanted to coordinate with the BID. Personable and energized, I was excited about doing some joint promotion with her. Then came Troy’s first annual TROY PRIDE event, a new programmatic initiative that Olivia spearheaded with downtown business owners. The streets were packed, so many folks from Albany and around the region! I realized I needed to get a better understanding of what makes this capable woman tick.

Olivia Clemente : Executive Director at the TROY BID | Photo: Corey Aldrich

Please state your name, title and organization. What are you responsible for and what is a typical day for you on the job.

My name is Olivia Clemente, Executive Director of the Downtown Troy Business Improvement District. I am responsible for the overall administration, financial management, and day-to-day activities of the BID, but in a more simple terms I work for the people who live in Downtown Troy and the businesses that reside here. I work to help bring people to our downtown and explore all of the businesses and experience what we have to offer. If I’m not busy in event planning mode, I spend most of my days visiting Downtown Troy establishments, speaking to them about what makes them unique, how long they’ve been serving the community and what they would like to see in Downtown. I always like to ask, “What would make a difference? What do you want to see happen in this area.” I try my best to listen to everyone and make their suggestions and ideas a reality, whether it’s an event, block party or a new marketing campaign, I’ll always say “I can try!”

Chalk Drawings at Troy’s Riverfest | Image: Provided

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to be in this position? In addition to working with a lot of creative talent as an event producer, how do you keep your creativity alive?

I’ve been in a lot of different industries since I was in college. I received a BA from Manhattan College and stayed in the city after I graduated, I spent about five years in Manhattan and worked in public relations, ad sales, events and political fundraising, I like to think I’m well versed in the changing media around us. I spent time as an intern at the Bronx Zoo with the Wildlife Conservation Society as their events intern, worked as an Ad Sales Admin at a start-up for mobile apps, went to a high-profile PR firm and my last hoorah in NYC – NBC Universal where I worked on public relations and social media for an ecommerce division of the Golf Channel.

I moved back to Upstate New York in 2019, and I decided to take a dive into the political world, I worked for the NYS Assembly where I started as a Press Coordinator for three downstate members and then I moved onto handling fundraising and events for the minority conference, I developed more fundraising initiatives for the conference turning a focus on the different regions of NYS and creating fundraisers that were more creative than your regular cocktail hour, I always try to make experiences fun for everyone involved and have them looking forward to the next one.

Contemporary Circus and Immersive Arts Center Performance at Troy Pride | Photo: Duncan Crary

I joined the Downtown Troy Business Improvement District in 2021 as the Director of Events and Partnerships. My first month on the job I was tasked with getting events that had been stalled due to COVID-19 back up and running, it wasn’t a small task to take on, but I managed to bring back Riverfest, Rockin on the River and Chowderfest. I went into 2023 taking over the Executive Director position of the BID. My main focus was to continue to hold “OG events” like the aforementioned in addition to retooling our popular Pig Out event. Additionally, I initiated additional events including the Hot Chocolate Stroll, Pride Night Out, Collar City Pop and a College Student Focused Block Party. I always have more up my sleeve, but for right now I’m working on getting people back to Downtown Troy.

When it comes to events or marketing I would definitely say I have a more creative approach to taking things on, I am always asking businesses or people in the community what they would like to see and then I begin to think like a consumer, so I try to think, “Would I want to see this at an event? Would this make me want to come back to visit? Is this appealing to me or people I know?”

Troy Glo in Downtown Troy. Installation by Adam Frelin | Images: Provided

Troy has a lot of creative economy businesses and arts / cultural organizations. How do you take advantage of the creativity of these downtown partners to raise awareness about how cool downtown Troy is?

Last year I worked with the Arts Center of the Capital Region during their exhibit ‘Troy Glo.’ We decided to bring business and art together by putting together a “bar crawl” that would get people to visit our downtown businesses. The BID created the bar crawl map to guarantee you walked past every installation of the ‘Troy Glo‘ project. Having an art pop-ups like this in our downtown is important to me as they can provide additional traffic to our businesses while creating quality of life for residents and out of town guests alike. People want to walk around and see art and as they’re walking around they can pop into a retail shop or a coffee shop and I love that.

I know another big thing for me right now is using our local artists that live in Downtown Troy to develop our marketing collateral for downtown events. I’ve currently worked with four Downtown Troy artists: to develop our Collar City Pop invites, Hot Chocolate Stroll poster, Pride Night Out and Pig Out collateral. All of the artist have been Troy natives and they are all so talented. I give them a lot of freedom in the design process. I’m going to continue using artists that live in Troy since this is an economy I care about.

Volunteer Day for Neighborhood Clean Up in Troy NY | Image: Provided

What are your current goals in the job, things you would like to do with it?

I have a lot of goals, I know an ‘Adopt-a-Block’ is on my plate of goals to accomplish, I’d love to work to do clean-ups block-by-block downtown and work with other organizations and businesses in Downtown Troy to make a difference, even if I clean one wall of graffiti tags, fix one store window, or work to get a beautiful piece of art on the side of a building, I’ll feel accomplished in my role of getting the community engaged in quality-of-life. Currently, this program is being implemented for 2024, so stay tuned for more information!

For things I am currently working on, I am hunkered down on bringing more tourism to Troy and making our downtown the place to visit. I can share we are currently working on creating better walking guides for the community that will showcase an easy to read map, a list of our businesses, a historical walking tour and a public art guide, all of this is currently in production and should be ready before the holiday season.

Olivia Doing an Event Install at Whiskey Pickle in Troy NY | Image: Provided

Anything coming up that you are especially excited about or want to share with our readers?

We have a heavy event schedule coming up. Pig Out returns on Sunday July 16. Our Rockin on the River series starts Wednesday June 28 and running every other Wednesday until August 9th, for the first time ever, we are putting together our very own College Block Party on Sunday, September 10 to welcome the students of RPI, Russell Sage and Hudson Valley Community College back to Downtown Troy. We are working to showcase to the students what the downtown has to offer while also having each school’s student organizations pop-up around downtown’s Monument Square to pass information out to friends, family and new students. It’s the downtown’s way of showing their love for the students who live and play here too!

Downtown Troy is on the rise, we have so much going on from new businesses, new public art programming and housing options, I’d say Troy is the place to be right now and it’s time everyone schedules a visit!

Albany Artisans : A Philosophical Approach to Restoration

May 31, 2023 By Corey Aldrich

It all began when I started seeing an unrecognized acorn logo and cool images of remodels and restoration work in amazing historic buildings. I think the Instagram algorithm recommended Albany Artisans to me due to my connection with Kelsea Adams (Currently a Project Manager for the firm), a previous Electric City Couture alum. So…I had my eye out with some future thought of finding out who these folks were, what their story was. Then as luck would have it, I got an introduction to firm founder Christopher Hacker by Michelle Toch Dinsmore of Overit Media with a strong recommendation that we should connect…and so we did.

Christopher Hacker – *Owner / Founder* at Albany Artisans | Photo Credit : Corey Aldrich

Can you please state your name, title and what you do. How long has Albany Artisans been in existence? What is the mission and motivation?

I am Christopher Hacker, I am a carpenter, and I am the owner of Albany Artisans. Together with Project Manager Kelsea Adams we manage a team that practices the art of historic restoration and the revival of historic homes. As a restorer and preservationist I believe “You should participate in the lineage of your home.”

It’s kinda funny to say this now, but I was a preservationist before I knew what a preservationist was, though I certainly do know now. In 1997 I took an apprenticeship with a carpenter who was restoring 604 Madison Ave. I had no experience in the trade. Honestly, I needed a job, and with that turn of events it grew into a livelihood that then flourished into passion.

Recent Preservation Merit Awards (2019 / 2021) | Christopher Hacker and Kelsea Adams
Photo : Provided

26 years ago with the encouragement of my mentor, I acquired my family’s generational home. We envisioned making the space into an artisans guild right here in Albany. At that time I was making and repairing stained glass windows, though my bread and butter came from restoration carpentry.

It was a big deal when we found the 1920 ‘s architectural drawings for this home, which are hanging on my wall today. These drawings gave us the ability to rebuild the front porch as originally intended. This was the first time I presented a proposed project to the Historic Resource Commission. They loved the intent to re-build it just the way it once was, (Actually I remember them being more interested in who the architect was). We were given the green light….and Albany Artisans was born.

Currently we’re a team of 8, I believe that our shared attitude, approach and passion attracts others to join up with the Artisans. I am proud to share that I was nominated and joined the commission in 2020.

Minton Tile Restoration Process at the New York State Capitol | Photo : Provided

Any projects that you are especially proud of?

I would say having the opportunity to work in and walk the halls of the New York State Capitol. (Restoring original Minton tiles that had been covered in carpet/glue) Also, the Marcus T Reynolds Superintendent House in Albany Rural Cemetery.

For me the largest accomplishment is being chosen as the Construction Manager of the Saratoga Sword Surrender Site where I was working directly with the National Park System at the Saratoga Battlefield.

Facade Restoration and Replacement Doors | Photo : Provided

Any interesting projects you are working on currently that you would like to share?

The restoration of the Turner Farmhouse, which has been added to the National Historic Registry of Historic Places. Outside of the norm we’ve recently been asked to revive a 1930’s train caboose which was left on an historic property south of Albany overlooking the Hudson…Wild, we’re in! Additionally, we are running a concurrent team that is in the middle of a bathroom remodel at a silo house in Chatham.

Christopher Hacker Gets Philosophical | Photo Credit : Corey Aldrich

I see you have degrees in Philosophy and Anthropology. So many things are laser focused these days, I feel that can be limiting. Can you talk a little bit about the benefits of having a bigger vision in what you do?

True, I do have a Philosophy and Anthropology degree. Aristotle’s empiricism, and thoughts on potentiality and actualization grabbed hold of me, I believe we are products of our environment. We’re always processing sensory information from our shared environment. We all uniquely make our own connections to the past, be it a city park, a particular building, a corner store or curved glass window.

We feel a big sense of loss when these cherished spaces are destroyed by fire or demolition, and carted off to the landfill.

Since our inception I would say everything that we have accomplished and learned contributes to the next restoration project. The beauty of an old house is its unpredictability and we are always ready to learn more.

Albany Artisans Team Members on the Job | Photo Credit : Corey Aldrich

Bonus question…anything we should know about that you have coming up in the near future? Goals?

I would like to restore the James Hall Office. which is a National Historic Landmark in Albany’s Lincoln Park. He is considered the father of modern paleontology. He dug the mastodon from the Cohoes Falls and was also the first Director of the New York State Museum, I would like to have a part in creating a Discovery center as a historic adaptive re-use, highlighting his lineage of mentorship.

Second, be to find a personal assistant and continue to build the Albany Artisans Army! Any takers? Drop me a note… albanyartisans(@)gmail.com.

Albany Artisans | Photo Credit : Corey Aldrich

(AI) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PART II OF III | AI NOW : Expert Perspectives

May 30, 2023 By Taliesin Thomas

This 3-part series on the expanding prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) considers this topic with respect to art and the creative economies in our region and beyond. Our first installment (I of III) explored the basic definitions of A.I. to set the stage for discussion. In this second segment, we hear from local professionals who amplify our perspective on A.I. and its significance in the wider arts fields especially. In the final segment to come, we will profile regional artists working with AI in interesting and fantastical ways.

*Alice in Wonderland Sculpture* in Central Park, NYC
Photo Credit : Taliesin Thomas (2023)

Let’s be real: AI is becoming increasingly conspicuous—and legitimately freakish!—as diverse subsets report on this topic within their distinct areas of mainstream culture. Since publishing the first segment in this series three months ago, the focus on AI technology has leveled up across the board. The onslaught of news clips focusing on the various dimensions of AI have taken over the airwaves and the entertaining nature of the headlines are provocative enough to rouse our prying further into the amplifying world of AI. Here are a few recent examples:

– AI, WTF Do You Know About Pain?
– Can AI Treat Mental Illness?
– Instant Videos Could Represent the Next Leap in AI Technology
– AI Portraits of Republicans in Drag to Get You Through the Week
– AI Images Visualizing Trump’s Arrest Send Internet Into a Frenzy
– How Hot Are You? Art Collective MSCHF’s New Chat Site Lets A.I. Do the Evaluating

And if these assorted click-bait stories are not engrossing enough, an episode of Tonight with John Oliver offers a witty spoof of an AI-generated Eminem rhapsody, yet another example of the absurdities associated with the ‘creative’ (and snarky) uses of AI amid a wide cultural swath.

Admittedly I have been pursuing the radical dialogue surrounding AI down various rabbit holes of inquiry and investigation. Like many of us, I am keen to learn more around what exactly is happening in the burgeoning technological landscape of AI to understand the ‘real-time’ applications and expressions of this machine-driven intelligence. I have also been discussing AI with friends and colleagues alike, and nearly everyone has a story to share regarding their concerns about AI—algorithms. For some, the exploration of digital domains such as Second Life and other realms of cybernated titillation that were once newfangled digital-experiences but are now considered dated and average.

Street art in Austin, TX | Photo Credit : Taliesin Thomas (2023)

To provide a brief synopsis of what AI is doing today, let us recall the two basic categories that define it: there is the generative ‘narrow’ form of AI that can create image or write text as demonstrated by Midjourney, ChatGPT and Stability.AI. These platforms perform one narrowly defined task or smaller set of related tasks. There is also the generative ‘general’ form of AI that demonstrates intelligent behavior across a range of cognitive tasks, such as the highly versatile technology seen in movies. General programs must be taught with minimal instructions and are given massive amounts of data to filter in which to do that, and these programs essentially teach themselves.

Apparently, all the AI currently in use is a ‘narrow’ form of AI and thus limited, however, we are seeing the ‘deep learning’ capability of AI technology is indeed getting defter—or weirder in some cases. Furthermore, some AI programs confidently spout false information, effectively hallucinating and providing dubious and downright dishonest theses. The data sets for these programs are majority male and white male to boot, so bias input equates bias output. Thus, AI theory and AI practice provide different results and the colossal amount of ‘training data’ found on the internet provides an endless trash-heap with respect to questionable content.

Attempts to filter out racist and other problematic content reveals the intensely convoluted nature of what are we are dealing with.

AI Chatbot Goes Rogue, Confesses Love for User, Asks Him to End his Marriage

As such, everyone is questioning the hullabaloo surrounding AI, and the prevailing census strikes me as apprehension mixed with a dose of curiosity. What are we most concerned about when we consider the broader implications of AI—other than already embedded AI operations such as email spam filters—and its seemingly insuppressible development? How can we manage our human insecurities regarding AI’s unconstrained influence in the creative sector? We turned to two local experts to further unfurl the conversation about AI’s potential and peril.

Professor James Hendler | Photo Credit : Corey Aldrich

Recently I met with Professor James Hendler at the Center for Industrial Innovation at RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). Professor Hendler is a leading scholar on the topic of AI, he is also the Director of the Future of Computing Institute and the Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Sciences at RPI and the Director of the RPI-IBM Artificial Intelligence Research Collaboration. A data scientist with interests in AI and machine learning, semantic data integration, and the use of data in government, Professor Hendler has authored over 450 books, technical papers, and articles in the areas of AI and data policy and governance.

Professor Hendler’s mind simultaneously works along many fascinating channels. It was a thrill to have a private audience with a thought leader of our time. As we dug deeper into the AI discourse, we encountered many complex areas ripe for discussion, everything from unknowable depths of the human psyche and the mystical-cum-analytic tradition of the ancient Torah to the imaginative realms of Dungeons & Dragons to the provocative misuse of AI to create ‘synthetic pornography.’ We also considered some of the real-time concerns over AI, such as authorship, composition, slander, and so on.

Professor Hendler referred to AI’s ability to ‘operationalize’ in a super-human capacity, since now “We are seeing computers do something they have never done before…” he remarked. He went on to clarify, however, that: “When we say it’s super-human, we are not there yet and even when we are, it’s unclear to me what that will mean.” Speaking of AI’s output, Professor Hendler stated in no uncertain terms that: “These things have no intentionality. Their intention comes from us.” He described his own uses of AI and his experimentation with the AI program DALL-E to generate images of atypical rabbi’s, including African American women in the role.

AI-generated Image by Professor James Hendler in Collaboration with DALL-E
Photo Credit : James Hendler (2023)

“We are going to have to keep falling back on undefined terms, on things that we as humans don’t understand how we do,” he commented. Professor Hendler then went on to invoke a quote by the late theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, stating that “AI will get to the point where it will self-evolve, and at that point, that becomes an existential threat.” He posed a poignant question in response: “Why? What is the ecological niche we would be competing in?”

He also suggested that concerns around AI reflect our human tendency to “project out” with respect to uncertain futures. The so-called mystical side of AI also inspired many compelling ideas. “I actually believe that a lot of this stuff, when you really get into the depth of it, takes us way away from the mysticism and right into the grounding of politics.” As we rounded the corner on our conversation, I asked a final question: “Is AI changing what it means to be an artist?” with regard to ownership and accomplishment. Professor Hendler then spoke about the first guys to make Mickey Mouse cartoons and their feeling of pride in figuring out the process of animating them. “Now the question is, what is the thing that makes that an accomplishment? It was not the physical act of getting the dots on to the paper,” he stated.

Street art in Troy, NY | Photo Credit : Taliesin Thomas (2023)

After that compelling conversation with Professor Hendler, I followed-up with another leading local voice on these topics, V. Owen Bush. As a designer, filmmaker, producer, and founder of the Scan2Plan 3D mapping company, Bush has been involved in creative immersive technologies and digital output programs since the early 1990s.

V. Owen Bush | Photo Credit : Corey Aldrich

His work has been seen in venues worldwide including digital planetariums, live concerts, events, IMAX 3D, and broadcast television. Bush approaches AI from an innovative angle: “There are a lot of creative applications for AI,” he explains. “From a visual arts standpoint, I think AI will be disruptive to certain craft artists versus artists with more conceptual heft behind their work.” Bush suggests that AI is a contemporary extension of a similar trend that started with Andy Warhol in the 1960s and was later cemented in the 1980s with production style artists such as Jeff Koons, Mark Kostabi, and Julian Schnabel—artists whose work was effectively “…factory produced and the artist just needed to put their signature on it,” he commented. Bush rented in a building in New York City that was home to Koons and Kostabi’s studios, and he visited them frequently during that era. Speaking as someone who has seen the evolution of artistic technologies since the pre-internet days, Bush asserts: “AI is merely an extension of that trend.”

In the next and final installment (III of III), we will profile regional artists working with AI in interesting and fantastical ways.

Taliesin Thomas, Ph.D. is an artist-philosopher, writer, lecturer, and collector based in Troy, NY. Since 2007, she is the founding director of AW Asia and the collection manager of Art Issue Editions—two private art collections based in New York that are the foundation for collaborations and projects with artists and museums
worldwide. Thomas has lectured and published widely on contemporary art. She is the director of the Critical Forum program at the Arts Center for the Capital Region, NY and she is a faculty member at School of Visual Arts, NY. Thomas studied studio art, aesthetics, theory, and philosophy at Bennington College, Columbia University, and The Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts.