With The Wave ™ (For Humans), you can expect engaging craft conversations, resources, noteworthy projects, and the people behind them. As the offspring of a professional athlete, I was born into sports but bloomed in the arts. We will travel the terrain where art, media, and culture intersect while navigating what it means to be human in the age of AI.

I’m a late adopter when it comes to social platforms. I love tech, but forging human connections on apps has been a struggle in my creative practice and in my business. I remember when human creativity reigned in those spaces. It was an exciting way to share the work you were most proud of and connect with other artists and new clients.

Private groups actually felt private. It’s how I learned who was doing what and where in the arts world. It’s how I planned a launch party or a performance. It’s how I funded my first film, White Space, on Indiegogo before crowdfunding medical procedures and funerals became commonplace. I can’t help but consider the ways that artists have shaped the culture of social media the past fifteen years, or how deeply I wish to reclaim authentic community engagement practices in this moment.

As a community artist, my social media accounts and those of my fellow creatives often serve as triage bulletin boards. Someone posts about death or suffering and a random “haha” emoji from a bot or a human deployed by some inappropriate use of the haha emoji regime slices through the love and care reactions. From deep fake videos to AI generated info-carousels with no citations, the range of social media content online highlights just how unserious this swap meet has become. An authentic offering of a poem or a photograph seems performative and futile amidst the noisy feed.

It feels like I’m trying to meet up with my friends in '“standing room only” at a crowded outdoor concert with no cell service. It’s dark. It’s loud. I’m too short to see over the sweaty dude rocking side to side and swiping the air with his heavy arm inches from my face. I want to be where my people are, but I have asthma and the clouds of smoke from the intermittent pyrotechnics and scented vape are way too much.

The tension headache between the work I do for clients, and how I personally feel about authentic human connection when it comes to my creative projects isn’t something an ibuprofen can fix. When some of my favorite tender-hearted artists made their exit from social media platforms last year, I wanted to follow them into that good (or presumedly better)night. I’m not sure that social media spaces were ever capable of feeding our authentic creativity or connection with our audience as artists. Or even as humans.

I’m still rooting for those who are finding their way, and those who’ve thrived on the margins and in the places large language models (LLMs) aren’t looking until the next wave hits!

Thanks for signing up for The Wave™

Maya

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