📙 #080 - AI, Analogue and Authenticity
In which I pull myself back from the precipice of mansplaining a thing; a hodgepodge of a newsletter this week.
My eyes keep flicking to the calendar that’s gradually making it’s way off the top of the speaker next to my monitor. A reminder that there’s a lot going on, but it’ll be okay if I neatly slot everything in. Tomorrow is newsletter, Riso, catch up with a friend, and conference day; DAM and Museums 2026 + Digital Preservation Summit 2026: Securing Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age, fwiw.
I have a headache, I should probably drink more water but I don’t want to, my glasses feel like an enemy, I can see the words on the screen clearly but everything else around the edge of my vision smears sickeningly.
I have a newsletter to write today otherwise tomorrow is screwed, which fucks up Friday, but we’re only about 10% of the way through the year, plenty of time to catch up.
Thankfully Anna Lucia posted the below to her IG stories the other day, which got me thinking, and was going to make this whole thing a lot easier.
# A SIDE NOTE ON PROCESS
I got up at 6am, went through the morning routine, got my shit together, grabbed my phone to put some music on, and just before heading out the door opened Instagram on my laptop and saw the story posted above.
I had thoughts, so I grabbed my Sony dictaphone, and in pretty much a stream of consciousness spoke them out as I walked the 25mins to the studio. A few days worth of audio notes had built up, mostly around ideas for the next newsletter, so I finally plugged it into the computer and told the AI to deal with it.
You don’t need to read the text in the screenshot below, there’s honestly too much for too little payoff, but I thought some people may be interested in the process.
I don’t use AI to help me write these newsletters (which is probably obvious) - I even stopped using Grammerly when they started shoving too much AI into it - I liked it telling me when to add or remove commas and stick in a semi-colon; I didn’t like it suggesting I re-write whole paragraphs or asking me if I need help getting started.
I do use AI to transcribe my voice notes and update Obsidian with what I’ve asked it to update my notes with 😁
# SHOWING THE PROCESS
Right, back to this…
“It doesn’t help that glossy, computer-made work can now be mistaken for AI either; clean, high-fidelity digital craft has become suspect by default, making handmade a safer choice”
Just that little snippet was enough for me to have an enjoyable time riffing on various ways to explain why analogue can be easily faked, making it a no better alternative than digital craft. That you don’t need to switch from digital anyway, the part that’s missing is showing the process.
If you show the process you show the authenticity, explain the thinking, display the sketch books, make videos of the exploration.
By the time I’d arrived at my studio I had imaginarily TedTalked my way through the whole thought process.
This dictaphone is awesome, I thought, also I am very wise and my newsletter will be filled with that wisdom.
Then I read the actual article the quote came from…
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/elizabeth-goodspeed-on-analogue-creative-industry-290126
…and of course Elizabeth Goodspeed has already written everything (unsurprisingly because that’s where the pull quote comes from) better, because Elizabeth Goodspeed is an actual fucking genius, while I’m only a genius while walking on my own in the dark and the rain, speaking my thoughts out to several layers of technology, or in the shower where none of the genius gets recorded at all (but because it’s so smart I’ll definitely remember it later).
I’m just heading to the shops to buy some pain-killers, brb. 💊💊
# NEARLY ALL THOSE OTHER LINKS
“that drawing guy on YouTube” is Russell Taylor, this is the Kickstarter and here’s his YouTube channel where I spotted the videos that’ve been uploaded so they can be added to the Kickstarter, I’m guessing.
⚫️
The Interesting Conference is back (London). Russell (different Russell) says…
Interesting is a DIY conference of short presentations about things our speakers find interesting.
It’s not work, it’s not professional, it’s not networking.
Talks are 10 minutes
You can use PPT or something else or nothing
The speakers are paid. The audience is lovely. The venue is amazing.
Would you like to speak? It can be about whatever you fancy. Something you’re deeply into or something you’d just like to explore. The best topics are ones that give our speakers joy. Our audience is not looking for insights or life hacks or to be inspired. They want to see someone talk about something they’re interested in. Our unofficial motto is ‘you’re never more than 10 minutes away from something else’.
- - - -
“Would you like to speak?” - if so there’s a bunch of contact details over here: https://www.russelldavies.com/contact.html
I can’t talk at Interesting, ‘cause “It’s not work, it’s not professional, it’s not networking.” - and pretty much anything I do is actually work and very professional, ruling me out.
⚫️
Somehow all of the above makes me of this song*, which, if we ignore that the central premise is predicated on a miscommunication in the first two lines, is a banger (as the kids definitely don’t say).
⚫️
As part of website homepage tending, I started a “miniblog” https://revdancatt.com/miniblog which is just a place I can post very small updates (which isn’t twitter) mainly to amuse myself. I’ve designed it so I can only add one image per post → title, body text, image → as some sort of constraint I thought was a good idea at the time. I’m mentioning it here because I was asked if I could add an RSS/Atom feed to it, so I did, right down at the bottom of the pages (that don’t infinitely scroll).
There’s another reason for doing this which is connected to archives and archiving, but that’s for another time.
I also added RSS and Atom feeds to a bunch of other places on the website too, ‘cause I now have the code so why not.
⚫️
I was going to mention this Patreon post where I figure out what the hell I’m doing during the month: https://www.patreon.com/posts/february-themes-149730888
Which led me to discover most people start the week on Monday, and are furious about this layout.
I’ve never really thought about it before; I think I’ve ended up in the minority here ‘cause to me Wednesday is the middle of the week and the rest of the days move outwards from there, making it nice and symmetrical.
Yes I know, the weekend is the weekend and not the weekends. But I’m 53 and not going to change my way of thinking now.
⚫️
Finally, according to my notes, I’m supposed to extract just the pen plotting brushwork, because it’s the one visually interesting part from the much longer Q&A video & buried a long way into it. So here it is unlisted on YouTube, and even then the brush part doesn’t start until 40 seconds into the video.
# THE END
It’s Thursday morning, I gave up on yesterday at around 2pm with a stupid headache, I’m now sat in the Riso studio trying out some ideas based on my 80s Pop Roxy project. I’m sure all those photos will turn up in the newsletter next time.
Which, according to block universe theory will be on Thursday the 19th of February.
It has, as always, been an absolute delight talking to you, even with the headache stuff, I’m really looking forwards to the part of 2026 where things start to get better, any time now!
As always, love you all,
Dan
🧡
*Not in a bad way; in that all of my art is work, and my brain is swapping out the “dance” for Interesting.
So I can imagine standing on the stage and the audience going “We didn’t come here for (your work) art, we only came here for Interesting things”; or, from last year, robot dancing.
What can I say, I’m not entirely sure my brain is working right and this is all a fever dream.