The Adjacent Possible® Blog
The science of creativity, the art of the possible.Get weekly Art & Creativity Tips on the blog from Nancy Hillis
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Art, Fiction & Imaginary Friends
Are people we will never know fundamentally different than fictional people we create, at least as regards relationships?
E-Plumbing & The Architecture Of Meaning
In an analogy with plumbing connecting buildings to a common system, Bruce Sawhill coined the term “e-plumbing,” tying information systems together with code. In a networked world, the individual pieces may appear, disappear, or morph, but the network remains. The “buildings” may come and go, but the “street network” persists and grows. E-plumbing comes up whenever one wants to have one piece of software talk to another. A protocol for communication has to be established as well as a protocol for change, meaning that changing one element does not require changing the whole system.
Art, Patterns, Memetic Barium & Memes
Memetic barium is a term coined by Bruce. It is a tool for tracing ideas. It has a light and dark side. The light side is seeing if your ideas are visible in the world which can be gratifying if you’re feeling like a lonely voice crying out into the wilderness. The dark side is when copyists steal your work without attribution. We predict that AI large language models (LLMs) will find fertile ground in tracing stolen ideas and intellectual property violations because of their enormous knowledge base of written material. The paradox is that LLMs will also be good at stealing ideas and we’re already seeing evidence of this.
Art: Winter’s Antidote
A Story About Bears As many of you who follow this blog know, Nancy and Bruce recently went on a hike through the High Sierra, a singular realm of white granite, azure lakes, steep snowfields, and rushing streams. One of the things that came up a lot, besides how much our legs hurt, was the issue of bears. Nancy was very concerned about bears, clearly having been deeply influenced by the story of Goldilocks when she was a small child. What if we're eaten by bears? It didn't...
The Artist’s Journey: Experimental Painting & The Adjacent Possible 2023
Being an artist is about stepping into the unknown, allowing “not knowing”, accessing the adjacent possible & continually evolving your art.
The Adjacent Possible: Book Reading
At the pivot point between creation and collapse, you’ll experience a state of poised instability. This is the art and science of the possible- a world of continuous creation.
Return From Parnassus
Return From Parnassus Everybody celebrates and chronicles peak experiences. We are no exception. We returned from an epic backpacking trip in the granite fastness of the California High Sierra ten days ago. Our pictures attest to the amazing scenery. What Nobody Talks About But there’s an aspect of peak experiences that almost nobody talks about. What happens afterwards? What happens after the Olympic awards ceremony when the anthem plays and the medal...
Climbing Parnassus
Of all the stone cathedrals I’ve ever visited, the granite vaults of the Sierra outshine them all, grander and older.
Of all the stunning medieval stained glass I’ve ever seen, the high azure lakes embraced by the Sierra outdo them all.
My soul sings in the high haunts of the mountain gods, as powerful as Bach’s organ music to me.
Each visit is a sacrament rather than just a hike, each step gradus ad Parnassum, a visit to a temple no human could ever build.
The Adjacent Possible Guidebook: Reader’s Favorite Gold Medal
The Adjacent Possible Guidebook: Reader's Favorite Gold Medal A bluebird showed up the other day. Our newest book, The Adjacent Possible: Guidebook & Stories Of Artistic Transformation won an International Book Award: Reader's Favorite Gold Medal! Reader's Favorite International Book Award: Gold Medal Book Trailer From our studio to yours, Nancy & Bruce P.S. Find out what all the fuss is about. Get your copy of the award-winning book The Adjacent Possible:...
Abstract Painting, Fiction & The Adjacent Possible
Abstract Painting, Fiction & The Adjacent Possible Sunrise and Fog. A couple of days ago, a fine early autumn morning, Nancy and Bruce beheld a surprising visual phenomenon. We saw the sun emerge from a typical morning coastal fog bank, a hazy disk. For a few seconds, the sun was perfectly framed by power lines, three wires evenly spaced that *exactly* fit the sun between them, with the swirling fog all around. There were several elements of chance...
Dreams Never Die
A life lived completely out of pragmatic concerns makes a person into a machine, and those lives may be the ones most likely to be replaced by machines.
Small Worlds, Kevin Bacon & The Adjacent Possible
The adjacent possible in one context could precipitate a revolution in another.
QUIZ: What's Your #1 Artist Archetype?
Some artists create amazing art with ease, while others struggle year after year to express themselves.
What's going on? Could it be about how you approach your art?
Take the Artist's Archetype Quiz and find out.
