Strands of Genius: Activating Musical Neural Pathways, Getting Lost In Screenshots, Digital Twinning

Guest curated by Mike Kasprow, Creative Advisor @ Aether Labs and looking for a new gig

Apr 25, 2024

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, MIKE KASPROW ::

LOCATION: Toronto, Canada

Hey, I’m Mike. I am a Creative Director and Business leader in Toronto. I've known Faris and Rosie for a long time. Faris and I were part of the same very dysfunctional family for a while, and we hit it off at some meeting somewhere and I've been a massive fan of theirs and the work they do since. I’m currently looking for a new meaningful gig after taking some needed time off after my last role. I've been working in Advertising and Digital design for, I’ll say it again, a long time and am currently acting as a part time advisor to Aether Labs, a CX consultancy, here in Toronto. Recently I’ve become obsessed with stories of happenstance...not because I think they are necessarily embedded with meaning but because my own application of meaning as a graft on top of them is entertaining and a little nuts.

Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): Mike is an inspiration and force of nature who has been repeatedly shown great personal and professional kindness to us. He is incredibly smart, speaks as fast as Faris, multi-disciplinary in this thinking, cuts through BS like a strategic / creative sword of Damocles and he is a lot of fun to hang out with. Faris would say that’s his British side. Entirely thanks to his patronage Faris once got to have dinner with Jaron Lanier which was a genuine highlight of his geek life. We miss you, mate. Thank you immensely for sharing your links, especially the Music Lab one – we truly appreciate discovering online content that enriches the world. And thanks for being funny, always appreciated.

We can’t wait to see what is next for you Mike or until we can hang out again so we can have definitional arguments about the adjacent possible.

[Faris also thinks Monopoly brings out the worst in people but suggests trying a collaborative board game (one of the best is called Pandemic, which is a bit culturally tainted now but really makes the point that we only survive if we all work together against difficult complex problems) they create different dynamics ;)]

:: THE LINKS ::

ACTIVATING MUSICAL NEURAL PATHWAYS

I have a 5 year old daughter. In a desperate attempt to keep her away from mindless content and to watch her musical neural pathways activate, we visit here often to play together and marvel at some of the great work these developers continue to do. Unfortunately the AI enabled experiments aren't available in Canada yet. (Music Lab)

GETTING LOST IN SCREENSHOTS

I went to film school and dreamed of being a cinematographer while I was developing as a writer. The beauty in these explorations (of particular note: 2001 a Space Odyssey) and the evident genius, even in our image flooded world, is mind blowing. I can get lost here. (Shot Cafe)

DIGITAL TWINNING

The likely default when we hear the word AI is to think either “doom” or “Gpt's”. While there is no denying the impact AI will have on us, even in its current form, the introduction of viable Quantum computing in the coming decade will be the event that changes everything. The interim, of course, is another current obsession of mine...digital twinning. While there are still arguments as to what a digital twin actually is (I love definitional arguments that are really at the edges of what is apparent) the massive change for strategy and planning is kinda unfathomable. This paper does a good job of outlining issues and impacts. If you get a chance to see the digital twin of Shanghai, Londons is in progress and the entire nation of Canada should be online and operational by 2026...do. And then imagine how industries, advertising included, and individuals can be modeled in real time...then curl up in a small ball under the covers and never come out again.(Science Direct)

Looking for more from Mike? Coming Friday, look for an interview from him in your inbox!

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: I gave up board games when I realized I was playing Monopoly too aggressively and didn’t like who I became.

:: City :: London. My mothers side of my family are British and I used to travel every summer to the “seaside”. I have always loved London and as great and as near as New York is, London just edges it out emotionally for me.

:: Book :: Less a favourite but a current read that is fascinating. Mark Hollis A Perfect Silence. A bio of the Talk Talk frontman who changed music and then spent the rest of his life searching for silence.

:: Podcast :: The Ezra Klein Show. How very 2024.

:: Song :: Peace Piece Bill Evans from Everybody Digs Bill Evans. Easily the most beautiful and comforting thing I have ever heard. Erik Satie with a cigarette and a pinky ring.

:: QUOTE OF THE DAY ::

“It's true that I've driven through a number of red lights on occasion, but on the other hand, I've stopped at a lot of green ones but never gotten credit for it.”
— Glenn Gould

The best thing is being able to make a living doing work that indulges your curiosities with people you legitimately like being with, what a rare thing indeed. I am humbled to be asked to guest curate, and am forever grateful for the inspiration Genius/Steals delivers me.

I'm http://mkasprow@icloud.com, LinkedIn and I am a being of sound as much as I am of light. XO

- Mike

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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

Strands of Genius