#cmtouch

Alisha Giroux on the Creative Fingerprint

Creative artificial intelligence is less a futuristic concept than a technology that’s already part of our daily lives. 

So what does that mean for artists and creatives? 

Alisha Giroux’s talk was as much a reassurance as it was a call to action for people to recognize the signature characteristics that make their work unique. To embrace the innate human-ness of the creative process.

The emergence of creative AI used to keep Alisha up at night. As an illustrator and designer, she observed as AI generated images quickly went from funny and freaky to something that resembled art made by a real person. It felt distressing, like a threat to the personal touch she infused into her work. An affront to her creative core. 

One day, a friend helped shift her perspective. He was ambivalent about creative AI. The reason, he told Alisha: “A machine creating art feels like it’s defeating the purpose of creation.”

This was the message Alisha brought to the audience at Bayview Yards. That art is not exclusively about output, but also about the process that went into making it and the creator’s personal connection to their work. 

Besides, Alisha noted, humans like gathering IRL to see stuff made by other humans. Despite being able to google pictures of the Mona Lisa, people still fly to Paris to see her in the Louvre. And no matter how popular Spotify gets, it can’t replace the scratchy sound of a vinyl record. People crave the analogue, and art that bears a distinctly human fingerprint. 

Alisha ended by urging people to think about the personal touch they bring to their creative work—the style that can come only from the journey of creation and the human experience. Watch her full talk here!

About our Speaker Ali Mahlodji

Ali was born in Iran in 1981 and came to Europe as a refugee as a child. He started his career as a high school dropout and tried more than 40 jobs.

He launched his first company from a childhood idea: whatchado - the digital handbook of life stories which is the market leader for video employer branding in German-speaking countries today. As the CEO of whatchado he guided the company to market leadership. After dedicated the last years more to accompany the company in times of change. In his role as an expert for work and education, he inspires and accompanies executives and HR teams in the further development of their competencies. He shares his insights as a keynote speaker, trainer and 4-time author.

To date, he has reached over half a million people in more than 30 countries with his 1000+ keynotes. In 2021, he was appointed to the international Forbes Business Council and the EU appointed him as an EU Youth Ambassador for Life as a translator between generations and UNICEF appointed him as an Honorary Representative.

Ali Mahlodji is a studied expert for distributed computer systems and held management positions at Siemens and at the international tech company Sun Microsystems and was elected twice among the Top50 High Potentials of Austria. He counts brain researcher Dr. Gerald Hüther and human high performance expert Dr. Markus Jahn among his mentors and really just wants to save the world.

February ’s Theme is Touch.

Across the years when we had to stay apart to keep one another safe, skin hungered for the sensation of being pressed against another. The longing for touch was deeply felt.

Unlike sight or sound, the senses we primarily rely on for information, touch cannot be conveyed across distance through screens and speakers. Touch invites us to slow down, pay attention, and come closer.

When we open ourselves to the ineffable — what cannot be transmitted through words — touch emerges as a language unto itself. The grit of the soil under our bare feet, the clay slip enrobing a potter’s wheel, the sun-warmed fur of a beloved pet — these sensations can be healing.

February ’s Theme is Touch

Across the years when we had to stay apart to keep one another safe, skin hungered for the sensation of being pressed against another. The longing for touch was deeply felt. 

Unlike sight or sound, the senses we primarily rely on for information, touch cannot be conveyed across distance through screens and speakers. Touch invites us to slow down, pay attention, and come closer. 

When we open ourselves to the ineffable — what cannot be transmitted through words — touch emerges as a language unto itself. The grit of the soil under our bare feet, the clay slip enrobing a potter’s wheel, the sun-warmed fur of a beloved pet — these sensations can be healing.

El tema de febrero es el tacto

Durante los años en que permanecimos separados para mantenernos a salvo, la piel ansiaba la sensación de estar apretada contra otra. El anhelo de contacto se sentía profundamente.

A diferencia de la vista o el oído, los sentidos en los que principalmente confiamos para obtener información, el tacto no puede transmitirse a distancia a través de pantallas y altavoces. El tacto nos invita a reducir la velocidad, prestar atención y acercarnos.

Cuando nos abrimos a lo inefable, a lo que no puede transmitirse con palabras, el tacto surge como un lenguaje en sí mismo. La textura de la tierra bajo nuestros pies descalzos, la arcilla que se desliza por el torno de un alfarero, la piel de una mascota querida tibiada por el sol... sensaciones que pueden ser curativas.

¿Cómo permanecerás en contacto con la materia eléctrica que nos mantiene vivos? ¿Qué pasará hoy por tus manos?