Oliver Bown
@olliebown.bsky.social
Associate Prof, @UNSW Art&Design.
Research: Creative AI, computational creativity, music, IxD, society, evolution.
Music: Icarus, Tangents.
And: Social justice, equity, cycling, urban planning, 18-19C history.
Don't know why I post, mostly notes to self.
Research: Creative AI, computational creativity, music, IxD, society, evolution.
Music: Icarus, Tangents.
And: Social justice, equity, cycling, urban planning, 18-19C history.
Don't know why I post, mostly notes to self.
No, the BBC may have done a bad edit but this is gross political bullying. This man has normalised flagrant lying and yes he did support the violent insurrection. Nobody should be apologising to him.
November 13, 2025 at 11:01 PM
No, the BBC may have done a bad edit but this is gross political bullying. This man has normalised flagrant lying and yes he did support the violent insurrection. Nobody should be apologising to him.
The world is not mad enough that the company most have entrusted to search information has decided this is the path we all shall take.
AI is fun. AI is clever. It will have great uses, productivity, meaningful cultural value.
Doesn't mean it's ok to close your eyes while driving your car.
AI is fun. AI is clever. It will have great uses, productivity, meaningful cultural value.
Doesn't mean it's ok to close your eyes while driving your car.
November 7, 2025 at 10:37 AM
The world is not mad enough that the company most have entrusted to search information has decided this is the path we all shall take.
AI is fun. AI is clever. It will have great uses, productivity, meaningful cultural value.
Doesn't mean it's ok to close your eyes while driving your car.
AI is fun. AI is clever. It will have great uses, productivity, meaningful cultural value.
Doesn't mean it's ok to close your eyes while driving your car.
For now I'm managing to maintain the line to my family: no these creatures are not cute and no I'm not feeling incredibly calm with this little-un in my hand. I can see the cracks forming in my armour.
November 1, 2025 at 5:35 AM
For now I'm managing to maintain the line to my family: no these creatures are not cute and no I'm not feeling incredibly calm with this little-un in my hand. I can see the cracks forming in my armour.
Congratulations Dr Kurt Mikolajczyk. PhD thoroughly well deserved. You were a pure joy to work with from start to finish. Anyone looking for an excellent creative/music tech postdoc, look no further.
October 30, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Congratulations Dr Kurt Mikolajczyk. PhD thoroughly well deserved. You were a pure joy to work with from start to finish. Anyone looking for an excellent creative/music tech postdoc, look no further.
Thought this was crocodile themed. Nope, real croc.
October 27, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Thought this was crocodile themed. Nope, real croc.
Strong piece. But it's the Brynjolfsson take has crashed. We can't design our way towards AI that serves an old economic order and power. Ownership needs to be rethought. The challenge is that the Nation isn't much of an antidote to the private owner.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
October 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Strong piece. But it's the Brynjolfsson take has crashed. We can't design our way towards AI that serves an old economic order and power. Ownership needs to be rethought. The challenge is that the Nation isn't much of an antidote to the private owner.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
It's extraordinary times when Australia Post temporarily unlists the USA as a shipping destination.
October 11, 2025 at 10:56 PM
It's extraordinary times when Australia Post temporarily unlists the USA as a shipping destination.
Sydney, I'm speaking at this awesome curated series of talks at the Uni of Western Sydney, as are my two fabulous PhD students Chloe McFadden and Tom Willma, along with a great line up of talks about art and AI.
September 25, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Sydney, I'm speaking at this awesome curated series of talks at the Uni of Western Sydney, as are my two fabulous PhD students Chloe McFadden and Tom Willma, along with a great line up of talks about art and AI.
UNSW PhD student Chloe McFadden's performance artwork gets you to examine your relationship to trust in the predictive algorithms around you, especially those pesky LLMs and their reassured confidence.
September 17, 2025 at 1:53 AM
UNSW PhD student Chloe McFadden's performance artwork gets you to examine your relationship to trust in the predictive algorithms around you, especially those pesky LLMs and their reassured confidence.
Trump visits the one man in the UK who truly understands his woes with the democratic process.
September 16, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Trump visits the one man in the UK who truly understands his woes with the democratic process.
Trying to exhaustively catalogue payment models from gen AI to copyright holders, and then evaluate how well those models correspond to artists' concepts of value and fairness.
For example, Adobe pays its stock artists an "AI bonus" which is proportional to their existing success (proxy measure).
For example, Adobe pays its stock artists an "AI bonus" which is proportional to their existing success (proxy measure).
September 11, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Trying to exhaustively catalogue payment models from gen AI to copyright holders, and then evaluate how well those models correspond to artists' concepts of value and fairness.
For example, Adobe pays its stock artists an "AI bonus" which is proportional to their existing success (proxy measure).
For example, Adobe pays its stock artists an "AI bonus" which is proportional to their existing success (proxy measure).
This person is clearly overworked, having to constantly monitor her bots from bed in the fear that they bring down the company. What is she even doing? And what is this "reviewing" about? Intense 24/7 red teaming to identify dangerous behaviours, or a firehose of customer complaints?
September 9, 2025 at 4:04 AM
This person is clearly overworked, having to constantly monitor her bots from bed in the fear that they bring down the company. What is she even doing? And what is this "reviewing" about? Intense 24/7 red teaming to identify dangerous behaviours, or a firehose of customer complaints?
What is style anyway?
September 5, 2025 at 2:41 AM
What is style anyway?
This is OpenAI's economic blueprint for Australia.
I've always been a bit slow with economics. Pretty complex stuff. Like, I can't help thinking there's some kind of contradiction between creating jobs and increasing productivity. Maybe even a paradox? A productivity paradox?
I've always been a bit slow with economics. Pretty complex stuff. Like, I can't help thinking there's some kind of contradiction between creating jobs and increasing productivity. Maybe even a paradox? A productivity paradox?
September 3, 2025 at 6:18 AM
This is OpenAI's economic blueprint for Australia.
I've always been a bit slow with economics. Pretty complex stuff. Like, I can't help thinking there's some kind of contradiction between creating jobs and increasing productivity. Maybe even a paradox? A productivity paradox?
I've always been a bit slow with economics. Pretty complex stuff. Like, I can't help thinking there's some kind of contradiction between creating jobs and increasing productivity. Maybe even a paradox? A productivity paradox?
I've spent 5 years doing up a semi-rural Aussie weatherboard house and I just looked back at photos of how far we've come. No wonder there were stressful times. So delighted with where this home has landed.
August 24, 2025 at 10:05 PM
I've spent 5 years doing up a semi-rural Aussie weatherboard house and I just looked back at photos of how far we've come. No wonder there were stressful times. So delighted with where this home has landed.
I have a special love for the NE corner of UNSW Kensington Campus. Complex interplay between levels, work and open spaces, architectural styles.
July 24, 2025 at 3:36 AM
I have a special love for the NE corner of UNSW Kensington Campus. Complex interplay between levels, work and open spaces, architectural styles.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Organic Bread Bar
Organic Bread Bar
July 1, 2025 at 11:55 PM
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Organic Bread Bar
Organic Bread Bar
I've had an incredible week of doing some really fulfilling public engagement. Here pictured with fellow speaker Katie Buchorn, a mathematician working on gendered violence, at the Blue Mountains Science at the Local meetup. This is a truly impressive grass roots event of good old fashioned 1/
June 30, 2025 at 3:15 AM
I've had an incredible week of doing some really fulfilling public engagement. Here pictured with fellow speaker Katie Buchorn, a mathematician working on gendered violence, at the Blue Mountains Science at the Local meetup. This is a truly impressive grass roots event of good old fashioned 1/
We consider what underlies that limitation. Our analysis suggests that it is fruitful to structure forms of co-creative dialogue as either pseudo-dialogic, weakly asymmetrically dialogic, or fully dialogic. LLMs can be effective at dialogic creative interaction but the user does the heavy lifting.
June 16, 2025 at 12:18 AM
We consider what underlies that limitation. Our analysis suggests that it is fruitful to structure forms of co-creative dialogue as either pseudo-dialogic, weakly asymmetrically dialogic, or fully dialogic. LLMs can be effective at dialogic creative interaction but the user does the heavy lifting.
I don't subscribe to the AFR but its barrage of headlines hating the uni sector makes me want a peek. Beware the conflicts of interest that come with an advisor to ed tech doing an opinion piece. I say premature adoption of this tech has huge risks. Slow adopters for the win! Remember Second Life?
May 26, 2025 at 1:09 AM
I don't subscribe to the AFR but its barrage of headlines hating the uni sector makes me want a peek. Beware the conflicts of interest that come with an advisor to ed tech doing an opinion piece. I say premature adoption of this tech has huge risks. Slow adopters for the win! Remember Second Life?
The IxD part of my brain marvels. What a beautiful dimensionality reduction. But it rests on the assumption you always want full power. Reasonable for a public toilet I suppose. What *is* it called?
May 24, 2025 at 8:13 AM
The IxD part of my brain marvels. What a beautiful dimensionality reduction. But it rests on the assumption you always want full power. Reasonable for a public toilet I suppose. What *is* it called?
Google AI bullshit. I was searching for a specific product design textbook which showed a product design triangle involving user-led, technology-led, and context or domain-led starting points for development. The result is a shallow mashup with the feels of the thing I was looking for.
May 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Google AI bullshit. I was searching for a specific product design textbook which showed a product design triangle involving user-led, technology-led, and context or domain-led starting points for development. The result is a shallow mashup with the feels of the thing I was looking for.
I've read lots on parallels between the impact of photography on creative arts and today's impact of AI on creative arts, but I'd never seen the "don't be a button presser" retort. Too close to home! Kudos to Rachel Plotnick for surfacing this.
www.sciencefriday.com/articles/you...
www.sciencefriday.com/articles/you...
May 22, 2025 at 2:52 PM
I've read lots on parallels between the impact of photography on creative arts and today's impact of AI on creative arts, but I'd never seen the "don't be a button presser" retort. Too close to home! Kudos to Rachel Plotnick for surfacing this.
www.sciencefriday.com/articles/you...
www.sciencefriday.com/articles/you...