The Game
More things to ask the machine.
In 2001, I bought a book called HTML: The Complete Reference. I wanted to make websites, but even with that encyclopedic brick the sites I built felt primitive.
Now, 24 years later, a chatbot can do many things—including write code.
The first thing I asked it to make was an app I called Face 1.0 where by pressing a pink button the art-board refreshes with a new rendering of a face, each one is unique and strange, like algorithmic cubism.
I printed the first 30 in a zine and sold a handful of them. My daughter filled one with scribbles. It instantly became better.
You can just ask the machine.
AI expands what I can do on my own. It’s empowering. Exciting. It even feels creative sometimes.
The next thing I made was a drawing program I named Echo Sketch. It’s my pared-down version of Photoshop. The artboard is always the same size, the brushes can be customized by pressing different keys on my keyboard.
Using AI like this means becoming good at some things is now optional.
Over our spring break vacation I made my first game using AI. It’s called Bubbles. You press the spacebar to blow bubbles onto your screen then pop them one by one with your mouse to collect points.
I showed it to my son, he played with it for 10 minutes and then grabbed a piece of paper and sketched this other game he called Balloon Pop!
Then we made the game. Or, AI made the game. It was a collaboration, I think.
So I asked the AI chatbot: Where will we find meaning and value in a world where becoming good at something is optional?
Every time I asked, it gave a slightly different answer. I asked several times because I didn’t like any of them. The answers revolved around human work having “emotional presence,” “judgment,” “connection”...
I don’t know. It sounded true. It also sounded like it was trying to comfort me.
In the end, you can get some soap and blow through a tiny plastic hole to make real bubbles that float magically with their iridescent shine and beautiful mirroring qualities. Or you can click here to watch me pop them on your screen.
—Pablo Delcan
Updates April 2025:
The Prompt-Brush 1.0 book is coming soon. You can read last month’s newsletter about it here.
I’ll be part of the lineup at Us By Night, a yearly design festival held in Antwerp, Belgium September 25-26-27. Get your tickets here.
This month I’m working with my brother Adrian Delcan on another film project. This is the one we did last year.