Category: Research

In the previous post I referred to a fantastic conversation between Satya Nadella and Dwarkesh Patel (Microsoft’s AGI plan & quantum breakthrough, Feb 19, 2025).

I was moving upstream to find the original source for a quote on AI benchmarks:

…that’s just nonsensical benchmark hacking to me.

For my MEd research I was looking at the relationships between AI, divergent thinking, and creativity. So I was reading a lot of claims by AI companies about the power of LLM models. Scoring new and unbelievable heights on standardized tests.

But it feels foolish, doesn’t it? I mean, there is an answer key somewhere and the worst kind of education is where everyone teaches for the test. Don’t we loose so much in the process of learning if all we do is focus on answering the test? So I’m with him on that one, AI benchmarks are kind of nonsense.

The whole conversation proved to be fascinating. It led me to many other insights and ideas. He is an interesting guy and perhaps I’ve been wrong about Microsoft (since 1994).

He went on to say:

Before I get to what Microsoft’s revenue will look like, there’s only one governor in all of this. This is where we get a little bit ahead of ourselves with all this AGI hype. Remember the developed world, which is what? 2% growth and if you adjust for inflation it’s zero?

So in 2025, as we sit here, I’m not an economist, at least I look at it and say we have a real growth challenge. So, the first thing that we all have to do is, when we say this is like the Industrial Revolution, let’s have that Industrial Revolution type of growth.

That means to me, 10%, 7%, developed world, inflation-adjusted, growing at 5%. That’s the real marker. It can’t just be supply-side.

In fact that’s the thing, a lot of people are writing about it, and I’m glad they are, which is the big winners here are not going to be tech companies. The winners are going to be the broader industry that uses this commodity that, by the way, is abundant. Suddenly productivity goes up and the economy is growing at a faster rate. When that happens, we’ll be fine as an industry.

But that’s to me the moment. Us self-claiming some AGI milestone, that’s just nonsensical benchmark hacking to me. The real benchmark is: the world growing at 10%. (0:15:18 – World economy growing by 10%).

Wow. Um… let’s have it.

I visited a classroom for a theatre workshop last week and the teacher had prepared a short script for the students using AI. It was a fragment of the Odyssey story and they were getting ready for a presentation at a school assembly. I brought in to play some games and help them break out of their shells.

What I appreciated most about this teacher’s approach was that they used AI as a bridge to get the students to an experience. Kids had read the story, they had talked about the story, but writing a play version would be a whole different kind of lesson.

Instead of learning about playwriting, AI was used to quickly generate a script, the teacher tweaked it a bit, shaped the story, and they had a working blueprint for their performance.

As an artist and educator, I’m using AI in two main ways: to encourage me to work with various canvases (tools), and to move my students closer to experiences (making and doing).

I was inspired by this conversation between Satya Nadella and Dwarkesh Patel where the Mircosoft CEO asked “Can the LLM help me do my knowledge work using all of these tools or canvases more effectively?” (0:55:46 – Getting AGI right). And from that concept, I started thinking that it was really experiences I want my students to move towards. Not populating documents but standing in front of other people doing something that no AI can do – being face to face, looking in each other’s eyes, activating our own imaginations.

Thank you for the invite. Bravo students! Good luck with the show.

You might have noticed my website is a bit out of date. I dropped it for… oh, something like 7 years. Lots went on. If I were to sum it up I would say, Family.

My intention with this site has always been to discuss things I have been inspired by and thinking about and making. These past years I have made steady efforts on reforming Aardvark Arts to be a healthy foundation for my family life in Poland. It was initially a platform to support and network with other artists. Now I am using my artistic practice and teaching efforts to build a caring community around arts and culture.

The official label for my org in Polish is “fundacja z działalnością gospodarczą” (foundation with economic activity). This means that I can do something (for example: performance, workshop, and summer camp) and charge money for it as long as the revenue goes back into the foundation towards it’s public benifit mission.

Some people have wondered why I chose this type of foundation while other people have asked me why I don’t just set up a business. The answer is that this hybrid model matches my style and way of thinking. When I first arrived in Poland I was thinking deeply about blended revenue streams for theatre companies in Los Angeles, evaluating B-Corps vs. fiscal sponsorships, and marveling at socially oriented companies like Toms and Warby Parker.

Still, much of what I have done with my own org here in Poland has been by passion and instinct. Most people that I talked to didn’t understand the “why” and therefore couldn’t help me much with “how” to set things up and run it. Even I have been somewhat limited by a hustle mindset where each project meant I had to somehow balance salaries (expenses) and revenue. I have mostly (nearly entirely) avoided grants because it all seemed too complicated and at odds with my American style of generating revenue.

But it is time for an upgrade to this thinking and I am ready for more complexity in order to properly frame and support the model that I set up all those years ago.

I have always been an artist and producer. Only now have I been able to name what it is I was doing from the beginning. I am working from a European social enterprise model with a Polish foundation structure. Business principles (projects) fund the mission (art, education, community) without always relying on grants. That is the next level that I am working towards. Grants. They will only be available if I can clearly name and frame the efforts which drive revenue and those which are a public benifit.

Creative Summer is a programe.
The 9th season (in 2026) is a project with economic activity. That project will help fund the public benifit projects Apprentice youth leadership and the community scholarship project. My Media Lab teaching activity is a paid workshop and curriculum that I deliver in schools. That project will help cover the costs of the free First Take Film Festival pilot program.

Economic activity isn’t the opposite of the mission it is the engine. It has been 12 years of survival mode thinking but now I’m stepping into sustainability thinking. This has opened up a refreshing view on what to take on next and how to keep evolving as an artist and as a producer.

Stay tuned for more to come.

Art Making: I started work on a student film festival that will give space for video projects made by kids, made with kids, and made for all ages.

Teaching: The 2025-2026 school year began. New students, new units, new workshops. Back again: Thtr Lab, Media Lab, Shakespeare Club, and AV Club. Art Matters NOW!

Producing: Prepped financial reports and worked towards a full legal governance and compliance audit. I’ve been calling this effort Aardvark 2.0.

Making: Interesting new job this month: color commentator for the Wroclaw Panthers, an American football team. It was a fun experience and not as easy as it sounds. I believe it was the first time a Liga Futbolu Amerykańskiego game was broadcast in English.

Teaching: A contact who is working at the Capitol Theater randomly invited me to cover for one of her classes. Studium Musicalowe Capitol is a training course for musical theater students. It was a fantastic session with some really talented young artists.

Producing: Aardvark Arts submitted a grant application to the City Council for Story Center. The project includes a museum exhibit, storytelling, art workshops, and access to our children’s books.

Art Making: My Shakespeare Clubs are making two plays: Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. We’ve gone from comedy to tragedy. We have fake swords. Kids seem to love it. In our versions there will not be any blood or kissing!

Teaching: I’m teaching guitar to a group of teachers over at the Young Leaders Academy. We are starting with rhythm and basic chords. In the end, I will deliver a Songbook tailor made for classrooms with children 2-6.

Producing: We are live with a new website! cretivesummer.com has just been launched. Dates are announced July 1-27. Discount pricing through April. Look here! Look here!

Art Making
We are starting the process of making an office for Aardvark Arts. Bought some tools, some vegetable crates, and some stains. Woodworking! (Sort of…)

Teaching
New term means new Drama units: MYP 1: Character; MYP 2: Devising; MYP 3: Big History; MYP 4: Shakespeare; MYP 5: Film Acting

Producing
My first attempt at winter holiday art camp went live this month. During the local winter holiday we had a group of 15 participants. We met many new families and some awesome apprentices.

Part of the activities of Aardvark Arts is to develop international cooperation, work towards building a cultural facility in Wroclaw, and to conduct research in the fields of social sciences and humanities. Managing Director, Dorota Dobkowska, and I recently traveled to Lithuania and Estonia to visit cultural spaces, meet with people and start some conversations about working together.

First we caught up with a good friend Kevin Reiling, regional director of the American Councils of International Education. I met him a year ago when I was invited to teach a pre-departure orientation course getting some amazing students ready to spend a year abroad in the US. We met to talk about cooperating and trying to figure out a way to get some of their young alumni involved with future editions of Creative Summer.

One afternoon, while sitting in a coffee shop, a beautiful book/magazine called “Passport” caught Dora’s eye. Since she was sitting across from me reading, I noticed that Jonas Mekas was on the cover (the brother of Adolfas, a legendary professor at Bard College). It was a stunning collection of profiles, photo essays, and histories of Lithuania. The opening pages lay out its aim:

We hope that the story of a small nation – told through the eyes of its own extraordinary people – will be an inspiration to you…

Kęstutis Pikūnas, Passport, volume 1

A few moments after flipping through the pages, Dora announced that we would be meeting with the Editor in Chief.

Kęstutis Pikūnas met us for a generously slow cup of coffee. He told us all about himself and how he came to create this love letter to Lithuania. I really appreciate how he easily shifted between Doras’s questions on his ideas and inspiration and my specific business minded curiosity of modern publishing. It was an illuminating conversation that has continued to open up ideas for future activity in Poland.

We then headed north to Estonia. This was the furthest north I had ever flown. What an amazing country. The capital, Tallinn, was flooded with tourists. It seemed like everyone had the same idea to head north during the European heat wave. It was still pretty hot up there.

While in the capital, we made stops in two interesting museums aimed at younger visitors. First the NUKU theater and puppetry museum had many fantastic rooms filled with artifacts, and video presentations. I particularly loved their self published programs. I left feeling inspired to create a puppetry unit for my Theater Lab program. Then we visited the Maarjamäe Palace. This huge complex of buildings and programs had two highlights for me. Behind the palace, beyond the huge courtyard, and around the corner from the film center was a collection of Soviet statues. Just sitting there, on the ground. No adornments. No pedestals or plinths or acropodiums. What a bizarre display of the past! Inside was a children’s exhibit “The Children’s Republic.” This interactive environment is designed for children age 5-12 to learn about modern Estonia and democracy through play. Visitors can vote on a president and prime minister of the Children’s Republic and learn how to accept differing opinions. For someone who did not grow up in this part of the world, it struck me how democratic ideas have to be nurtured and the dark history of these countries is not that long ago.

We saw all corners of Estonia including the lovely island Saremaa. We saw Russia and visited a castle on the border. We visited a beautiful craft store cooperative full of handmade goods called Käsitööpood Magasiait. We met with another friend from the American Councils, Greete Lipik and continued talking about how the arts might fit into their alumni program.

Outside the capital the other big cultural institution we visited was the Estonian National Museum in Tartu. This building is a massive structure. It looks like a runway jutting out of a gentle slope. Inside, the space is gorgeous and vast but somehow still cosey. When we were visiting, the Centennial Celebrations of the Republic of Estonia were in full swing. The main hall of this National Museum was filled with an exhibit exploring the lives of regular Estonian people through the ages – literally taking you back all the way to the stone age. We are talking about hunters-fishers-gatherers. The Mesolithic Era (9000–4200 BCE). Before farming and earthware. Imagine how hard that was. It’s an absolutely beautiful country. But it couldn’t have been easy for those early settlers to inhibit. And yet, through 10,000 years, an identity and language took shape and survived. There were many amazing side rooms to this exhibit hall including Food We Cook, DIY Estonia, Estonian Books, The Runo Song (Estonian Folk songs). Of course, the Soviet era was bleak. Life was hard. Survival was not guaranteed. But, in the face of that larger history and that cultural perseverance, it seems inevitable that a thriving democratic nation with rich traditions would take form.  

I was so immersed with this main hall that there was no way to even consider visiting additional exhibits in the same day. There was one new technical innovation that I was in love with.  When you get your ticket, you can ask for a language card – a simple cardboard card. When you approach a display you just wave the card and the e-ink monitor changes languages. It was so smooth and satisfying and well executed. A perfect blend of technology, storytelling, and learning. It seems to me how a museum should be done.

Two rooms that we didn’t have access to, or time to explore, was the learning center and the library. Both were huge spaces, visible behind glass that provided cultural anthropologists and traditional workshop leaders with an amazing collection and physical space to carry out their research.

I want to make a space like this someday. Maybe not this big. But a place that is alive; a community resource weaving together threads from the past by using technology of today.

Bravo Estonia. Thank you Lithuania. Latvia, your next.