Working Artists and AI in the Creative Economy Today
Apr 23, 2025 3-4:15pm ET / 12 noon-1:15pm PT / 9-10:15pm CET
Generative AI—love it or hate it—is transforming the creative economy. How is AI reshaping what it means to be a working artist today? How are working artists working with this emerging technology to support rather than diminish their part in creative work?
This webinar invites participants to explore how generative artificial intelligence is changing the creative economy, and redefining our understanding of creativity and human expression. We consider the role of AI as enhancement for creative practice workflows and how to teach these new creative processes. Panelists will provide thoughts on what to teach emerging artists as they enter this brave new world.
How does AI redefine what it means to be creative in a digital age? What do AI technologies reveal about the uniquely human aspects of storytelling, performance, and the creative process itself? How can AI help us tell more compelling stories? What safeguards need to be in place so that working artists in the creative economy can continue to work productively? How can we teach skills for using generative AI in creative practice workflows in ethical and empowering ways?
This webinar is inspired by contributions in the a2ru/UNLV collaboration special issue Artificial Intelligence and Possible Futures for the Arts in Tradition-Innovations in Arts, Design, and Media Higher Education.
Key Takeaways
- Discover how AI is redefining creativity and reshaping workflows for working artists in the creative economy.
- Explore how genAI can enhance the uniquely human aspects of storytelling, performance, and creative expression.
- Leverage AI tools to enhance storytelling, generate ideas, and refine creative projects.
- Discuss necessary safeguards that protect artists’ rights, livelihoods, and contributions in the AI-influenced creative economy.
- Develop ethical and practical skills for integrating generative AI into creative workflows.
Audience
This webinar is ideal for creatives, educators, technologists, and anyone curious about the evolving relationship between AI and human creativity. Whether you are a designer, performer, writer, or educator, this session provides a platform to rethink your role in a world increasingly shaped by AI-enhanced workflows for creative practice.
Join us to discuss how AI tools are enhancing human creativity and ways to teach creative processes.
Registration
All a2ru webinars are free for a2ru individual members, as well as those affiliated as students, faculty, and staff at a2ru member institutions and departments. Please use your institutional email address while registering at the link below.
a2ru webinars are $20 for non-members and $10 for non-member students.
Organizers
Dr. Yvonne Houy
Yvonne Houy is the learning technologist for the UNLV College of Fine Arts – supporting faculty in Architecture, Art, Entertainment Engineering Design, Dance, Film, Music, and Theatre – and the Co-Chair of the UNLV Faculty Senate AI Task Force. As an Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) executive committee emerita and special advisor, she is active in supporting transdisciplinary Arts and research integration in higher education, and is the editor of the peer-reviewed open access eJournal Tradition-Innovations in Arts, Design, and Media Higher Education, a collaboration between a2ru, the College of Fine Arts, and UNLV Libraries.
A graduate of Cornell University (M.A. & Ph.D.) and the University of California, Berkeley (B.A.), and former visiting assistant professor at the highly selective, liberal arts-focused Pomona College, Dr. Houy understands the needs and challenges of higher education institutions that value research, teaching, and diversity. She followed her interest in online learning technologies and computer programming to become a learning technologist and professional development facilitator, including for the international Computer Science For All movement. She enjoys teaching media studies, cultural studies, and history courses, as well as no-prerequisite courses for artists and designers on using coding and mobile app development as creative “canvas.” Her peer-reviewed publications focus on propaganda and social control through emerging technologies, resistance techniques to such social control mechanisms, and technology and sustainability.
She practices Aikido, a martial art focused on conflict de-escalation, and is a trained mediator.
Adam Paul, MFA
Adam is an Assistant Professor of Film in Screen Acting at UNLV Film where he teaches acting, for filmmakers, voice over and performance capture.
As a Generative AI Fellow at UNLV, Adam is engaged in advancing AI literacy and application on campus.
Adam’s focus on entertainment industry workforce development – teaching the current generation of film students to “compete” with increasingly sophisticated Gen AI tools – includes an ongoing development of strategies to embrace AI’s potential while preserving the unique qualities of human expression. Adam is also engaged with ethical and practical issues around the implementation of AI in the arts, including intellectual property and authenticity, as well as the intricate relationship between technology and creativity in the use of generative AI.
His work focuses on the intersection of performance practice, visual and aural storytelling, and the impact recorded performance has on generations of artists and non-artists alike.
Adam’s long career as an actor is marked by numerous TV programs and films, including “The Informant!”, “One for the Money”, and “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” He most notably played Mitch, ‘The Naked Man’ on the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother.” His voice can be heard in dozens of commercials, video games, audiobooks and animated projects, including Aeon Flux, Invader Zim, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Ferngully II, Halo Wars and many more.
Adam has written and directed two seasons of CBS’s Emmy Award winning “The Inspectors,” created and starred in “Hollywood Residential,” a comedy series for Starz’s first season of original programming and is an award winning commercial director and writer who has shot spots for VW, MasterCard, Lenovo and many more.
Adam received his training as an actor at the American Conservatory Theater, where he earned his Masters Degree in 1992. His framework for creative professionals called Story Team Go aligns the process, practice and profession of acting to guide actors through the seemingly byzantine entertainment industry at any stage of their careers.
Panelists
David Bassuk
David Bassuk is Professor of Acting at SUNY Purchase. His teaching explores the integration of transmedia storytelling, gameplay, and immersive design into teaching stage directing, scriptwriting, and experimental performance. He holds an M.F.A. from Southern Methodist University. Previously, he has taught at Temple University, Penn State, and Arcadia University before coming to Purchase College in 2003 to serve as the Dean of Theater Arts & Film before returning to teaching full-time in 2007. Bassuk specializes in exploring spatial storytelling in both live and virtual settings, focusing on developing meaningful and engaging interactions between designers and participants using layers of technology in performances and theme parks.
Andy Bobrow
Andy Bobrow is a TV comedy veteran with over 20 years of experience writing for some of the most popular and influential network shows, including Malcolm in the Middle, Community, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Bobrow was also Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner of Fox’s Last Man on Earth, Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner of Fox’s Bless the Harts, and is currently writing on Fox’s Krapopolis. He began his writing career in advertising and is an alumnus of the Groundling Theater Sunday Company.
Cissy Jones
Cissy Jones relishes using both sides of her brain. From her beginnings working in Silicon Valley startups and venture capital firms, to winning a BAFTA for her performance in Firewatch, recurring on Disney’s The Owl House, playing in 100+ universes that span the spectrum from Naruto to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or founding Ethovox, an ai company whose mission is to establish the ethical coexistence of ai and voiceover, she thrives in using her experience, passion, and knowledge to bring stories she believes in to life.