Dancing with the wind: a reintroduction
On navigating the paradoxes of being both artist and technologist, finding grace in the eye of the storm, and remembering how to stay human along the way.
Be Her Now is a journal about navigating the space between human creativity and technological progress, exploring how we can embrace possibility while staying in integrity and with our artistry. Through the lens of music, spirituality, and personal transformation, I'm documenting what it means to be both creator and technologist in an age of AI - and how to keep our humanity intact along the way.
At the heart of this journey is the fundamental Gemini duality that runs through my life: the dance between art and technology, between humans and computers, between the analog and the digital.
We are living paradoxes in the eye of a storm raging around us, trying not to get swept away while learning to dance in the winds of change.
As a singer-songwriter, I pour my heart into writing very-human, very-vulnerable songs from my depths, and then open YouTube to see an algorithm flooded with Song-O-Matic 3000 Music Generators plopping out Eminem singing YMCA to the tune of Pink Pony Club. When something resembling “music” is one button-press away, the soul-excavation work of genuine self-expression feels both more vital and more threatened than ever.
And yet, here I am: a multidisciplinary storyteller feeling great about using AI in other parts of her world-building. I’m painting a cinematic story of a cosmic priestess in a crystalline world ~ a vision that—no matter how many slashes I add to my bio, no matter how much I continue to expand my multimedia creative skills to encompass 3D modeling and video production and…it goes on…she has ADHD…—can only truly be told through either AI, or a record label giving me hundreds of thousands of dollars to work with the team I’d need to execute it (please?)
When I have resources, the first thing I do is to hire my friends for creative collaborations. But we’re all creating on tight budgets, and parts of the visions inside of me can only feasibly live through embracing new technologies.
The irony of these juxtapositions is not lost on me. A decade ago, I was working as a technologist exploring the intersection of AI and creative tooling, when it all felt so new and fresh and unilaterally wonderful. Is this not what we wanted?
Today I wield these tools with discernment and in reverence for their power. Indeed, I’m writing this essay in a word processor that can give me feedback on my ideas and, if I wanted it to, complete my thoughts.
There are so, so many amazing ways that AI can enhance my creative process, and so many ways it can ruin it.
The juxtapositions of our era keep coming: I’m in community with countless incredible musicians, and each December, Spotify Wrapped reminds us that almost all of us made rounds-down-to-zero dollars while the comic book villains of DSP executives & major labels take home billions and flood their own algorithms with fake artists. You should still stream my first single, though :~)
I’m desperately jaded with how crypto (and especially Music NFTs) played out, and yet still believe in the platonic ideals of the ~2021 web3 era: that creativity is valuable to society and should be centered, that fiat is probably not going to be the thing that saves us, that we desperately, desperately need to refactor our economic system so artists can do what they’re clearly here on this planet to do.
These seemingly opposing forces define our era. While they often feel adversarial, I believe we can still use technology for good—finding ways to embrace innovation without losing ourselves in the process, without forgetting the preciousness of our planet and our responsibility to it in this crucial moment in time.
I've spent chapters of the past ~decade dancing in and out of tech, watching it slowly devastate my brain in three distinct ways:
First, as an ADHD alien weirdo, trying to interface with corporate KPIs and expectations felt impossible, leading to deep spirals of burnout—even as I knew I had meaningful perspectives to share.
Second, waking up to the horrific ways that people in our industry wield power and use technology to oppress made it hard to want to share any quadrant of the Venn diagram—even as I believed technology could still be used for good.
Most devastating, though, is how being a passive consumer* of technology wrecks my ability to function day to day. My ADHD, anxiety, and depression are all exacerbated by being glued to my screens; unable to look away while watching my life slip through my fingers like water I'm desperately trying to cup in my palms.
And I know I'm not the only one completing this awkward bingo card.
*are we consuming or are we being consumed? really makes you think!
One of my deepest intentions for 2025 is to sanctify my life: to remember how sacred it is to have eyes that awaken each morning, how precious it is to have a body, how special it is to have a relationship to source consciousness that allows us to access the creativity of the universe and to speak into existence work that heals ourselves and touches into threads felt by the collective.
This can all be a prayer.
How we spend the first five minutes of our day.
How we fold laundry and do the dishes.
How we create, and what we choose to do with the tools that are available to us.
How, maybe, these tools that threaten to consume us can truly help us live better lives.
The name Be Her Now is a silly little pun—a tongue-in-cheek mantra whispered by my inner voice when I'm on the precipice of transformation. Now it is an invitation—regardless of your gender—to step into your highest self and to stop waiting for some future moment to become who you're meant to be.
The future is simply a collection of infinite present-moments, and this one—right here, right now—is perfect for stepping onto the timeline you wish to live on.
However we found each other, thank you for being here.
I love you,
Jem