PODCAST: AI vs. Chaos—Lisa de Nikolits & Erik Mohr

For the last few years, I’ve been exploring AI and creativity, but the longer I do this, the more I find myself asking a more fundamental question: What is creativity in the first place?

Increasingly, I’m interested in what happens before the idea: the mess, mistake, collision or unexpected connection that sends us somewhere we weren’t planning to go.

We could call that chaos.

That’s what brought me into conversation with author Lisa de Nikolits and artist Erik Mohr.

Lisa’s new suspense novel, That Time I Killed You, was partly inspired by Erik’s painting series Chaos Interrupted, images of ordinary objects caught in moments when something has gone wrong, such as fallen flowers, a broken vase, a lemon meringue pie smashed on the floor.

Lisa and Erik originally met while working together on a creative project. Years later, Erik made the paintings. They entered Lisa’s imagination and eventually found their way into her novel.

One creative act collided with another and became something neither person could have entirely planned.

So I invited them onto the podcast to ask: What if chaos isn’t something creativity has to overcome? What if chaos is where creativity begins?

In this conversation, we discuss:

* Why uncertainty is essential to both of their creative processes

* Why Erik paints broken things instead of perfect ones

* How being disturbed by art can spark something new