Prosthetic Dreaming:
How to Use ChatGPT, Meditation, and Surrealism to Unlock Your Creativity
with Henry Lien & Jerry Lee Davis
AI represents an existential crisis for humans, forcing us to face the question of whether there are more of us than needed. This question is particularly confronting for artists, many of whom already question the value of their own creations and themselves.
This workshop embraces AI as an art supply by recognizing that an artist’s contribution is not just to create something out of thin air, but to observe the startling connections between seemingly unconnected things that no one else has noticed. AI, specifically ChatGPT, can be a remarkable tool to bombard your brain, help you enter your creativity sideways, and give you the “x-ray specs” to see those unseen connections. The workshop uses meditation and Surrealistic parlour games to bridge between ChatGPT’s sometimes spooky, sometimes hollow responses and your own subconscious.
The workshop uses AI ethically, consulting it not to create any actual work product but simply as a lens to see connections in the artist’s mind and the world. This workshop is structured to help all artists, but is particularly useful to those working in narrative mediums (fiction, non-fiction, drama, film/tv). The workshop also includes discussion about the shifting publishing industry positions regarding use of AI by authors and publishers. This workshop is taught by author Henry Lien, who has nearly 20 years’ experience as a Surrealist art dealer, and author/playwright Jerry Lee Davis, who has over 20 years’ experience teaching meditation.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
HENRY LIEN & JERRY LEE DAVIS
HENRY LIEN
Henry Lien is an author from Taiwan, now living in Hollywood, CA. He is a graduate of St. Paul’s School, Brown University, UCLA School of Law, and Clarion West Writers Workshop. He is the author of the award-winning and critically-acclaimed PEASPROUT CHEN middle grade fantasy series. Henry also teaches writing for institutions including UCLA, the University of Iowa, and Clarion West. He previously worked as an attorney and fine art dealer. He is a four-time Nebula/Norton Award finalist and won the UCLA Extension Department of the Arts Instructor of the Year award. Hobbies include writing theme songs for his novels and losing Nebula/Norton Awards. www.henrylien.com
JERRY LEE DAVIS
Jerry Lee Davis is a meditation instructor and writer from Appalachia. He is the founder of Meditative Intuitive Sessions in Los Angeles. His first novel TWIN CITY was nominated for the Townsend Prize for Fiction and the Georgia Author of the Year award. In addition, he has written several plays that have received successful stage productions, and has had several of my screenplays optioned.
Purchase their books here:
Peasprout Chen: Legend of Skate and Sword
Running Through a Koga Field
