I went into this conversation a little obsessed with the way Eliza Struthers-Jobin, aka Eliza SJ, makes things.

I tend to decide what something is supposed to become and then grip the wheel until I get it there. Eliza makes art almost the opposite way. She creates the conditions. A few rules. Some constraints. A little randomness. Then she lets the thing show her what it wants to be.

I called her a gardener. You can’t pry open a flower and tell it how to bloom.

Somewhere along the way, though, this stopped being a conversation about generative art.

We started talking about the split second when a grown adult forgets they’re being watched and plays like a kid again. About how horrifyingly early we learn to monitor ourselves. About wanting desperately to be understood. And realizing maybe that’s not actually the assignment.

About expertise as a place to hide. Creative loneliness. The work you make when no one is looking. Being a conduit instead of controlling the outcome. Beginning again. Changing your mind. Letting yourself be more than one thing.

And the question I haven’t really stopped thinking about since:

What is worth being misunderstood for?

Eliza is an artist and programmer whose work lives somewhere between code, interaction, chance, and the human beings who wander into it. She also writes flow.states, where she thinks about art, technology, AI, creative practice, and what all of this is doing to the way we make things.

Read flow.states: https://elizasj.substack.com/

Connect: https://www.instagram.com/iamelizasj

This one made me want to loosen my grip a little.

Maybe everything is written in pencil anyway. <3