Creativity Tools NOW

Reading the press release for BoinxTV, I was struck by how digital creativity tools are changing. BoinxTV is Mac software that mixes live video from up to three cameras into a new video in real time. The press release quotes an early customer saying, “Before BoinxTV, I spent countless hours refining my recording with Final Cut Pro. No more! As I can add all the effects and titles during the live recording, I'm basically done when the recording finishes."

As computers get faster, more software can offer this realtime, performance approach to creating digital media. And that plays directly into the right-brain, flow-oriented side of art — as opposed to the left-brain, offline, analytical process of editing. It's art vs. craft.

In the early days of digital music, you'd type your instructions to the computer, hit Enter, and wait for hours for a sound to pop out. Now there are onscreen knobs that let you shape the sound in real time. Ableton founder Gerhard Behles told me the inspiration for the wonderful program Live was wanting to have the editing power of Digidesign Pro Tools on stage. He wanted to use a recording studio as an instrument.

In the early days of digital photography, you'd select an effect in Photoshop and wait wait wait until it finished processing. Now there are "Live" filters you can switch on and off in different combinations. Not quite performance yet, but it encourages experimentation. And of course, the ability to see what you've shot as soon as you snap it suggests new approaches as well.

Digital graphics programs like Sketchup let you grab a shape onscreen and twirl or warp it to get new perspectives and insights.

As our tools begin to work in real time, they become less tools and more instruments. We begin to play them, and playing is the heart of creativity.

Can you think of other examples? Which programs still snap you out of the performance mindset into the editing one, and how would you like them to work?