The creative process involves building new actual realities from immaterial imaginings. We create the future from fantasy, from projections of mind. We make things exist that did not exist before. Our species can’t stop inventing new possibilities, whether with art or technology, even cuisine or clothing, new colors or smells, sending probes to other planets or organizing words into new patterns. As an artist, it’s my chosen task to ask “why?” The more powerful we become as a species, the more we must ask “why?”

At every crossroad, our decisions create new realities, new directions, new futures. This is the power of invention, the power of imagination. As our technology becomes more powerfully virtualized and our software becomes mind-like, I crave a more animal embodiment; not out of contradiction, but from a sense of loss for what gives lasting joy. My imagination directs me towards new ways of being animal in this world that we are killing with unlimited growth and consumption. I try to direct our imagination towards a place that serves life and this paradise planet that gives us sustenance. 

Robert Rich is a musician, composer, and performer of over 40 albums of electronic and organic music known for his all-night sleep concerts and instrumental ambient music.