What does it really mean to have experience in a field that reinvents itself every six months?
In this opening episode of MC’s podcast I sit down with the brilliant and always provocative Tea Uglow, a creative technologist, deep thinker, and long-time observer of AI’s cultural drift. Together, we explore the overlooked history of AI before ChatGPT, the ethical void left in its wake, and why generative AI might be more sport than science.
We talk Manhattan Projects, driverless cars, James Turrell, vibe coding, and the difference between output and work. If you’re curious about what we’ve lost, what’s still possible, and why AI needs more philosophy than productivity hacks, this is the conversation to hear.
✨ Plus: Tea shares why game media might be the most important medium of the next decade.
It’s rare to meet someone whose work effortlessly spans technology, identity, art, and the future. It is rarer still to meet someone who does so with such authenticity, warmth, and wild imagination.
Tea Uglow is one of those rare minds.
As the founding creative director of Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney, Tea has spent years shaping digital experiments that bend reality, exploring the space between the screen and the mind. Her work often blurs boundaries: between analogue and digital, art and code, mainstream and marginal. Whether collaborating with choreographers and composers or crafting experiences that bring ancient texts to life through modern media, Tea is constantly asking: what if?
Tea is also a powerful voice on gender identity, neurodiversity, and queerness in tech. She writes and speaks with generosity and wit, gently challenging the systems that limit our ways of being and creating. Her book Loud & Proud is a joyful and beautifully designed celebration of LGBTQ+ voices across time, and her talks have inspired countless makers and thinkers around the world.
In a world that moves fast, Tea reminds us to stay curious, stay weird, and make things that matter. I’m so excited to share more from our recent conversation. Tea is a true original, and I feel lucky to have crossed paths with her.
You should totally book Tea at Dark Swan to build what’s next.
Dark Swan provide global creative & strategic advisory services focused on future-trends in culture and creativity, AI, Web3, digital/physical, deep-time and human-oriented design.
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