If you had no admin left to do, what would you do with your time?
That’s the provocation at the heart of our first episode in a new Inner Ear series: Constructively Critical — a series of short, thoughtful video essays exploring culture, technology and making better choices.
In this opening piece, Dougal Perman tackles one of the most talked-about tools of our time: artificial intelligence. But this isn’t a hype reel or a fear-mongering thinkpiece. It’s a call to think practically, and imaginatively, about what AI could actually mean for the creative industries.
Because when used wisely, AI has the potential to automate the stuff that slows us down. Systems. Scheduling. Repetitive tasks. Forms. Forms. Even more forms. You know the ones.
But clearing admin isn’t the endgame. It’s the beginning of something else.
We’re asking: what if that time was used to solve big problems?
Not just to do more, but to do better — by creating, questioning, collaborating, designing new systems and tackling the environmental and ethical challenges that digital infrastructure introduces (and sometimes ignores).
Watch the video
We’ve published an enhanced version of the video on our YouTube channel, complete with visual storytelling to accompany the script. This version builds on feedback from early viewers — and includes graphics to help unpack complex ideas clearly and concisely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g_W5AJGE1U
Watch the video on YouTube
Read the article
Prefer to read? The essay behind the video is published on Dougal’s Substack, Activating The Possible In Art. It explores the same idea in written form, diving deeper into the environmental implications of compute power, ethical automation and the creative value of reclaimed time.
✍️ Read the full article on Substack
What’s next?
We’re building a library of Constructively Critical stories — each one a piece of what Inner Ear is thinking about, concerned with and trying to do better. If that resonates with you, we’d love you to join the conversation.
Where one person sees problems, others see possibilities.
We know where we’d rather be. What about you?
