May 2026 Speaker: Kris Krüg
May's global theme is 'CREATE', and we are excited to host renowned photographer and creative technologist Kris Krüg. He has spent more than two decades exploring how new tools reshape culture and how culture should reshape the tools. 
As Founder and Executive Director of the BC + AI Ecosystem Association and curator of the Vancouver AI Community Meetup, Kris Krüg has helped turn “AI” from a closed technical club into a living, cross-disciplinary community of artists, researchers, entrepreneurs, students, and Indigenous knowledge keepers. His perspective is rooted in making: his photography has appeared in outlets such as National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker, and he often shares works-in-progress, experiments, and lessons learned in public. For the CreativeMornings theme CREATE, Kris will trace the creative path that brought him to the edge of AI: what’s possible when machines join the studio, and what we should be wary of as this revolution accelerates.
Speaker Interview
Each month we ask our presenters some probing questions to give us a deeper glimpse into their life and relationship with creativity:
- How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
Creativity is the courage to put something unfinished into the world and let other people finish it with you.
I came up as a photographer. Grateful Dead website, Nokia ad campaigns, 130,000+ photos on Creative Commons before Creative Commons was cool. The whole practice was: show up, make the thing, post it tonight, argue about it tomorrow. That habit, publish in public, iterate in public, is the same muscle I use now running the BC + AI Ecosystem Association. 2,500+ members, 210 tickets sold for our January meetup at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, eight cohorts of Creative Pros, and we're still basically figuring it out in the group chat at midnight.
So for me creativity isn't a mood or a talent. It's a practice of staying public while you're still wrong. Burning Man taught me that. The Grammys red carpet with a First Nations chief in full regalia taught me that. Photographing the BP oil spill for Nat Geo taught me that. And now coaching a room full of nervous executives through their first prompt, same lesson: make the thing visible before it's ready, and the community will meet you there. - Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
Three places, in this order:
One, the cabin on Galiano Island. Phone off, forest on, nothing to prove. Most of my best thinking happens while I'm not thinking.
Two, the room. Monday nights at the Multimodal Media Lab on Howe Street for Film Club with Kevin Friel. Tuesday office hours on Zoom. Whatever Luke Minaker and Mayumi Rollings are cooking at Tiny Ghost Studios. I get lit up by watching a 19 year old break a tool a vendor said couldn't be broken, and by watching a 60 year old VFX veteran rewire their whole practice in a weekend.
Three, the elders. Carol Anne Hilton at Indigenomics, where I've been CTO, teaching me ceremony before innovation. Indigenous leaders who keep reminding me that 10,000 years of governance is also technology. That tension, the fastest tools in human history sitting next to the oldest protocols on this coast, is where I do my best work. - What's one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you'd known as a young person?
Ship the draft. Seriously. Ship the ugly, half baked, "I'll fix the kerning later" draft.
I wasted a lot of my twenties polishing things in private because I thought the world wanted a finished artist. The world doesn't want a finished artist. The world wants a person it can follow, argue with, and build alongside. Every good thing in my life, the Nat Geo call, the Burning Man crew, BC + AI, the Space Centre stage, came from something I posted when it was 60% done and slightly embarrassing.
Open source your process, not just your output. The people you want in your life are hiding in your drafts folder. - What's the wildest thing you've ever done?
Gulf Coast. I cold pitched National Geographic from a hotel parking lot, got a yes, drove four states solo, slept in the car, shot oiled pelicans and fishermen who'd lost everything, then stood on stage at TEDxOilSpill in DC two weeks later with the photos still wet. No plan, no per diem, no permission. Just a Prius, a Nikon, and the correct amount of stupidity. - What are you reading these days?
Indigenomics by Carol Anne Hilton (rereading with a pen this time). Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio. Blindsight by Peter Watts when I want to feel small. And a rotating stack of Substacks. - What fact about you would surprise people?
I'm a hard introvert. I run a 2,500 person community, I speak on stages, I host weekly office hours, and I recharge by going silent on Galiano for three days with no humans and a kettle. The extroverted public KK is a performance I genuinely enjoy and then I need to go lie in the moss. - How does your life and career compare to what you envisioned when you were a sixth grader?
Sixth grade KK wanted to be a skate video editor and a hacker, and maybe a war photographer if he got brave. Current KK runs an AI association, makes art teaches, writes, and occasionally crashes executive retreats. So roughly 80% accuracy… - If you could open a door and go anywhere, where would that be?
Back of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. Or a specific cove on the west side of Galiano nobody's named yet. Either way: ocean loud enough to drown out Slack. - What keeps you awake at night?
The speed gap between what the tools can do and what our institutions know how to govern. We're writing 2035 code with 1998 policy. - What myths about creativity would you like to set straight?
That creativity belongs to artists. Creativity is just repeated courage under uncertainty. A good nurse is creative. A good city planner is creative. My accountant is creative in ways that genuinely frighten me. The myth of the gifted few is mostly marketing, and it's expensive to believe. - What are you proudest of in your life?
BC + AI. We started in a panicked group chat in 2023 and 28 months later we're the largest public interest AI community in the province. 2,500+ members, 265 tickets for one meetup, eight Creative Pros cohorts, an accredited Responsible AI Professional certification in the oven with Martin Lopatka and Sarah Downey, and a room full of people who trust each other enough to argue in public. That trust is the actual asset. Everything else is scaffolding. - If you could do anything now, what would you do?
Six months, no laptop, one camera, one notebook. Travel the coast from Haida Gwaii to Tofino documenting the people building the next economy here. No deliverable promised upfront. Come back with a book, a show, and a much quieter nervous system. - What music are you listening to these days?
A lot of Snotty Nose Rez Kids and Haviah Mighty. Some Godspeed You! Black Emperor when I'm writing. Fugazi when I'm running. Ambient stuff from Jon Hopkins when I'm editing photos. - What was the best surprise you've experienced so far in life?
The Grammys red carpet 2019 standing beside a First Nations chief in full regalia while pop stars walked past pretending not to stare. - Where is your favourite place to escape?
The cabin on Galiano. No WiFi on purpose. Wood stove, ocean, a stack of books, one kettle. If I haven't been there in a month, people around me can tell before I can. - What was the best advice you were ever given?
"Build trust before you need it." I think I got a version of it from Dave Olson in Vancouver in like 2007 and it's been the operating system of my career ever since. Every good thing that's happened to me was a withdrawal from a relationship account I'd been quietly depositing into for years. - What books made a difference in your life and why?
Indigenomics, Carol Anne Hilton: reframed economy as relationship. Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer: reframed science as reciprocity. Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes: reframed the photograph as grief. Neuromancer, William Gibson: reframed the future as already unevenly here, as he later put it. Four books, four reframes, roughly one per decade. - When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck?
Walk. Seawall, forest, anywhere my feet move and my hands are empty. If that doesn't crack it, I call one of three people who are legally obligated to tell me the truth (Mark Busse is one of them) and describe the stuckness out loud. Usually the description is the fix. - If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them?
Write letters. Real ones, to specific people, thanking them before I need anything from them. My inbox is already a crime scene, so this wouldn't be email. Paper, stamps, the whole slow ceremony. - What has been one of your biggest Aha! moments in life?
Realizing the bottleneck was never the camera, the software, the budget, or the gatekeeper. The bottleneck was my willingness to be seen mid process. Once I dropped that, everything else, Nat Geo, Burning Man, BC + AI, the stages, the students, arrived as a consequence, not a goal. - What is the one movie or book every creative must see/read? Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. If you only have 45 minutes, watch Koyaanisqatsi. Either will quietly recalibrate how you think about making anything at all.
Musical Guest
🎵 Our live musical performance will feature ORRA, a Vancouver-based indie pop duo crafting lush, emotionally charged songs that explore identity, connection, and the complexities of early adulthood.🎶
Led by singer and keyboardist Sarah Orr alongside drummer Cam McGregor, their sound blends shimmering guitars, swelling synths, and punchy rhythms into intimate, cinematic moments. With listeners in nearly 100 countries and growing radio play across North America, ORRA is quickly emerging as a distinctive voice in Canada’s indie music scene.
Presenting Partner
Alternative Creations Studio is being recognized through a generous anonymous gift made in their honour.
Alternative Creations Studio is a collective that connects and empowers artists with developmental disabilities To experiment and hone their skills while co-creating inclusive communities where everyone can flourish. We believe in the transformative power of art and are always seeking opportunities to collaborate with like-minded people by sharing studio and gallery space. hosting community workshops, and participating in art shows and other events.
How to Register for this Event
Join us on May 1st from 8:15-10am at the Vancouver Art Gallery by registering here.
