Newsletter

Mitchel Lensink

Systemic thinker, photographer, writer.
Newsletter

Archive

A timeline of the work. Browse every post in reverse chronological order.

Dialogue
Dialogue
Monologue
Monologue
Essays
Essays
Field
Field
Studio
Studio
Office
Office
2025 Recent posts
✦ September

Closer #023 →

Whatever time I have left, I spend wrecking my brain over the conclusions of this soon-to-be 25 weeks of AI-experimentation. It's taking shape, albeit slowly, and this week is very helpful with that.
2025 Recent posts
✦ September

Closer #022 →

We're slowly reaching conclusions in the final weeks of this experiment. Now is the time to share your suggestions if you still want to become part of it.
2025 Recent posts
✦ September
Featured

Newer Topographics →

Why take it upon myself to dedicate my time and energy towards a goal that isn’t even clearly visible from the beginning. Will it matter if I don’t? What do I contribute, do I want to contribute? Why? To what? Again, why?
2025 Recent posts
✦ August

Closer #021 →

To bring the 2025 series of Closer to a fruitful end, bestowed upon us is the opportunity to revisit its first editions. A newly release GPT-5 Prompting Guide breathes new life into our previously tried tests.
2025 Recent posts
✦ August

Closer #020 →

GPT-5 is out and underwhelming. Our mini six-week experiment has come to an end. There's only five more regular editions of this newsletter before we wrap up with some preliminary conclusions in edition #25.
2025 Recent posts
✦ August

Closer #019 →

GPT-5 is out! That's just in time for the last edition of our 6-week experiment using the same image. I'm curious to find out of this new model brings any improvements.
2025 Recent posts
✦ August

Closer #018 →

The second-to-last edition of this experiment within an experiment, where AI gets to not only describe the image, and then generate an image based on said description, but also determine how to describe the image. Succes, finally?
2025 Recent posts
✦ August

Studio update, cats, sharing your work & organization →

We're back to work with rediscovered vigor and, hopefully, new-found focus.
2025 Recent posts
✦ August

Crossing →

A walk from one edge of a city to the other — west to east, north to south. A straight line through a place to see what connects its opposite sides.
2025 Recent posts
✦ July

Closer #017 →

After this week, there's two more editions of the same image being described in different ways. Thankfully, because it's not bringing us anywhere. But that's interesting to note in itself too.
2025 Recent posts
✦ July

Closer #016 →

We are sixteen weeks into this experiment, and I'm unsure if this is still providing value. This is the third week we let AI decide how to prompt and the results are... well, you be the judge.
2025 Recent posts
✦ July

Closer #015 →

Week two of our 'experiment within an ongoing experiment' where AI is not only doing the image description and generation, but is also deciding the prompting to get to that description.
2025 Recent posts
✦ July

Closer #014 →

Hey, so, thought: you know how we're already generating AI-images, based on AI-descriptions of real life images, right? What if... we also asked ChatGPT how to properly ask for those descriptions? Would that make it better?
2025 Recent posts
✦ July

Closer #013 →

I'm reconsidering my approach, but I'm not sure I'm willing to change it. Not right now. These are still interesting times we live in.
2025 Recent posts
✦ June

Soul searching in Greece (again) →

Tears of relief as I'm waist-deep in the ocean, trying to see if I can dance still. I can, I think, I CAN, I scream. So that's how we make our way over the island. Curious to learn, relieved the fire still burns.
2025 Recent posts
✦ June

Closer #012 →

Imagine a cat behind a closed door, only paws and nose peeking from under the small crack between the door and the floor. Now imagine it again. How different are those results? Quite a lot, as it turns out.
2025 Recent posts
✦ June

Closer #011 →

We all know things can get weird in AI image land. But what if you give it a weird image? Will we get twice the weirdness or will they balance each other out?
2025 Recent posts
✦ June

Closer #010 →

SHOCKER: Asking AI for a direct replication of your work will give you a direct replication of your work. But does it really?