Welcome to Chance Operations!

A newsletter focused on creativity, a streaming channel for original short documentaries, and an online archive of my design films and unreleased interviews.

Hi there and welcome to Chance Operations! I’m Gary Hustwit, I’m an independent filmmaker based in New York. I’ve been lucky to be able to interview some of the most creative people on the planet for my documentary films, and I’m still obsessed with talking to musicians, designers, architects, and creatives from all disciplines about their processes and inspirations. So that’s what I’ll be doing here! Along with creativity, I’m interested in exploring career sustainability… how do all these people make a living at what they do, and sustain themselves financially/emotionally as creative souls? I’m guessing we’re all thinking about that, especially in the past few years.

The concept of “chance operations” refers to the strategy of incorporating randomness or unpredictability into works of art, music, literature, or any situation. Chance operations were used by artists of the Dada movement in the early 20th century, and famously by avant-garde composer John Cage. I chose it as a title for this project both because it sounds cool, and because I’m hoping this newsletter can be a way to introduce new creative elements into your work and generate new ideas.

I’m kicking things off with a conversation with digital artist Brendan Dawes about AI and creativity. Brendan has been using data, machine learning, and generative programming in poetic ways for decades now, and I thought he was a perfect person to talk with about some of the creative ramifications of these new AI-driven tools. I hope you enjoy the interview.

And in the same ways Substack has revolutionized the worlds of writing and podcasting, I think this platform has a huge potential to change filmmaking. I’d love to have you as a sounding board as I’m making my films, like my forthcoming documentary about revolutionary creator Brian Eno. But I’m also going to create new short films specifically for subscribers here, and show you some of the best unreleased footage from my past films. As far as I know, there aren’t any filmmakers using Substack like this… yet.

Become a paid subscriber and let’s explore what we can do together. I promise it’s going to be interesting! In addition to weekly new content, as a paid subscriber you’ll have streaming access to all my films, anywhere, anytime. And we’ve got some really nice letterpress prints and shirts as gifts for our Founding Members too.

Huge thanks to everyone who’s helped with this thing so far, especially Oscar Saylor for the awesome logo and ID, Maya Tippett, and Jessica Edwards!

Thanks,
Gary