Blue Ridge Community College: where AI meets conscientious creativity

Blue Ridge Community College: where AI meets conscientious creativity

Kinetic art created by BRCC students with Adobe Firefly. Image source: Blue Ridge Community College.

The Commonwealth of Virginia is serious about empowering its citizens to benefit from digital technologies. To ensure the next generation of Virginians gets the most out of powerful tools like artificial intelligence (AI) while using them responsibly, the state is investing where it counts: in the students who will use these technologies to shape the future of Virginia's economy.

Among the institutions driving that initiative is Blue Ridge Community College (BRCC), which has been educating and preparing young people to build successful careers for over 55 years. Today, students are encouraged to explore, understand, and master generative AI, a transformative technology that is redefining the relationship between humans and machines across industries and fields.

Educators like adjunct professor, Jerome Sturm, are providing students with a platform to experiment and showcase what they've learned about generative AI in the real world. "It's key that our students appreciate both the power and responsibility of era-defining technologies like generative AI, and that means allowing them to use the technology for themselves," says Sturm. "In addition to offering us a powerful suite of creative capabilities, the Adobe Firefly web app is also incredibly easy to use, which made it the perfect fit for our vision."

Experimenting with text to image generative AI prompts in the Adobe Firefly web app. Image source: Blue Ridge Community College.

At the crossroads of a new era

A photographer by trade before moving into education, Sturm spent most of his career as a photojournalist for the "Burlington Times", a North Carolina newspaper, covering everything from major news to college basketball. Never one to shy away from change, Sturm was an early adopter of digital cameras and took it upon himself to guide his employers through the transition, even building their Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems.

Now at BRCC and standing at the crossroads of the generative AI revolution, Sturm's appetite for experimentation and new sources of inspiration is as strong as ever.

Training and empowering the AI workforce

BRCC recently hosted an exhibition of original artwork created by students from across the school using the Adobe Firefly web app, which is powered by Adobe's family of generative AI models and services. The exhibition, "Fractured Reflections," was part of an ongoing series of explorations around cybersecurity by Virginia's Commonwealth Cyber initiative, which aims, among other things, to "address the Commonwealth's need for advanced and professional degrees within the cyber workforce."

From digital artists, to painters, to sculptors, to photographers, students across disciplines were invited to submit their creative concepts based on the theme "Navigating AI, Cybersecurity, and the Shifting Self." Once selected, students were invited to translate their concepts into prompts to use in the Firefly web app and bring their ideas to life. In addition to getting familiar with generative AI, this approach also forced the artists to consider how they write and fine-tune AI prompts.

For instance, one student had the idea for a sculpture of a person whose hands, eyes, and ears would protrude from a solid wall, but their prompts kept returning images of a person standing next to a wall instead. By working through issues like these with each young artist, Sturm helped them to adapt their thinking to the mechanisms of machine logic.

"As educators, we train students for the future. Some of the jobs that will pay them well when they graduate don't even exist yet, but if we can equip them with a strong base of AI knowledge, they'll be in the best position to thrive in any role," says Sturm.

Original artwork from "Fractured Reflections." Image source: Blue Ridge Community College.

A force for creative expression

Sturm views generative AI as a positive force that will supplement creative workflows, especially for artists who need inspiration in the early stages of their process. "Let's say I want to create a visual to represent a technical concept, like genetic cloning, but don't know where to start," he offers as an example. "By prompting Adobe Firefly with a related phrase, like "double helix floating in space," I instantly get a selection of relevant images to kickstart my imagination and give me some direction."

Sturm was impressed by how easy the Firefly web app made it to generate images and experiment with different artistic styles using simple prompts. Whether using the software to augment existing pictures, create photorealistic imagery with specific visual elements, or play around with different visual themes, like Art Deco, the quality of results generated by Firefly inspired Sturm to dig deeper into the possibilities of AI content creation.

Working with generative AI even inspired Sturm to try new artistic mediums, like illustration. Firefly features like Text to Vector Graphic have made solutions like Adobe Illustrator more accessible, a major selling point for students and artists like Sturm who want to push themselves creatively and broaden their skillset.

Stay true to what inspires you

With generative AI capturing the world's imagination, BRCC's leadership is as committed to helping students unlock the technology's immense potential as it is to making them conscious of its limitations. Authenticity, transparency, and mindfulness around unconscious bias are top concerns for Sturm and his fellow faculty members, which is why they work closely with their students to ensure they take a balanced approach to AI adoption.

His advice for young artists looking to carve out a successful career in the AI era? Be different. Anybody can take a photograph or record a high-definition film using their smartphones, he argues. What separates true artists from the pack is their unique vision.

"Stay true to what inspires you and develop your unique style," says Sturm. "With that piece locked in, you can use powerful tools like Adobe Firefly to get the best version of your vision out into the world."

Learn more about BRCC and the "Fractured Reflections" exhibition here. For additional background on Virginia's Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, click here.

Ready to get started with Adobe Firefly yourself? Visit the webpage to unlock creativity like never before.

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