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Fun challenge: Count how many times I use the word “context” in this post. It’s my favourite word for a reason.
From creating MTV’s groundbreaking ‘Liquid Television’ to pioneering AI characters at Meta, my journey spans four decades of digital storytelling evolution. And through it all, one insight has guided everything I do: “Content may be King, but Context is Queen – and queens rule.”
Why this defines my work
I first started talking about context ten years ago when I was building Augmented Reality experiences that earned me InnovateUK backing and multiple international awards. I noticed that placing a character or object into a new context changed its meaning entirely, just like Andy Warhol transformed a soup can by putting it in an art gallery. The object stayed the same. The context made all the difference.
It turns out that this is true of all content, and that without really noticing, I’d built a career out of doing this. Sure, I’ve made some great content across many media and genres. But what really defines my portfolio of work is that I’ve found (and sometimes invented) innovative and appropriate contexts to connect that content with its audience. I am a Context Maker.
For the last two years as a GenAI Content Engineer at Meta’s GenAI Content Studio, I’ve been applying that same principle to artificial intelligence. I’m literally teaching machines how to create compelling narratives – developing gold standard training sets for LLAMA, creating characters for AI Studio, and writing the prompting guidelines that define how AI personalities come to life.
And here’s what I’ve learned from working at the coalface of both creative storytelling and AI development: As AI makes content creation faster and more prolific, context becomes the only sustainable differentiator.
What I Mean By Context Creation
As a content creator, I’m a generalist. But my true specialty is creating contexts that connect ideas in original ways with the intended audience. In the AI age, this means:
Curation – What to include, what to leave out, and why those choices matter
Taste – Aesthetic and cultural judgment that guides every creative decision
Semantic Understanding – Making meaning from the connections between ideas
Tools as Method – How your process becomes part of your message
Cultural Intent – Understanding how you want your audience to feel and designing for that emotional response
Originality and emotional connection result when AI-generated content meets human context creation. Your audience’s epiphany and joy of discovery will come from the context you create around your content, not just the content itself.
What This Blog Will Feature
I’ve spent decades at the intersection of emerging technology and storytelling – from pioneering mixed-media animation and short form content at Colossal Pictures to launching CBBC’s YouTube channels at the BBC to training AI models at Meta. This blog will share that accumulated knowledge in practical, actionable ways. But most of all, I will aim to provide historical, strategic and narrative context around the latest developments in AI, media and storytelling.
Expect reflections on:
- Real AI collaboration processes (with examples and failures)
- How context creation applies across different AI tools and platforms
- Case studies from my career, with both lessons learned long ago and discoveries from latest projects
- Creative frameworks that deliver authentic results when humans and machines collaborate
- What I’m learning about taste, curation, and cultural intent in an age of infinite content
Whether you’re a creative professional adapting to AI tools, a business leader trying to understand where this is all heading, or simply someone curious about what thoughtful human-AI collaboration looks like in practice, this blog will provide context for how I approach the work.
Because in a world where anyone can generate content, the real value lies in the context you create around it. That’s where human creativity still reigns supreme.
Are you up for more? My next post will break down my recent collaboration with Claude on “PROMPT” – a meta-fiction that shouldn’t work but absolutely does.
Oh, and I used the word ‘context’ 17 times… er, now 18.
Polarity Reversal 