The Algorithm and the Olive Tree

A Creative's Manifesto for the AI Age

Last week at Graphic Stories Cyprus, I stood before an audience of creative professionals and academics and asked a simple question: "Who feels afraid of AI?" Nearly every hand went up. Good, I told them. Fear is intelligent. But what do we do with it?

Here's what happened to me three years ago when GenAI really hit: Everything I'd practiced for decades was suddenly being mimicked. My digital mosaics, my Neofuturistic illustrations, my approach to complexity—all of it replicated in seconds by machines that had never held a brush or felt the weight of creative doubt.

I knew how to compete with people. But with machines?

Yet here's the strange thing. Companies and even AI giants like Google DeepMind are still acquiring my work. They don't use imitations from their own models. They still want the original.

Why?

Because there's a difference between mimicking and understanding. Between copying and creating. Between the algorithm and the olive tree.

A mosaic-style android figure composed of vibrant heatmap patterns, symbolizing AI and human-like forms. Originally created for Science magazine, it was later acquired by Google DeepMind, highlighting advancements in AI technology.

The Island That Teaches Patience

I write this from Cyprus, where every step is a lesson in layered time. Roman mosaics peek through Byzantine foundations. Venetian walls embrace Ottoman bridges. British telegraph cables snake past Neolithic settlements. This isn't chaos—it's archaeology. Each civilization built upon the last, never fully erasing what came before.

My career mirrors this island's layers. College brought knives and brushes, rapidographs and film. Then mainframes—expensive monsters that cost hundreds of thousands just to create gradients. The Mac revolution felt like love because Apple understood something profound: technology's power comes from standing at the crossroads between engineering and liberal arts.

In the early 2000s, I met A.L.I.C.E., one of the first bots to pass the Turing test. My friend George Melekos built our own chatbot, Electra. That's where language revealed itself as logic, syntax as structure. But the machine didn't just teach me about algorithms—it taught me about us. How richly layered human communication really is. How intuitive. The artificial showed me the authentic.

This experience planted something important: Technology doesn't replace human creativity. It reveals it.

A mosaic representation of the Cyprus flag, where the white portion is crafted from newspaper clippings spanning 100 years of history, while the island map is formed using modern photographs, artworks, and designs reflecting contemporary life. This piece was created to adorn the office of the Cyprus Government Spokesman, Konstantinos Letymbiotis, incorporating elements from the current presidency.

Beyond Antaeus: The Olive Tree Principle

At the American College of Greece, I spoke about Antaeus—how his strength came from touching earth. But there's a deeper metaphor growing in my understanding. The olive tree.

An olive tree doesn't panic when storms come. It doesn't update its operating system or worry about the latest AI model release. It just grows. Σιγά σιγά—slowly, slowly. The way my Cypriot neighbors say it, with wisdom earned over centuries.

Zeno of Citium—born in what is now the Larnaka region of Cyprus, and founder of Stoicism—understood this rhythm: "Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing."

Layer by layer. The olive tree way.

The tree knows something we've forgotten in our rush toward artificial intelligence: endurance trumps speed. Depth beats viral reach. Roots matter more than updates.

When GenAI exploded three years ago, I faced this choice. I could spend my energy fighting the machines that were mimicking my work, or I could ask a different question: What if instead of being replaced by AI, I could use AI to transcend my own limitations?

For decades, I'd hit the same walls. Mathematical concepts in academic papers that felt beyond my reach. Programming challenges that intimidated me. Complex algorithms I admired but couldn't implement. I had ideas but lacked the technical fluency to execute them fully.

Then LLMs arrived, and suddenly I could have conversations with the knowledge I'd always wanted to access. Not just reading papers, but discussing them. Not just admiring algorithms, but understanding and modifying them.

AI Training Dataset Discovery - Search results from Have I Been Trained? revealing my digital mosaic artworks in popular AI training datasets. This database allows artists to discover if their work was used to train AI models without permission—including my portraits of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and other digital mosaics. Rather than just accepting this reality, I chose to build my own AI tools like Mozaix, ensuring I control how algorithms interact with my creative process. This embodies my philosophy: don't just consume AI—understand and create it on your own terms.

Teaching the Machines to See Me

"Are you going to teach the bots how to create your work?" my friends asked when I started building my own AI tools.

Yes. Absolutely yes!

Here's what four decades of visual complexity research taught me: The bots already know the libraries, the algorithms, the mathematical foundations. They know the technical layers. What they don't know is my why. My perspective. My unique layer in this digital archaeology.

When LLMs arrived, I finally could ask the questions I'd wanted to ask academic paper authors for years. Suddenly, I had answers. Not just technical explanations, but conversations. Collaborations.

My Mozaix application now runs 12 different matching algorithms, reaching toward 30. I need them all—every geometric pattern, every biological grid structure, even century-old dithering techniques for small databases. Each algorithm represents not just code, but decades of human creativity crystallized into mathematics.

To critics who say I'm giving away my secrets: I'm not teaching machines to replace me. I'm teaching them to extend me.

Custom Mosaic Algorithm Arsenal - The Mozaix application interface revealing three of my specialized matching algorithms: Tsevis Ultimate v5.0 for enhanced quality, RS1996Matcher with weighted visual criteria, and GestaltMonoMatcher for perceptual analysis. Each algorithm offers precise control over database selection (artwork, design patterns, high contrast), matching strategies, and detailed parameter adjustment. This represents years of research into visual perception translated into code—demonstrating why building custom digital mosaic tools produces superior results to generic AI solutions.

Six Roots for Growing Forward

At Graphic Stories Cyprus, I outlined six principles for creative survival. But survival isn't enough. We need to thrive. In my recent talk at the American College of Greece, I explored how Antaeus drew strength from touching earth—staying grounded in human values while embracing technological change. These six principles build on that foundation:

1. Transform Fear into Fuel

Fear means you're awake. Use it. Like Antaeus drawing power from the earth beneath his feet, we can draw strength from the very ground that feels unstable. I'm afraid AI will change our profession—and I'm using that fear to build better tools, deeper understanding, stronger connections to what makes us irreplaceably human. Complaining about AI is wasted energy. Let's channel that anxiety into action.

2. Demystify the Magic

AI isn't magic. It's math with sparks of mystery. The AGI promise—machines that do everything? For most scientists still in academia (not silicon valley), it's marketing speak. Even "artificial intelligence" was just John McCarthy needing a catchy name for a 1955 summer program. Steve Jobs taught me this: The iPhone isn't magic—it's 500 scientific papers carefully combined. Like mosaics.

3. Seek Real Knowledge

Mass media AI coverage is superficial. Go to sources. Academic papers. ArXiv. Use AI to understand AI, but don't let it think for you. The difference between information and wisdom is human judgment.

4. Claim Human Time

In a world moving at machine speed, slow becomes revolutionary. Remember Zeno of Citium. Cypriots have learned to practice *σιγά σιγά*—the wisdom of small steps. Layer by layer. The olive tree way.

5. Create, Don't Just Consume

If you're only prompting and remixing, you're not leading. Build your own tools. Understand your algorithms. I've developed quality evaluation systems for my work—data-driven metrics beyond personal taste. Custom solutions for creative problems no one else has.

6. Never Forget Your Why

Ask why. Always why. What are we making and why does it matter? True progress comes from knowing what's worth generating. Purpose is the ultimate human advantage.

The Cyprus Olive Tree Philosophy - This olive branch from my Cyprus heritage project, which naturally mirrors the shape of our island, was chosen by the Cypriot Government as the main symbol for the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion in Cyprus. Beyond its historical significance as a symbol of peace and resilience, it embodies the central metaphor of my creative manifesto. While algorithms evolve at machine speed, the olive tree grows σιγά σιγά—slowly, slowly—with wisdom earned through centuries of survival. This Mediterranean symbol represents the grounding principle every creative professional needs in the AI age: deep roots that provide strength through adversity, endurance that outlasts both technological trends and historical trauma, and the patient cultivation of authentic work that no algorithm can replicate.

The Command and the Shift

Here's my challenge to every creative professional reading this: Stop asking what AI can do. Start asking what YOU want to build.

Why does it matter? How will you add your layer to this digital archaeology we're all creating?

The most radical thing you can do in this age of instant everything is plant something slow. Something that builds. Something that endures.

Take one thing you've been asking AI to do. Just one. Ask yourself: What's MY unique perspective on this? How could I build it better, deeper, more meaningfully?

Write it down. Not in AI. Your own hand. On actual paper.

That's your first step toward both algorithm AND olive tree.

"The Digital Pioneer": Created using my custom Mozaix application's RS1996 Matcher algorithm, this tribute combines hundreds of retro computing icons through weighted analysis: Color Means (35%), Intensities (20%), Brightness (15%), Contrast (15%), plus Gradients, Textures, and Edge detection (5% each). Each icon is precisely positioned based on these visual criteria to form the Apple co-founder's portrait—demonstrating how algorithmic precision creates meaningful technological art.

Growing Forward

We need both speeds: machine velocity and human depth. The command and the shift. The question and the shortcut. The algorithm that evolves and the olive tree that endures.

Your strength comes from staying grounded, as Antaeus knew. But your growth comes from what you choose to plant in that ground.

The algorithm will evolve. The olive tree endures. Your layer—your unique contribution to this digital archaeology—remains your choice.

*Σιγά σιγά*. Like Cyprus itself. Like every technology layer that brought us here. Like the mosaics I've spent a lifetime perfecting.

The future belongs to those who can dance between the algorithm and the olive tree.

Graphic Stories Cyprus 2025 Community - The creative minds who gathered in Paphos for three days of exploring the future of visual communication and design. This group represents the essence of my 'Algorithm and Olive Tree' philosophy—diverse professionals from across Cyprus and beyond, coming together to plant ideas that will grow σιγά σιγά into lasting change. From workshop participants in my 'Artificial Intelligence & Design: Fanta.See.Ah!' sessions to fellow speakers and local design enthusiasts, this community proved that the most meaningful conversations about creativity and technology happen not in isolation, but through genuine human connection and shared curiosity.

About Graphic Stories Cyprus 2025

This article is adapted from my keynote lecture "The Algorithm and the Olive Tree: A Creative's Manifesto for the AI Age," delivered at Graphic Stories Cyprus 2025, held July 18-20, 2025, in Paphos. The conference took place at the Attikon Multicultural Space, with lectures available both in-person and via live streaming.

Graphic Stories Cyprus is the longest-running annual conference on graphic design and visual communication in Cyprus, established in 2015. For eleven years, this international institution has highlighted visual communication, social design, and creative thinking, serving as the only established, independent, official conference in the field covering graphic design, illustration, typography, animation, photography, multimedia design, branding, and digital arts in Cyprus.

The three-day event featured an enriching program of lectures, workshops, and exhibitions, culminating in the international poster exhibition "TREE & ME" in collaboration with the Calanca Biennale. The exhibition, featuring works by 60 designers from 23 countries, explored the tree as a symbol of life, growth, memory, connectivity, migration, and resilience—themes that deeply resonated with my olive tree philosophy presented in the conference.

The weekend program included specialized workshops, including my two-day workshop "Artificial Intelligence & Design: Fanta.See.Ah!" where participants could explore practical applications of the concepts I discussed in my keynote. The conference also featured a documentary screening of "Destinat10n," showcasing the evolution and impact of Graphic Stories over its remarkable journey.

I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Aggeliki Athanasiadi, Founder & Creative Director, and Miltos Karras, General Coordinator, for inviting me to share my perspectives on creative technology with such an engaged and passionate audience. Their dedication to fostering dialogue between tradition and innovation, local and international perspectives, perfectly embodies the spirit of my "Algorithm and Olive Tree" philosophy.

Events like Graphic Stories remind us that the most important conversations about our creative future happen not in isolation, but in community, where we can plant ideas that grow σιγά σιγά—slowly, slowly—into lasting change.

A special greeting goes to all the wonderful people I met during these inspiring days in Paphos—fellow speakers, workshop participants, students, and creative professionals who shared their stories, challenges, and visions with me. Your questions, insights, and enthusiasm reminded me why these human connections matter more than any algorithm. Thank you for proving that the best ideas grow not in isolation, but through genuine exchange and shared curiosity.

Download the whole "⌘ ⇧ Philosophy" lecture.

↑Back to Top