If there’s any remaining doubt about technology’s value in art, let 28-year-old creator Osean be the one to dispel it. The Atlanta-based multihyphenate is a 3D artist, musician and visual collaborator who’s worked with the likes of Playboi Carti, Doechii, and Offset. While his work is inspired by traditional anime, his saturated animations, best seen through his immersive Oseanworld series, embody a style and a virtual universe, completely of his own making. More recently, the creative has added Lenovo and Intel to his long list of collaborators, partnering with the brand on its Make Space platform.

Make Space is an initiative bridging the creative gap. Designed as a space for young people to explore emerging technologies, the programme provides mentorship opportunities, online resources, and interactive experiences aimed at encouraging experimentation. One of those experiences included the platform’s launch event last February, where Osean led a workshop on building digital worlds.

For its latest installment, Lenovo and Intel have launched the Make Space Network, an AI-assisted tool that helps creatives find collaborators. Participants answer a few quick questions and receive matches they can follow up with via email.

To mark the platform’s newest evolution, we spoke with  Osean about his artistic journey, his relationship to AI, and how collaboration shapes his work.

How did your interest in the digital realm originate, and how has it evolved over the years?

OSEAN: I used to be an artist, a traditional painter. I always had an inkling of wanting to expand, so I went into concept art, and that kind of got me into 3D. I feel like it just kind of snowballed. I liked making videos, and then videos required me to learn 3D. Then, I started hanging out with people who were into VR, and they’d be like, “Hey, you want to make some worlds and stuff?” That helped me learn how to make video games. So, yeah, it was literally just a snowball effect of just making weird stuff.

Where did the names Osean and Oseanworld originate?

OSEAN: When I was in middle school, this guy and I used to draw comic books all the time in these composition notebooks. We had hundreds of them, and teachers would always take them. We were just having fun doing our thing. I also used to do this thing when we took family trips on cruises when I was a kid; I remember there was this one time I was out on the ocean, drawing in one of these sketchbooks, and I was just thinking, “I feel like the ocean is kind of like another world.” I was thinking too much about it – like, there are all these things you don’t know about it; you can get even deeper, and what’s on the surface is really cool.

That’s kind of how my brain works in a weird way. So, I just switched the ‘C’ with the ‘S’. In a definitional term for myself, that ocean (with a ‘C’) is literally a body of water, with multiple things in it, that encompasses its own world. And Osean (with an ‘S’) is just like my mind, essentially, and has the same thing where it’s just got all these things, worlds, and stuff wrapped inside my brain.

How would you describe your artistic style?

OSEAN: Manic expression, I guess. It’s usually just whatever I’m thinking of, or whatever plugs my brain for the day, and then I try to make it as fast as I possibly can. Other times, I try to use [my style] to help people with their artistic visions, which is also completely random. I didn’t even really think I had a style until I kind of realised that style is pretty arbitrary. 

What do you think has influenced your style? 

OSEAN: I like a lot of nature, spiritual stuff, and then [also] cartoons – like anime is really big. I also studied art history in college, and that was a big part of it, just knowing about older artists and basically being like, “How would I translate my work in the same way?” 

I’ve noticed avatars are a major element of your work. What about creating and inhabiting those digital characters interests you?

OSEAN: It’s this thing I think about a lot – I feel like a lot of humans don’t portray themselves the way they want to. One, we have physical limitations on what we can do. And two, it’s also not acceptable to do a lot of the random stuff that we want to do. Blue skin, for example, is not a thing because we can’t make it – it would probably be really hard and dangerous. But in a video game, it’s a colour swatch, and people don’t even think about it. I like the idea of inspiring people to just kind of be who they want to be. If using these kinds of avatars is the easiest way to express yourself, then yeah, just use them to do what you want.

I like the idea of inspiring people to just kind of be who they want to be. If using these kinds of avatars is the easiest way to express yourself, then yeah, just use them to do what you want.

Through the creation of some of your characters, like Yameii, the vocaloid rapper in the Oseanworld series, it feels like your art and your music are inextricably linked. Did you always know that you wanted music to be a part of your world-building?

OSEAN: Yeah. I feel like I listen to music literally 24/7. I’m literally listening to music right now in the background. I grew up playing in the orchestra, and all my friends were in the band. My mom is a cellist, and my dad’s a singer. Music has always been around me since the dawn of my existence, and I feel like not having it in there at all is just kind of a disservice to my life.

Where do you find inspiration for your characters, and do you feel linked to them in any way?

OSEAN: Visually, [I’ve found inspiration] in Disney characters and stuff. When I was creating Yameii, I kind of thought of the idea of a person who could feel like Superman, but look like Mickey Mouse. I just thought that was a cool, unique way to come about it. Mentally, it feels like it’s just different parts of my body, and I just over-exaggerate it. So, if I’m sad, I’ll create a character that’s just doom and gloom. Or if I’m happy or feel manically heroic, that’s where Yameii comes from. 

Pivoting a bit to AI, how do you use it to push your creativity forward?

OSEAN: It’s funny, I was just using AI last night. A lot of it is really just for process, to make things faster. This is kind of like a geeky explanation, but with things like rotoscoping, depth maps, or normal maps, things that would take you probably hours on end to generate, AI has been able to do in like 10 to 15 minutes. It makes those manic ideas that I have faster to make. And in doing that, I get closer to the actual idea of what I was trying to do, because there’s no time buffer. So, it’s easier to get to an idea pretty fast, just because the tools that I’m using or making are helping that process get faster.

And how do you think AI can be used for creative collaboration?

OSEAN: Same thing, really – just being able to show your ideas almost fully fleshed without having to try that hard. Especially in collaborations or commissions, there’s always this point where, at the very beginning, you kind of have to show people the ideas that you want or have to express an idea. The more grandiose it gets, the more you have to show, because people don’t know what you’re talking about. I feel like AI could definitely be used for stuff like that. And especially nowadays, you can come up with completely new ideas, and you can use AI to help you facilitate these extremely weird, new kitchy ideas pretty fast, which is nice. 

What do you like about using your Lenovo Yoga Aura Edition?

OSEAN: The Lenovo Yoga Pro Aura Edition helps me focus on how my work feels. It keeps up with my pace, so my best ideas don’t get left behind. Rendering immersive 3D worlds, you need a powerful processor that can keep up, like the Intel Core Ultra.

What rules do you intentionally break in your work, if any?

OSEAN: Literally all of them. I feel like I try to make art with no bounds. And when I find out I am making them with bounds, I try to break them just so I can stay fresh in my head.

What’s the weirdest ritual that you have around making things?

OSEAN: I take showers, or I go to the pool. Usually, if I'm working for two, three, five, six, 14 or 18 hours, I will go take a shower or go get in the water or something. I don't know why, I literally can't explain it, but I just do.

What’s your current obsession?

OSEAN: Movies, art, and science. I watch movies every day. I just went to the movies yesterday. I have a [case] full of books – mostly comic books and picture books. I like going into art museums a lot, and I'm learning about quantum theory for no reason at all.

What's a creative medium that you want to explore but you haven’t yet?

OSEAN: Agriculture. I kind of want to learn how to farm; it seems really cool. Or just architecture – I feel like building really weird buildings would be really awesome to learn. 

What’s next for your work, and what do you have in the pipeline?

OSEAN: My friend Dekon, he’s the one who makes the music for Yameii, and I are working on an album for her, a whole new style and look. I'm learning a whole new program for it. I'm also working on a short film and working on more anime stuff. 

Explore Lenovo devices built for creative experimentation by heading here – all devices are powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra processor.