About

For most of my career, I’ve worked in places where people are expected to make things that do not yet exist…

art collectives, design studios, tech startups, universities, virtual worlds and game studios.

Across all of those workplaces, I saw the same pattern. Some people were remarkably good at moving from an uncertain idea to something real, while others, often just as capable, struggled to begin without a model to follow. The more I saw this, the harder it became to treat the difference as simply one of ability or confidence. It looked increasingly like unequal access to the structures that make creative work possible.

I began to think of that unequal access as Creative Privilege.

Today, I work with independent studios producing games for Decentraland, and teach graduates to innovate with emerging technologies at Berklee Valencia. Both put me close to the process I’m trying to understand and influence: how people navigate creative uncertainty, develop ideas into impactful work, and how the structures around them can be deliberately designed so that more people are able to turn ideas into reality.

If you’re new to the work, the best place to start is with The Idea, where I set out the current working definition of Creative Privilege and why AI makes the question urgent now.

Bay Backner, 2026

→ Read The Idea