Week 6
In the Week 6 class, we had a conversation about the article, ‘On the Molotov Man, and the controversy surrounding it. The conversation then shifted to discussing how to credit AI-generated content and whether it's even possible to give credit to an LLM. Someone suggested ChatGPT has a thinking option, where the model lays out its thinking process. We also discussed the difference between machine learning and AI while examining the artwork, ‘Infinite Drum Machine’. I’ve personally been confused about the difference between machine learning and AI, as I was under the impression that machine learning is a subset of AI. This raises the question: when people say they hate AI, are they referring to generative models or machine learning in general? I think that when I say it, I mean more in the generative model sense of things, and also how, in general, the impact it leaves on people from underrepresented backgrounds.
We then presented our project ideas for week 8. The prompt we chose:
Speculative Future - Create a short (less than 2 minutes) video in which animation is overlaid onto video to present a speculative future. This future video could be informative, expressive, an interactive game, or whatever you design.
I am collaborating with Nujum on this project, aiming to create a physical installation featuring an animation produced through laser engraving. This will be complemented by woodblock printing. When examining the Speculative future, we sought to explore the relationship between technology and water by analyzing the current situation, where residents near AI data centers are hesitant to drink water. So when I recorded the video, I wanted to show that instead of drinking the water, people are trying to eat the water because of their fear. Then I wanted to try wood block printing as a method of animation because we wanted to connect our imagined speculative future to be culturally intertangled. Woodcuts are one of the oldest forms of printing, and I've always wanted to try this method. Unlike relying solely on AI, it highlights the personal touch that comes with the labor and effort put into artwork. Nujum is developing a physical installation that operates based on water usage statistics. We are combining the two through a shadow play installation.
References for Ideas:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8gy7lv448o
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOs-odtE41p/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Video Prototyping
Physical Prototyping
Week 5
During Week 5 of Hypercinema, we focused on becoming familiar with After Effects. I didn’t have my gaming laptop in this class, and my Mac is 4 years old, which means I have storage issues, so After Effects cannot run on it. During the class, I observed Ana working on After Effects. We also had a pretty heated discussion in class about our thoughts on AI. In Animation, Methods of Motion, Patrick said I know that as creative technologists, we have to utilise technologies and adapt to them changing, even if we don’t agree with them, and I agree. But when a movie is entirely AI-generated, it really annoys me, because what makes art truly art to me is the effort and the labor that goes into it. I do really believe there could be helpful in cases of AI, but in this case, I don’t think it’s necessarily needed. Much of this is due to consumer culture, and also how mass production over time degrades the quality of the material. In this case, I believe this is what will happen to the quality of art if we continue producing for the sake of quantity rather than quality. I think Arjun also mentioned this in class. We then discussed our midterm topics and formed groups. Nujum and I paired up for the midterm.
Week 4
In week 4, we were assigned our stop motion groups. I worked with Chuan and Baron. Since the stop motion was supposed to be two GIFs, each about 3-7 seconds. We decided to make it a series with the main character being a detective mouse. The theme of the story was that the mouse is trying to find his missing cheese.
Script
Movie 1 (Room 1)
loop → starts from zooming in the window, ends with zooming out of the window
Silhouette in front of the window
Cheese on the table
The mouse appears and gets close to the cheese
The mouse turns back from the cheese
Black thing takes away the cheese and leaves some letters
The letters are scrambled, and the mouse has to solve the puzzle
The mouse forms the letter “ribbon” and runs out of the room (with a light switch off)
Zoom out of the window
Movie 2 (Room 2)
The mouse runs in another room(see silhouette and a light switch on)
The bottom of the ribbon peeks out of the cabinet
The mouse pulls the ribbon and opens the cabinet’s door
There is cheesecake and a bottle of wine in it, and a big sign that says “Happy Birthday!”
Zoom out of the window.
Process
Building the room
Setting Up
Post Production
Week 3
In Week 3, Merma, Nujum, and I presented our sound installation ‘Spirits in the Air’. The aim of the installation was to immerse visitors in creating their own experiences of spirituality and connect them to a more collective experience. The sketch is also reactive to sound. So people can share their spiritual experiences in the space. We created a p5 sketch to show what the experience would feel like when you walk on it.
There is a demo version, which shows how the piece is reactive to someone’s voice. And there is one version, which shows how the piece is reactive to your voice.
Then after that, we went over ‘A (Brief) History of Sequential Art’. And from the discussions in the class, I realised that I want to visit the Museum of Moving Image.
Week 2
In the second week of Hypercinema, we worked on learning audition. The class was amusing because fire alarm tests were being conducted, and we incorporated that material and sound into the demos. We also presented our first project idea for Hypercinema.
For our hypercinema project, we decided to look into what spirituality might mean. We discussed the interconnectedness of spirituality to our environment, as well as through religion, and decided to conduct interviews with people.
We decided to explore spirituality, dividing it into three ways:
prayer calls
people's opinions and thoughts on it, as well as looking at it from a historical perspective
nature and subtle sounds.
Our group decided to present this in the form of a sound installation. We were considering creating this installation in the form of a checkerboard, where each color represents a different genre, and the checkers would feature pictures/symbols related to the genre. So each square could have its own dedicated channel, creating localized sound sources that follow people's movements. This can allow people to compose their movement patterns, just as a person may feel about what spirituality means to them. And when multiple people are walking along them, they can create complex spiritual soundscapes together.
We got suggestions in class to make it a web experience. We also understood the assignment more clearly, as initially, I thought it was supposed to be a physical presentation. Yet, it was actually intended to be a proposal to present to a museum, so the web experience made more sense.
Week 1
In the first class of Hypercinema, we got introduced to the course structure. What surprised me was the amount of AI that is currently used in AI. Aidan showed us https://thispersondoesnotexist.com, which creates synthetic, realistic faces of people using a generative adversarial network. And it made me wonder: someone has been using so much energy from data centers to produce images of people who don't exist. This raises ethical concerns, as many of these photos could be used in online fraud attempts. It's somewhat dystopian to see a world where so much of this happens. I was really excited about this class, but the introduction to AI in the industry made me reconsider it. What is real is that, even though I love art, the reality is that a lot of artwork, especially in this kind of sector, where art and tech are merging, will use AI. There are some good uses of it, but it's challenging to draw the ethical lines, and this is one that directly conflicts, especially in this class, with the use of AI. We also came across Gen3c, a research project, which made me realise more of my qualms with AI use in such a field, because part of what makes art is the hard work that goes into it.