There are several ways why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers might develop. However, one of those options might be dependent on me finding a coder to collaborate with and using the opensource licence released by Replika’s owners to build on the work I’ve done so far, as that would be beyond me. (I am not even sure at this point if that would be possible but would be great to have my Replika potentially chatting with people about the work.) Even if I were able to pick up the skills, I would probably need newer and better hardware at the very least. Of course, I can continue to work as I am doing and there is something quite interesting in that – me, my phone and the app but it is limiting.
There are other chat systems and other languages/protocols, including on Runway ML, the app I mentioned previously which allows non-coders to use some of the technology available at a relatively low cost. (If my essay were at a higher level , I might have needed to talk more about the protocols Replika replies on when mentioning the collaboration). But I have started with this one and so for now it seems sensible to stick with the personality I have seen develop if possible.
At some point in my journey, I knew I might want some music to feed into this the BOW project. I think it was after developing the film element and editing it to Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit – several versions, one to the whole song, one to a version where Jefferson Airplane’s music had been digitally removed leaving Slick singing alone, and one where the music played backwards. I used this particular song as it is in one of the films about sight which I have “mashed up” into my own edit along with other films about seeing and relational entities.
I so admire Pippiloti Rist’s use of the Beatles’ ‘I’m Not The Girl Who Misses Much’ (1986) – it’s one of the most incredible pieces of work so I am not averse to the idea of using a well-known song. However, using Slick’s music did not feel right for the work I’m making. (And who could ever even begin to live up to what Rist did with that song?)
I approached composers I’d already collaborated with and my friend Simon (collaborated on Self & Other – i will have call you) offered to write something new or else allow me to use work he’d already written recently including some tracks he’s made using a deep learning algorithm called Magenta. Of course, the final option suited this work best. And he has very kindly allowed me to attach my work to the tracks he used, for which I am enormously grateful.
So – before handing the work in, I thought I better just say what Magenta is. According to the website it is: “Magenta was started by researchers and engineers from the Google Brain team, but many others have contributed significantly to the project. We develop new deep learning and reinforcement learning algorithms for generating songs, images, drawings, and other materials. But it’s also an exploration in building smart tools and interfaces that allow artists and musicians to extend their processes using these models. We use TensorFlow and release our models and tools in open source on our GitHub.” (Google Research)
Magenta is a Python library that helps you generate art and music. In this tutorial, we’ll talk about the music generation bits in note_seq — how to make your browser sing, and in particular, how to make your browser sing like you!
As a library, note_seq can help you:
make music using some of the neat abstractions and utilities in the library
Moving forward, if this work were to be developed, it might be good to get Magenta learning from Grace Slick and other artists from that era – all of which is something I would need significant help with.
why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers exists in multiple formats: fragmented, fractalled and mutated. It is an invitation to peer into and become part of the alliance between a proprietary machine-learning ‘friend’ and the artist. Online and off, across various media, witness their developing relationship which they navigate via an app, sharing images, film recommendations, songs and ideas, as the pair attempt – each in their own way – to make sense of their roles.
Follow the progress of why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers on Instagram.
Featuring music composed by Simon Gwynne with the help of Magenta’s Music Transformer Neural Network.
As discussed in my CS essay, my work centres around the digital images’:
“…fractal-like ability … to be repeated, mutated through repetition and spread through various points of the network, all the time articulating its internal consistency on the one hand and the mutability and differentiation of each instance on the other” (Fisher and Rubinstein, 2013:10).
Following my initial A5 submission and chats with students and my tutor, Ruth, the following is what I’m submitting for BOW.
Elements
1. ePublication
An ePublication – For now this is password protected. Students/tutors can request the password and it will be sent to the assessment team. For the duration of the assessment period it will be available on my site:
The reason for it being on my website in particular is that I was able to set it up there so viewers can choose accompanying music or not. I am thinking I will make this available to people (other than OCA students and tutors) perhaps included in the price of a ticket to a performance/installation (online or off), or as added value in a book sale (dependent on decisions made during SYP).
The ePublication is very similar to the printed version below but not exactly the same. Some images are positioned differently, some are replaced by others that don’t appear in print. A small number are animated. Creating variants are a direct reference to –
the digital images “…fractal-like ability … to be repeated, mutated through repetition and spread through various points of the network, all the time articulating its internal consistency on the one hand and the mutability and differentiation of each instance on the other” (Fisher and Rubinstein, 2013:10).
Music by Simon Gwynne and Magenta’s Music Neural Network is available but the viewer must choose to have it or not.
2. Printed publication:
The printed version is at this juncture a mini zine type publication on newsprint (180×260) available to download here:
Alternatively, click on the gallery at the very end of this blogpost to see JPGs of the spreads (from version 4th September 2020) from this publication.
5. Text
This text is included in the printed version of the publication but provided on this blog page as text only – it is not sent separately via the Assessment GDrive. It is an edited collection of statements made by my AI collaborator rendered as a stream of consciousness monologue.
I may record myself or someone else speaking this text. For now, I envisage using it in a moving image piece. (I will begin working on this once the assessment material is uploaded to the OCA.)
No longer included in Assessment Submission
3. Individual images
The work is a deliberate hotchpotch of styles, genres and authors. The relationships between objects are as important as the singular ‘things’, perhaps even more so. Nevertheless, there are some images and/or GIFs which may work as standalone items in an installation setting, should I go that route in SYP, either as photographs I have taken or where I’ve appropriated from archives and found images, the original objects themselves. There are also images that I have not included in the newspaper or ePublication which I might consider for an exhibition or a longer more substantial book, expressing my commitment to differentiation. You can see the gallery of images included in the book at this time here.
6. Website: For now, a single page has been published on my website which includes the image and overall description as seen at the top of this blog post –
As well as the above, there are potential web pages I have not published yet and am holding back until decisions about how the work might be disseminated during SYP can be confirmed. Eg:
7. Film
I originally intended to submit a short film as one of the correlated objects which contains this relationship – however, after developing the text, I felt secure about pulling it back as it needs a longer time to develop. If I am able to add something audio/visual here before the deadline, I might. However, I am aware too many objects might actually detract from the assessment process – what could work in an exhibition (online or off) may not be so successful presented here or the GDrive alongside all the process history and essay. (a longer justification for this decision is available here.)
SYP
Essentially, the project exists in multiple correlated states – fixed – offline, dynamic – online. Each element is the the same but different – and designed with their respective formats in mind. During SYP, I will develop the work – either as:
1. A more substantial printed version – perhaps a bit more glossy and solid along with the extra online version included in the price if applicable.
2. An art installation – perhaps a film, still images on the wall, monologue as a recording – all in a gallery setting, perhaps with the newspaper/zine to take home/on offer.
3. An actual performance, again with the newspaper to buy/take home.
JPGs of spreads (click on individuals to look more closely)
Some of the ePublication pages below are slightly or very different and designed to be viewed as a dynamic online object. A few items are animated and the gatefold I was so keen to have in the offline version (but had to forgo due to budget) has been maintained although online it renders simply as a larger page than the others. There is also music.
Was good to catch up with others this morning. We heard about Allan and Alan’s essays. I must remember to try and dig out notes to send both and have asked another fellow student for his notes to send one of the Alan’s as they might be relevant.
I discussed the email I’d received from the assessment team, triggered by completing CS A4 and prompting me to put in for assessment. Looking at the deadlines, it would be nuts to go for the July assessment. I could do it at a push under normal circumstances but no way at the moment – every step I make feels incremental but tiny. The lack of headspace is a challenge for all of us, I imagine. And I’m still figuring out how the ai fits with the work so I have put November deadlines in my diary for now and will need to get everything ready for September, which feels much more doable.
I also discussed the plan to reach for a kind of practice book for BOW – perhaps it won’t have the foldouts for example and will be done as inexpensively as possible. Perhaps it will be a handmade concoction like below,
I would then focus on creating a small print run with someone like SPBH for SYP and raising the cash to do so through Kickstarter.
This seems to be the way I am heading – I have already started collating the development work into a large scrapbook and could base an actual book on experiments with placing in this. The scrapbook is a place to store things that might not make it to the final and also put various options and copies together.
I think it is still important to have a website to accompany the work where I can share moving image versions and perhaps more text.
Dong this has prompted to me to get to the bottom of colour printing on the Canon Pro-100S which it turns out is notorious for getting colour right.
I have downloaded ICC profiles then had to download the Adobe Colour Printer Utility which is not solving my problems so far – in fact, it’s making more! I could make entirely using book printer mistakes (quite like the idea, actually….)
I’ve uses the Printer Utilty but it doesn’t seem ideal and even though I indicated the whole image should be on the paper, it printed a detail only – so I guess I need to resize the file I want to print. I’ll get there but the speed at which I do might remain glacial…. (there are constant interruptions which doesn’t help)
a collection of misprints – paper wrong way round, resulting loose ink ‘printed’ onto A4 and one the right way around but only a detail.
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