More reflections on AI and memory

Update：What are you doing?

Xinxuan

1）Case study: Memories of Passersby

Analyse: Memories of Passersby uses a complex neural network system to generate a never-ending stream of portraits: grotesque and grotesque representations of male and female faces created by machines. Each portrait on display is unique and created in real time as the machine interprets its own output. For the viewer, the experience is akin to watching the endless imaginative acts taking place in the mind of the machine, which uses its “memory” of the parts of the face to generate new portraits, sometimes encountering difficulties in computational interpretation, and producing images reminiscent of André Breton’s The result is a “convulsive beauty”: a shocking and disturbing aesthetic that is, as it were, a mixture of attraction and repulsion, whose main function is to present surprising new perspectives.

 

 

 

 

Created by Mario Klingemann

 

Reflection: Inspired by this example, I explored AI more deeply this week, mainly in the form of a series of videos with virtual portraits superimposed and fused together, which I generated by downloading portrait images from different countries from thispersonnotexist’s website recommended by teacher and training them using the open source StyleGAN2. In order to obtain a more abstract and exaggerated effect to present the memory visualisation, I processed the generated videos using Touchdesigner.

AI face fusion video

2）Experiment: Different AI effects

I tried two effects in total this week.

Text Combination：Firstly, the first effect was to echo the prologue of the immersive exhibition, therefore I also tried to incorporate text in the character section. I mainly used the text question “WHO AM I” to map on the video, which makes the original figurative AI face video more abstract and makes the theme more clear.

The prologue format

* Detail question about prologue part:

1. Does the subject of a textual description need to focus on a specific virtual protagonist? Or is it a broader sentence, e.g. a generic personal pronoun such as mother?
2. Whether the component needs to be multilingual?

Attempt about text combination 

Particle Dissipation: Meanwhile, this week I also continued to delve deeper into particle-related knowledge in Touchdesigner and further experimented with the music example in submission1.

What I’d like to express about this effect is this comment: their hazy output feels like revisiting a memory that can’t be remembered. At the same time, I’m critical of whether AI acts as a memory enhancer or a memory reconstructor or so for people with Alzheimer’s.

Attempt about particle

The vanish section immerses the audience in the experience of Alzheimer’s oblivion, and the form we discussed earlier still retains particle interaction. During the week, I tested capturing a computer camera in real time and producing the effect.

Real-time particles attempt from the computer camera

* Question about vanish part: What needs to be discussed is whether we use real-time particle disappearance or have the user press a button to take a static picture and then disappear with the particles.

Questions about other part:

* Question about Object-blur part [Detail in Yixuan yang’s blog]

1. How does this blur effect need to be further developed?
2. Do we need to reflect national differences in the scenario as well?

* Question about fade part [Detail in Han Zou’s blog]

1. Do the faded parts need to interact with the user?

The solution what I think is :Not only does it interact with the sound, but the user presses a button to take a photo in real time and then the photo fades. Then use real-time particles to disappear during the vanish part.

Answers about basic info:

Where will it be shown/experienced:  Q25 in ECA. For the exhibition, we will create a dark immersive space.

When：We expect to have all the music and visuals produced around the end of March and the exhibition around the beginning of April 🙂

What do you need：

Drawed by Jiayi Sun

More Answers about comments:

Project Reflections on AI and Memory:

• Project on AI and Memory
• Our project uses sound and images to represent and zoom in on the process of memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease patients, and at the end allows participants to experience the dissipation of memory for themselves. The project makes one reflect on whether the role of AI in a philosophical sense is to enhance or restructure individual subjectivity.

Technical details:

• How long is this piece expected to last overall?
• About 20min [including Prologue, Blur, Fade and Vanish]
• How long is each part of the piece?
• Each part about 5min
• Will it be projected, or on a screen? 
• On a big screen
• What kind of space do you envision this to take place in? 
• Almost dark immersive space

Creative details：

• How do you intend to connect each of the 4 parts of the piece?
• In the form of a film, each part is played and interacted with in sequence
• As different people are responsible for each section, how do you plan to make the technology required for each compatible?It feels like this piece would benefit from seamlessly transitioning between segments, how could this be achieved?
• Although the results are different, we all use Touchdesigner as the output port. We could use Touchdesigner to integrate different effects in one container.

 

Reference:

Artwork link: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/artificial-intelligence-and-the-art-of-mario-klingemann

StyleGAN2 Open Source Website:https://github.com/NVlabs/stylegan?tab=readme-ov-file

 

 

Mar 3, 2024