The experience of writing the blog this week has been… well… interesting.
Each week I work on the blog for four or five hours. I select the stories that I want to tell, many from conversations that have occurred throughout the week or from events in the news. Sometimes I approach the blog with nothing in mind but it very quickly becomes apparent that there is plenty of material out there and so there is never any shortage of things to write about.
I always learn something when doing the blog entries. Each article is researched and referenced. Each track of music on Spotify is listened to, put into a playing order that makes sense to me, and I read the lyrics because one can never tell with musical lyrics… Sometimes the blog is hard work, sometimes not. Sometimes it flows easily, sometimes not. The mood I am in affects the way it is written, and that means that it very much a personal blog, written for friends who like to think about stuff.
This week I decided to play with AI because the rise of the technology is one of the Big Issues of our time and I wanted to understand it better. Here is what I found.
It took just as long to write the blog. In fact, it took longer because I had to double-check everything and many of the references in the AI articles that I got back from the prompts were not suitable or simply did not exist in an easily-findable form. There was also considerably more thinking about how to structure the articles because the AI articles presented as dry facts in a linear fashion.
I missed speaking to you out there in blog land. Half of the fun of writing this blog has been thinking about the ways in which it would be received. Will people get the subtle in-jokes in the Spotify playlist? Will they think them as funny as I do? Will people enjoy reading about, say, weaving, or New Zealand landscape, or the myriad uses of wool? I get to imagine reader responses when I write the articles but when AI wrote the articles I became an editor, not a writer.
The Spotify playlist tried my patience as did some of the articles on the blog itself. AI is not capable of understanding that sometimes things can be connected in new and unusual ways – textiles can be informed by mathematics and music and computers. Apparently it doesn’t know that yet, at least where written articles are concerned, (although it was better at making those connections with a task about making an image with those elements as you can read below). Maybe one day it will learn that technique. Maybe it will never get to that point. Maybe that is a special skill that can only be acquired by sentient beings. Whatever the case, it was frustrating trying to get the system to understand that I wanted a playlist that included ALL of the search terms – computers, textiles, music, art, contemporary, classical, pop, choral, travel and vocal. I also wanted an article that brought in the crossovers between computers, music, weaving and art but that too was unsatisfactory.
One thing that did work was when I asked ChatGPT to come up with some ideas for artworks. While that software cannot actually create an image, it came up with some ideas for me to experiment with. If you are interested, the suggestions are at the end of this article. See what you think of the ideas.
I have enjoyed the experience of using technology to write this week’s blog but that is not going to be a permanent feature. There is MUCH more fun in writing a blog and creating a playlist through being creative in approaching the task. Perhaps there is a place for helping with research or finding new ideas but it would just be a starting point for exploration and development. After all, AI is only as good as its datasets and those datasets can be manipulated to present a very one-sided view of the world. That does seem like a good idea to me.
Thank you for going on the journey with me this week. Normal service will be restored next week.
Concept Title: “Threads of the Universe“
1. Textile Element (Central to the Artwork):
- Imagine a large tapestry made from natural fibers, like organic cotton, linen, and wool, intricately woven together. The tapestry could have a three-dimensional texture, with fibers that mimic the organic flow of natural forms such as tree branches, vines, and leaves. The textile would be hand-dyed using plant-based dyes (indigo, marigold, cochineal) to represent the colors of the natural world.
2. Nature:
- The backdrop or setting for the tapestry could incorporate real elements from nature: moss, small stones, dried leaves, and flowers delicately embedded into the fabric. These elements blend with the textile, suggesting how nature is intertwined with human creation.
- The tapestry could also feature imagery of the Earth, such as swirling clouds or the texture of soil, subtly embedded into the threads.
3. Music:
- Musical notes and instruments could be woven into the tapestry’s design in a visual form. Imagine vibrant lines that trace the shapes of soundwaves, or strings of a violin or guitar, incorporated into the woven threads.
- The artwork could have small, hidden pockets or pockets of thin metal that “chime” when touched, creating an interactive aspect. These could represent the vibrations of sound, merging the concept of music with the tactile experience of the textile.
4. Science:
- The piece could integrate scientific symbols or diagrams—perhaps the Fibonacci sequence or fractals that are found in nature—woven subtly into the fabric. These could be part of the natural forms, such as leaves growing in a spiraling pattern or a starburst representing the structure of atoms.
- Light, which could be projected through the textile, could emphasize the interplay of science and art, with prisms and refracted light creating a visual experience reminiscent of the scientific principles of light and sound.
5. Art:
- The overall composition would blend abstract elements with realism—think of the flowing, freeform shapes of textiles colliding with geometric patterns that evoke scientific charts or constellations.
- Additionally, parts of the tapestry could feature paint splashes or freehand strokes, symbolizing the influence of human creativity on natural forms. These splashes might represent bursts of inspiration, akin to the way art evolves from the unstructured chaos of nature.
6. Interactive Layer:
- As the observer moves around the artwork, the fabric could respond in subtle ways—textures might shift, or sound could be activated. Imagine certain sections of the fabric having a reactive element, like motion sensors, that cause slight music or ambient sounds to play when someone interacts with the piece.
In this imagined piece, “Threads of the Universe” would invite viewers to explore the interconnectedness of nature, sound, science, and creativity. The tactile nature of the textiles would encourage them to feel the connection to the natural world, while the scientific patterns would subtly remind them of the underlying structure of the universe, with music serving as the invisible thread that binds them all.
Would this concept align with the kind of imagery you’re thinking of?
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