Unit One – Learning Objective 1

Study Statement         LO1           LO2          LO3

Learning Objective One

Formulate, describe and implement a challenging and self-directed program of study, relating to your Study Statement (AC Enquiry)

At the beginning of this project, Ai text to image art was only just entering human consciousness.  I conducted some primary research among a variety of creative arts practitioners, who expressed concern that this new technological development was certainly a threat to their jobs and livelihoods.  Technology has always fascinated me and I wanted to explore areas where Ai could not penetrate or at least had not yet moved in.

I did extensive research in to things that were hidden.  I did this by examining a wide variety of literature, songs, social media links, books, journals and YouTube videos.  Evidence of this can be seen in my ideas page 1 and my ideas page 2 and my bibliography.  Here is an example of my reading material, with key moments from the book Ai Superpowers by Kai-Fu Lee.  I wanted to experience first hand the new Ai text to image technology, so I experimented extensively with it. I also attended a workshop and examined it from a myriad of different angles including: Ai and animation and Ai as tentacles strangling society.  I explored the question: ‘Has Ai Killed Art?’ and I had a full conversation with it!

My research then moved to the less conventional, hidden areas where Ai had not yet seemed to penetrate. I examined the beauty of sound waves through chladni patterns, a revised approach to them, and motion.  I posed the question: ‘What does Ai make of Chladni patterns?’ and I further explored the results.

In order to gain as much insight as possible during this period of enquiry I went to both Newcastle and London. Here I visited a number of art galleries including: The Laing Art Gallery,  The Tate Modern, The Serpentine North and South, The Tate Britain, The Victoria and Albert Museum and The Saatchi Gallery.  To further add to my knowledge I watched the online Monday Guest Lectures and documented the most salient points.  The speakers included: Amanda Newall, Trevor Mathison, Rindon Johnson, Henri Kalama, and Louise Geovanelli.

To fully understand and engage with Ai (know thy enemy), I felt it was necessary to investigate programming and creative coding.  I am not at all conversant in programming, so I undertook a variety of online tutorials. This gave me an interesting insight into the whole world of programming as art.  I was no longer simply using these technologies I was appreciating the logic and the foundations behind them. This afforded me the opportunity to experiment further on a more human level with the imagery from generated from them. Time was something I had identified as an area that ai had not yet penetrated.  For this reason I recorded time-lapse video of me taking each tutorial.  My thinking behind this was that knowledge and learning was something hidden and possibly to be further explored.

All of the above is just a small selection of curated blogs that helped to inform my Study Statement and aid in plotting a course of enquiry.  Below you will find a much wider selection of my work unless using mobiles/smartphones (see note below).  The aim of this is to show that there has been extensive behind the scenes research relating the production of a challenging and self-directed program of study.

NB: If you are accessing this page via a smartphone please use the tags to explore the wider selection of my work.  Unfortunately mobile phones do not appear to display in the same way as tablets, laptops and computers. I am currently working to find a solution.