Different Strokes –
Today was both an interesting and fun session. It helped to highlight just how differently people can perceive the same image. We played a game whereby one person in the group was shown an image. The person who was given the image was then asked to write a short summary or description about the image of around seven words or so. They then had to choose another member of the group who had to respond to their initial description, but in opposite terms. For example if something was classed as white, then the next member would respond as say black. However, the next member was ONLY allowed to see the words and NOT the original image. After writing down their opposite responses, they then had to chose another member from the group and this member had to respond in the positive and choose another member to comment and so on. The end result was one person having seen the image and team members responding positively then negatively in turn to the words they saw before them. I should have mentioned that the preceding responses were covered so that only one response was visible to any team member at any point.
What was particularly interesting was that this process is similar to the kind of process used to vet or add tags to images that are subsequently fed into machine learning image models. We proceeded to discuss the pros and cons of AI generated images. The main concerns seemed to be stereotypes and bias. Unfortunately the models are only as good as the information fed to them. Therefore, any biases or negative stereotypes in society were sadly being picked up by the software. This is certainly one of the challenges going forward. We then watched a video about the mechanics of text to image generation.
I really welcomed today’s session. Sadly my style of photographic art was an early one to fall victim to AI text to image. As a result I often feel somewhat of an outlier when in comes to my use of AI in my work. My own thinking on this whole subject is that if you cannot beat this particular system, then perhaps it is better to work with it. I have such mixed feeling about it. But honestly it is fun to use – and ultimately, in my opinion, creativity is creativity no matter what the medium 🙂
Sadly there’s no updated Zentangle gallery this week as I’m desperately trying to finish the whole of my Unit 2. However, I am hoping that I will be able to start drawing again soon.
Update – New Zentangle
I found myself with a little time on the run up to Christmas so I managed to back fill this zoom session’s Zentangle.