The generative and creative AI explosion is here to stay.
The prompt to image hype of mid 2022, driven by the likes of Midjourney, was not just a hype after all.
It was a first step in a bullet-train race which reached the conversational AI station in late 2022.
Now the train has split into a set of gigantic pinball multiballs, causing havoc across all industries.
“Knock - Knock”
“Who’s there?”
“Me, a human”
“Welcome human. What’s your prompt? Think carefully - the few words you say will determine your fate”.
I stumbled the other day on promptperfect, a SaaS website that offers to optimize one’s prompt, taking into account the specifics of the various models that could be used. This works, allegedly, for chat-like LLMs, as well as for prompt to image applications. Prompt engineering has been a thing for a while, but I have never really dived into it - yet. Intrigued, I decided to give it a try - on the image side - to create a couple of pieced for my Insta profile, keeping up with an exercise initiated last year for #CreativeAI_Sydney, emulating famous rock album covers.
Diapason’s resonances this past quarter
After a sold-out concert at Redfern’s iconic 107 venue, Lili Alaska and her band (yours truly included) were lucky to be the first to try out the newly equipped recording studio at the Bondi Pavilion. The same location we opened up with Lindy back in September.
Great feel playing with a brand new set of Zildjian cymbals (little known trivia: Zildjian is one of the oldest operating companies in the world). There was another crash cymbal in the set, I think we should have used it too - it’s important when using K Series. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Diapason’s resonances this past month
I rarely listen to multipart podcast series. I tend to binge rather than schedule, so this would be too competing with my workload. I stumbled though last month on Wind of Change from Patrick Radden Keefe. The song that gives it name to the podcast has been part of my teenage years - and this is when (teen+early adulthood) we forge our deepest sensory memories and tastes in music, as is known and used by music-based therapy for Alzeihmer patients. I can’t even remember if the song itself was played to get my attention to it, or whether the name only was sufficient. Either way, I ended up hooked. Full disclosure: I listened at 1.2x and 1.5x speed as I found it incredibly slow - but that may be just me. The investigation is fascinating, full of colourful characters, pieces of historical trivia, and I really recommend listening to the story.
The 2 bonus episodes are also great, illustrating how musing can influence our lives across and in spite of political and geographical limitations.
The invention and spread of writing did not turn everyone into a literary creator. Neither did the printing press, typewriters, home printers or word processors. The democratisation of home studios, electronic music equipment and pro-quality plugins did not turn every bedroom muso or DJ into Jean Michel Jarre or Deadmau5. Like Jordan Tanner @jrdntnnr explained to John Flowers, “having the latest, flashiest Nikon camera […] doesn’t automatically make you a professional photographer”.
Diapason’s resonances this past month
I just received my invitation to DALL-E 2 and have started playing with it as you can guess from the images on this post. I haven’t used Midjourney and Gaugan yet. Beyond the “fun” of it, I have been blown away by the quality and depth of some of some of the artworks I have seen recently, like this journey or this landscape.
I am so looking forward to explore this field further at the upcoming Creative AI Symposium. Prof. O. Bown has designed an exciting program with many talented artists, researchers and practitioners over 2+ days here in Sydney (and online). Free registration here. I am honored to chair one of the industry panels where we will hear more from Tomasz Bednarz, Johna Barthelemey, Bhautik Joshi and Jess Edwards
Diapason’s resonances this past month
Dope news from Lili Alaska.
Nice concerts recently in Bondi and in the iconic Powerhouse;
Glad Lili went through the French tradition that has been forging characters at the real #FeteDeLaMusique since the 80s: packing a band setup in less than 4 minutes under the rain :D
When the Roots are Deep, new single just released with Santino Salvadore. Give it a spin here as well.
At Diapason we are really excited to be part of the organising committee for the upcoming Sydney Creative AI Symposium. This will happen in August 18th-20th at UNSW School of Art & Design, Paddington Campus, on Gadigal Land.
This event will bring together technologists, artists, arts organisations and researchers based in and around Sydney to showcase work, to take stock of what impact AI and generative technologies are having, now and in the future, to solve technological problems and to design the best world we can for arts communities. We are calling out to artists, entrepreneurs, cyber-musicians and AI whisperers to let us know what you are experimenting. Your ideas will shape the format of the event. The full annoucement is there.
A groovy bassline is the best possible start for a Wednesday.
I discovered the track on Remi’s Delirium, an Orbital Radio show, also available here. Released by Sergio Mendes on Brazil 1988. This infectious bassline is from Nathan Watts, who has played on many of Stevie Wonder’s hits and tours.
I experienced for the first time with this track the fact that music.youtube is different to “regular” youtube.
This fascinating article explains very well how pareidolia combined with the fire lit environment of a paleolithic dwelling could have given birth to different forms of pictorial art. The hypothesis is highly relevant and the story is easily envisioned ; the aura of a campfire and its impact on our mental state is undeniable.
I’m curious about the statement that (at that time) “huge amounts of time and effort would have gone into finding food, water and shelter, it’s fascinating to think that people still found the time and capacity to create art”. A lot of paleoromantic think otherwise. I need to dig a bit more into that (starting with this one). The statement comes from the Neuroscience News article, I could not find a similar sentence the paper itself.
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