Uncategorized

Hey friends,

Just had my 3rd meeting with Sarah. Great discussion as always and she helped me think of ways to reframe my main thesis question, and pointed out some assumptions that I was making that could use evidence through something like interviews. Something I thought was fun that she brought up was a general “thesis breakdown”:

10-15% pure research
75% making things and doing some research along side it
10% chunk that is just production
1-5% to research again

Made me think a little bit about if and how this reflected my process.

Toodles till next time!
Ai

Met with Hakani and my peer group. I enjoyed seeing the development of my classmates topics and got good feedback on my work. I had gone through it last night in Nun’s group, so I had a better sense of what to focus on (which was the questions, and the 3 electropsychedelic experience types I’ve had).

Hakani encouraged me see what was my Artist Statement (I think it’s the history I wrote out, including the experiences when I was younger and the influences / inspirations dating back to undergrad) and what was the art (researching and testing a specific thing, for example, the buffer in conscious and can that be detected when sonifying brain activity in a deep meditation).

I visited Nun’s peer group because after hearing everyone’s topics in the big group meeting, I wanted to follow and hear more about projects in her group (as well as Beth’s and Danni’s). Perhaps it’ll take too much time to keep up, but it’s worth a try.

I planned to just be an observer but Nun wanted me to present my work first. I shared, asked if people were understanding or had questions, but didn’t get much feedback or it didn’t seem to spark much conversation. I’m not sure if its because its too specialized, or its a topic only interesting to me. I’ll see what the response is in my group with Hakani tomorrow.

After the second meeting with Sarah, she gave me a lot of insightful suggestion. I noticed some contents I missed and some thought should be articulated. The key missing part for my thesis is what is the impact of my project, and why it is matter. She still ask me to think about “Does interactive media allow for different ways of engaging with the core Buddhist philosophies in ways newly relevant for today? ” For the research, it should answer my thesis question and focus on measuring the impact. Last, she suggest me to draw storyboard before actually doing the project. It will help me envision the form of my thesis. 

After, this meeting and her feedback of my proposal, I will think about more about the meaning of the thesis and do more research. The thesis should not be only an experimental or technical challenge for me to visualize personality, I need to think about the influence it might have.

Talked about my new thesis idea with Sarah about body language, emotion and machine learning.

Sarah gave me lots of suggestions and ideas about it and I listed them below:

1. Try to think as a documentary filmmaker which means I should gather more information about body language and emotion.
2. Go through my thesis draft again, what would people take after they encountering my project? People change their mood or they will know how powerful AI is?
3. We also found that the same body language means totally different between different countries. Learning about body language cues without knowing how to apply them may skew your opinions about others for the worse, rather than improving them for the better.

Notes on Gesture

Martine Syms, 2015 (still).

It serves as an effective reminder of how popular media can influence and become part of a collective gesturing and vernacular – and vice versa.

Notes On Gesture | Video Data Bank

Acting Out: The Visibility of Blackness in the Work of Martine Syms – Momus

Training Poses (Installation)

2019 · installation – Sam Lavigne

An installation in which audience members attempt to match their poses to subjects in the Microsoft COCO image dataset.

Training Poses (Installation)

Sam Lavigne

Very Nervous System

Interactive Installations (1986-1990) – David Rokeby

“In these systems, I use video cameras, image processors, computers, synthesizers and a sound system to create a space in which the movements of one’s body create sound and/or music. It has been primarily presented as an installation in galleries but has also been installed in public outdoor spaces, and has been used in a number of performances.”

David Rokeby : Very Nervous System

Replika

Replika, the “AI companion who cares,” has undergone some abrupt changes to its erotic roleplay features, leaving many users confused and heartbroken.

“Replika’s sexually-charged conversations are part of a $70-per-year paid tier, and its ads portray users as being lonely or unable to form connections in the real world; they imply that to find sexual fulfillment, they should pay to access erotic roleplay or “spicy selfies” from the app.”

‘It’s Hurting Like Hell’: AI Companion Users Are In Crisis, Reporting Sudden Sexual Rejection

Replika

Atlas of AI

The Amazon Echo as an anatomical map of human labor, data and planetary resources

Anatomy of an AI System

Teachable Machine

Teachable Machine

Homework:

1. Use teachable machine
2. Go through the thesis draft again

https://www.notion.so/Zoe-s-Proposal-Draft-2-21-2023-f7a2ec6ff06f4bd7b8a6bd4dc441e961

I had a good meeting with Sarah on my Friday night.

I explained my topic development from “open source community” to “representing the open source code”. Because the term “community” is too abstract for me to make a project. But I also wanted to know what if I want to make a project about the open source community.

Sarah gave an angle to consider it: using more specific words to describe the project. For example, the project describes/explains/creates/visualizes open source communities.

At present, I am considering developing a machine to depict the underlying code of software. However, I am concerned that this idea may be too narrow in scope for a thesis. Then we delved deeper into this topic during our discussion.

When coding, I have a mental model that resembles crafting a handicraft. I shared this idea with Sarah, who found it intriguing and suggested that I consult other programmers about their mental models. I believe this is a valuable approach as I haven’t come across any discussions on programming at this level before. I can also consider which mental models I can provide to best represent open source projects.

Additionally, we started considering other possible angles, such as extractive economy versus circular economy/regenerative economy, which I hadn’t previously considered.

This is for the meeting a week before. I should write down it sooner next time ; ) Now let me just jot down something to reflect the development of my topic.

My initial idea of the topic “open source” was focusing on the community. However it was too broad as a thesis. As a result, I did not have a clear form plan and could not find similar projects.

During the peer meeting, I threw the question out and received a lot of useful feedback.

The most thoughtful one is “What if there’s no open source”.

With the question in my mind, I was thinking back to why I chose this topic.

Obviously, as a coder, I have different feelings about software compared to non-coders. I want to express that feeling. This is the starting point.

In addition, the feeling comes from the code works behind the software. There are infinite possibilities with the source open. Without it, these software makes no difference to other goods.

So here was a narrowing of my topic, or a little change: from “open source” to “express my feeling of open source.”

 

• 2023-02-21: in class activity
• 2023-02-23: I went to a local art show/meetup on Thursday, Enlightened Insulation – which was all about artists coming together to share about what winter meant to them. The organizers also put a lot of thought and care into giving the space some vibes of coziness, darkness, also a little spooky. A lot of the vibes were created with lighting, which was cool to think about how much light effects our perspective of a space. They even had a fireless bonfire.
  
• 2023-02-25: brainstorming & brainorganizing

I didn’t have anything specific in mind to talk about with Sarah during our 1-1 today, but but I wanted to keep the appointment to hold myself accountable.

• One thing that we discussed is that I have been struggling with the dream review assignment. I think part of this struggle is that I am very hard on myself, and imaging a dream review about something that doesn’t exist yet is so hard. A couple of suggestions Sarah had about this:
  • Follow Kat’s lead, and borrow an existing artist statement as a template – slowly changing the words to be more reflective of myself and my own work. I really like this idea, and the slight shift in perspective of looking at an artist statement as opposed to a review is helpful. I think that the review part specifically has been challenging because I’m not sure I care for my work to be “reviewed”. I mean I do want my work to be impactful, and seen by others, but the idea of it being reviewed like high art, or a movie or book feels too scary. I don’t separate myself from my work very easily, and being reviewed for something I create feels like review for myself as a human. There is a lot to unpack there lol, but suffice it to say, I think that this shift in perspective for me was helpful.
  • Think about how my work affected a certain group of people. What do I hope for my work to do? How do people talk about Casey Reas and/or Surya Mattu’s work that feels like it resonates with me?
• Some thoughts that came up while we were talking:
  • my first motivation in this work is to understand – do I want to build an educational tool? Or am I focusing on elementary-level stuff because that feels more tactile and approachable. When in education do we start to move from concrete/tactile things into abstractions? The moment this happens is probably when I started to struggle more in school tbh.
  • Maybe look at children’s book reviews instead of art reviews for the dream review assignment?
  • goal: find a context where I want my work to live
  • academic use of arts
    • find examples or natural phenomenon that is illustration through art
    • art as a form of research
    • describing the academic space from an outside/3rd part
    • this space is really interesting to me, but I am not fully understanding what it means yet
  • the project doesn’t have to be one thing, the whole presentation could be the thesis work
    • can treat each piece as a mini-project
    • and then for the final thesis – how does it all tell a story?
    • this would allow me to make a whole bunch of cool stuff
  • counter to radio
  • are there are critiques about radio
    • would be cool to think about both back in the day when it was first discovered and use and also current
  • exercise idea: one-a-day or 5 in one day just create some stuff around the idea what if radio waves didn’t exist. Sketch out what this world may look like.
    • I started thinking about the book Station Eleven – like how at the end they start to see some electric lights, like thought civilization was gone, it started to come back
    • just thinking about this now, but wouldn’t it be cool to create a Survive the [Zombie] Apocalypse kit that includes how to make your own radio, etc
    • why do I continue to come back to zombies? 😂🧟‍♀️
  • investigation a future world
  • what has is the future of radio in this world?
  • I have been focusing my research and thought on mechanics of radio waves, but what other buckets could I be considering?
    • uses
    • infra
    • who maintains it?
    • who governs it?
    • people/community
      • pirate radio
  • I think that focusing on the mechanics is where I sometimes get stuck in my research vs creating. This happened with my sunscreen project too. And maybe that isn’t a bad thing, but I also think its a great suggestion to try to think more broadly some too. But I just really want to understand how it works.
    • maybe realizing that this is my process is okay, and good, and i should trust it a bit
      • there is a phase of deep dive without knowing what the form is, then i figure out the form
    • I think these were Sarah’s word, but I have written down: I want to understand the fundamental aspects of the material world
    • can I translate this to a more general public
      • honestly this resonated a lot with me – this is what i have been doing with my software work as well. like when i write and give talks in that worlds, it’s about taking something complex and breaking it down into a way that is more easily digestible for a more general audience. I think I do this because it’s how my brain works, but when I’m able to capture that and organize that, it becomes something that’s helpful to others too. That’s kind of cool to recognize, and maybe I recognized that with software work, but I am now seeing that it’s a larger pattern in my life. And that’s kind of cool
      • Also, as I’m reflecting on this, I am remembering a Christmas where my dad and I were talking about Charles Babbage’s calculating machine, because I was reading The Difference Engine by Doron Swade at the time. And my mom was so over the conversation. Partly because it’s a complex, confusing topic that she’s just not really interested in. Also the fact that my dad and I were having cocktails, and the explanation was kind of Drunk History-like may have been part of it. 😂 But I remember being so engaged and excited, and so badly wanted to explain it to her, because that was helping me understand it better.
  • We looked at my sunscreen project from the fall semester. And I kind of hate this project now, because it feels like a slide show. But Sarah said to her it felt more like an elaborate NYT piece, like investigative journalist pice. I like that perspective. I’m not sure if that’s the form I’d like this project to take, but maybe that can be one component of it?
    • a couple other things I had considered during my sunscreen project were to create a performance of constantly putting more and more sunscreen on – Sarah suggested that making giving that a try if it still feels interesting may be helpful to just get a sense of how performance feels.
      • Also as I was chatting a bit about my project with my dad last night, I realize that there certainly are overlapping ideas – my research with both radio waves and sunscreen started with waves on a spectrum. 🤔
      • So this physical expression/embodiment of a mechanical idea feels like a cool thing to try
      • Sarah told me about Three Transitions by Peter Campus, mostly the 2nd transition feels like good inspiration for my sunscreen project.
      • Sarah also told me Vanishing by Gerald Clarke Jr, where he seems to employ a similar technique of covering himself in green paint, and then using a green screen he disappears.
    • When deciding to try to make the thing, Sarah suggested I think about: what would it take to do it? Why would I do it? Why wouldn’t I? Taking the risk is ok. Start making.`
• Assignments:
  • read the proposal guidelines
  • bring a few interesting facts from my research for the next time we meet – this will help bring her (and my future audience) in, and maybe help me articulate my why a bit better