Group: Manuel Sanches, Midori Davis, Amy bennett

https://dtc-wsuv.org/abennett22/dtc-338.02/bennett-web-game/web-game.html

https://dtc-wsuv.org/dtc338-luers/ai-final-project-msanches/

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15fTPajBSUvK7rWOZwYutEY1ZcLxpjl7DZFavaW33c3w/edit?usp=sharing

Description:

In the futuristic world of Neo Edo, where ancient traditions blend with advanced technology, a conflict emerges between the traditional Kōgami Clan and the innovative Techno Guild. The story begins during the city’s Festival of Lights, a celebration of unity between the old and the new. The festival is suddenly disrupted by a mysterious blackout, leading to suspicions against the Techno Guild for sabotaging the power grid. As tensions rise, the Kōgami Clan, staunch defenders of tradition, meet in a rain-soaked dojo to plan their response. They demand city council action against the guild, whose members are seen gearing up for a fight in their high-tech underground hub. The conflict escalates under the ancient cybernetic Ginkgo tree, where a dramatic battle merges traditional samurai tactics with futuristic technology.

After the intense confrontation, leaders from both sides gather at dawn among the battle’s remnants. Realizing their shared love for Neo Edo, they negotiate peace and agree to collaborate on a new council that integrates both tradition and technology. “The Neon Shogunate” explores the balance between preserving heritage and embracing progress, highlighting the challenges and resolutions within a society evolving through technology.

The narrative I created for this project has definitely been the best one I’ve been able to generate. It’s not an extremely complex narrative, but it has enough depth to get you intrigued. I started the chat by asking ChatGPT to help me write a short narrative that takes place in my fictional world. To get a good result, I then provided it with the instructions and requirements of the project. After this, my GPT asked me some questions such as, “What do you envision happening in this world? What are the key elements and characters you’re interested in exploring?” To these, I responded with, “I want a short narrative about conflict between different factions in this fictional world. I’d like the characters to really embody the aesthetic of Edo Japan and cyberpunk.” I think going through this process is what gave me the results I got.

The results I got for my images were also surprisingly good. ChatGPT can be a little tedious when it comes to keeping images consistent, but this time it was able to keep the images consistent throughout the whole thing.

AI Enhanced Visions

Project Summary

 This project aims to help people harness the capabilities of AI to create a series of animated graphic designs. The primary goal is to use this technology for self-expression and to showcase how AI can serve as a powerful tool in enhancing the creative process. By integrating AI with traditional design tools like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere, I intend to explore new creative frontiers. This project will not only boost my understanding of AI’s potential in design but also serve as an educational resource for others interested in similar explorations.

Needs Assessment

A person’s  proficiency with design software should be able to form a solid foundation for this project. However, to fully leverage AI’s capabilities, one may need to deepen their knowledge of advanced functions and features within these tools. Additionally, while the current plan is to use ChatGPT for text-based AI tasks, one should also research alternative AI tools that could offer enhanced or different capabilities, ensuring a broad toolkit to address various design challenges.

Skills and Technology Overview

Effective use of AI in graphic design requires precise communication—being able to clearly articulate creative ideas and technical needs to the AI. While one may manage to generate some promising material, enhancing your ability to formulate and refine prompts will be crucial for achieving high-quality outcomes. Mastery over both the AI and design software is essential for this.

Learning and Development Plan

To elevate the quality of the project, you will need to engage in online courses focusing on advanced AI applications in graphic design and the effective use of Adobe tools. These resources will be vital in refining your skills and ensuring you can fully exploit the integrative capabilities of AI and graphic design software. Budgeting for subscriptions or course fees will be an integral part of this learning phase.

Application and Impact

Improving your skills in AI and graphic design will not only benefit your personal creative projects but also prepare you to contribute more significantly in professional settings. By documenting and sharing your project process and results, you will inspire others to explore and integrate AI into their creative practices, thus fostering a community of innovatively inclined designers.

Project Timeline

• week 1-2: Research and enroll in relevant courses; begin basic experiments with AI tools.
• week 3-4: Apply learned skills to create initial designs; receive feedback and refine techniques.
• week 5-6: Finalize project designs and prepare presentations/documentation for sharing outcomes.

Budget

The budget includes monthly subscriptions for Adobe programs at approximately $32 and AI tools costing around $21 per month. Offering a tiered budget plan can accommodate varying levels of access among students, enabling more inclusive participation.

Evaluation and Reflection

The project’s success will be evaluated against specific milestones such as the completion of training modules, the quality and creativity of generated designs, and the effectiveness of the final presentation. You should plan to maintain a reflective journal throughout the project to document challenges, solutions, and personal growth experienced during the project.

This structured approach will ensure that the project is both educational and practical, providing a comprehensive exploration of AI’s role in enhancing graphic design.

Graphic design continuously evolves, blending creativity with technology to craft engaging visual stories. My exploration into AI’s role in enhancing this creative journey sparked my main question: “How can AI improve the creative process in graphic design, and is its use justified?” In this project, I aim going to answer this question and demonstrate AI’s potential to boost the creative process.

In my final project, I aim to explore the theme of “life,” focusing on exploring how loss and gain shape our lives. Life’s true nature lies in the beautiful mix of wins and losses, teaching us to value all our experiences. This is what makes life beautiful, offering us the chance to love and be loved, to grow through our challenges, and to value the times of success and kindness. The graphic design will serve as a visual metaphor for this journey, depicting the fluid and ever-changing nature of life. Using AI tools and techniques, I will transform my thoughts and ideas into tangible content, building a detailed picture of graphic assets, including background images, text overlays, and symbolic elements that embody the theme.

AI’s role in this creative process is important, as it will assist in generating and refining these visual elements, allowing me to experiment with different styles, compositions, and color schemes. By integrating AI into my artistic practice, I intend to push the boundaries of traditional graphic design, creating a piece that not only reflects on the theme of life but also demonstrates the potential of AI in enhancing and expanding the creative landscape. This project will show my view of life’s ups and downs and look at how AI can be used to better express these complex, common themes.

https://dtc-wsuv.org/dtc338-luers/msanches-world/

Story summary: In the cyberpunk city of Neo Edo, the Yurei Hackers, led by the mysterious “Kage” and masked like mythical Oni, challenge the Kengō Corp’s economic dominance with a significant digital heist, redirecting funds to the city’s oppressed. In retaliation, the Kengō Corp, under the command of “Hanzo,” who merges samurai tradition with futuristic cybernetics, aims to eliminate the hacker threat with their elite Cyber-Samurai. This escalating conflict captures the attention of Neo Edo’s citizens, who realize that the battle’s outcome will dictate their city’s destiny. The confrontation, merging historical elegance with future brutality, is not just a fight for survival but for the very soul of Neo Edo, pitting the Yurei’s fight for the downtrodden against Kengō’s vision of order and progress.

For my video, I wanted to create a video in the style of an older movie. All my images are in black and white, which gives it that older movie feeling. If possible, I might also try to add a grain effect to give a little more to the aesthetic. As for sound, I want to try and keep it simple; I might add some narration but not throughout the whole video. For sound effects, I plan to add sounds that fit the image and what is occurring. For example, one of my images is a busy market, so I want to add the sounds of a busy market (voices, people walking around, food cooking, etc.). For music, I want to try and find something that is either a mix of traditional Japanese string music or tech music for the cyberpunk aesthetic. If not this, then I will only use traditional Japanese string music.

AI’s involvement in Hollywood is a topic that has sparked both excitement and concern among actors, writers, and audiences. Recent articles have highlighted various perspectives on this issue, revealing a complex landscape of hopes, fears, and uncertainties. One of the primary concerns raised by actors and writers is the fear that AI might eventually take over their roles. This fear is understandable, as AI technologies continue to advance, showing remarkable capabilities in various fields. However, it’s essential to recognize that AI’s role in creative industries like Hollywood is still evolving and that its current capabilities are limited.

While some may fear the potential threat of AI, there is also recognition of the positive contributions it can make. AI has the potential to enhance the creative process, offering new tools and techniques that can help artists and filmmakers bring their visions to life in innovative ways. Despite these advancements, AI is not yet capable of expressing a wide range of human emotions. This limitation is crucial, as human emotions play a significant role in storytelling and performance. While AI can analyze data and mimic certain emotional cues, it lacks the depth of human emotion. This limitation underscores the importance of actors and writers in maintaining the human element in films, ensuring that stories resonate with audiences on a deeper level.

However, some argue that actors and writers are not fully leveraging their unique contributions to films. While AI can assist in various aspects of production, including generating dialogue or suggesting story ideas, it cannot replace the creativity, intuition, and personal experiences that actors and writers bring to their work. These human elements are what make films compelling and relatable, highlighting the irreplaceable value of human creativity in storytelling. Moreover, the fact that AI is not able to express human emotion has led some people to be less fearful of its progress. Understanding that AI is fundamentally different from human intelligence and emotion helps to demystify its capabilities and limitations, fostering a more realistic view of its potential impact.

It’s essential to recognize that AI should be seen as its entity, separate from human actors and writers. While AI can enhance and complement human creativity, it should not be seen as a replacement for human talent. Instead, AI should be viewed as a tool that can expand the creative possibilities in Hollywood and other creative industries, offering new avenues for storytelling and expression. In conclusion, AI’s involvement in Hollywood presents both opportunities and challenges for actors, writers, and audiences. While there are legitimate concerns about AI’s potential to replace human roles, there is also recognition of its potential to enhance creativity and storytelling. By understanding AI’s current limitations and embracing its potential as a creative tool, Hollywood can continue to evolve and innovate, creating new and exciting experiences for audiences around the world.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ELN1qj74XPJH5YHqKmSHdPXw-tIkYGNC2O3iUMg6p1o/edit#slide=id.p

For the visual art series, we were assigned to create a slideshow for a series of images that showcased our artistic exploration. The recommended themes to explore were abstraction, surrealist imagery, new species, poetic prompts, sketch to image, and photorealism. Inspired by the rich cultural heritage of the Edo era in Japan and the futuristic allure of cyberpunk, I tried to encapsulate their beauty within my imagery. Each piece is precisely crafted to evoke the essence of both worlds, blending traditional Edo with the sleek, neon-lit aesthetic of cyberpunk dystopia.

One striking feature of my images is the consistent color scheme included throughout. I used the same colors in all my images to show the big difference between the calm beauty of Edo and the exciting energy of cyberpunk. Also, I made sure all my pictures were set at night. This makes the bright neon colors really stand out against the dark background, giving a cool feeling like the Edo era

For my fictional world, I wanted to create a setting in the era of samurai but with a cyberpunk style. I aimed to incorporate the beauty of the samurai era and the futuristic elements of cyberpunk. By combining these two, you get an amazing blend of samurai-era and cyberpunk styles—from the architectural marvels and environmental beauty to the technological advancements and cultural practices.

Era and Setting

In this world, traditional samurai values and aesthetics coexist with high-tech cyberpunk innovations. The timeline could be an alternate reality or a distant future where technological advancements took a different path, deeply influenced by the samurai culture. Neon lights and holograms adorn ancient temples and castles, while samurai wield swords enhanced with cutting-edge technology, capable of cutting through steel as easily as through air.

Environment

The landscape is a striking contrast of natural beauty and technological imposition. Bamboo forests are laced with fiber optic lights, creating an ethereal glow. Cities are built vertically, with the lower levels shrouded in shadows and the upper echelons reaching for the sky, symbolizing the societal hierarchy from commoners to samurai and ruling classes.

Food and Culture

Cuisine combines traditional Japanese elements with futuristic touches. Sushi might be infused with synthetic flavors or nutrients, designed to enhance the diner’s abilities temporarily. Tea ceremonies are held in virtual reality spaces, allowing participants from different parts of the world to join in real-time.

Economy

The economy is driven by both ancient trades, such as blacksmithing and farming, and modern industries like cybernetics and software development. Samurai serve not only as warriors and protectors but also as influential figures in corporate and political spheres.

Religion and Education

Religious practices and education merge ancient philosophies with AI ethics. Temples serve as hubs for meditation as well as interfaces for accessing vast digital libraries. Samurai training includes mastering martial arts and ethical hacking, preparing them to defend their domains both physically and in cyberspace.

Technology

Advanced technology is seamlessly integrated into everyday life, with AI serving as both tools and companions. Cybernetic enhancements are common, offering enhanced physical and mental capabilities. Transport includes high-speed maglev trains that follow the ancient roads once trodden by samurai on horseback.

Human-AI Interactions

Humans and AI coexist in a symbiotic relationship, with AI often taking on roles as advisors, educators, and protectors. Some samurai may form bonds with AI entities, considering them as partners or even mentors in their quest for knowledge and justice.

With the world becoming more automated each year, concerns about AI continue to grow. This week’s reading discussed the major concerns regarding AI’s inclusion in fine art. As someone who is just recently getting involved and informed about using AI for art, I don’t have a strong opinion in favor of either side. The reason for this is that all the concerns about AI in art will eventually fade, just as concerns about photography did. Over time, similar concerns have arisen for other innovations like radios or TV. Although, in my opinion, the concerns about TV and radio remain relevant to this day, AI is something people will eventually recognize as a form of art

With all this talk about AI in art, it begs the question: What should artists do with AI tools to address or respond to personal and collective concerns about machine creativity? Artists and creators are grappling with the rise of artificial intelligence in the art world. AI can now create art, which makes people worried about how it might affect human creativity and art. However, artists can use AI in creative ways instead of viewing it as a problem.

One way artists can respond to the challenges posed by AI is by embracing collaboration with these machine systems. Instead of seeing AI as a replacement for human creativity, artists can view it as a partner in the creative process. By working alongside AI algorithms and tools, artists can merge their unique perspectives and talents with the computational power of AI to produce art that is both original and technologically enhanced. This collaborative approach allows artists to maintain their creative agency while leveraging the capabilities of AI to explore new artistic horizons.

AI tools also offer artists the chance to explore entirely new artistic mediums and techniques. For example, they can experiment with AI-generated visual effects, music compositions, or use AI algorithms to create images.

Beyond the final artworks, artists can use AI as a tool to investigate the creative process itself. They can document and visualize the interactions between humans and AI during the art-making process, shedding light on the dynamics of collaboration between humans and machines. These insights not only contribute to the discourse on AI and creativity but also offer a deeper understanding of the nature of human-machine partnerships in the creative domain.

In summary, artists and creators have the opportunity to embrace AI as a tool for artistic exploration, collaboration, and innovation. Rather than being threatened by machine creativity, artists can harness the potential of AI to address concerns about its impact on the art world. Ultimately, the integration of AI into the artistic process holds the promise of enriching the creative journey and expanding the boundaries of what art can be.

This week’s writing assignment was to create a poem or fictional story using one of the writing techniques we learned. For my writing I decided to do a fictional story using the Exquisite Corpse technique. I didn’t want to use a random sentence for this, so I decide to use different lyric excerpts from some of my favorite oldies. I first had chat GPT generate a poem using the lyrics, after it had generated a poem, I asked it to use the poem to write a fictional story based on any frequent themes that appeared in the lyrics. The theme that appeared was one of deep, love, and a sense of yearning or solitude that comes with it.

In the city that never sleeps, there was a room on West End Avenue that seemed untouched by time. The walls were adorned with wood panels, and the floor creaked with stories that spanned decades. The room belonged to Thomas, a man whose heart was as worn as the leather-bound books that filled his shelves. Thomas was a writer, but his true masterpiece was the life he had penned in letters never sent, addressed to a woman named Elise. Their story was one of those fleeting New York romances that burned too bright and too fast, leaving ashes that Thomas tried to resurrect every night in his blue-velvet-draped room.

The room bore witness to his solitude, a solitary rose often resting in a vase, a symbol of the days of wine and roses that they had shared. Tonight, like many nights before, Thomas sat by his mahogany desk, the glow of a solitary lamp casting shadows across the pages that held his unspoken words. It was on one such night that Thomas decided to break the cycle of longing. He took out a crisp sheet of paper and began to write not another letter to Elise, but the beginnings of a story—a story of a love lost and the life that continued thereafter.

Thomas began his tale with the night he met Elise. It was at a jazz club downtown, where the air was thick with the smoky essence of dreams and desires. She was there alone, her eyes reflecting the soul of Billie Holiday as she sang of lost love. Thomas was captivated, not just by her beauty, but by the sadness that seemed to envelop her like a shawl. He wrote of their conversation, of the way her laughter seemed to fill the void in his life, of the way she looked at him like he was the only person in the room. He wrote of the blue velvet dress she wore, of the rose he tucked behind her ear, and of the promise of forever that seemed so tangible in the haze of cigarette smoke and the melody of jazz.

As weeks turned into months, Thomas and Elise wove a tapestry of memories, each more vivid than the last. But just as quickly as she had entered his life, Elise drifted away. She left the city for a life that didn’t include him, leaving behind only a note that read, “In another life, perhaps.” Thomas’s story unfolded on the pages, a cathartic release of words that had been trapped in his heart. He wrote of the days that followed, of the wine that didn’t taste as sweet, of the roses that wilted too fast, of the solitude that was his only company.

His story wasn’t just about loss, it was about the resilience of the human spirit, about finding beauty in the midst of pain. He wrote of the nights he spent walking the streets of Manhattan, of the strangers who became friends, of the words that flowed from his soul onto paper. As he neared the end of his tale, Thomas realized that his story was also one of hope. He had loved and lost, yes, but he had also lived. The memories of Elise were etched in his heart, but they no longer shackled him.

The final chapter of his story brought Thomas back to the present, to the room that had seen him at his lowest and was now witnessing his rebirth. He wrote of the dream he once had, a dream that was no longer his reality but still a part of who he was. Thomas placed the last period on the page and leaned back in his chair. The moon shone through the window, casting a serene glow on his face. He was alone, but not lonely. The night was still, but his heart was at peace.

He may never smile quite the same as he did with Elise, but he would smile again. He had captured his story, not just in the letters never sent but in a story that others could hold. A story of a love that was sincere, forever in its moment, and eternal in its impact. And somewhere in the night, as the city that never sleeps buzzed with life, Thomas knew that Elise was out there, living her story. He hoped that one day their tales might intertwine again, not as lovers, but as two souls who had shared something irreplaceable.

Thomas closed the cover of his manuscript, titled “In the Still of the Night.” He would send it out to publishers, not knowing where it would lead. But for the first time in a long time, he was excited for the future. The room on West End Avenue was silent as Thomas turned off the lamp and headed to bed. In his dreams, he danced with Elise one last time, to the tune of the pied pipers, under the stars, in a world where the days of wine and roses lasted forever.

I am not completely up to date with the many capabilities of AI, but after reading about Mark Amerika and his work, I find myself intrigued by the potential of AI in creative fields. Over the years, I’ve observed AI becoming increasingly integrated into various sectors due to its expanding capabilities. The most fascinating application I’ve encountered is in creative writing, as by Mark Amerika, a digital remix artist. Mark’s unique approach to integrating AI into his work is unprecedented and, I believe, stems from the boundless possibilities offered by human creativity. His interest in remix culture has also enhanced his understanding of the untapped potential in our creative minds.

Mark uses AI not as a solitary agent but as a collaborative partner in writing. In the article “My Life as an Artificial Creative Intelligence,” he compares a human with the addition of AI to bring onto a project. For instance, while an artist may sing the lyrics to a song, they do not produce the beat. They work together, blending insights to create something new. This synergy between Mark’s creative vision and the AI’s processing abilities has created a body of work that is both inspired and insightful.

The article “The Hybrid Mind” further illuminates this process. Mark Amerika provided the AI with samples of his writing, which enabled the machine to learn and mimic his style. This revelation adds a layer of depth to the article, as it could easily be mistaken for the work of a human writer. In my view, Mark is utilizing AI appropriately, not as a replacement for human creativity but as a tool to enhance his own imaginative scope. The most memorable takeaway from the article is its concluding thought: “We have lost ourselves in the act of making, and now we’re in the process of finding ourselves again. At the end of the day, what matters is that we’re alive, and if we’re alive, we must be making things.”

The integration of AI into art, creative writing, or any form of creative expression is not inherently problematic. If humans continue to create, our imagination holds boundless potential.

Learning about AI in this course has opened my eyes to the possibilities of integrating AI into art. If used properly, AI is a perfect tool to enhance an artist’s creative process. So, for my graphic design project called “Synergizing Creativity: An AI-Assisted Graphic Design Odyssey,” I will show how human creativity can be combined with AI technology to open new doors in graphic design.

With what I’ve learned so far about AI’s capabilities, one of the things that I believe will be my best tool for enhancing my creative process on this project will be image generation. Image generation will allow me to bring any image or asset graphic that I think of to life. One thing that makes AI a great tool is how personalized it can be if used properly. What I mean by this is that the images and asset graphics will be personalized to how I imagine them.

“Synergizing Creativity” is the current title I have for my project, but with time, the project will grow and change as it goes, with the details and even the title evolving based on what I learn during the creative journey.

AI is a great tool because it is capable of more than just image and asset generation; it can also be used as a tool for planning. At the core of “Synergizing Creativity” are two main roles for AI: as a planner and as a creator. As a planner, AI will help organize my project, making sure every step is done efficiently. And as mentioned, it will work as a creator, helping AI turn my abstract ideas into real visual pieces such as images and asset graphics.

As I get a broader image of what exactly I want my project to look like, I’ll start feeding my ideas into the AI, which will then give me visual drafts. These visuals will just be the beginning. It will be my job to refine and improve them, ensuring they truly represent my vision. This back-and-forth between creating, reviewing, and improving will be the key to making my project unique and innovative.

I mentioned earlier that AI is a good tool because of how personalized it can be. With this in mind, “Synergizing Creativity” is very mindful of the ethical considerations when it comes to AI in art. I will ensure that my usage of AI is responsible and respectful of everyone’s creative rights. In terms of style, the project will stick to my style and traditional design rules. It will be all about exploring and experimenting, allowing my final designs to be as varied and interesting as my creative process itself.

“Synergizing Creativity: An AI-Assisted Graphic Design Odyssey” is a bold step into the future of graphic design, showing how AI can be a powerful partner in pushing the limits of our creativity. This project isn’t just about making stunning visuals; it’s about pioneering a new way for humans and machines to work together in the world of art.

When reading Tegmark’s tale of the Omega Group, I was very intrigued by the advancements Prometheus went through as the tale progressed. It made me think about how, if I were to read this ten years ago, I would have seen it as just a tale, but now it’s a little scary to think about how possible it would be for an AI like Prometheus to exist.

Tegmark’s text gives us an idea of how AI can lead us to Utopian outcomes with advancements and improvements in the quality of life, or it can lead to dystopian outcomes with a loss of control. To avoid undesirable outcomes, we would need to develop standards and regulatory frameworks for AI research and deployment. To maximize desirable outcomes, we would need to keep the public informed about AI and its potential.

The scenario does not address any long-term risks of having a single AI entity run the world. Even with an AI like Prometheus, we need to consider any risks that could potentially put the public at risk. If there is an AI running the world, you would think the public would be involved, but the scenario unfolds without any public awareness or insight into the AI’s development. Without the inclusion of the public, changes brought by the AI could result in major conflict.

The scenario also gives immense power to the Omega Group, which is risky because of potential human error, misjudgment, or corruption and abuse. The Omega Group also works secretly, which can lead to conflicts or mistrust between governments and other organizations. Moreover, the scenario has little consideration for the impact AI could have on society, culture, and human values.

Hello everyone! I am very excited to be in class. I am aware of AI’s capabilities but I have never used it myself. Im looking forward to seeing what we do with AI.