Projects

• Blogging
• Writing #1: AI Research Goals 
• Writing #2: Poem, Story or Script
• Writing #3: Fictional World GPT
• Visual #1: Visual Art Series
• Visual #2: Visual Narratives from a Fictional World 
• Visual #3: Animation/Video
• World-building Online Exhibition
• Interactive Multimodal Game(groups)
• Multimodal Research Essay
• Final Creative Project

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Blogging (20%)

I will provide blogging prompts and/or exercises to help you think critically and creatively about the themes each week. Blog posts should be approximately 250-500 words , demonstrate a solid understanding of the readings/screenings and the ongoing themes in the course, be crafted as mini-essays with proper grammar and spelling and include relevant links, media inserts, “featured image” and metadata (tagging, categories).

You will also be posting all video assignments and projects (embedded from your youtube or vimeo accounts) to your blog, along with a text introduction and proper metadata.

As upper-level university students at a Tier 1 research institution, your writing proficiency should reflect that status. We will discuss what makes good blog writing throughout the course.

2 pts:
-posts are a proper and timely response to the week’s reading(s) and prompt
-posts are developed arguments with (if required) supporting evidence (quotes, embedded videos, images etc.)
-posts are around 250-500 words
-posts are formatted with a featured image, blockquotes, external links (where appropriate), categories, tags

1 pt:  significantly deficient in any one of the above areas

0 pts:  significantly deficient in any two of the above areas

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Writing #1: AI Research Goals 5%

Objective:
Compose a 500-1000 word research statement (as a blog post) using your custom research GPT to articulate the guiding principles of your creative endeavors in this class. This statement should mirror your broad interests in AI’s role and future in culture and the arts, alongside specific inclinations towards tools, media, and objectives for your final project, culminating in a multimodal essay accompanying a creative work.

Instructions:

1. Exploration: Begin by identifying your general interests in AI, particularly its impact on and integration with cultural and artistic expressions.
2. Specificity: Narrow your focus to particular AI tools and media you are drawn to. Consider how these preferences will shape your projects and investigations throughout the course.
3. Final Project Vision: Outline your aspirations for the final project, including the creative work you plan to produce and the accompanying multimodal essay.
4. Personalization: Write in the first person, ensuring that the statement is deeply personal and reflective of your unique perspective. Use the output from your custom research GPT as a foundation, but refine and adapt the language to ensure it resonates with your individual voice and insights.

Evaluation Criteria:

• Clarity of Interest: How well you articulate your interests and how they connect to AI and the arts.
• Specificity: The detail with which you describe your chosen tools, media, and project goals.
• Personal Voice: The degree to which your statement reflects your personal perspective and journey.

This assignment encourages introspection and conceptualization, inviting you to outline the trajectory of your creative inquiry within the intersection of AI, culture, and the arts, setting a foundation for your contributions to this evolving field.

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Writing #2: Poem, Story or Script 5%

Objective:
Craft a short fiction, poem, or script that begins with generative techniques, incorporating contributions from ChatGPT. This exercise encourages improvisation, revision, rewriting, remixing, and repetition to refine the initial output into a piece that resonates with your creative standards.

Details:

• Length: 300-1000 words as a blog post
• Method: Start by using generative prompts with ChatGPT.
• Experiment with different inputs to inspire your piece.
• Process: After receiving initial outputs, engage in a cycle of improvisation and revision. Adjust and expand upon the AI-generated text to infuse it with your unique voice and vision.
• Objective: Elevate the work beyond the typical AI-generated content by incorporating personal insights, emotions, and stylistic flair.

Evaluation Criteria:

• Originality: The uniqueness and creativity of your approach and final piece.
• Development: The extent to which the piece has been refined from its initial AI-generated state.
• Expression: The clarity, depth, and authenticity of your creative voice.

Submission:
Publish your work as a blog post and submit the link via the course’s learning management system by Friday, February 2.

This assignment challenges you to explore the intersection of AI and human creativity, pushing you to transform generative content into a work that meets your personal creative criteria.

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Writing #3: Fictional World GPT 5%

Objective:
Craft a detailed description of a fictional world dominated by AI technology. This description will be the basis for a custom GPT, aiding in generating related images, texts and prompts for future projects. Your world should be dynamic, with room for evolution.

Key Elements to Include:

• Era and Setting: Define the time period and describe the landscape.
• Environment: Detail climate and geographical features.
• Food and Culture: Describe typical cuisine and cultural practices.
• Economy: Outline economic systems and key resources.
• Religion and Education: Explain predominant beliefs and educational structures.
• Technology: Highlight technological advancements, focusing on human-AI interactions.
• Uniqueness: What makes your world unique? Focus on innovative aspects, especially in human-AI symbiosis.

Requirements:

A concise 300-500 word blog post covering the above points.
Incorporate reflections on the future of human-AI relationships within your world.

Criteria for Evaluation:

• Originality: Creativity of your world’s concept.
• Clarity: How well the world’s aspects are articulated.
• Insight: Depth of thought on human-AI symbiosis.

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Visual #1: Visual Art Series 5%

Objective:
Create a series of art images that develops a visual idea or technique, culminating in a Google Slides presentation. This series should not only showcase your artistic exploration but also be accompanied by a statement that outlines your concept, methodology, and findings.

Themes to Explore:

• Abstraction: Experiment with shapes, colors, and forms to convey emotions or impressions.
• Surrealist Imagery: Delve into the surreal by creating imagery that defies conventional logic and explores dream-like scenarios.
• New Species Creation: Imagine and depict a new animal or plant species, considering its environment, behaviors, and appearance.
• Poetic Prompts: Let poetry inspire your visuals. Translate the essence of poems into compelling imagery.
• Sketch to Image: Begin with simple sketches and evolve them into detailed images, showcasing the process of artistic refinement.
• Photo-realism: Aim for meticulous detail and accuracy to create images that closely resemble photographs.
  Requirements:

Develop at least 5 images adhering to your chosen theme.
Include a written statement (200-300 words) detailing your inspiration, the process you undertook, and any discoveries made during your creative journey.

Criteria for Evaluation:

• Creativity: Originality and innovation in your chosen theme.
• Cohesion: How well the series adheres to and explores the selected idea or technique.’
• Reflective Insight: Depth and insightfulness of the accompanying statement.

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Visual #2: Visual Narratives from a Fictional World 5%

Project Overview
In this project, you will leverage the power of Generative AI to bring your own crafted fictional world to life through a series of interconnected images. This visual narrative will explore a moment or simple story within your unique world, showcasing the depth, consistency, and creativity of your world-building efforts. By integrating characters, landscapes, and key elements from your AI-generated worlds, you will create a cohesive Google slideshow that not only suggests character and story and also reveals intricate details about the culture, technology, and ecosystems of your imagined reality.

Project Objectives

• Consistency and Cohesion: Maintain visual and thematic consistency across your slideshow to ensure your world feels unified and believable.
• Detail and Depth: Use images to highlight the unique features of your world, including cultural, technological, and ecological aspects.
• Character Integration: Incorporate characters from your world, showcasing their roles, relationships, and interactions within the sequence.
• Storytelling: Each image should contribute to a broader narrative or moment, engaging the viewer with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Project Requirements

• World-Building Foundation: Base your slideshow images on a world you’ve developed in your World GPT created last week, 
• Image Sequence: Create a slideshow of 5-10 images that sequentially narrate a story or depict a significant moment in your world.
• Visual Consistency: Ensure all images adhere to the defined aesthetic, style, and color palette of your world.
• Format Consistency: Ensure all images adhere to a single image format and aesthetic: Photo formats, drawing styles etc.
• Reflective statement: Write a brief post along with the slideshow discussing your creative process, the challenges of maintaining consistency, and how you used AI tools to generate and refine your world and its visual representation.

Steps to Completion

• World-Building Review: Edit your World GPT in the Configure section to refine the characteristics, inhabitants, and themes.
• Narrative Outline: Draft a storyline or choose a moment in the world that exemplifies a critical aspect of your world. Outline key scenes that will be depicted in your slideshow.
• Character Selection: Choose characters from your world that will play a role in the narrative. Detail their appearance, traits, and significance to the story.
• Image Creation: Use AI image generation tools to create visuals for each scene in your slideshow. Pay close attention to the consistency of the world’s aesthetic and the details that highlight its unique features.
• Slideshow Assembly: Compile the images in a logical order that effectively showcases the moment or story sequence. Add brief captions if necessary to guide the viewer.
• Presentation and Review: Present your slideshow to the class, sharing insights into your creative process and how you utilized AI to achieve your vision.

Evaluation Criteria:

• Creativity and Originality: The uniqueness and imaginative qualities of your world and its visual and narrative presentation.
• Consistency and Detail: How well your slideshow maintains the consistency of your world’s features and reveals its depth through details.
• Narrative Integration: The effectiveness of your characters and scenes in showing a compelling story or moment within your world.
• Use of AI Tools: Your ability to effectively use AI in both the world-building and image creation processes, including how these tools influenced your creative decisions.
• Reflective Insight: The depth of your reflection on the project’s process, challenges, and your personal growth as a creator.

This project encourages students to deepen their engagement with their own AI-generated worlds, exploring the potential of visual storytelling to convey complex narratives and world features. Through this creative endeavor, students will develop a more nuanced understanding of narrative construction, visual consistency, and the innovative use of AI tools in artistic creation.

Visual #3: Animation/Video 5%

Project Overview”
In this project, you will use Generative AI video and audio tools to build a short sequence from your fictional world. This visual narrative will delve into a pivotal moment or a simple story arc within your unique world, emphasizing the depth, consistency, and creativity of your world-building endeavors. Through the integration of characters, environments, and key elements from your AI-generated worlds, you will produce a cohesive video demonstrating visual storytelling skills but also unveils intricate details about the culture, technology, and ecosystems of your imagined reality.

Project Objectives:

• Consistency and Cohesion: Ensure visual, thematic, and auditory consistency throughout your video to make your world feel unified and immersive.
• Detail and Depth: Utilize video clips and sound to accentuate the unique aspects of your world, including cultural, technological, and ecological dimensions.
• Character Integration: Feature characters from your world, highlighting their roles, relationships, and interactions within the narrative.
• Storytelling: The video should unfold a visual narrative with sound, music, narration and or character voices. No need for developed plot, just a narrative moment, with a distinct beginning, middle, and end.

Project Requirements:

• World-Building Foundation: Base your video on the world you’ve developed using your World-Building GPT from the previous week.
• Video Sequence: Edit a short (20-60 second) video that narrates a story or depicts a significant moment in your world. Use Adobe Premiere to edit, but see me if you have no video editing experience. You can compile the clips in a Google Slide show if necessary.
• Format Consistency: Maintain a single video format (16:9, 720p is best) and aesthetic throughout, including consistent video quality and editing style.
• Build a Soundtrack: Use any number of AI audio tools to build a soundtrack, sound effects and or voices for your short.
• Visual and Auditory Consistency: Ensure all video clips and soundtracks adhere to the defined aesthetic, style, and mood of your world.
• Upload to Youtube: Upload the completed video sequence to Youtube and then paste the URL on its own line in a blog post. It should turn into a player.
• Reflective Statement: Compose a brief reflection to accompany your video (in the blog post), discussing your creative process, the challenges of maintaining consistency, and how you utilized AI tools to generate, refine, and audibly enhance your world and its narrative.

Steps to Completion

• World-Building Review: Refine the characteristics, inhabitants, and themes of your world in the Configure section of your World GPT.
• Narrative Outline: Draft a storyline or select a moment that exemplifies a critical aspect of your world. Outline key scenes to be included in your video.
• Character Selection: Identify characters from your world to feature in the narrative. Detail their appearance, traits, and significance to the story.
• Video and Audio Creation: Use Generative AI tools such as RunwayML for video creation and Stability Audio for sound design to produce visuals and soundtracks for each scene. Focus on maintaining the world’s aesthetic consistency and the unique features that highlight its distinctiveness.
• Video Assembly: Edit the clips in a logical sequence that effectively narrates your story or moment. Consider adding spoken audio for character or narrator voices to guide the audience.
• Presentation and Review: Share your Youtube video with the class in a blog post, providing insights into your creative process and the application of AI in achieving your vision.

Evaluation Criteria:

• Creativity and Originality: The inventiveness and imaginative aspects of your world and its visual, narrative, and auditory presentation.
• Consistency and Detail: The extent to which your video maintains the world’s features consistently and reveals its depth through details.
• Narrative Integration: The effectiveness of your characters, scenes, and sound in conveying a compelling story or moment within your world.
• Use of AI Tools: Your proficiency in leveraging AI for world-building, video creation, and sound design, including how these tools influenced your creative decisions.
• Reflective Insight: The depth of your reflection on the project’s process, the challenges faced, and your development as a creator.

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World-building Online Exhibition (5%)

Overview

Following the development of your world-building projects, where you’ve crafted descriptions, images, and videos to bring your unique world to life, the next phase is to create an online exhibition about your world, its environment, economy, foods, beliefs etc.. In this assignment you are to code a single-page website from scratch using HTML5, CSS, and optionally JavaScript, to showcase the rich lore, geography, and narratives of your world. This project is an opportunity to blend your creative world-building with technical web development skills, using ChatGPT to assist in coding your vision.

Goals

• Showcase Your World: Create a single-page scroll website that visually and textually presents your world in a compelling and immersive manner.
• Display AI-Generated Content: Integrate the descriptions, images, and videos you’ve created, ensuring a narrative flow that guides visitors through your world.
• Enhance Skills in Web Design: Use HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript with the assistance of ChatGPT  to build a webpage that is both functional and aesthetically aligned with the theme of your world.
• Incorporate Interactive Elements: (Optional) Use JavaScript to add interactive features such as image sliders, video players, or animated transitions to enrich the user experience.

Instructions

1. Planning:
   • Draft a layout for your webpage, including a header, a main content area for your world’s introduction, sections for various aspects of your world (like lore, geography, characters), and a footer.
   • Consider how users will navigate your content. While a single page, anchor links can provide quick navigation to specific sections.
2. Setup:
   • Create a new folder on your computer for your project files. 
   • Gather media files and organize within project folder.
   • Begin with an index.html file as your webpage’s foundation.
3. Coding with ChatGPT:
   • Craft a Detailed Prompt: Clearly articulate your vision for the layout, including typography, color schemes, and how your content (text, images, videos) should be displayed. The more detailed your prompt, the better ChatGPT can assist in generating the HTML and CSS code.
   • Integration: Insert your AI-generated descriptions, images, and videos into the designated sections of your HTML file. Pay attention to how each piece contributes to the narrative of your world.
   • Styling and Interactivity: Use CSS to style your webpage according to your world’s theme. Optionally, use JavaScript to add dynamic elements or animations that enhance storytelling.
4. Review and FTP:
   • Ensure consistency in design and functionality. Test your webpage in different browsers to catch and correct any issues.
   • Use Cyberduck to upload your project to a web server. Remember, file and folder names should be in lowercase and without spaces!

Grading Criteria

• Content Integration (30%): Quality and creativity in how the world’s descriptions, images, and videos are presented.
• Design and Layout (25%): The webpage’s visual appeal and thematic alignment with the world’s concept.
• Functionality (20%): The webpage must be navigable, with all links and interactive elements working correctly.
• Code Quality (15%): Well-structured HTML and CSS, with clean, readable code. JavaScript code (if used) should be efficient and bug-free.
• Creativity and Innovation (10%): Use of interactive elements or animations to create an engaging user experience.

Example Prompt for ChatGPT

“Help me code a one-page website dedicated to showcasing my fictional world. The page should start with a header featuring the world’s name [WORLD NAME], followed by an introductory section that gives an overview of the world. Below, organize the content into sections for lore, geography, and notable characters, foods, beliefs. Each section should have an alternating two-column grid displaying image and related text. Include CSS for basic styling with a cohesive color scheme.” 

Interactive Multimodal Game(groups)  15%

Multimodal Research Essay (15%)

Overview

In this project, you are required to write a 1200-word multimodal essay in HTML format that explores your main research interest in the area of creative production with AI. This essay should serve as a deep dive into a specific creative question or challenge you’ve identified, drawing on your experiences and reflections from the course. Through integrating text with images, videos, and other media, your essay will not only articulate your investigative journey but also act as an artist’s statement for your broader engagement with AI in creative production.

Objectives

• Develop a Central Creative Question: Clearly define a question that guides your exploration of AI in the arts, based on your interests and experiences in the course.
• Reflective Analysis: Offer a personal and critical examination of your engagement with AI tools and concepts, highlighting what was inspiring or challenging.
• Multimodal Composition: Craft an essay that skillfully combines written content with digital media elements, creating a cohesive narrative about your research interest.

Process

1. Brainstorming with your Research GPT: Initiate your project by brainstorming with your Research GPT to refine your central question and gather initial thoughts.
2. Research and Reflection: Engage deeply with your chosen topic, incorporating course materials, external sources, and personal insights gained through working with AI.
3. Essay Writing and Multimedia Integration: Write your essay, ensuring to weave in multimedia elements that enhance and illustrate your arguments. Pay attention to the design and layout of your HTML page to make it visually engaging and accessible.
4. Revision and Refinement: Review your essay for coherence, style, and technical accuracy. Ensure your multimedia elements are seamlessly integrated and contribute meaningfully to your narrative.

Evaluation Criteria

• Clarity and Depth of Central Question: The essay should revolve around a well-articulated and insightful question that prompts exploration of AI in creative contexts.
• Reflective Insight: Demonstrates thoughtful reflection on personal experiences with AI, including both the potential and pitfalls encountered.
• Integration of Multimodal Elements: Effective use of images, videos, and other media to complement and deepen the textual content.
• Coherence and Design: The overall presentation should be coherent and aesthetically pleasing, with a clear structure that enhances the reader’s engagement.

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Final Creative Project (20%)

Overview

This project invites you to create an original work that embodies your reflections and research on AI’s role in creative production. Drawing on the central question developed in your multimodal research essay, this creative project should utilize AI tools and techniques to investigate or express your chosen theme. Whether through generative art, AI-enhanced video and sound, or interactive storytelling, your project will showcase your ability to integrate AI into your artistic practice.

Objectives

• Creative Exploration: Use AI tools to explore and express your central research question or challenge in a creative format.
• Technical Innovation: Demonstrate skillful use of AI technologies to achieve your project’s artistic goals.
• Artistic Expression: Your project should reflect your unique voice and perspective, offering new insights or experiences related to AI in the arts.

Process

1. Concept Development: Based on the central question from your multimodal essay, develop a concept for your creative project that engages with AI in a meaningful way.
2. Technical Planning and Execution: Identify and utilize the appropriate AI tools and techniques to bring your concept to life. This may involve learning new tools or deepening your expertise in familiar ones.
3. Creative Production: Develop your project, ensuring that your artistic vision is clearly communicated and that the use of AI adds significant value to the work.
4. Presentation and Documentation: Prepare to present your project effectively, considering how best to showcase the work and its engagement with AI. Document your creative process and the role of AI in your project.

Evaluation Criteria

• Originality and Creativity: The project should be original and creatively engaging, offering a fresh perspective or approach to AI in the arts.
• Technical Proficiency: Demonstrates competent use of AI tools and techniques, with a clear understanding of their potential and limitations.
• Artistic Cohesion: The work should be cohesive and expressive, effectively communicating your central question or theme through artistic choices.
• Reflective Engagement: Your project should reflect deep engagement with the themes explored in your multimodal essay, showing a critical and thoughtful approach to AI in creative production.