I have been exploring the use of AI to write songs to accompany my poems. This is a remarkable time for the creative arts. We need to figure out how to certify authenticity and protect IP, image, and privacy. It is still a wild place out there -- but a fascinating place.
This will be my last presentation of AI in this matter because it doesn't age well and the technology and implications are changing very quickly.
Personal
Style: Where do personal style and AI intersect? *
Do we truly have our own
sense of personal style, or are we just copying the influencers around us?
Investigating how well AI
could copy my own personal style made me think of the nature of personal style.
What does that mean in the era of large datasets that seem to contain all
styles. Do we somehow just pick and choose from what is out there? What distinctive,
original content lies inside of us? Is there nothing new under the sun?
People can slightly unleash
themselves from the culture and community of influencers. We are distinct
because we can surprisingly change our style. Machine learning that looks at
past datasets can’t predict our shedding of old rules and taking in new ones.
In addition, people can be exposed to events or engage in experiences that
modify their personal style. We can possibly work with the world of AI by
curating your own datasets.
Reducing Creative Expression to a
Flow Chart…Yuck
Everyone is creative. However, expressing
creativity outside the daily requirements of problem solving and moving into
art and music goes through three basic steps.
Imagination of creator
Technology to implement creation
Physiology of viewer
But there is feedback, whether be from how
your paint is showing on the canvas or the music to your ears or the feedback
from other people (Picasso and Braque are a famous example of productive peer
critiques).
It could be modeled as follows:
A picture of creative expression
Employing rules to bring
personal mental images or musical creations to an audience broadens access to
these processes. Seeking to communicate creative impulses with rules and
structure extracted from cultural norms and other sources democratized artistic
and musical expression. Children learn normative rules in speaking and writing
that quickly let them use these abilities to express individual thoughts. A
parent understands, “I miss daddy” as well as a lengthy narrative about
loneliness and familial connections. A child’s stick figure drawing showing two
people holding hands, presents as clear a meaning as a painting of the same
thing.
We can quickly use
normative rules to engage in art forms that may have traditionally been
moderated by human gatekeepers. Introducing these rules can open a corridor for
richer expression of ideas. Moreover, coupling these rules with intuitive
software, online instruction, and the unfettered communications on the
internet, allows more inclusive entrance into creating art and music.
Rules can guide the novice.
For example, in music the relationship between notes that make up a chord are
established and culturally conditioned. Moreover, the progression of these
chords follows commonly recognized sequences. Therefore, one can couple lyrics
with a chord progression that turns poetry into music. The visual arts also
have rules related to guiding compositions and color. Moreover, artificial
intelligence has been used in music and the visual arts to identify and
redeploy patterns in new work.
I’m
Offended!
Musical composers should be
offended at the notion of creating music by simply accompanying lyrics with a rule-based
(or sampled) approach. This offends the depth, breadth, and creative majesty of
musical composition. A traditionally trained artist will likewise be offended
at artwork produced by morphing existing images and applying colors from a
standardized color scheme. However, musical and artistic creation can be
democratized by identifying patterns and normative rules which are redeployed
in a new, personal form.
Here is a remix of the song with a discussion of process. The remix is at the end.
* Much of the last two blog posts and YouTube song derive from my most recent ASEE paper, Engineering Art: Democratizing artistic expression using normative rules. The proceedings have not been published yet.
I have written almost a
quarter million words in my journal. Describing my life, reflecting on
experiences in prose and poem. While no one should care about my life,
with the possible exception of my children, I write because I must.
Although I write to the wind, it gives me a chance to reflect on things.
We are fortunate if even two generations of our progeny care about us.
After that, we are just names and dates.
However, too much time on introspection: can be
a problem. Did Emily Dickinson live life robustly or did she just
document a provincial dwelling robustly? Sometimes we need to reflect,
sometimes we need to act. While General Ian Hamilton’s troops were being
slaughtered at Gallipoli during World War I, he thought broadly and deeply
about life.He shared these thoughts in
long diary entries.
“Each evening their commander in chief before
retiring in his bunk on the battleship, wrote five thousand word entries in his
diary, reflecting upon the mysteries and ironies of life.”(The Last Lion, William Manchester, Little Brown
and Co., 1983, p 551.) I would probably do the same thing. Maybe people
of action don’t leave a long paper or video trail but they live life robustly.
I particularly identified with
a poem by Ibrahim ib Ulthman’s “Apology” that who shows a respectful treatment
for the “gift of the Muses”.
Don’t cross me off as fickle
because
a singing voice
has
captured my heart,
One
must be serious sometimes
and
lighthearted at other times;
like
wood from which come
both
the singers’ lute
and
the warrior’s bow.
This poem was attractive to me
because it characterizes my personality.
Someone who enjoys laughter and even being silly yet my underlying temperament
can be deadly serious. Humor does not
preclude serious opinions and emotions.
The fact that someone one thousand years ago can describe me is a
pleasant reminder of the commonality of humanity and the shared traits across
time and culture.
Imagine this peaceful scene of friendship,
food and drink as illustrated in Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Qabtrnuh’s “Invitation”:
Your
friend invites you
to
enjoy two shimmer pots
already
giving off
a
savory odor,
some
perfumes,
a
carafe of wine,
a
delicious place
Although in somewhat of a
contrast, I encountered an epitaph that highlighted the fear and sadness we also
share with the ancients. The ancient Greek
scholar, Kallimachos (c. 294-235 BC) recited the
following epitaph for a son: “His father Philip laid here the twelve-year old
boy Nikoteles: his dearest hope.”
I am left graced by the walk through
these poems and pleasantly satisfied that one can speak with a neighbor of so
long ago. I am very thankful for
translators who handled these difficult works!
I have written poems all my life, most are about God and my children. Here are some for those that like poetry but I'm including some of my paintings too, which I hope you enjoy.
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Here is an earlier discussion of AI and music:
• Song vs poetry - and a new remix!
AI and personal style:
