DEVELOPING A VISUAL LANGUAGE
I used this artificial intelligence art generating application called ‘Wombo Dream’, which is similar to Google’s Deep Dream software to begin creating an aesthetic for my piece. I felt it was important for me to start seeing visual imagery as it helps me pull my ideas together and establish a direction to go in. I always find that seeing visuals helps hugely with the sonic side of things, and vice versa. I typed words like “futuristic landscape”, “infinite horizon” and “cyberpunk” into the software so it could begin generating a response. Some of the images below are really unique and I began to see patterns than ran through them all, for example shapes, colours and abstractions. What I find so amazing about this way of working is I am able to generate complex images in a matter of seconds and then refine my search based on what I like and what I think could be better. The fact that each generation is completely unique makes producing a lot of content really easy and I spent a lot of hours narrowing down my search so it became more specific and I could establish a level of control, sort of like educated guesses on how the image would turn out.
I loved the name “Infinite Horizon” and decided that it should be my working title for the time being, because it definitely relates to my overarching theme of an endless form of art. I feel ‘Infinite Horizon’ speaks to me in the sense that I imagine someone running towards the horizon, but it never gets closer and the beauty of the sunset and surrounding landscape is endless. Much like this idea of exploring the PROCESS as opposed to a FINISHED PRODUCT.
Using the shapes, colours and forms that I felt ran through all of the AI generations, I thought I’d write the title taking influence from them. The experiments above are purely a way to help me visualise the final outcome of my work in a clearer way.
After thinking about my work more, I really do feel it is a little unnecessary to have an interactive element. I think it would work but I don’t feel it is vital to the theme of the piece to have the audience interacting with a MIDI controller. Just a generative sound and some way of having the audio react to the sound I think will be enough to communicate my ideas effectively.