Mx.D.P

I spent the week in London, catching up with art friends, visiting Kusama at the Tate Modern and attending the Embodying Horizons event at the CCI: UAL run by the Feminist Internet in preparation for my co-hosting this week’s reading group today and next week.

 

To say this last week has been seminal in both my Art Practice, my MA studies and my life is possibly an understatement. So much happened, and it might take me the rest of my MA to reflect on it!

 

A quick rundown of the actual happenings:

 

This was the first real outing on Betty the mobility scooter. I do not lack confidence or presence, but you become invisible at best or looked at with a mix of nuisance, annoyance or pity at worst once you enter the chair! I knew it would be bad, but I was not quite ready for both the mental toil it took on me and the physical toil it took on my husband/caregiver; he is 13 years younger, but I nearly broke him…

 

The problems:

A lightweight 23kg scooter doesn’t have the power to drive me around everywhere.

Passenger assist on the trains are a mixed bag as any disabled traveler will tell you.

Public transport in London is not an easy option for visiting disabled travellers and you need a course to travel on the bus.

Taxis are expensive, and you need an assistant to lift the scooter in.

Pavements are uneven and dangerous so you need to have eyes everywhere.

Doors, slopes, accessibility of shops, galleries, hotels, cafes, just everything and everywhere is a rubicon of pain in the arseness that you can never truly appreciate until you get in the chair!

For all the time I spent in London, I only saw two fellow chair users, and they both grinned and waved at me because if you know, you know!

 

That said, it allowed me to do things I haven’t done for a decade and that was truly amazing. It was great to meet up with my art mates and talk about the art brainstorm we exist in, and there is no better place than the Tate to do it. To go around an art gallery and look at art… it was only this week I fully understood how much pain I am in and how much it has limited my existence in the last ten years; it is as if you know, but you refuse to acknowledge it! Sounds like climate change doesn’t it?

 

Kusama was amazing and you can see how they are the most financially successful living artist, assessable, gloriously camp and a runaway moment.

 

I enjoyed the trip down Modernism lane and almost cried at seeing them off the art history book page and IRL (tech speak for in real life) now to be replaced by AFK (away from keyboard) because the virtual world is as real and as valid as the physical world… more of that over the next few weeks/months/years…can you see where this is going yet?

 

There were no blog posts last week, very little writing, just the smallest amount of Dada note-taking, which I have realised has become my version of AI prompts, which I can now see are… spells… I have assimilated the language of my art study… AI.

There is so much to reflect on with the CCI workshop; I am going to look at my spell book…

 

Run away

Feels like gender

Perfect Blue

Queer mapping

Ai prompts are witchcraft spells

Speculative Identities

Roadblocks 

Interrupted

 

In the realm of artificial intelligence, the intersection where technology meets creativity lies the golden key of AI prompts. These prompts, much like the incantations of old, have the power to conjure up worlds, characters, and narratives that stretch the imagination. They are the modern-day equivalent of witchcraft spells, casting their influence over the digital landscape and shaping speculative identities.

 

I found the missing title of my study statement, Speculative Identities; I think it perfectly describes my art practice research. It refers to the exploration of potential selves, the ‘what could be’ in terms of our identities. It’s about pushing the boundaries of what we perceive as our ‘self’ and exploring the myriad possibilities that exist within and beyond us. AI prompts, like art, have the ability to generate diverse and unexpected outputs, to help signpost new positions and allow us to develop new knowledge.

 

Take, for instance, the spell: Run away. It could generate a narrative about a character fleeing a dangerous situation or, more interestingly, conjure up a vision of breaking free from societal constraints.

 

The spell: Feels like gender, could lead to a deep exploration of gender identity and fluidity.

 

While: Perfect Blue could evoke a myriad of images and emotions, from tranquillity to melancholy (It’s not; it’s an adult Japanese anime that deals with the concepts of real and virtual life.)

Or Even Ghost in the Shell… You get the idea…

The beauty of AI prompt engineering or ‘spells’ lies in their ambiguity. They are open-ended, allowing for a multitude of interpretations and responses. The rigid structures of traditional storytelling do not confine them but instead invite us to engage with them more fluidly and dynamically. They are deliberately engineered to always be different in a Dadaesque pick and mix. They encourage us not to make a shortcut but to take the regurgitation of spell engineering and map our own narratives to shape our own Speculative Identities.

 

However, like any form of magic, AI prompts also come with their challenges. They can present roadblocks, interrupting our creative flow with their unpredictability. They can lead us down paths we didn’t intend to take, forcing us to confront aspects of our identities that we may not be comfortable with. But it’s in these moments of challenge and discomfort that we often find the most profound insights.

 

Ultimately, AI and all the other emerging technologies are not just tools for generating content. They are catalysts for self-discovery and self-expression, modern-day witchcraft spells, casting techno magic over the digital realm and helping us navigate humanity’s complex landscape that we will need in the face of the enormous change that’s about to engulf us as we deal with the Anthropocene.

 

To truly understand the power and potential of this new way of thinking, I invite you to watch this video. It’s a fascinating exploration of the intersection of virtual and human creativity to deal with trauma and create a new world, as seen through the lived experience of Shaka McGlotten, Professor of Media Studies and Anthropology at Purchase College-SUNY.

 

Emerging technologies don’t just generate content or replace jobs; you become the magician, casting spells, shaping your speculative identity, and exploring the limitless possibilities of your creative potential.