Category Archives: spring25bond

Failed!

I ran into this error message when trying to run Wav2Lip last week:

screenshot of Connection Failed messageI did file an appeal, asking what was suspected of being abusive, without expecting a response. Under their usage limitations they list deepfakes.

screenshot of which activities are restricted in ColabAnything I’ve made is too transparently faked to be considered deep, but some may argue otherwise. I wonder if it was Bob that busted me. Can’t trust those painter types. It got blocked in some countries due to copyright, so that’s why I’m suspicious. It’s better to work with public domain material anyway though.

I managed to do this with Frank and Vinny. So it should be possible with Grant and Hepburn. I’d have to down load the video, cut the parts before and after the phone conversation, and then separate the two sides to make training videos. After putting words in their mouths I’d have to piece it back together as a conversation. Seems tedious, but possible.

dr oblivion is part cyborg now

Life imitating AI imitating Art

A few weeks ago we watched the Black Mirror episode, “Be Right Back“, in which a widow has an AI chatbot of her deceased husband. Yesterday I heard that performance artist Laurie Anderson actually has one of these. I guess he wasn’t kidding when he wrote “I’ll Be Your Mirror.”

The idea of characters react to propaganda was a bit of an afterthought last week, but it seems to have worked out well. Some people are using it to find connections, which can be useful as we start to come up with longer narratives and group projects.

We had some nice propaganda too. I especially liked this poster, for several reasons. The letterpress character of the typeface gives it an antique, handmade feel which contrasts to the circuitry in the image. The subtle texturing also gives it an aged feel. But the empty spot inside the image is my favorite part, as it suggests something about the soullessness of the corporate world, or the emptiness of AI. And it plays off of ideas from another post by borrowing one of Dr. Oblivion’s quotes. Of this one, it was said, “This creepy poster will haunt my nightmares forever now,” which may be the nicest comment I’ve seen.

One thing that surprises me is that no one has brought up the environmental costs associated with AI. It seems like a natural for propaganda, and it connects to the broader climate movement. But if that’s not where people want to go, so be it.

 

dr oblivion is part cyborg now

Weekly Summary: Week 7 (DS106)

This was an enjoyable week in DS106. I liked making some propaganda and I have always enjoyed making daily creates. I love to get creative when it comes to the daily creates and this is a way for me to think outside the box and use my imagination some.

The public service announcement was awesome. I liked being able to make this and edit it to my liking. I ran into a few problems when I was done with the project when it came to saving and uploading to WordPress, however after trying to do some different things to try to make it work ended up working. I used iMovie for this assignment and it became much easier to save and upload.

See y’all in week 8!

dr oblivion is part cyborg now

AI PSA

I was having trouble properly making this audio at first, however all it took was some trial and error and I had it down. I used Pixabay to find my background audio. I used speechgen.io and typed in what I wanted the AI to say and exported that into audacity. I was having trouble saving my audacity file so I exported it to iMovie and finished up the project using iMovie. Having a MacBook I have found it much easier to use iMovie for these audio and video assignments.

Week 7: Summary

by Andrew Johnson

As we conclude this week, I have learned how to produce important propaganda to characterize what one is trying to get across to their viewers.

Creating my three daily creates for this week was an interesting task because it felt that they were different from prior weeks. My reasoning behind this was because they were represented as more of a pure status of imagery.

My Public Service Announcement I think turned out to be the finest work of the semester so far. The use of Jay-Z’s song “Public Service Announcement,” created a great sense of encouragement as well as discipline. iMovie was once again very easy to operate, but I think that is because I run off a Mac.

My propaganda piece was not too much of a challenge for me because I knew exactly how I wanted to not only tie my character’s life into it but also raise a real concern that San Francisco faces. I’m not sure if many of you follow the news but the Bay Area has been plagued over the past few years by an extreme amount of homelessness, which gives another reason for my use of it for the assignment.

To finish off this week, my character’s reaction to my classmate’s propaganda projects was interesting to work on. The piece I chose was fantastic, mad props to “Mustafa’s Thoughts.” Everything about this post I could relate Jonathan to.

Links:

https://deep.ai/machine-learning-model/text2img

https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive

https://www.youtube.com/

dr oblivion is part cyborg now

Week 7 Summary

This has been a tough two weeks, due to health complications. Strep throat had been causing immense pain in my throat, but after I healed, I got a migraine for the first time in my life. Light has been causing a strain in my brain, but I think I am getting better. This week, I made a propaganda poster I am proud of.

Aggressive Technology Propaganda

I wanted a something that had a sleek appeal but had a ominous undertone, so I hope it worked.

I also made a PSA using a text-to-speech generator to give a “technological” vibe.

Aggressive Tech. PSA

It is sharing how hiring is their priority right now, but there is an urgency for some hidden reason that I will come to explain in the future when I have put more thought into it.

Overall, midterms and my health have been a challenge, so hopefully I can do much more in the upcoming week.

dr oblivion is part cyborg now

Aggressive Tech. PSA

This is a PSA that plays occasionally throughout the day, when Aggressive Technologies are in their early days before they had a hand in everything. Rikaro would hear this and feel a sense of pride in the advancements in the AI he had a hand in improving. The PSA’s will change when Rikaro fights back, where the tone will shift to a more aggressive attitude and they would focus more on violence and hostility within our country, so their tech needs to advance where they can catch Rikaro.

dr oblivion is part cyborg now

Week 7 Summary

Up first I have my daily creates! This was definitely my favorite collection out of all of the weeks so far. I got to incorporate the sound aspect through the oscillator, AI generated me a very cool image, and I got to post something pure of mine!

Next up Chuckles reacts to some propaganda designs and PSAs.

Then I created my own PSA relating to my character and AI. I choose a background music on there similar to ads on tv like they use when promoting a health care device or something similar. However, in my case I’m promoting AI and humans working together!

Last but most certainly not least, my propaganda design and its connection with my character Charles Chuckles Smith. For this, I did a Keep Calm poster with my own twist on it and by incorporating the best feature of Chuckles – his smile. To end this week off on a good note, keep calm and laugh on – Chuckles.

dr oblivion is part cyborg now

AI PSA

For my Public Service Announcement, I chose to do it about AI and incorporate what Chuckles, my character would say about AI as well.

It says, “AI is like a really eager intern – it’s here to help, but it still needs us to show it where the coffee machine is. Let’s guide it toward success together! After all, we can be more efficient and accomplish much more if we combine our capabilities.”

I used an online text to speech generator to generate my audio. For my background music, I used the Eco Technology sound from Pixabay. For editing everything, I used my absolute favorite – Audacity and finally, SoundCloud to upload it!

Just like my character, I myself think we shouldn’t fully rely on AI. With that being said, AI is useful, we should not cut it out of the picture. Instead, we must work together with it. AI needs our help which is why I added the intern reference in there and we need its help as well!

Character Reaction

by Andrew Johnson

After looking through a few of my fellow students’ propaganda submissions, one that Jonathan could react to is “Mustafa’s Thoughts.” My character would like the aspects shown through the poster. The simple color does construct that Aggressive Technologies will go through any measure to achieve what they must to be at full capacity.

Aggressive Technology Propaganda