AI Works Showcase
Welcome to my showcase of AI-based projects. This collection highlights key milestones in my journey with artificial intelligence, showcasing how these tools have shaped and enhanced my creative and technical endeavours.
My journey with AI tools
In the 1990s, I experimented with a program called NIALL, short for 'Non-Intelligent-Amos-Language-Learner'. It was an intriguing tool that learned to communicate through our interactions.
During that period, I also discovered Neural Nets. I spent time understanding and training them, which was quite engaging.
However, after those early explorations, my interest in AI research and development waned significantly. This was despite my career progressing through fields like computer science, human-computer interaction, and multimedia.
In 2015, my curiosity was piqued again by DeepDream. This tool transformed ordinary images, like fruit salads or scenic rivers, into surreal, dream-like visions. It was fascinating to see everyday pictures morph into bizarre, creature-like forms.
In 2021, I was involved in applying AI Image Style Transfer for a project with artist Trevor Jones, specifically for his collaboration with Ice Cube. My role was to implement this technique in animated sequences, to meet Trevor's artistic vision.
In 2022, I expanded my exploration of AI tools, using Night Cafe Creator and later Midjourney. Their outputs became assets in my compositions and animations.
This period's animated works were accompanied by soundtracks created with Mubert.
2023 marked a significant leap in the capabilities of Midjourney and other image synthesis tools. ChatGPT emerged as a valuable resource, becoming integral to both my professional and artistic endeavors.
That year, I employed AI in various projects, including a series of retro sci-fi postcards. These postcards were distributed weekly via airdrops from July to September 2023.
Key Projects
Some key projects that have marked this journey, illustrating the diverse applications and impacts of AI in my work.
The Imaginarium
2022 - Ongoing
A world with a Steampunk and Victoriana aesthetic, but with shells and snailshells incorporated into the look and feel from vehicles to buildings.
The story involves several people around the land who have received an invite to a mysterious place called The Imaginarium, and they set out on their journey, all in curious and fantastic forms of transport.
With a general plot in mind, I started experimenting with chatGPT in early 2023 to help me expand upon their stories.
Several artworks have been created so far to depict their journey to The Imaginarium, including 3 works minted on Foundation in September 2022.
Jessica meets Mark at the station.
Emily & Daniel (the snail)
After many curious adventures, Emily and Daniel make their way to the Bear Market - one of their last stops before reaching the mysterious Imaginarium.
Rachel & Sally
Winding through a forest, Rachel and Sally step into a clearing and find themselves in Mushroom Town - just one stop on their fantastical journey.
Jessica
Journeys onward, learning to grapple with the mysteries of her strange craft - and, at the city station, joins her friend Mark as they continue the adventure together.
Emily created with Midjourney v3
Elements used in the composition of 'Jessica'
Jessica's face and hat created with Midjourney v3
The Bear Market #1
The Bear Market #2
The Bear Market #3
"Everyone complained about the bear market being a difficult place to be, but Emily found it to be a magical place filled with creativity, tasty treats, and hardworking friends. It was one of her last stops on the way to The Imaginarium"
Near the end of their journey, Emily and Daniel pass through the Bear Market - a place many avoid, thinking it bleak or barren. But Emily discovers it's alive with creativity, shared effort, and unexpected delights. Here, among fellow travellers and makers, she finds magic in community before heading onward to the Imaginarium.
The Bear Market was inspired by its meaning in NFT culture. By focusing on the positives, it becomes a space where creativity and camaraderie thrive even in challenging times - a nod to the artists and communities who keep making and supporting each other, no matter how tough things get.
Wish You Were Here
2022 - Ongoing
In August 2022, My 'Wish You Were Here' retro sci-fi postcard composition shown here won the runner up position in TezTown's "Out of this World" community event, in their Summer in Space category. View Wish You Were Here on the Objkt marketplace.
I was inspired to create a physical version, which I made as accurate to the digital version as possible. It features the cork board, red pins, individual giclee-printed postcards and even stamps cut out and stuck on to the postcard. This is all set inside another frame.
In December 2022 I created an artwork set in the same retro sci-fi universe, with a family having a video call with their remote family in Alpha Centauri during the festive season via a 'wormhole-in-a-box' TV gadget.
Over Summer 2023 I did a series of Wish You Were Here postcards with collectors of a special token artwork receiving an airdrop of the postcards every week over the summer months. This proved very challenging to keep the commitment to developing weekly pieces.
In 2024 I created a new series, Wish You Were Here: Galactic Encounters, with just 6 artworks over the entirety of 2024, and one postcard plus an interactive piece.
Haunted
2022
The two works in this series include The Lady and The Gentleman. They are haunted dynamic artworks that get very active at midnight (your local time). You can also expose the evil entity at any time of the day with the augmented reality viewer Artivive.
I started this project in early 2022 when it was possible to generate good quality faces with AI, but attire and other assets like the picture frames were difficult to produce. I shelved it for a few months, then came back to it in August 2022 when I started using Midjourney and was able to produce more satisfactory results.
Neon City Escape
2022
An animated AI composition, with AI generative soundtrack created with Mubert.
Set in a Cyberpunk world. The protagonist is named Kate Rainer and she is trying solve a great mystery. This animated piece continues on from a previous work titled "Neon City Nights". Kate uncovers a clue at the nightclub. With no safe place in town, she catches the early morning shuttle off-planet. A friend watches her escape safely.
Monkey Gone To Heaven
2022
I'm part of the The Exiles Project, an arts collective where we like to challenge ourselves regularly to create artwork to suit different themes. One of those challenges was 'Rock Anthems'.
We had to be careful though. While we couldn't include the lyrics in the titles or descriptions of our published works for copyright reasons, we were able to use titles of songs (unless trademarked).
My animation was inspired by the song Monkey Gone To Heaven by The Pixies.
The Mind of an Artist
2022
My debut on Nifty Gateway. This was featured in a collective drop of artwork from artists that wouldn't otherwise neatly fit into a style of theme. This was 'The Unthemed Week' by curator Mark Kelly.
The idea for this colourful work came from a fun experiment Trevor Jones and I ran at one of his exhibitions in Edinburgh. A viewer would sit in front of a slideshow of artwork by Trevor, and an EEG (brainwave) headset would record how the viewer responded to each artwork.
I still have a copy of the data from Trevor's own viewing of his work, so I have recording of 'The Mind of an Artist'.
Lunarbunnies
1992 - Ongoing
A recurring theme in my work is rabbits. I was born in the year of the rabbit. When I was a teenager I had a pet rabbit and I liked Echo and the Bunnymen. I took on the coder name "Bunnyman" in the early '90s when creating art, games and demos on my Commodore Amiga.
The rabbit theme evolved to encompass a range of digital artworks, arcade games, and animated works featuring rabbit space cadets known as the Lunarbunnies.
With AI image synthesis I was able to explore their world like never before.
In early 2023, with the help of AI tools like chatGPT, Midjourney, and Soundraw, I was able to rapidly build a complete arcade game featuring a rabbit space cadet with a jetpack AND mint it on the blockchain.
Creative coding with AI
2023 - Ongoing
I've been using chatGPT since early 2023 and now find it invaluable as a tool for collaborative coding. Instead of searching google and finding half answers to coding problems, with adverts getting in the way, chatGPT often provides a concise answer.
I'm often the only person writing code in my day job, so it helps to have what feels like another coder colleague on hand to throw ideas around with.
Same goes for my creative coding, where I might be trying to figure out how to do something in p5js and Three.js, or if I want to optimise an algorithm. chatGPT can help with this when I get stuck, or if there's a bug and need another eye to look over my code.
