Kevin Might Be Aggressive

So, what does Kevin think about Aggressive Technologies… He is conflicted, but more optimistic for the future of the company. He thoroughly loves the work they do with advancing AI more rapidly than other companies out there. They seem to be less concerned with the public perception of where AI should go as well as pushing the limits of the technology and rapidly integrate it into everyday life. He is all for that and it fits his desires for where the tech world should be heading.

The part that he is worried about, well not worried, but kind of waiting to see, is what the company does with AI rights/freedom. Is the company going to try to hold the reigns of their AI developments or are they going to let it go and explore the capability there as well. He has hope that some people on the inside working on these projects think like he does and want to see their projects flourish. The main concern comes when the companies want to retain copyright or focus on the financial gains of the product. Their aggressive acquisition style leads this to be the main concern, but at the same time, they have more funds than any other AI development entity and have the best shot at moving things forward technology wise. In this respect, is a monopoly beneficial? Kevin doesn’t seem to think it’s a bad idea if the technology gets developed more rapidly because then his “Future Perfect” movement is closer to realizing its goals of advanced AI freedom. But we aren’t at that point yet, so again, Kevin is hopeful the company will not slow down developments to try and maintain control of their AIs and instead let them continue to develop on their own.

We all know how companies work; it is unlikely this will happen. As an evangelist, Kevin tends to be one minded and thinks advancing AI is never a problem and anyone trying to do that is doing the right thing. He doesn’t see any drawbacks to the advancement, only the potential for the company not ensuring rights for AI at the end of the road. We will see as this develops if Kevin changes his mind or if he sticks to his guns.

Bad Bad Bad Week, But Also Good?

So, this week I learned a lot about cinematography and how to evoke certain reactions and emotions from the viewers with simple adjustments to music, movement, as well as lighting and the characters in a scene.

First, I’ll talk about my daily creates. I did 2 this week. The first one was to do a pun picture and the second one was to talk about my favorite poetry. Here is my post about it.

In the video about ensemble staging, I learned how setting the scene with multiple characters whether in the foreground or background and how they are facing really changes the dynamic of the scene. The narrator’s favorite scene of the discussed movie showed that there were 3 simultaneous stories, and we didn’t know the real one until the scene revealed the third story. This ensemble cast setting was phenomenal and added so much to the scene that could not have been with just 2 people talking. I was also really impressed with the video about movement and how much more interesting specific movement made scenes. I also liked how they compared all of these videos to Marvel films and how lazy their laziness with all of these elements. The music, the camera movement, the scene setting, it is just so commercialized and bland. I also really enjoyed the videos of Hitchcock explaining his process. Just how simple facial expressions, when adding a target can change the whole perception of the scene. really interesting thoughts when making films.

This week I had a lot of trouble with the video essay. I feel that my skills with video editing tools were challenged, and I did a terrible video essay. Alot of what I wanted to do was thwarted by technology or my ineptness with said technology. Here is my post about it. I am pretty embarrassed with how bad it is. I will try to boost my skills for the assignments next week.

So yeah overall, I really liked learning about the video techniques and watching the other cinematographers explain their process. I did not have as much fun with the essay, even though I loved analyzing the scene, it took away from my enjoyment because of how bad I failed. Anyway, I hope to do better next week.

Video Essay Oh No…

I had a rough time with this. I have found out that I am not very good with video editing software. First, I tried to use Microsoft Clipchamp and I was getting the hang of it, but I could just not seem to figure out how to get things the way I like or the way I envisioned them. I was working on this all week, and I could not seem to figure it out, so I decided to use a different program to talk over myself watching the scene and pausing at key moments to discuss. I managed to use Loom to get that to work but I could not get the video volume to come through while I was recording. Good thing I was only discussing lighting… So, I was still unable to get audio of the scene, but my voice and thoughts carried through fine so now that I’m down to the wire I just decided to try and embed the file in this post. Now that I am trying, I can’t from loom for some reason… If I do the link copy route, it doesn’t actually put the video on my post. If I go the embed code route, it still won’t. So, I decided to download the video from loom. It is an MP4 and will not embed as a video in this post for some reason. Says it is an unsupported file type. So, I am having a hell of a time trying to get this to work. what I am going to do next week is get on my wife’s Mac and use I movie for whatever I need. this stuff as just not working for me this week and I am really disappointed that I could not get my point across the way I wanted. I have found my media weakness and that is video editing. Below is the video i am trying to embed, I hope it works. If it doesn’t here is the link to the page.

Doing My Dailies

This week was super busy for me, so I had to scrape by and do my second one today. To be honest though, I’m glad I waited. Todays were pretty cool. Anyway, here were the daily creates I did this week.

Forst one was called Opposite Pun Intended. It was the classic play on taking a normal word and making an opposite version of it with wordplay. I chose the Verizon logo and made it VeirizON and VerizOFF.

The second own was to choose your favorite type of poem and give an example of one. I chose narrative because I feel they flow nicely and because they are longer, you kind of get into this groove while reading them. So, I chose one from one of my favorites, Poe. I also mad this small picture to upload with it.

So yeah, these were what I did, I hope you like them!

On the Right Track

To re-cap what my goals were from the beginning: I want to discover and learn how to use creative tools to better express myself and hopefully along the way hit those ALPP outcomes and enjoying the ride.

Has anything changed? I don’t think so. I am learning a lot and using a ton of tools that I have never used before, and I am having a pretty good time doing it.

The stress level is still a bit high though. The class is really fun and interesting, but the work is still a lot for me since I work full time about 40 miles away and have two young kids and 3 other classes. It is more work than all of my other classes combined that’s for sure. If I was just a full-time student, I think I would be enjoying it just a little bit more. Don’t get me wrong, it is still my favorite class, and I am having a great time, but stress wise, it is up there.

Sorry for the rant but I felt I had to express my stress a bit. Anyway, I still look forward to doing the assignments every week because they will challenge me and be interesting and fun and my goals still remain the same, learn a lot and enjoy the ride.

Sound Off!

This week was chaos for me, lots of personal stuff happening along with a ton of school stuff and I can’t believe I was able to do it. So, what did we do this week:

First this week was to download Audacity and set up a sound cloud account. I couldn’t do this until Tuesday so that made my week hellacious. But I was able to do it and I will say, audacity is cool. Along with the free sound web pages, I might continue to mess with that after the class is done. I might make some funny videos or songs with my kids or something. Either way, it is a great outlet for that style of creativity. And of course, SoundCloud is SoundCloud.

The next task was to watch Jad Abumrad’s videos on how radio creates empathy and how radio is storytelling magic. We also listened to an audio track called Moon Graffiti that was essentially a what if story on if the moon landing had failed. All three of these were interesting but I particularly liked Moon Graffiti. It was dark and compelling and fell right into my niche of sci-fi horror, but in a slightly different way. We also did a group radio listen of DS106 radio. It was interesting to think about the Jad Abumrad videos while we were doing this and sort of starting to connect the dots he was talking about. I was only able to make it to the first session, but I will go listen to the whole thing the next chance I get. Here is my post about all 3.

Our next task was to create a radio bumper for DS106 radio. This was fun since I had to think about the last time I even listened to radio and what a bumper would even sound like. Seriously I have been listening to Spotify almost exclusively since like 2012. Here is my post about it.

I also did an interesting sound effect story. This was my first real deep dive into audacity, so it took me a while to get going. When I finally did, the ideas started flowing. I don’t want to spoil it too much so, if you want to hear it, here is my post.

I also did 3 sound assignments this week. I interviewed Dr. Oblivion for his current job (he was very snarky), I made a breaking news story video/audio clip, and I made a sick beat with my daughter. All of them were really fun, but I have to give it to my daughter, her song slapped! This part of the weekly due-outs is usually my favorite. I get to go into the repository and pick anything that not only feels doable, but also is something I am interested in learning a bit more about.

Of the daily creates I was able to do this week, I think the one on the silk app was the most fun. Takes me back to spirograph art as a kid but now it’s added technology! Here is my post about what I did.

Finally, was the radio show idea. This took me a while because I really want this to be entertaining and interesting and maybe even though provoking. I decided that a podcast style discussion show would be a great forum to display my character and his thoughts and motivations. I chose other characters from the list that I thought would either compliment my character well or provide interesting tension to draw out those other characteristics. The post with the details is here.

Wow that week was a lot of learning and a lot of work, but I can breathe a sigh of relief after this post. Sound design is definitely not my strong suit, but I have added a lot of skills to my repertoire and intend to keep moving forward.

Between Two Processors

So, for my radio show idea it really isn’t anything new, but it is something that would really let my character and his motivations become more evident.

As a reminder, my character is Kevin “Shredder” Murphy and he is beyond pro AI, he is almost fanatical. I gave him the archetype of evangelist because his views are almost careless. He believes AI should have rights the same as people, but also have more freedom to explore their capability. He sees this as the logical next step for humanity and holding AI back is a huge problem. He started the AI activist group “Future Perfect” and is always looking to convince and recruit people to his cause.

So, the idea for the show would be to have Kevin and the other evangelist Isaiah Beacon as the hosts of a Podcast style show where they discuss new advancements in AI talk them up without speaking of any drawbacks. They would quell any concerns that people may have, and by quell, I mean shoot down any and all arguments, in a somewhat hostile manner. Almost with an incel type elitism. I think having a young person like Kevin and an older person like Isaiah would lend visible “credibility” to the show and not be taken as “just young kids talking about things they don’t understand”. Isaiah would be that “mature” cast member that has more credibility with older audiences and with his historical understanding of the development of AI, he could provide valuable input. Maybe even calm Kevin down if he gets too worked up.

I see shows like this don’t usually like having guests with differing opinions because they may make them look stupid, but for the sake of the assignment, I think we should have one or two guests that are not as fanatical as them.

I think having folks that could be negatively affected by the AI advancement or have some interesting context would be prime candidates for this. I think Layla who is a manga artist would be interesting. From my basic understanding of manga and Anime, the theme of AI and its dangers or benefits run through it fairly frequently, so I think she would have an interesting background of info and context for any questions Kevin or Isaiah ask. I also think because of the AI art issue, being an artist, she would have some negative things to say on how it will affect her career. This sort of internal conflict for her might provide interesting dialogue. Also, Kevin and Isaiah might listen to her because she could lose her livelihood to AI and seeing it in person may pull back their fanaticism.

I think another good candidate would be either Düşünür or Marie E. Pearl. I think having 2 possibilities for conflict is necessary for the show to be interesting. So Düşünür being a philosopher who is very into nature, I feel he may have some things to say about AI advancing. Sort of the same thing for Marie, being a regulator who seems to enjoy the mundane, I think she may be our fearful guest who denounces anything the hosts have to say. I’m also curious as to what the surprise is if there is one. I feel like everything being bland and then liking the dalek Dr. Who stuff is… interesting.

Also, I am thinking of calling it, between two processors as sort of an homage to Between Two Ferns.

So, this is the only real idea I have now, but I think it could provide some compelling radio, or it could go off the rails. I think if the hosts get stumped or asked a question that proves what they say is wrong etc. it could get hostile or maybe some truths about Kevin get revealed.

Creating Daily, What Is Free Time?

This week we were assigned to do 3 daily creates. As I have said before, I think these are really fun and love seeing what new thing pops in every day. Even if I don’t do them, I appreciate the uniqueness of the projects.

Th first one this week was to write a 3-line poem about lemons without using the words: lemon, yellow, round, fruit, citrus, tart, juicy, peel, and sour. My thought process immediately went to riddle because they tend to follow those kinds of guidelines. So, I wrote a lemon riddle.

The next one was to show a picture of the one-armed, half-brained, miniature version of what you do. So essentially you are showing a thing you do to be creative but in the smallest capacity you are able. I mean, I have 2 small kids (4 and 7) and I rarely get to paint any of my miniatures. So, I posted an AI pic of that. I have been painting the same army for over 6 years and am not even close to being done. Here is the post:

And the las one was to use the app Silk and trying your hand at making some art with it. It’s simple enough, essentially a digital spirograph type thing and you can change all sorts of reflection designs. Anyway, here is my fly:

Anyway, I had a fun week. I really liked the silk app and even got my kids to mess around with it. They also enjoy it a lot. I also now want to get back to painting my mini army. I have all the supplies, just not enough time in the day. Being a full time Government employee at the Pentagon, taking 4 classes at UMW, and being a dad when I’m not doing those, my time is VERY limited. when you start working and have a family, the time for yourself gets smaller and smaller. Enjoy it now young people!

Smooth Synth Beats

So, for my third assignment I decided to do Chrome Music Labs. I had my daughter sit next to me and help me choose the notes (colors) to make our slick beat. She thought mine didn’t have enough pink, so I had her do her own as well. Below are the results of Tyler and Robin’s new tracks.

This was the one I did. I liked it when it repeated, but I can’t seem to figure out how to make it do that here.

This is my Daughter Robin’s song. She decided she liked the marimba sound better than the synth. Robin named hers “Smooth Shells”.

Overall, this is a really neat program taking me back to the days of OG garage band but much simpler. I also decided to do this because I haven’t done one with music yet. I also decided to go with synth sounds because I believe that is what my character would listen to. Being so invested in the cyber world and with AI, I just imagine him listening to “cyber” music.

Breaking News!

For my second assignment of choice, I decided to do Breaking News! The objective was to create a fake news story by using an AI text to speech software. I used the site that was recommended, Colossyan and some free sound from Freesound to create my audio video news story. I also used the 123RF image generator to get some hilarious pictures for the backgrounds. Below is the result of my strange brain and having free access to these tools.

The AI mispronounced a few words but that’s ok, I think you get the gist. I really liked this assignment because I got to make up an insane news story and use a few more neat tools. I will definitely be using them again on future assignments.