Short Abstract

The workshop is a guided tour of autonomous AI imaging – mapping and cataloguing image platforms, datasets, interfaces, and other objects involved in the process. We will discuss not what autonomy is, but what it looks like and how it is practiced across communities, platforms and infrastructures.

Description

For this workshop we propose a tour in a social and technical system, where we stop and wonder about the different objects that, in one way or the other, take part in the generation of images by artificial intelligence (AI). Most people’s experiences with generative AI image creation come from platforms like OpenAI’s DALL-E or other proprietary services. In contrast, there is a whole ecology of open source services and software that are distinct yet often based on the same underlying models or techniques of so-called ‘diffusion’. They are the meeting point for communities who seek some kind of independence and autonomy from the mainstream platforms.

We will share the outcome of an investigative process where we – by trying out different software, reading documentation and research, looking into communities of practice that experiment with AI image creation, and more – have sought to understand the things that make generative AI images possible; that is, the underlying dependencies on relations between communities, models, technical units, and more in AI image creation. Within this system there is not just a functional apparatus, but also an ‘imaginary’; that is, there are underlying expectations and norms that are met in specific objects, as well as shared visual cultures.

What we will present is not just a collection of the objects that makes generative AI images, but also an exploration of an imaginary of AI image creation through the collection and exhibition of objects – and in particular, an imaginary of ‘autonomy’.

Practically we will present maps, diagrams, interfaces, material components and we will introduce to a technique, the LoRA, with which we will train a component that acts as a small model and helps fine-tune existing models for our personal needs.

Bring your own laptop if you can!

Max no: 15 people

Requirements: room for 18 people, one big table, chairs, projector,