Worlds Remunged: The Pastiche and Parody of Generative AI
Submission Type
Panel
Start Date/Time (EDT)
20-7-2024 2:15 PM
End Date/Time (EDT)
20-7-2024 3:15 PM
Location
Algorithms & Imaginaries
Abstract
Drawing from Italian roots, a pasta mix of hodgepodge ingredients, critics used the word “pastiche” (pasticcio) to describe highly imitative or derivative artists (Hoesterey 1). So-called “generative AI” is the ultimate pastiche engine, and we provocateurs offer a discussion of parodic engagement with these artificial pasticciantes.
Our panel offers a discussion with artists who are testing the boundaries of AI art particularly in world creation in two projects: For all CatKind and Hair Wars. Whether examining the dys/utopian visions of storybook cats or the derivative ethos of the Star Wars franchise, the artists explore generative AI's role as an engine of nostalgic hallucinatory homage. We sharpen the pastiche with the satirical edge of parody (Jameson 17).
For All CatKind (@FurAllCatkind) began early Feb. 2024 as a response to the current bifurcation of (social) media coverage of world crises. The initial series of Midjourney images envision life in an idyllic seaside town, cats in their daily lives, with flying kites, picnicking, donkey carts, and market day in the style of Golden Books series and the work of Paul Mégnin. Posted to Instagram, two accounts now run divergent trajectories. On @Sioflynn, the joys of daily life continue. On @FurAllCatkind scenes of intensifying tragedy mediate unfolding events (Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan).
These divergent and shared storyworlds recontextualize Instagram’s uncritical juxtaposition of cats and catastrophes. Their look has an innocence and uncanny familiarity that builds a story world that seems always already to have existed, even though they are drawn from a machine-learning imaginary. Midjourney’s capacity for alterity and alienation of the nostalgic familiar can at times unsettle the normalization of dehumanization. Here, CatKind, as proxies for the LOLcat ambassadors of the internet, are remediations of what currently can’t yet be addressed directly online or IRL.
Hair Wars is an ongoing collaborative exploration of transmedia storytelling in a sci-fi universe co-opted from famously mishandled IP on the hairy topic of hair. Wanted and unwanted, hair is the source of so much human angst. Within that context, using the consumed content of Star Wars (and other franchises), this artist collective has developed imaginary films, book series, toys, and even McDonald's happy meal treats. Following the principles of netprov, Hair Wars creators build out the canon of the films improvisationally, developing plot points for the films and the imaginary actors in their lives. Images appear as movie stills, behind-the-scene shots, and also faded personal photos from the various decades. The project takes on not only the commercialized story world of Star Wars but also AI itself as the artists scrape hallucinatory text from the generated images and feed it back as prompts.
Both of these projects explore the wild world of AI, but not in the hype-induced delirium of a new world opening up, but instead by fully embracing its making as procedurally programmed pastiche in an uncanny universe of familiarity and nostalgia.
Works Referenced
Hoesterey, Ingeborg. Pastiche: Cultural Memory in Art, Film, Literature. United States, Indiana University Press, 2001.
Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. United Kingdom, Duke University Press, 1991.
Recommended Citation
Marino, Mark C.; O'Flynn, Siobhan; Mitchell, Alex; and Wittig, Rob, "Worlds Remunged: The Pastiche and Parody of Generative AI" (2024). ELO (un)linked 2024. 26.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/elo2024/algorithmsandimaginaries/schedule/26
Worlds Remunged: The Pastiche and Parody of Generative AI
Algorithms & Imaginaries
Drawing from Italian roots, a pasta mix of hodgepodge ingredients, critics used the word “pastiche” (pasticcio) to describe highly imitative or derivative artists (Hoesterey 1). So-called “generative AI” is the ultimate pastiche engine, and we provocateurs offer a discussion of parodic engagement with these artificial pasticciantes.
Our panel offers a discussion with artists who are testing the boundaries of AI art particularly in world creation in two projects: For all CatKind and Hair Wars. Whether examining the dys/utopian visions of storybook cats or the derivative ethos of the Star Wars franchise, the artists explore generative AI's role as an engine of nostalgic hallucinatory homage. We sharpen the pastiche with the satirical edge of parody (Jameson 17).
For All CatKind (@FurAllCatkind) began early Feb. 2024 as a response to the current bifurcation of (social) media coverage of world crises. The initial series of Midjourney images envision life in an idyllic seaside town, cats in their daily lives, with flying kites, picnicking, donkey carts, and market day in the style of Golden Books series and the work of Paul Mégnin. Posted to Instagram, two accounts now run divergent trajectories. On @Sioflynn, the joys of daily life continue. On @FurAllCatkind scenes of intensifying tragedy mediate unfolding events (Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan).
These divergent and shared storyworlds recontextualize Instagram’s uncritical juxtaposition of cats and catastrophes. Their look has an innocence and uncanny familiarity that builds a story world that seems always already to have existed, even though they are drawn from a machine-learning imaginary. Midjourney’s capacity for alterity and alienation of the nostalgic familiar can at times unsettle the normalization of dehumanization. Here, CatKind, as proxies for the LOLcat ambassadors of the internet, are remediations of what currently can’t yet be addressed directly online or IRL.
Hair Wars is an ongoing collaborative exploration of transmedia storytelling in a sci-fi universe co-opted from famously mishandled IP on the hairy topic of hair. Wanted and unwanted, hair is the source of so much human angst. Within that context, using the consumed content of Star Wars (and other franchises), this artist collective has developed imaginary films, book series, toys, and even McDonald's happy meal treats. Following the principles of netprov, Hair Wars creators build out the canon of the films improvisationally, developing plot points for the films and the imaginary actors in their lives. Images appear as movie stills, behind-the-scene shots, and also faded personal photos from the various decades. The project takes on not only the commercialized story world of Star Wars but also AI itself as the artists scrape hallucinatory text from the generated images and feed it back as prompts.
Both of these projects explore the wild world of AI, but not in the hype-induced delirium of a new world opening up, but instead by fully embracing its making as procedurally programmed pastiche in an uncanny universe of familiarity and nostalgia.
Works Referenced
Hoesterey, Ingeborg. Pastiche: Cultural Memory in Art, Film, Literature. United States, Indiana University Press, 2001.
Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. United Kingdom, Duke University Press, 1991.
Bio
Mark C. Marino is a Professor (Teaching) of Writing at the University of Southern California, where he directs the Humanities and Critical Code Studies Lab where he is a Generative AI Fellow. Since 2008, he has been the Director of Communication of the Electronic Literature Organization (https://eliterature.org). His works include “Living Will,” “a show of hands,” and “Marginalia in the Library of Babel.” He was one of ten co-authors of 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 (https://10print.org) (2013) and was a collaborator with Jessica Pressman and Jeremy Douglass on Reading Project: A Collaborative Analysis of William Poundstone's Project for Tachistoscope {Bottomless Pit} (I2015). His latest books are Critical Code Studies (2020) https://criticalcodestudies.com and Hallucinate This! an authoritized Autobotography of ChatGPT (2023) https://bit.ly/halthis.
Alex Mitchell teaches interactive media design in the Department of Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore. Alex's current research investigates various aspects of computer-based art and entertainment, focusing in particular on interactive stories. This work involves creating digital and non-digital interactive storytelling systems, using these systems to develop creative works, and observing how people respond to the resulting pieces. It also involves theoretical work to understand what is happening in and around this process. Current funded project: "Understanding Repeat Engagement with Dynamic Computational Systems" (AcRF Tier 1 grant). Previous funded projects "Exploring 'Literary Devices' for Poetic Interactivity" (AcRF Tier 1 grant), "Communication Strategies in Real-time Computer-Mediated Creative Collaboration" (HSS Seed Grant, with A/P Lonce Wyse and Dr. Jude Yew), and "Authoring Paradigms and Representation in Interactive Storytelling Tools" (FASS Startup Grant).
Dr. Siobhan O’Flynn teaches at the University of Toronto. She has consulted on digital, interactive, participatory, transmedia, augmented reality and virtual reality storytelling via her company NarrativeNow for over 20 years, and she is the co-creator with Anthea Foyer of the online site, TMCResourceKit.com, a resource for Canadian producers moving into the digital sphere. Recent projects in interactive storytelling include experiments with Midjourney, DALL-E, ChatGPT and HaloAR. Older projects with geolocative heritage projects include, Kensington Market: Hidden Histories, an interactive map and augmented reality app that reveals the layered history of key locations in the market. This collaborative class project received the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement from the Ontario Heritage Trust in 2017, as did Hidden Histories: Labour to Lofts launched September 2019. Her current research and publishing focuses on artificial (un)intelligence and artificial intimacy, children’s data privacy and online safety, the need for strengthened legislation in Canada.
Rob Wittig plays at the crossroads of literature, graphic design and digital culture. A Silicon Valley native, he co-founded the early, legendary IN.S.OMNIA electronic bulletin board with the Surrealist-style literary and art group Invisible Seattle. From this came a Fulbright grant to study the writing and design of electronic literature with philosopher Jacques Derrida in Paris. Rob's book based on that work, "Invisible Rendezvous," was published Wesleyan University Press. He then embarked on a series of illustrated and designed email and web fictions. Many of his projects are now taught in Electronic Literature curricula around the world. Alongside his creative projects, Rob has worked in major publishing and graphic design firms in Chicago, leading R&D teams. Rob is a proud Master of Digital Kultur from the University of Bergen, Norway, and recently retired from the Art & Design and English, Linguistics and Writing Studies departments of the University of Minnesota Duluth