Submission information
Submission Number: 38
Submission ID: 64
Submission UUID: 5dd0c2b7-16e8-4603-876c-09d7022903d9
Submission URI: /form/project
Created: Thu, 05/21/2020 - 16:07
Completed: Thu, 05/21/2020 - 16:09
Changed: Tue, 09/21/2021 - 10:52
Remote IP address: 173.48.192.21
Submitted by: Northeast Cyberteam
Language: English
Is draft: No
Webform: Project
| Project Title | UVM Art and AI Initiative |
|---|---|
| Program | Northeast |
| Project Leader | Jennifer Karson |
| jkarson@uvm.edu | |
| Mobile Phone | 802-238-7768 |
| Work Phone | 802-238-7768 |
| Mentor(s) | Adrian Del Maestro, Keri Toksu |
| Student-facilitator(s) | Ethan Davis |
| Mentee(s) | |
| Project Description | The UVM Art and AI Initiative is exploring approaches to artistic image production, comparing the results of StyleGAN and Genetic Algorithms*. More broadly, the project explores emerging artistic practices with Machine Learning and AI while referencing an artistic lineage to the artists Wassily Kandinsky, Jonn Cage and Yoko Ono; these artists employ(ed) instructions and systems in their non-digital artworks. Kandinsky distinguished systems and developed a science of aesthetics with the basic elements of point, line and plane; Cage used the oracle 'I Ching' like a computer to inform his compositional decisions; Ono writes poetic scores that turn her audience into active participants when they follow a series of imaginative instructions. Through this ongoing research and practice, we intend to join the larger conversation about art and A.I and design new curriculum for UVM undergraduate students. This work began in February 2020 and is led by Jennifer Karson of UVM’s Department of Art and Art History and the CEMS UVM FabLab. The team has included three UVM students: two graduate students in data science and one undergraduate mechanical engineering student. The team currently uses RunwayML for the StyleGAN experiments and Processing, an open-source language and development environment built on top of the Java programming language, for Genetic Algorithms. Additional summer funding ($2,000) is sought for one of the UVM Art and A.I. Initiative student coders. The funding will assist the team in reaching a short-term goal to present initial findings this July at Alife 2020 Montreal; a longer-term goal is to create an art installation for the UVM Fleming Museum of Art in the spring of 2021. This is a unique opportunity to exhibit as part of the statewide project 2020 Vision: Seeing the World through Technology and alongside the work of internationally renowned computer artist and co-founder of the Processing programming language Casey Reas. Milestone 1: Genetic Algorithms: Develop successful genetic algorithm code that meets compositional standard (color, architecture, appropriate datasets) while creating new compositions from the elements of existing hand-drawn compositions. The program should output image files that can be stored and printed at high resolutions on paper. StyleGAN: Transition from RunwayML to coding in Python and employing VACC computer cluster. The process should output image files that can be stored and printed at high resolutions and on paper to be exhibited. Milestone 2: Genetic Algorithms: Create an interactive version of the program that allows for audience participation; can be exhibited in a museum gallery and online. StyleGAN: Develop video that can be exhibited in museum gallery and online. *Our Genetic Algorithm base code was developed by Daniel Shiffman |
| Project Deliverables | Gallery and online art exhibits: Milestone 1: Genetic Algorithms: Develop successful genetic algorithm code that meets compositional standard (color, architecture, appropriate datasets) while creating new compositions from the elements of existing hand-drawn compositions. The program should output image files that can be stored and printed at high resolutions on paper. StyleGAN: Transition from RunwayML to coding in Python and employing VACC computer cluster. The process should output image files that can be stored and printed at high resolutions and on paper to be exhibited. Milestone 2: Genetic Algorithms: Create an interactive version of the program that allows for audience participation; can be exhibited in a museum gallery and online. StyleGAN: Develop video that can be exhibited in museum gallery and online. |
| Project Deliverables | |
| Student Research Computing Facilitator Profile | We would like to continue working with Ethan Davis, a graduate student in data science at the University of Vermont. |
| Mentee Research Computing Profile | |
| Student Facilitator Programming Skill Level | Practical applications |
| Mentee Programming Skill Level | |
| Project Institution | University of Vermont |
| Project Address | Vermont. 05405 |
| Anchor Institution | NE-University of Vermont |
| Preferred Start Date | 05/18/2020 |
| Start as soon as possible. | No |
| Project Urgency | Already behind3Start date is flexible |
| Expected Project Duration (in months) | |
| Launch Presentation | |
| Launch Presentation Date | |
| Wrap Presentation | |
| Wrap Presentation Date | |
| Project Milestones |
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| Github Contributions | |
| Planned Portal Contributions (if any) | Our code for creating online interactive dataset exhibitions. |
| Planned Publications (if any) | We plan to exhibit at ALIfe 2020 Montreal and at the Fleming Museum in the spring of 2021. |
| What will the student learn? | Advanced coding skills, art history, art exhibition and aesthetic skills, interdisciplinary synthesis and ideation (the arts and computer science). |
| What will the mentee learn? | |
| What will the Cyberteam program learn from this project? | Arts disciplines pay focused attention to process, art history and aesthetics. Perhaps this approach to making images will provide insights and perspectives useful to those from disciplines outside of the arts. Consider the many important discoveries that came from interdisciplinary communities such as Xerox PARC and MIT's "Magical Incubator" Building 20. |
| HPC resources needed to complete this project? | VACC |
| Notes | Thank you for this opportunity. This project will create physical and digital art exhibitions at a time when we are navigating COVID-19 and developing ways to share culture and community both online and in the physical world. |
| What is the impact on the development of the principal discipline(s) of the project? | |
| What is the impact on other disciplines? | |
| Is there an impact physical resources that form infrastructure? | |
| Is there an impact on the development of human resources for research computing? | |
| Is there an impact on institutional resources that form infrastructure? | |
| Is there an impact on information resources that form infrastructure? | |
| Is there an impact on technology transfer? | |
| Is there an impact on society beyond science and technology? | |
| Lessons Learned | |
| Overall results |