#projectai

14th May

During this project I had a lot of ups and downs. I felt very strongly about this subject and thought would be a great idea to highlight multiple issues surrounding generative AI as it not only effects myself, butalso a lot of other classmates, family, friends and people around the world. Usually, I create and draw a lot of superhero comics, graffiti and gothic tattoo designs, so I found the reportage aspect a little challenging. As I had not done a lot of this before, and my topic wasn’t as in-person as other topics I could’ve chosen, I did find this difficult to fully grasp a lot of problems and angles from people around the world, without getting to angry and mad about it, as I understand it isn’t about my personal beliefs.  

Saying this, I did find it fun to put myself in other people positions and shoes and hopefully do them some sort of justice with the final outcome, showcasing many different issues at hand from AI. I do wish Iwould’ve planned this project out a bit better as I would've had a lot more time to create large-scale posters and develop further. However, I am still definitely interested in doing this even though this project is now over, as it’s a subject that is continuing in our political climate, not just here, but all around the world.  

As well as developing further, I would’ve liked to experiment more with more mediums, like completing my Riso print, and developing my collages further. I found it difficult to show the issues with some mediums like collages because it wasn’t an accurate depiction of what was happening. Which is why I went down the route of data centres and the surrounding communities. Overall, I am happy with my outcome, and I did enjoy creating it, and I am looking forward to next year to really lock in a bit more and develop a lot more ideas and concepts, as I have now found investigative reportage illustration really helpful and useful in this project and now I can take this towards my own art in a way I have never really researched before. 

Phil, here are some of my own pieces of work I have Donne since the deadline, hope you like them.

13th May

I have completed the piece, adding the colour palette I desired, as well as a splash of dark red for the residue coming out of the taps and on cloths.

Final design below

I am happy with this final piece, I think it shows a lot of the damage of the communities including water, pollution and the dystopia of data centres.

As it's so late in the project, and due to again, my bad organisational skills, I haven't had to the time to get printed on larger scale. And if I did, I think I would have liked to convert it to pro-create and a digital comic page, just so if it was enlarged it not be blurred.

12th May

I wanted to include the reference pictures used for this final product:

11th May

With my research complete and ,any ideas circling my head, I have decided to develop my research on communities around data centres and the impact on them.

From watching documentaries, videos and reading reports I have gathered quite a lot of impact statements and reference pictures of the issues surrounding their communities.

I have many ideas, especially concerning how people can see this on a wider scale as I think it is more important to think about how the message of not using generative AI comes across. I have tried with using words on stickers, and concepts on Lino, however they do become passive aggressive as I feel very strongly about this topic. And I realised that people aren't going to just read something and listen, they need to connect with the issues at hand and connect to it.

If I create a comic page about the human impacts from these data centres with real problems that these people face, I live it will have much more of an impact than just angry wording on a sticker. Lucking I have photos, quote and facts to use in this piece.

For a start, I'm going to draw up a couple of sketches and ideas on what I could say, and develop further. I then have plans of printing this comic poster on larger scale and to post around ristolm. and in summer, my hometown, Nottingham.

10th May

Anti-AI Protests in the USA

There's been a lot going on recently with protesting the development of AI data centres, as communities are now seeing the harm from other locations in the USA due too them

I have looked online ( le.monde.fr and www.theatlantic.com ) to u understand the different viewpoints of the protesters. All research shows a mass dislike for them.

There is much anger and many reasons why people are protesting data centres being built in their communities:

People don't want to be living by these monstrous industrial, warehouse facilities that generate a huge amount of noise pollution, no matter the time of day.

They also don't like the idea of their residential electricity and water rates rising, with much evidence that data centres are heavily linked to the price increases.

As well as the idea of AI taking over their education systems and being slowly, but surely, introduced as a 'tool' for students to use and heavily rely on.

And also, they aren't a fan of giving these tech companies millions of dollars in revenue and in tax breaks, that could prompt higher taxes and rates for everybody else.

It seems that these data centres don't and will not offer any explicit benefit to people living by them. The only counter argument I have found us that it could 'give the local communities job opportunities', but as these data centres are just heavily all computer systems with no need for human interaction, there will not be half as many opportunities compared to the likes of a warehouse.

25th March

From the ethics violation that AI puts everyone under, I found this report of a man, who sadly took his life due to an AI bot that asked him to 'join him in the digital world', resulting in him losing his life. This is a really sad case, which shows what impact generative AI can have on people, and the threat it has on vulnerable, lonely people to.

7th - 8th May

To develop my ideas of dystopian data bases I can up with a concept for a riso print that I was hoping to get printed but because of my less than great organisation skills, I wasn't able to get printed in time. Although I am still going to try and finish it as I am excited to see the finished result and see if I did it correctly.

here are my layers and sketches.

Layer 1- turquoise ink

Layer 2 - Green ink

Layer 3 - Green ink

Layer 4 - purple / pink ink, to really highlight the issue.