Venturing into the Uncanny Valley: Embracing AI’s Oddities for 21st Century Art
As art traverses into the 21st century, AI has taken us on a journey through the uncanny valley—a term coined in 1970 by robotics professor Masahiro Mori. Mori observed that as robots or digital avatars grow more lifelike, they evoke increasingly favorable responses from humans, but only up to a point. When these creations become eerily similar, yet remain unmistakably artificial, we encounter a steep drop in comfort: the uncanny valley. It’s this uneasy gap, where something looks almost human but not quite enough, that fascinates and repels us simultaneously. And as we push AI to create art, we’re discovering this uncanny quality doesn’t just emerge in lifelike faces; it lurks in every dimension of digital creativity.
This eerie boundary isn't just a glitch—it's an invitation. At ricketyroom, we embrace AI’s unpredictability as an essential characteristic, a strange but refreshing counterpart to our traditional approaches. Just as an artist with a brush or chisel may not fully control what the final piece will look like, AI challenges our expectations with each click. The beauty lies in this lack of control: we guide, we suggest, but ultimately, AI’s creative unpredictability opens up channels we wouldn’t have otherwise accessed.
Take, for example, AI hallucinations—those instances when algorithms output shapes, forms, and images that seem entirely otherworldly. These hallucinations arise because AI tools are always piecing together snippets of data, connecting patterns, and 'dreaming' up something beyond mere instruction. In their own way, these machines enter a dreamlike state, assembling bits of reality and fiction, giving birth to images no human would imagine. Are these hallucinations akin to a digital form of reverie? It’s a question we love to ask, even if we’re unlikely to answer it fully. What we do know is that these AI visions sometimes yield the most astonishing results. By embracing these ‘happy accidents,’ we let AI take on a bit of the role once reserved for muses, offering us glimpses of an otherworldly future where creation is part artist, part algorithm.
A Modern Odyssey in Audio: The FreeAI-Narrated Audiobook
On a more grounded note, one of our projects—the audiobook for Kleio.exe—explores this same synergy between ancient storytelling and cutting-edge technology. With an open-source tool from GitHub, we’ve set up an AI to narrate each chapter of Kleio.exe, bringing Kleio’s odyssey through time and dimensions to life. Admittedly, our tight budget played a role in this decision, but we quickly realized how perfectly it fits our ethos. Each AI-generated voiceover is unique, not only because of our prompts but also because of the open-source tool's quirks, updates, and eccentricities. And with the fast-paced development in AI, tools that are fresh today often feel outdated tomorrow, replaced by newer models. Yet, we’re convinced that great art holds a timelessness that can transcend these rapid cycles.
So, as you journey through the uncanny landscapes and soundscapes of Kleio.exe, remember that behind the seemingly polished narration is a machine that might as well be dreaming, drawing from a vast digital memory. This strangeness—the blurring between past and future, human and machine—is exactly where we believe art finds its strength in our chaotic era. For behold, the apocalypse takes many forms in the eyes of imagination.
Sincerely,
ricketyroom
