In his 2012 <a href="http://archive.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2012/04/29/the_avengers_collects_all_your_favorite_marvel_characters_in_one_handy_wannabe_blockbustersuper_groupthe_avengers_assembles_all_your_favorite_marvel_characters_in_one_handy_wannabe_blockbuster/">review</a> of the movie <em>The Avengers,</em> film critic of The Boston Globe, Tom Russo noted:

core/paragraph

<p>In his 2012 <a href="http://archive.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2012/04/29/the_avengers_collects_all_your_favorite_marvel_characters_in_one_handy_wannabe_blockbustersuper_groupthe_avengers_assembles_all_your_favorite_marvel_characters_in_one_handy_wannabe_blockbuster/">review</a> of the movie <em>The Avengers,</em> film critic of The Boston Globe, Tom Russo noted:</p>

core/quote

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The word “<em>universe</em>” is standard parlance in the comic book industry. [...] You don’t hear “<em>universe</em>” much in the film industry. Here in the real world — or Hollywood, at any rate — the prospect of mingling franchise characters is dauntingly complicated. &nbsp;Sure, we get a novelty such as “Alien vs. Predator” here and there, but rarely. Different studios hold rights to characters. Actors’ contracts can be tricky to coordinate — and so can their egos, one imagines.</p><cite>– <em><a href="http://archive.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2012/04/29/the_avengers_collects_all_your_favorite_marvel_characters_in_one_handy_wannabe_blockbustersuper_groupthe_avengers_assembles_all_your_favorite_marvel_characters_in_one_handy_wannabe_blockbuster/">Super Group - 'The Avengers' assembles all your favorite Marvel characters in one handy wannabe blockbuster<br></a></em><br></cite></blockquote>

The quote is a useful reminder that the era of the Big Comics crossover franchise, at least in cinema is barely a decade old.

<p>The quote is a useful reminder that the era of the Big Comics crossover franchise, at least in cinema is barely a decade old.</p>

Marvel's ambitious pace has been matched by staggering financial returns. Including the movies they used to strategically (re)introduce audiences to individual characters before <em>The Avengers</em> first assembled, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is now a catalogue of 28 films, with a further 11 in development, all in just 15 years. A single franchise that has amassed <em>billions</em> of global fans and  as of 2021 represents <a href="https://screenrant.com/marvel-movie-mcu-box-office-2021-details/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">30% of all US box office revenue</a> and generated <a href="https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchises" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$26.5B in global revenue since 2008</a>.

<p>Marvel's ambitious pace has been matched by staggering financial returns. Including the movies they used to strategically (re)introduce audiences to individual characters before <em>The Avengers</em> first assembled, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is now a catalogue of 28 films, with a further 11 in development, all in just 15 years. A single franchise that has amassed <em>billions</em> of global fans and  as of 2021 represents <a href="https://screenrant.com/marvel-movie-mcu-box-office-2021-details/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">30% of all US box office revenue</a> and generated <a href="https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchises" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$26.5B in global revenue since 2008</a>.</p>

core/image

<figure class="wp-block-image alignwide size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/comicon-1-scaled.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2597"/><figcaption>The long and winding path in the first entrance hall.</figcaption></figure>

The methods, platforms and regularity with which we consume, or become consumed by, has also been changing at a dizzy pace during this time. Marvel, along with Harry Potter, DC, Star Wars, Lord of The Rings (to name just a few) are the juggernauts of IP,  speculative fictional universes that are inducing a new era of immersive fandom that is continuously reprocessed across every concievable contemporary media from film, books, comics, computer games, mobile apps, theme parks, trading cards, cosplay and seemingly unlimited avenues for merchandise or online social presence and communities.

<p>The methods, platforms and regularity with which we consume, or become consumed by, has also been changing at a dizzy pace during this time. Marvel, along with Harry Potter, DC, Star Wars, Lord of The Rings (to name just a few) are the juggernauts of IP,  speculative fictional universes that are inducing a new era of immersive fandom that is continuously reprocessed across every concievable contemporary media from film, books, comics, computer games, mobile apps, theme parks, trading cards, cosplay and seemingly unlimited avenues for merchandise or online social presence and communities.</p>

The <em>condition of</em> fandom is by no means new, although the connective tissue of the digital age is allowing the entertainment and media companies controlling these franchise to offer the contemporary fan something altogether more boundless and integrated. Captivating oceans of glossy, social activated and deliciously addictive content. If "<em>politics is downstream of culture</em>", then fandom may very well be the melting glacier atop the mountain.

<p>The <em>condition of</em> fandom is by no means new, although the connective tissue of the digital age is allowing the entertainment and media companies controlling these franchise to offer the contemporary fan something altogether more boundless and integrated. Captivating oceans of glossy, social activated and deliciously addictive content. If "<em>politics is downstream of culture</em>", then fandom may very well be the melting glacier atop the mountain.</p>

What might be novel though is the scale and rich complexity that underpins the proposition of these 'universes', the result of decades of output by hundreds of authors and artists. Marvel films for instance can draw from a staggering diversity of story arcs and characters, given there are approximately approximately 27,000 comics in the series, so many in fact it is considered by some to be the largest continuous human narrative and it's speculated that only a handful of people, notably author Douglas Wolk and Marvel archivist Peter Sanderson and have read them all. The 4,868 pages that make up the Harry Potter books (including spin-offs) seems slight by comparison.

<p>What might be novel though is the scale and rich complexity that underpins the proposition of these 'universes', the result of decades of output by hundreds of authors and artists. Marvel films for instance can draw from a staggering diversity of story arcs and characters, given there are approximately approximately 27,000 comics in the series, so many in fact it is considered by some to be the largest continuous human narrative and it's speculated that only a handful of people, notably author Douglas Wolk and Marvel archivist Peter Sanderson and have read them all. The 4,868 pages that make up the Harry Potter books (including spin-offs) seems slight by comparison.</p>

This vastness enables a type of story-telling that can sustain countless spin-offs, callbacks, knowing references - interwoven narrative threads that might take a dozen movies to resolve, only to reappear in a video game demanding 100 hours of gameplay. A screenplay writer friend of mine once theorised that one of the major innovations of the crossover comic book film is that there is so little requirement for exposition that the movies can essentially begin with full tilt action, when in a more polite era of Hollywood the audience might expect to get at least 10 or 20 minutes to settle in.

<p>This vastness enables a type of story-telling that can sustain countless spin-offs, callbacks, knowing references - interwoven narrative threads that might take a dozen movies to resolve, only to reappear in a video game demanding 100 hours of gameplay. A screenplay writer friend of mine once theorised that one of the major innovations of the crossover comic book film is that there is so little requirement for exposition that the movies can essentially begin with full tilt action, when in a more polite era of Hollywood the audience might expect to get at least 10 or 20 minutes to settle in.  </p>

core/column

core/columns

Personally speaking however, I feel like I missed the bus altogether, despite being deeply curios my knowledge of comic books is very patchy, which is why I took the chance to go to Comic Con, or more fully <strong>Movie Comic Media</strong> (MCM) London Comic Con 2022 at The Excel Centre. The trip was anything but premeditated however - I had been travelling on London's new Elizabeth Line when the carriage was suddenly overwhelmed with Cosplay - when the (Marvel) universe gives you a sign, you better act on it.

<p>Personally speaking however, I feel like I missed the bus altogether, despite being deeply curios my knowledge of comic books is very patchy, which is why I took the chance to go to Comic Con, or more fully <strong>Movie Comic Media</strong> (MCM) London Comic Con 2022 at The Excel Centre. The trip was anything but premeditated however - I had been travelling on London's new Elizabeth Line when the carriage was suddenly overwhelmed with Cosplay - when the (Marvel) universe gives you a sign, you better act on it. </p>

The cradle of Comic Book conventions is Comic Con San Diego, first held in 1976, steadily growing to 13,000 visitors by 1990, before exploding in popularity and reaching 130,000 by 2010.  Whether Comic Con or Comicon or Comic-Con is a legal trademark has been a major legal battle. I incorrectly assumed it was all part of the same happy family, but Comic Con London is distinctly not commercially related to San Diego.

<p>The cradle of Comic Book conventions is Comic Con San Diego, first held in 1976, steadily growing to 13,000 visitors by 1990, before exploding in popularity and reaching 130,000 by 2010.  Whether Comic Con or Comicon or Comic-Con is a legal trademark has been a major legal battle. I incorrectly assumed it was all part of the same happy family, but Comic Con London is distinctly not commercially related to San Diego.</p>

For all the observations that follow, and some of the overt cynicism I have for certain aspects of the industries involved -  almost everyone attending seemed to be having a contagiously fantastic time. Although precise numbers are hard to locate, The London Comic Con is one of, if not the largest convention held in the UK, frequently receiving upwards 130,000 visitors, rivalling Glastonbury in sheer numbers albeit requiring distinctly less investment of both time, money and exposure to the elements.

<p>For all the observations that follow, and some of the overt cynicism I have for certain aspects of the industries involved -  almost everyone attending seemed to be having a contagiously fantastic time. Although precise numbers are hard to locate, The London Comic Con is one of, if not the largest convention held in the UK, frequently receiving upwards 130,000 visitors, rivalling Glastonbury in sheer numbers albeit requiring distinctly less investment of both time, money and exposure to the elements.</p>

While the fictional universes of comic books is the glue, the real show is of course the Cosplay. It's trite observation, but Cosplay obviously gives affords an experience out of the everyday, a cheat code to a different way of socialising. The atmosphere at Comic Con is far more electric than I anticipated, a tangible slightly nervous atmosphere of hyperactivity, neon energy drinks and imported Japanese sweets. The buzz also seems almost entirely be generated by attendees interacting with each other, a plasma of awkward but joyful high-fives, photo opportunities and sparks of recognition.

<p>While the fictional universes of comic books is the glue, the real show is of course the Cosplay. It's trite observation, but Cosplay obviously gives affords an experience out of the everyday, a cheat code to a different way of socialising. The atmosphere at Comic Con is far more electric than I anticipated, a tangible slightly nervous atmosphere of hyperactivity, neon energy drinks and imported Japanese sweets. The buzz also seems almost entirely be generated by attendees interacting with each other, a plasma of awkward but joyful high-fives, photo opportunities and sparks of recognition. </p>

While clearly providing space for a particular form of personal expression in overdrive, it's simultaneously and studiously playing by a very particular logic. Comic Con is not a spectator sport,

<p>While clearly providing space for a particular form of personal expression in overdrive, it's simultaneously and studiously playing by a very particular logic. Comic Con is not a spectator sport, </p>

Everyone in attendance is either in everyday clothes or somewhere on a spectrum that builds from a few accessories, a bit of make-up, a knowing t-shirt, a mask to fully realised cosplay. Even the encounters with people in oversized, calculatedly terrifying horror costumes with might otherwise feel warmly friendly.

<p>Everyone in attendance is either in everyday clothes or somewhere on a spectrum that builds from a few accessories, a bit of make-up, a knowing t-shirt, a mask to fully realised cosplay. Even the encounters with people in oversized, calculatedly terrifying horror costumes with might otherwise feel warmly friendly.</p>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>While clearly providing space for a particular form of personal expression in overdrive, it's simultaneously and studiously playing by a very particular logic. Comic Con is not a spectator sport, </p><p>Everyone in attendance is either in everyday clothes or somewhere on a spectrum that builds from a few accessories, a bit of make-up, a knowing t-shirt, a mask to fully realised cosplay. Even the encounters with people in oversized, calculatedly terrifying horror costumes with might otherwise feel warmly friendly.</p><p></p></div>

<div class="wp-block-columns"><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/IMG_4577-scaled.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2640"/></figure></div><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>While clearly providing space for a particular form of personal expression in overdrive, it's simultaneously and studiously playing by a very particular logic. Comic Con is not a spectator sport, </p><p>Everyone in attendance is either in everyday clothes or somewhere on a spectrum that builds from a few accessories, a bit of make-up, a knowing t-shirt, a mask to fully realised cosplay. Even the encounters with people in oversized, calculatedly terrifying horror costumes with might otherwise feel warmly friendly.</p><p></p></div></div>

Possibly the most jarring approach would be to attend as a character fully of your own invention, especially if it wasn't very good. Afterwards I also discovered that the American comedian Stephen Colbert did exactly this - attending Comic Con San Diego as artfully terrible "<a href="https://www.cc.com/video/zryrry/the-colbert-report-undercover-at-comic-con-prince-hawkcat">Prince Hawkcat</a>".

<p>Possibly the most jarring approach would be to attend as a character fully of your own invention, especially if it wasn't very good. Afterwards I also discovered that the American comedian Stephen Colbert did exactly this - attending Comic Con San Diego as artfully terrible "<a href="https://www.cc.com/video/zryrry/the-colbert-report-undercover-at-comic-con-prince-hawkcat">Prince Hawkcat</a>".</p>

There seems to be something of an unwritten rule that prevents the professional writers, actors and anyone in the 'biz' dressing up - "don't get high of your own supply" - although Cosplay it would seem is bounded the rules of it's fictional universe and some separation between fan and creator. There is a tradition of celebrities attending <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/comic-con-15-stars-costume-as-a-disguise-1014839/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in disguise</a> (frequently while having something to promote) although it's curious that this is distinguishable from simple being in 'costume'.

<p>There seems to be something of an unwritten rule that prevents the professional writers, actors and anyone in the 'biz' dressing up - "don't get high of your own supply" - although Cosplay it would seem is bounded the rules of it's fictional universe and some separation between fan and creator. There is a tradition of celebrities attending <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/comic-con-15-stars-costume-as-a-disguise-1014839/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in disguise</a> (frequently while having something to promote) although it's curious that this is distinguishable from simple being in 'costume'.</p>

core/heading

Through the lens of the original premise - that these franchises and 'fandom' are building a serious gravitational energy in society - the ritualism of Comic Con, seemingly governed by code of signals to fellow fans and celebration of everything fan-based represents this potential at it's most polychromatic. In their recently published book <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/314162/the-dawn-of-everything/9780141991061">The Dawn of Everything</a>, David Graeber and David Wengrow, reassess the perceived origins of egalitarianism by appreciating the complexity and diversity of how early human communities self-organised. They do so in part by establishing the importance of rituals, in particular seasonal festivals that fostered <em> "political self-consciousness... as laboratories of social possibility.</em>" A key component of this was the temporary upheaval of entrenched or status hierarchies, as they note:

<p>Through the lens of the original premise - that these franchises and 'fandom' are building a serious gravitational energy in society - the ritualism of Comic Con, seemingly governed by code of signals to fellow fans and celebration of everything fan-based represents this potential at it's most polychromatic. In their recently published book <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/314162/the-dawn-of-everything/9780141991061">The Dawn of Everything</a>, David Graeber and David Wengrow, reassess the perceived origins of egalitarianism by appreciating the complexity and diversity of how early human communities self-organised. They do so in part by establishing the importance of rituals, in particular seasonal festivals that fostered <em> "political self-consciousness... as laboratories of social possibility.</em>" A key component of this was the temporary upheaval of entrenched or status hierarchies, as they note:</p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>... sometimes festivals are moments where entirely different social structures take over, such as the ‘youth abbeys’ that seem to have existed across medieval Europe, with their Boy Bishops, May Queens, Lords of Misrule, Abbots of Unreason and Princes of Sots, who during the Christmas, Mayday or carnival season temporarily took over many of the functions of government and enacted a bawdy parody of government’s everyday forms. ... The really powerful ritual moments are those of collective chaos, effervescence, liminality or creative play, out of which new social forms can come into the world.”</p><cite><strong>The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber and David Wengrow</strong></cite></blockquote>

Comic Con might is by no means an isolated extremity, all number of 'seasonal', increasingly popular, global festivals ranging from Burning Man, Coachella or even the Miami International Boat Show might also be equally valid subjects of investigation as contemporary rituals.

<p>Comic Con might is by no means an isolated extremity, all number of 'seasonal', increasingly popular, global festivals ranging from Burning Man, Coachella or even the Miami International Boat Show might also be equally valid subjects of investigation as contemporary rituals.</p>

<h3>All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go</h3>

At the same time, one of the things that surprised me the most - despite a main stage and various panels and enormous scale - there isn't all that much to actually do. Granted I am not naturally inclined to spend hours browsing through comics but it didn't really seem anyone else was either. There's lots of queues to join, a zone to play vintage video and board games, a throng of food trucks parked incongruously inside. Much of the event is itself about taking photos, being present with the lore, acknowledging sparks of deep fan knowledge.  As a result my it felt equal parts over-saturating and underwhelming.

<p>At the same time, one of the things that surprised me the most - despite a main stage and various panels and enormous scale - there isn't all that much to actually do. Granted I am not naturally inclined to spend hours browsing through comics but it didn't really seem anyone else was either. There's lots of queues to join, a zone to play vintage video and board games, a throng of food trucks parked incongruously inside. Much of the event is itself about taking photos, being present with the lore, acknowledging sparks of deep fan knowledge.  As a result my it felt equal parts over-saturating and underwhelming.  </p>

Experiencing Comic Con for the first time though, what struck me most was the was the staging of the event itself. I was expecting something altogether more grandiose in setting but in the end it then it feels completely swallowed by the Excel center. It creates a very particular condition, an indoor car boot sale of dense fantastical fictional universes floating in endless, very contemporary infrastructural <em><a href="https://www.oma.com/publications/junkspace" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Junk Space</a></em>.

<p>Experiencing Comic Con for the first time though, what struck me most was the was the staging of the event itself. I was expecting something altogether more grandiose in setting but in the end it then it feels completely swallowed by the Excel center. It creates a very particular condition, an indoor car boot sale of dense fantastical fictional universes floating in endless, very contemporary infrastructural <em><a href="https://www.oma.com/publications/junkspace" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Junk Space</a></em>.</p>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>Experiencing Comic Con for the first time though, what struck me most was the was the staging of the event itself. I was expecting something altogether more grandiose in setting but in the end it then it feels completely swallowed by the Excel center. It creates a very particular condition, an indoor car boot sale of dense fantastical fictional universes floating in endless, very contemporary infrastructural <em><a href="https://www.oma.com/publications/junkspace" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Junk Space</a></em>.</p></div>

<div class="wp-block-columns alignwide"><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>Experiencing Comic Con for the first time though, what struck me most was the was the staging of the event itself. I was expecting something altogether more grandiose in setting but in the end it then it feels completely swallowed by the Excel center. It creates a very particular condition, an indoor car boot sale of dense fantastical fictional universes floating in endless, very contemporary infrastructural <em><a href="https://www.oma.com/publications/junkspace" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Junk Space</a></em>.</p></div><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:70%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/comicon-10-scaled.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2599"/></figure></div></div>

Conventions and trade shows have this sinking all-purpose soullessness and drabness to them by default, given the necessarily blank backdrop of convention centres, but expectations have probably also been warped by other events, notably technology and car shows where budgets are exponentially higher. London Comic Con isn't altogether very <em>showy</em>. This may be the particular cavernous blandness of the Excel Centre, looking at through images of Comic Con San Diego looks more vibrant, co-ordinated and vertical - at least in the photos.

<p>Conventions and trade shows have this sinking all-purpose soullessness and drabness to them by default, given the necessarily blank backdrop of convention centres, but expectations have probably also been warped by other events, notably technology and car shows where budgets are exponentially higher. London Comic Con isn't altogether very <em>showy</em>. This may be the particular cavernous blandness of the Excel Centre, looking at through images of Comic Con San Diego looks more vibrant, co-ordinated and vertical - at least in the photos.</p>

My assumptions have probably been distorted still further by watching videos of a new generation of immersive theme park zones, which offer visitors a full manifestation of their favourite fictional universe.

<p>My assumptions have probably been distorted still further by watching videos of a new generation of immersive theme park zones, which offer visitors a full manifestation of their favourite fictional universe.</p>

Spearheaded by <em>The Wizarding World of Harry Potter</em> at <em>Universal&nbsp;Studios Florida</em>, the current gold standard is the 14 acre <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oESoI6XxZTg">Star Wars: Galaxies Edge</a>, at Disney World, Florida. The latter is a full-stack chunk of the Star Wars universe  laborious detailed by Disney's Imagineering Department, with a unique currency, language, menus of interstellar cuisine and repackaged 'alien' bottles of <a href="https://wdwnt.com/2021/06/photos-themed-coca-cola-souvenir-bottles-return-to-star-wars-galaxys-edge-at-disneyland/">Coke and Sprite</a> and workshops to build a custom lightsaber (costing an additional $199.99). It was named one of Time magazines "World's Greatest Places 2019" and apparently popular enough upon opening that it all but emptied the rest of Disneyland.

<p>Spearheaded by <em>The Wizarding World of Harry Potter</em> at <em>Universal&nbsp;Studios Florida</em>, the current gold standard is the 14 acre <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oESoI6XxZTg">Star Wars: Galaxies Edge</a>, at Disney World, Florida. The latter is a full-stack chunk of the Star Wars universe  laborious detailed by Disney's Imagineering Department, with a unique currency, language, menus of interstellar cuisine and repackaged 'alien' bottles of <a href="https://wdwnt.com/2021/06/photos-themed-coca-cola-souvenir-bottles-return-to-star-wars-galaxys-edge-at-disneyland/">Coke and Sprite</a> and workshops to build a custom lightsaber (costing an additional $199.99). It was named one of Time magazines "World's Greatest Places 2019" and apparently popular enough upon opening that it all but emptied the rest of Disneyland. </p>

So popular in fact that an <a href="https://youtu.be/ExxxOmajklE?t=175" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">essentially identical version</a> has opened on the West Coast at Disneyland, with the same design and layout, shops and attractions. The most significant differences appear to be some tweaks to the colour scheme and two extra colourful milk-and-rum cocktails you can only find on the West Coast. Florida now however boasts the addition of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzFfnWGZ_WI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Galactic Starcruiser</a>, a new experiential hotel costing a minimum of $4,809 per room on the two-night '<em>voyage</em>' that is part immersive theatre and part grounded "screens-for-windows" cruise ship.

<p> So popular in fact that an <a href="https://youtu.be/ExxxOmajklE?t=175" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">essentially identical version</a> has opened on the West Coast at Disneyland, with the same design and layout, shops and attractions. The most significant differences appear to be some tweaks to the colour scheme and two extra colourful milk-and-rum cocktails you can only find on the West Coast. Florida now however boasts the addition of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzFfnWGZ_WI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Galactic Starcruiser</a>, a new experiential hotel costing a minimum of $4,809 per room on the two-night '<em>voyage</em>' that is part immersive theatre and part grounded "screens-for-windows" cruise ship.</p>

The desire to lose ourselves is these universes is seemingly limitless and astonishingly lucrative for the major studio, and so it's easy to imagine that such events and places will continue to balloon in scale an ambition. Graeber and Wengrow, again on the subject of early human rituals:

<p>The desire to lose ourselves is these universes is seemingly limitless and astonishingly lucrative for the major studio, and so it's easy to imagine that such events and places will continue to balloon in scale an ambition. Graeber and Wengrow, again on the subject of early human rituals:</p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“What’s really important about such festivals is that they kept the old spark of political self-consciousness alive. They allowed people to imagine that other arrangements are feasible, even for society as a whole, since it was always possible to fantasize about carnival bursting its seams and becoming the new reality. ... "May Day came to be chosen as the date for the international workers’ holiday largely because so many British peasant revolts had historically begun on that riotous festival. Villagers who played at ‘turning the world upside’ would periodically decide they actually preferred the world upside down, and took measures to keep it that way."</p></blockquote>

While by no means thinking of Comic Con's attendees as 'villagers' If we might think about what sort of political position the 'fan' represent with respect to the major studios. Playing 'Queen for the Day' has a direct relationship to the power structures of the day, but is pretending to be Iron Man a different repositioning? While fans of the genre will often decry that mainstream criticism is dismissive of the nuanced, richly political and social commentary that the most celebrated are built around, Comic Con itself doesn't immediately seem like an hotbed of revolutionary action, accidentally erupting or otherwise.

<p>While by no means thinking of Comic Con's attendees as 'villagers' If we might think about what sort of political position the 'fan' represent with respect to the major studios. Playing 'Queen for the Day' has a direct relationship to the power structures of the day, but is pretending to be Iron Man a different repositioning? While fans of the genre will often decry that mainstream criticism is dismissive of the nuanced, richly political and social commentary that the most celebrated are built around, Comic Con itself doesn't immediately seem like an hotbed of revolutionary action, accidentally erupting or otherwise.</p>

There is a reversal of sorts in operation though, these billion dollar industries could not exist without their fanbases and in a sense Cosplay is the assertion of the value of the fan identity. If a sizeable chunk of your disposable income, time, attention and perhaps most importantly <em>imagination</em> is sunk into these worlds, it's not unreasonable to read Cosplay as the a kind of ritualistic challenge to a mode of sovereignty and system of rules.

<p>There is a reversal of sorts in operation though, these billion dollar industries could not exist without their fanbases and in a sense Cosplay is the assertion of the value of the fan identity. If a sizeable chunk of your disposable income, time, attention and perhaps most importantly <em>imagination</em> is sunk into these worlds, it's not unreasonable to read Cosplay as the a kind of ritualistic challenge to a mode of sovereignty and system of rules.</p>

Curiously government action in Japan is likely to <a href="https://www.klemchuk.com/ideate/cosplay-in-japan-faces-new-copyright-law" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bring Cosplay under copyright law</a> where it has previously existed in something of a legal grey area that was mutually beneficial for fans and rights holders alike. The introduction of similar rules elsewhere could seriously destabilise fan-creator relationships. A curious feature of the contemporary fanbase it's self-awareness. To be a mature fan is also to navigate between IP's, aware of the frequently transactional nature of the experiences on offer, the shadiness of certain operators, to preempt the expiry date of a given character and to appreciate the purchasing power afforded by of one's own obsessions.

<p>Curiously government action in Japan is likely to <a href="https://www.klemchuk.com/ideate/cosplay-in-japan-faces-new-copyright-law" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bring Cosplay under copyright law</a> where it has previously existed in something of a legal grey area that was mutually beneficial for fans and rights holders alike. The introduction of similar rules elsewhere could seriously destabilise fan-creator relationships. A curious feature of the contemporary fanbase it's self-awareness. To be a mature fan is also to navigate between IP's, aware of the frequently transactional nature of the experiences on offer, the shadiness of certain operators, to preempt the expiry date of a given character and to appreciate the purchasing power afforded by of one's own obsessions. </p>

A paper Graeber and Wengrow's reflection on rituals is partly drawn from is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40972203?seq=1">Adam Seligman</a>'s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40972203?seq=1">Ritual, the Self, and Sincerity, (2008)</a>, he writes:

<p>A paper Graeber and Wengrow's reflection on rituals is partly drawn from is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40972203?seq=1">Adam Seligman</a>'s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40972203?seq=1">Ritual, the Self, and Sincerity, (2008)</a>, he writes:</p>

<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>... pure ritual puts questions of belief or truth aside in favor of the shared world... Thus ritual encompasses the ambiguity of life in a unique manner. It allows one to "play" with such ambiguity in a manner precluded by an undue concern with the authenticity of one's actions and beliefs. Ritual unshackles the mind from a need to believe in a dogma of our choosing, as long as we act properly. Ritual then is a critical device that allows us to live with ambiguity and the lack of full understanding.&nbsp;</p><cite>- <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40972203?seq=1">Adam B. Seligman,</a></cite></blockquote>

Speculating somewhat reductively, intense fandom also seems like an appropriate reaction to the increasing complexity of everyday life and the exponential growth in available information and connectivity. Fictional universes clearly offer escapism and respite from an otherwise extremely noisy reality while fostering real communality, at a time when many other institutions seem genuinely unable to. So while drawing a coherent politics from fandom is complicated, it maybe be useful source material for understanding political solidarity, if only for the quality of the relationships it establishes and the ease at which it's participants dissolve their differences.

<p>Speculating somewhat reductively, intense fandom also seems like an appropriate reaction to the increasing complexity of everyday life and the exponential growth in available information and connectivity. Fictional universes clearly offer escapism and respite from an otherwise extremely noisy reality while fostering real communality, at a time when many other institutions seem genuinely unable to. So while drawing a coherent politics from fandom is complicated, it maybe be useful source material for understanding political solidarity, if only for the quality of the relationships it establishes and the ease at which it's participants dissolve their differences. </p>

<p>As the slogan runs, <em>It's On Like Comic Con.</em></p>

0005 – Model Behaviour

0003 – Who Makes The Map, Makes Us

0004 – It’s On Like Comic Con

Over the summer, a new state-of-the-art AI image generator,  <a href="https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-public-release">Stable Diffusion</a> was released. Unlike its competitors which remain largely paywalled, it was made freely downloadable, smashing open a piñata of hype, panic and potential. Influential researcher (and former Director of AI at Tesla) Andrej Karpathy described it as ‘<a href="https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/1561818955966058500">a day of historic proportion for human creativity</a>'.

<p>Over the summer, a new state-of-the-art AI image generator,  <a href="https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-public-release">Stable Diffusion</a> was released. Unlike its competitors which remain largely paywalled, it was made freely downloadable, smashing open a piñata of hype, panic and potential. Influential researcher (and former Director of AI at Tesla) Andrej Karpathy described it as ‘<a href="https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/1561818955966058500">a day of historic proportion for human creativity</a>'.</p>

With <a href="https://thesequence.substack.com/p/generative-ai-fundraising-momentum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">investment dollars pouring in</a>, including a $101m for Stability.AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, the field of "Generative AI" has quickly become this seasons venture capital unicorn ranch and nothing will ever be the same again, again.

<p>With <a href="https://thesequence.substack.com/p/generative-ai-fundraising-momentum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">investment dollars pouring in</a>, including a $101m for Stability.AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, the field of "Generative AI" has quickly become this seasons venture capital unicorn ranch and nothing will ever be the same again, again.</p>

I've been experimenting with Stable Diffusion since its release – see the numbered images in this post – and while contending with such intense buzz requires caution - also TLDR;  I don’t think I’ve ever used a piece of code or software that has left such an intense impression so quickly.

<p>I've been experimenting with Stable Diffusion since its release – see the numbered images in this post – and while contending with such intense buzz requires caution - also TLDR;  I don’t think I’ve ever used a piece of code or software that has left such an intense impression so quickly.</p>

Stable Diffusion doesn't appear to be hugely more capable than its competitors MidJourney or Dall-E although the outputs it generates are generally more <em>fascinating</em>, especially in the terrain beyond style-transfer. Its primary advantage is that it's downloadable and free to operate on your own PC, providing space to both fine-tune it's process and to some extent reverse engineer its logic. As someone who spends a significant amount of time making and thinking about images - inputting my own images and drawings into Stable Diffusion has thrown up some knotty questions.

<p>Stable Diffusion doesn't appear to be hugely more capable than its competitors MidJourney or Dall-E although the outputs it generates are generally more <em>fascinating</em>, especially in the terrain beyond style-transfer. Its primary advantage is that it's downloadable and free to operate on your own PC, providing space to both fine-tune it's process and to some extent reverse engineer its logic. As someone who spends a significant amount of time making and thinking about images - inputting my own images and drawings into Stable Diffusion has thrown up some knotty questions. </p>

Before getting into these, the quickest shortcut through the hype might be just to try it for yourself and experience both its weirdness and limitations. There are many <a href="https://medium.com/geekculture/run-stable-diffusion-in-your-local-computer-heres-a-step-by-step-guide-af128397d424" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">guides</a>, <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/830179/how-to-run-stable-diffusion-on-your-pc-to-generate-ai-images/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tutorials</a> and easy to use interfaces such as <a href="https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui">webui</a>, which is perhaps the most active and <a href="https://github.com/cmdr2/stable-diffusion-ui" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stable-diffusion-ui</a>, which is possibly marginally easier to install. It can be used directly online at <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/stabilityai/stable-diffusion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">huggingface</a> or dozens of other hosted version that have sprung up, although tinkering with a local installation provides the most flexibility.

<p>Before getting into these, the quickest shortcut through the hype might be just to try it for yourself and experience both its weirdness and limitations. There are many <a href="https://medium.com/geekculture/run-stable-diffusion-in-your-local-computer-heres-a-step-by-step-guide-af128397d424" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">guides</a>, <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/830179/how-to-run-stable-diffusion-on-your-pc-to-generate-ai-images/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tutorials</a> and easy to use interfaces such as <a href="https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui">webui</a>, which is perhaps the most active and <a href="https://github.com/cmdr2/stable-diffusion-ui" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stable-diffusion-ui</a>, which is possibly marginally easier to install. It can be used directly online at <a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/stabilityai/stable-diffusion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">huggingface</a> or dozens of other hosted version that have sprung up, although tinkering with a local installation provides the most flexibility.</p>

Sidestepping the tangled definitions of intelligence, we can at least recognise that such models are capable of extraordinary feats of translation, allowing us to skirt across vast dimensions of latent space and metaphorical image analysis that 150,000 hours of top grade GPU training time affords. We may not yet have sufficient metaphors to describe these interactions, landing somewhere between co-creation and augmented visual research made possible by ingesting 5.8 billion images. As a tool of self-evaluation it's remarkably useful to be able to supply it images and essentially ask '<em>what is this?</em>' and then '<em>what it would be like as something slightly, or significantly, or entirely different?'</em>. It's a process that feels conversational, and stranger still, one where the other party is adamantly attempting to convince you that images are not what you thought they were.

<p>Sidestepping the tangled definitions of intelligence, we can at least recognise that such models are capable of extraordinary feats of translation, allowing us to skirt across vast dimensions of latent space and metaphorical image analysis that 150,000 hours of top grade GPU training time affords. We may not yet have sufficient metaphors to describe these interactions, landing somewhere between co-creation and augmented visual research made possible by ingesting 5.8 billion images. As a tool of self-evaluation it's remarkably useful to be able to supply it images and essentially ask '<em>what is this?</em>' and then '<em>what it would be like as something slightly, or significantly, or entirely different?'</em>. It's a process that feels conversational, and stranger still, one where the other party is adamantly attempting to convince you that images are not what you thought they were.</p>

The term-of-art to describe the process of fine-tuning the inputs is known as ‘<a href="https://github.com/sw-yx/prompt-eng/blob/main/README.md">Prompt Engineering</a>’, although we may quickly need a more expansive term, that is less suggestive of a short, written starting points and more considerate of different potential input methods. How we feed such models is now encompassing all forms digital media - see emerging techniques for speech2video or text-to-3D aka <a href="https://dreamfusion3d.github.io">Dreamfusion</a>. Naturally some are already <a href="https://medium.com/mlearning-ai/using-an-ai-writer-to-generate-the-text-prompt-for-an-ai-image-generator-b331a6b94cdb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">using one AI</a> to work out what to ask another.

<p>The term-of-art to describe the process of fine-tuning the inputs is known as ‘<a href="https://github.com/sw-yx/prompt-eng/blob/main/README.md">Prompt Engineering</a>’, although we may quickly need a more expansive term, that is less suggestive of a short, written starting points and more considerate of different potential input methods. How we feed such models is now encompassing all forms digital media - see emerging techniques for speech2video or text-to-3D aka <a href="https://dreamfusion3d.github.io">Dreamfusion</a>. Naturally some are already <a href="https://medium.com/mlearning-ai/using-an-ai-writer-to-generate-the-text-prompt-for-an-ai-image-generator-b331a6b94cdb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">using one AI</a> to work out what to ask another.</p>

In a talk around a decade ago, I remember the artist <a href="https://markleckey.com">Mark Leckey</a> comparing image search engines to alchemy, since they could, if used effectively, conjure images from our imagination into being. In the era of “Big Data”, search could be considered be a productive, creative act.

<p>In a talk around a decade ago, I remember the artist <a href="https://markleckey.com">Mark Leckey</a> comparing image search engines to alchemy, since they could, if used effectively, conjure images from our imagination into being. In the era of “Big Data”, search could be considered be a productive, creative act. </p>

It was also an acknowledgement that, in a world where images are no longer scarce or hidden, how we work with them and what they mean might need to be fundamentally reconsidered.  As with many technologies, there is a window between our first interactions initial it and it’s maturity.  This same process feels like it’s happening with AI image generation, albeit slightly faster. I remember using Google Image Search not long after it was originally launched, it was both revelatory and yet also strangely limited. Before long it 'got good', and what once felt slightly unreliable, quickly cemented itself as an essential component of how we think about images.

<p>It was also an acknowledgement that, in a world where images are no longer scarce or hidden, how we work with them and what they mean might need to be fundamentally reconsidered.  As with many technologies, there is a window between our first interactions initial it and it’s maturity.  This same process feels like it’s happening with AI image generation, albeit slightly faster. I remember using Google Image Search not long after it was originally launched, it was both revelatory and yet also strangely limited. Before long it 'got good', and what once felt slightly unreliable, quickly cemented itself as an essential component of how we think about images. </p>

Emad Mostaque, CEO of&nbsp;<a href="http://stability.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stability.ai</a>&nbsp;describes using his model as&nbsp;‘<em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snn4Pq5DBIo">generative search</a></em>’ – perhaps he was also in attendance at Leckeys lecture. He also predicts bombastically that<em><a href="https://twitter.com/EMostaque/status/1581669854720888832"> "image will be solved within a year</a></em>". Siri - set a reminder, <em>17th October, 2023.</em> Hype train aside - it does seem likely that the underlying capacity of such technologies is going to keep growing in the near future. From the perspective of what they can already do, things are only going to get <em>weirder</em>.

<p>Emad Mostaque, CEO of&nbsp;<a href="http://stability.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stability.ai</a>&nbsp;describes using his model as&nbsp;‘<em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snn4Pq5DBIo">generative search</a></em>’ – perhaps he was also in attendance at Leckeys lecture. He also predicts bombastically that<em><a href="https://twitter.com/EMostaque/status/1581669854720888832"> "image will be solved within a year</a></em>". Siri - set a reminder, <em>17th October, 2023.</em> Hype train aside - it does seem likely that the underlying capacity of such technologies is going to keep growing in the near future. From the perspective of what they can already do, things are only going to get <em>weirder</em>.</p>

The crescendo of excitement surrounding Stable Diffusion is partly thanks to its public release. While the main competitor <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Midjourney</a> currently has <em>3 million</em> members on its discord, that's primarily because chatting with a bot is the primary way to use use it. By decoupling the model from the service offering, Stability.AI has been propelled skyward by a community eager to to build things on top of the technology. This community is growing wildly fast and releasing a stream of visual tools and genre-bending proof-of-concepts, with new <a href="https://github.com/cobanov/awesome-diffusion">resources</a> available almost daily.

<p>The crescendo of excitement surrounding Stable Diffusion is partly thanks to its public release. While the main competitor <a href="https://www.midjourney.com/home/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Midjourney</a> currently has <em>3 million</em> members on its discord, that's primarily because chatting with a bot is the primary way to use use it. By decoupling the model from the service offering, Stability.AI has been propelled skyward by a community eager to to build things on top of the technology. This community is growing wildly fast and releasing a stream of visual tools and genre-bending proof-of-concepts, with new <a href="https://github.com/cobanov/awesome-diffusion">resources</a> available almost daily. </p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-1024x729.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3315"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Graph comparing 'stars' on GitHub of the Stable Diffusion repo vs several other popular open source libraries (it's the vertical blue line on the right) via <a href="https://twitter.com/EMostaque">@EMostaque</a></figcaption></figure>

Nowhere is this more evidence that the rapid-fire demoscene of interfacial experiments, such as the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkOF3_MIDOs">VR &amp; 360 Demos</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/scottiefoxttv">ScottieFox</a>, and live AR demos by <a href="https://twitter.com/stspanho/status/1581707753747537920">Stijn </a><a href="https://twitter.com/stspanho/status/1581707753747537920" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spanhove</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/sergeyglkn/status/1580167837770870784">Sergie Galkin</a>. Daniel Eckler has also compiled <a href="https://twitter.com/daniel_eckler/status/1572210382944538624" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a fantastic thread</a>. For a general state of play, a good place to start is reddit: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/">r/StableDiffusion</a> and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/sdforall/">r/sdforall</a> or the <a href="https://discord.gg/stablediffusion">discord</a>. This outpouring of activity is the result to Stability.Ai's gamble to embrace an an alternative business model, helpfully summarised by swyx's "<a href="https://lspace.swyx.io/p/open-source-ai">How Open Source is eating A</a>I".

<p>Nowhere is this more evidence that the rapid-fire demoscene of interfacial experiments, such as the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkOF3_MIDOs">VR &amp; 360 Demos</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/scottiefoxttv">ScottieFox</a>, and live AR demos by <a href="https://twitter.com/stspanho/status/1581707753747537920">Stijn </a><a href="https://twitter.com/stspanho/status/1581707753747537920" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spanhove</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/sergeyglkn/status/1580167837770870784">Sergie Galkin</a>. Daniel Eckler has also compiled <a href="https://twitter.com/daniel_eckler/status/1572210382944538624" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a fantastic thread</a>. For a general state of play, a good place to start is reddit: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/">r/StableDiffusion</a> and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/sdforall/">r/sdforall</a> or the <a href="https://discord.gg/stablediffusion">discord</a>. This outpouring of activity is the result to Stability.Ai's gamble to embrace an an alternative business model, helpfully summarised by swyx's "<a href="https://lspace.swyx.io/p/open-source-ai">How Open Source is eating A</a>I".</p>

It's tempting humanise these tools, thinking of the model as somehow intuitive since its outputs can sometimes feel so unexpected, complex or perhaps even baffling. For now at least the very opposite is true, part of what makes it so interesting is that the latent space from which it pulls images is fully explorable - we can export an image for every step of the way or restart the process where we left off.

<p>It's tempting humanise these tools, thinking of the model as somehow intuitive since its outputs can sometimes feel so unexpected, complex or perhaps even baffling. For now at least the very opposite is true, part of what makes it so interesting is that the latent space from which it pulls images is fully explorable - we can export an image for every step of the way or restart the process where we left off.  </p>

To such models, every image resembles a Monet painting or '<a href="https://mashable.com/article/werid-dall-e-images" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A bottle of ranch testifying in court</a>', to some extent - it's just that most of the time it's 0.000%.  To this end we can consider essentially all images, generated or otherwise as a bundle of definitions within Stable Diffusions <a href="https://jalammar.github.io/illustrated-stable-diffusion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hyper-dimensional latent space</a>. To generate an image is to chart a logical (or absurd) route through the model, sampling the states of confusion and intrigue along the way, jiggling images  from 0.041% of <em>this</em> to 0.98% of <em>that</em>.

<p>To such models, every image resembles a Monet painting or '<a href="https://mashable.com/article/werid-dall-e-images" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">A bottle of ranch testifying in court</a>', to some extent - it's just that most of the time it's 0.000%.  To this end we can consider essentially all images, generated or otherwise as a bundle of definitions within Stable Diffusions <a href="https://jalammar.github.io/illustrated-stable-diffusion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hyper-dimensional latent space</a>. To generate an image is to chart a logical (or absurd) route through the model, sampling the states of confusion and intrigue along the way, jiggling images  from 0.041% of <em>this</em> to 0.98% of <em>that</em>.</p>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/diffusion-example-1024x757.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3217"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">&nbsp;An example of training a diffusion model for modeling a 2D swiss roll data. (Image source:&nbsp;<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03585" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sohl-Dickstein et al., 2015</a>). - via <em>What are Diffusion Models?</em> by Lilian Weng </figcaption></figure></div>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>Curiously the underlying technical <a href="https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2021-07-11-diffusion-models/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">architectures of diffusion models</a>, i.e Stable <em>Diffusion</em>, have their origins in thermodynamics. Authors on one of the early papers on the topic summarise it as: <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03585">"The essential idea, inspired by non-equilibrium statistical physics, is to systematically and slowly destroy structure in a data distribution through an iterative forward diffusion process."</a> </p><p>It turns out to be deliriously effective to train a neural network by adding and removing noise from an image in tiny iterations. We might even think of Stable Diffusion as essentially hyper-specialised noise reduction repeated dozens of times over. Generally the individual gradual steps along this path are nearly imperceptible to the human eye - in aggregate however the model can travel on what appears to be a wild ride of imagination.</p><p>That doesn't mean we can directly parse it's reasoning. For instance the outputs can dramatically change form when it's underling parameters, such as 'de-noising' are only marginally adjusted, from say 0.875 to 0.9 as if crossing a threshold beyond which the model can no longer contain itself.</p></div>

<div class="wp-block-columns alignwide"><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/diffusion-example-1024x757.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3217"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">&nbsp;An example of training a diffusion model for modeling a 2D swiss roll data. (Image source:&nbsp;<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03585" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sohl-Dickstein et al., 2015</a>). - via <em>What are Diffusion Models?</em> by Lilian Weng </figcaption></figure></div><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>Curiously the underlying technical <a href="https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2021-07-11-diffusion-models/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">architectures of diffusion models</a>, i.e Stable <em>Diffusion</em>, have their origins in thermodynamics. Authors on one of the early papers on the topic summarise it as: <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.03585">"The essential idea, inspired by non-equilibrium statistical physics, is to systematically and slowly destroy structure in a data distribution through an iterative forward diffusion process."</a> </p><p>It turns out to be deliriously effective to train a neural network by adding and removing noise from an image in tiny iterations. We might even think of Stable Diffusion as essentially hyper-specialised noise reduction repeated dozens of times over. Generally the individual gradual steps along this path are nearly imperceptible to the human eye - in aggregate however the model can travel on what appears to be a wild ride of imagination.</p><p>That doesn't mean we can directly parse it's reasoning. For instance the outputs can dramatically change form when it's underling parameters, such as 'de-noising' are only marginally adjusted, from say 0.875 to 0.9 as if crossing a threshold beyond which the model can no longer contain itself.</p></div></div>

Stable Diffusion works because it is trained on 5.8 billion images but it's also appears fundamentally scarred by the process. It is common for images it generates to feature a hallucinated stock image watermark or 'garbled Getty images' banner. In her essay <em><a href="https://www.e-flux.com/journal/32/68260/the-spam-of-the-earth-withdrawal-from-representation/">'The Spam of the Earth: Withdrawal from Representation'</a></em> Hito Steyl reminds us that we have inadvertently flooded actual deep space with spam, <em>"Image spam is our message to the future."</em>.  Now we’re filling our artificial brains with spam and stock image offcuts as well.

<p>Stable Diffusion works because it is trained on 5.8 billion images but it's also appears fundamentally scarred by the process. It is common for images it generates to feature a hallucinated stock image watermark or 'garbled Getty images' banner. In her essay <em><a href="https://www.e-flux.com/journal/32/68260/the-spam-of-the-earth-withdrawal-from-representation/">'The Spam of the Earth: Withdrawal from Representation'</a></em> Hito Steyl reminds us that we have inadvertently flooded actual deep space with spam, <em>"Image spam is our message to the future."</em>.  Now we’re filling our artificial brains with spam and stock image offcuts as well. </p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/spam-collage.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3226"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Examples of watermarks and logos in images generated by Stable Diffusion (v1.5).</figcaption></figure>

However these issues may be trivial to bigger concerns now that a model with such power is out-in-the-wild. Stability.ai claim that the images are digitally watermarked, there are safeguards against NSFW content and mandate some fairly hefty licence restrictions. However judging by some of the community outputs this is almost impossible to regulate and potentially laying the groundwork for even more complex challenges.

<p>However these issues may be trivial to bigger concerns now that a model with such power is out-in-the-wild. Stability.ai claim that the images are digitally watermarked, there are safeguards against NSFW content and mandate some fairly hefty licence restrictions. However judging by some of the community outputs this is almost impossible to regulate and potentially laying the groundwork for even more complex challenges.</p>

Benjamin Bratton &amp; Blaise Aguera y Arcas, in their recent essay <em>"<a href="https://www.noemamag.com/the-model-is-the-message" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Model Is The Message: Why We Need New Language For Artificial Intelligence</a></em> <em>"</em> partially in response to Google Engineer Blake Lemoines claim that the LaMDA chatbot might be '<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/technology/google-chatbot-ai-blake-lemoine.html">sentient</a>', define <em>"Seven Problems With Synthetic Language At Platform Scale"</em>.  Two of these seven seem of immediate relevance to the release of Stable Diffusion - <em>The Machine Majority Language Problem</em> - what happens when the majority of language is spoken machine made? Then as a chaser – <em>The Ouroboros Language Problem</em> - what happens when the models are then trained on a corpus that was machine made?

<p>Benjamin Bratton &amp; Blaise Aguera y Arcas, in their recent essay <em>"<a href="https://www.noemamag.com/the-model-is-the-message" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Model Is The Message: Why We Need New Language For Artificial Intelligence</a></em> <em>"</em> partially in response to Google Engineer Blake Lemoines claim that the LaMDA chatbot might be '<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/technology/google-chatbot-ai-blake-lemoine.html">sentient</a>', define <em>"Seven Problems With Synthetic Language At Platform Scale"</em>.  Two of these seven seem of immediate relevance to the release of Stable Diffusion - <em>The Machine Majority Language Problem</em> - what happens when the majority of language is spoken machine made? Then as a chaser – <em>The Ouroboros Language Problem</em> - what happens when the models are then trained on a corpus that was machine made?</p>

<a href="https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/news/getty-images-shutterstock-ai-submission.html">Getty and Shutterstock have already banned AI generated images</a> given the sudden ease of being able to make them and the training pool for the next generation models is probably now already polluted. As Bratton and Aguera y Arcas observe, given the forthcoming onslaught of AI content, more radical approaches may be necessary, such as tagging content which is explicitly <em>'human made</em>'.

<p><a href="https://www.stockphotosecrets.com/news/getty-images-shutterstock-ai-submission.html">Getty and Shutterstock have already banned AI generated images</a> given the sudden ease of being able to make them and the training pool for the next generation models is probably now already polluted. As Bratton and Aguera y Arcas observe, given the forthcoming onslaught of AI content, more radical approaches may be necessary, such as tagging content which is explicitly <em>'human made</em>'.</p>

Although their focus is on language processing models, the underlying logic is not only directly transferable to image generation, but really all machine learning approaches to media – as they write <em>"the sequence modeling at the heart of natural language processing is key to enabling generalist AI models that can flexibly do arbitrary tasks, even ones that are not themselves linguistic, from image synthesis to drug discovery to robotics"</em>.

<p>Although their focus is on language processing models, the underlying logic is not only directly transferable to image generation, but really all machine learning approaches to media – as they write <em>"the sequence modeling at the heart of natural language processing is key to enabling generalist AI models that can flexibly do arbitrary tasks, even ones that are not themselves linguistic, from image synthesis to drug discovery to robotics"</em>.</p>

While of course Stable Diffusion is largely manipulated with text-based prompts, the deeper consideration here is that linguistic capacity is the likely foundation for computational systems that can learn or build models of the world with a comparable speed, flexibility or inventiveness that even small children might display when picking up grammar, syntax and vocabulary. When it comes to machine learning, metaphor isn't a metaphor.

<p>While of course Stable Diffusion is largely manipulated with text-based prompts, the deeper consideration here is that linguistic capacity is the likely foundation for computational systems that can learn or build models of the world with a comparable speed, flexibility or inventiveness that even small children might display when picking up grammar, syntax and vocabulary. When it comes to machine learning, metaphor isn't a metaphor.</p>

So the commercial viability of libraries of stock images, game textures (and in time footage, copy-right free music) is perhaps shaky, but more fundamentally, but so to is the very nature of the 'stock' image. It's easy to forget such archives represent an industrialisation of visual communication, though the continuous production of generic images, vector graphics, symbols, logos and templates. What's changing is that the 'stock' is no longer a store but likely to become a process - the fruits of which will be strange. Adaptive illustrations that A/B test themselves, hyper-personalisation, deep instability.

<p>So the commercial viability of libraries of stock images, game textures (and in time footage, copy-right free music) is perhaps shaky, but more fundamentally, but so to is the very nature of the 'stock' image. It's easy to forget such archives represent an industrialisation of visual communication, though the continuous production of generic images, vector graphics, symbols, logos and templates. What's changing is that the 'stock' is no longer a store but likely to become a process - the fruits of which will be strange. Adaptive illustrations that A/B test themselves, hyper-personalisation, deep instability. </p>

It is only within the last few years that architectural visualisation and product photography has really got anywhere close to a level of 'true' photo-realism which might reasonably confuse experienced professionals, mainly because achieving the right level of complexity and textural variation that we are subconsciously rely on is extremely tedious or expensive. At the very least we can imagine that a commercial rendering pipelines are going to start including AI if only to sprinkle some of this magic realism dust at various stages of the pipeline.

<p>It is only within the last few years that architectural visualisation and product photography has really got anywhere close to a level of 'true' photo-realism which might reasonably confuse experienced professionals, mainly because achieving the right level of complexity and textural variation that we are subconsciously rely on is extremely tedious or expensive. At the very least we can imagine that a commercial rendering pipelines are going to start including AI if only to sprinkle some of this magic realism dust at various stages of the pipeline.</p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/sd-0001.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-3172"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjlfg43Ib9x/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“#0001&nbsp;(geons, polished stones, building blocks, sheets of marble, film)”, 2022</a></figcaption></figure>

Stable Diffusion appears capable of generating a particular flavour of unreality. Given the right blend of inputs it will generate detail, form and lighting that reassure the human eye and appears to ‘<em>know</em>’ how to make something appear 3D or correctly textured while simultaneously making fundamental logical errors that we don't immediately acknowledge. While machine vision may be able to police machine image production, human labelling may soon be a thing of the past.

<p>Stable Diffusion appears capable of generating a particular flavour of unreality. Given the right blend of inputs it will generate detail, form and lighting that reassure the human eye and appears to ‘<em>know</em>’ how to make something appear 3D or correctly textured while simultaneously making fundamental logical errors that we don't immediately acknowledge. While machine vision may be able to police machine image production, human labelling may soon be a thing of the past. </p>

What this means for digital professional is a more complicated question. It's true that creative people who depend on a highly cultivated visual language may take a hit from unscrupulous actors if potential legal protections are fiddly to design or slow to be realised, but these may in time, also be easily addressable concerns to legislate for. To hold focus on the legal or economic side may gloss over the fundamental expansion and necessary reconstitution of what it means to be 'an artist' in the first place.

<p>What this means for digital professional is a more complicated question. It's true that creative people who depend on a highly cultivated visual language may take a hit from unscrupulous actors if potential legal protections are fiddly to design or slow to be realised, but these may in time, also be easily addressable concerns to legislate for. To hold focus on the legal or economic side may gloss over the fundamental expansion and necessary reconstitution of what it means to be 'an artist' in the first place. </p>

At a basic level, the premise that AI can independently make coherent art is essentially a boring category error, illustrating the somewhat reductive nature of conversations in mainstream and tech discourse, often based on the overestimation of the importance of 'style', as if visual art has remained static since Van Gogh chopped off his ear. While it may sound slightly obnoxious - it may also be literally true - that AI models and their creators might find a great advantage by somehow integrating lessons from art history and visual theory instead of presuming it can continue to be brute-forced a billion images 512px x 512px at a time.

<p>At a basic level, the premise that AI can independently make coherent art is essentially a boring category error, illustrating the somewhat reductive nature of conversations in mainstream and tech discourse, often based on the overestimation of the importance of 'style', as if visual art has remained static since Van Gogh chopped off his ear. While it may sound slightly obnoxious - it may also be literally true - that AI models and their creators might find a great advantage by somehow integrating lessons from art history and visual theory instead of presuming it can continue to be brute-forced a billion images 512px x 512px at a time. </p>

<h3>Stabilisation (And Its Discontents)</h3>

This isn't to make a value judgement about the different ways that people might use Stable Diffusion, quite the opposite, art is perhaps the primary process <em>through</em> which we as humans will build a cultural understanding of the computational structures that AI is revealing, and the wider the gamut of outputs, the better. As we shift from demo to tool it's likely that enhanced interfaces will provide a suite of richer interactions that may explicitly challenge us on this front, rather than defaulting to one-liner prompts, squashed into a HTML text input.

<p>This isn't to make a value judgement about the different ways that people might use Stable Diffusion, quite the opposite, art is perhaps the primary process <em>through</em> which we as humans will build a cultural understanding of the computational structures that AI is revealing, and the wider the gamut of outputs, the better. As we shift from demo to tool it's likely that enhanced interfaces will provide a suite of richer interactions that may explicitly challenge us on this front, rather than defaulting to one-liner prompts, squashed into a HTML text input. </p>

There is of course a whole separate debate to be had as to what it might mean for such a model to make art for itself or other machines, and even if we could realistically recognise it doing so. In the mean time it's a technology that will likely reveal more about ourselves, how we perceive the world and our emotional relationship to images, perhaps in time taking the the form of industrial-grade, cheaply available art therapy.

<p>There is of course a whole separate debate to be had as to what it might mean for such a model to make art for itself or other machines, and even if we could realistically recognise it doing so. In the mean time it's a technology that will likely reveal more about ourselves, how we perceive the world and our emotional relationship to images, perhaps in time taking the the form of industrial-grade, cheaply available art therapy.</p>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>That the go-to nomenclature for such technologies is 'dream' i.e DeepDream, Dream Studio, Dream Fusion etc, may not be as trivial as it might first appears if in time such software performs a perceptual function similar to actual dreaming, albeit a little more <em>on-demand</em>.</p><p>As with dreaming though, the process of AI image generation is generally speaking far more fascinating than any specific output. The most common audience responses usually concern method - 'how was that done?' and 'can I do it too?'.</p><p>Very few AI images hold our attention in a meaningful way except perhaps those with a particular satirical resonance (see <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/x3u3r0/jeflon_zuckergates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeflon Zuckergates</a>) which capitalise on Stable Diffusions dazzling capacity to seamlessly blend between numerous semantic concepts. </p></div>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hdyw1o181el91.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3325"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/x3u3r0/jeflon_zuckergates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeflon Zuckergates - via reddit</a></figcaption></figure></div>

<div class="wp-block-columns alignwide"><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><p>That the go-to nomenclature for such technologies is 'dream' i.e DeepDream, Dream Studio, Dream Fusion etc, may not be as trivial as it might first appears if in time such software performs a perceptual function similar to actual dreaming, albeit a little more <em>on-demand</em>.</p><p>As with dreaming though, the process of AI image generation is generally speaking far more fascinating than any specific output. The most common audience responses usually concern method - 'how was that done?' and 'can I do it too?'.</p><p>Very few AI images hold our attention in a meaningful way except perhaps those with a particular satirical resonance (see <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/x3u3r0/jeflon_zuckergates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeflon Zuckergates</a>) which capitalise on Stable Diffusions dazzling capacity to seamlessly blend between numerous semantic concepts. </p></div><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/hdyw1o181el91.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3325"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/StableDiffusion/comments/x3u3r0/jeflon_zuckergates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeflon Zuckergates - via reddit</a></figcaption></figure></div></div>

Reading through the pages of community generated add-ons already reveals the pathology of its current userbase to some extent - a blend of fantasy castles, cyberpunk streets, celebrity portraits, and of course endless, endless waifus. Beyond meme soup of X in the style of Y, lies a whole alphabet of image-based psychoanalysis.

<p>Reading through the pages of community generated add-ons already reveals the pathology of its current userbase to some extent - a blend of fantasy castles, cyberpunk streets, celebrity portraits, and of course endless, endless waifus. Beyond meme soup of X in the style of Y, lies a whole alphabet of image-based psychoanalysis.</p>

Indeed using Stable Diffusion has gradually unpicked and reassembled my own visual inclinations, distilling a mix of 70's conceptual sculpture, waste materials, geology and architectural formalism. For all the discussion about what it will mean for artists to have their work encoded into such models, it's also more than a little humbling to have an AI suggest that your images resemble an artist you thought you weren't obviously ripping off.

<p>Indeed using Stable Diffusion has gradually unpicked and reassembled my own visual inclinations, distilling a mix of 70's conceptual sculpture, waste materials, geology and architectural formalism. For all the discussion about what it will mean for artists to have their work encoded into such models, it's also more than a little humbling to have an AI suggest that your images resemble an artist you thought you weren't obviously ripping off.</p>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/0005img.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3174"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">“<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/0005/">#0005</a>&nbsp;(prompt: ‘geological scrap paper, plaster, sculpture’)”, 2022</figcaption></figure></div>

<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/insty_08.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3178"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">#0008 &nbsp;(prompt: ‘blocks, concrete, brick’)”, 2022</figcaption></figure></div>

<div class="wp-block-columns alignfull"><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/0005img.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3174"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">“<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/0005/">#0005</a>&nbsp;(prompt: ‘geological scrap paper, plaster, sculpture’)”, 2022</figcaption></figure></div><div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:50%"><figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/insty_08.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3178"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">#0008 &nbsp;(prompt: ‘blocks, concrete, brick’)”, 2022</figcaption></figure></div></div>

While it's astonishing that models like Stable Diffusion are capable of such outputs, they are still hyper-specialised only within a single domain, the question lingers about what happens as they start to become even slightly more general or perhaps even why they aren't already.

<p>While it's astonishing that models like Stable Diffusion are capable of such outputs, they are still hyper-specialised only within a single domain, the question lingers about what happens as they start to become even slightly more general or perhaps even why they aren't already.</p>

This concern is at the centre of Stanislas Dehaenes highly approachable <em>'<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/22843/stanislas-dehaene" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How We Learn: The New Science of Education and the Brain'</a></em>, in which he compares the limit of current machine learning to the multi-layered, multi-sensory and social nature of human learning and it's surprising adaptability and robustness.

<p>This concern is at the centre of Stanislas Dehaenes highly approachable <em>'<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/22843/stanislas-dehaene" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How We Learn: The New Science of Education and the Brain'</a></em>, in which he compares the limit of current machine learning to the multi-layered, multi-sensory and social nature of human learning and it's surprising adaptability and robustness.</p>

More recently the multi-author paper&nbsp;<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.08340">Toward Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence: Catalyzing the NeuroAI Revolution</a>&nbsp;is in essence a challenge to the wider AI research community to lean more fully into the study of Neuroscience and so-called ‘NeuroAI’, and to explore biological models that might radically improve the environmental interactions, flexibility and energy efficiency of AI.  Certainly many in the field are betting on neuro-biologically inspired research to further reveal how to better design software intelligences while possibly helping us understand our own brains in the process.

<p>More recently the multi-author paper&nbsp;<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.08340">Toward Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence: Catalyzing the NeuroAI Revolution</a>&nbsp;is in essence a challenge to the wider AI research community to lean more fully into the study of Neuroscience and so-called ‘NeuroAI’, and to explore biological models that might radically improve the environmental interactions, flexibility and energy efficiency of AI.  Certainly many in the field are betting on neuro-biologically inspired research to further reveal how to better design software intelligences while possibly helping us understand our own brains in the process.</p>

Among the authors is Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Numenta (and formely co-founder of Palm Computing, originators of the PalmPilot) and author of the recent&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/jeff-hawkins/a-thousand-brains/9781541675810/">A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence</a>. </em>The book is&nbsp;a cogent articulation of why AI needs neuroscience, based on two decades of research into the neocortex and it’s seemingly all-purpose role in high-level cognitive tasks - such as language. Emerging from this work are new theories of the organisation of the neocortex based on cortical&nbsp;columns and 'frames of reference', that might yet be one of the building blocks of neuro-inspired computational models.

<p>Among the authors is Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Numenta (and formely co-founder of Palm Computing, originators of the PalmPilot) and author of the recent&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/jeff-hawkins/a-thousand-brains/9781541675810/">A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence</a>. </em>The book is&nbsp;a cogent articulation of why AI needs neuroscience, based on two decades of research into the neocortex and it’s seemingly all-purpose role in high-level cognitive tasks - such as language. Emerging from this work are new theories of the organisation of the neocortex based on cortical&nbsp;columns and 'frames of reference', that might yet be one of the building blocks of neuro-inspired computational models.</p>

A key observation is that intelligence in biological systems is at least one or two orders of magnitude more efficient that current software approaches - implying there is still massive headroom in realising ever more powerful AI systems. It’s somewhat surprising perhaps that the artificial intelligence community maintains any distance from neuroscientific enquiry when so many of the active topics as, attention, episodic memory and of course neural networks themselves, are direct biological in origin.

<p>A key observation is that intelligence in biological systems is at least one or two orders of magnitude more efficient that current software approaches - implying there is still massive headroom in realising ever more powerful AI systems. It’s somewhat surprising perhaps that the artificial intelligence community maintains any distance from neuroscientific enquiry when so many of the active topics as, attention, episodic memory and of course neural networks themselves, are direct biological in origin.</p>

Of particular value are ‘sparse' networks, or ones with a minimal amount of connections is already appearing to have significant performance in real world applications, with a claimed improvement of 100x improvement in the "<a href="https://numenta.com/assets/pdf/research-publications/papers/Sparsity-Enables-100x-Performance-Acceleration-Deep-Learning-Networks.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Performance Acceleration in Deep Learning Networks</a>”. As they write in their whitepaper: <em>“How is the brain so intelligent with such amazing efficiency? One reason is that most of the neocortex is sparse. It stores and processes information in the context of extremely sparse neural activity and sparse connectivity.”</em>

<p>Of particular value are ‘sparse' networks, or ones with a minimal amount of connections is already appearing to have significant performance in real world applications, with a claimed improvement of 100x improvement in the "<a href="https://numenta.com/assets/pdf/research-publications/papers/Sparsity-Enables-100x-Performance-Acceleration-Deep-Learning-Networks.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Performance Acceleration in Deep Learning Networks</a>”. As they write in their whitepaper: <em>“How is the brain so intelligent with such amazing efficiency? One reason is that most of the neocortex is sparse. It stores and processes information in the context of extremely sparse neural activity and sparse connectivity.”</em></p>

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://writing-api.burman.work/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/0006-1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3328"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">‘<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/0006/">#0006</a>&nbsp;(prompt: “industrial materials, studio photoshoot”)’, 2022</figcaption></figure>

Although this is only a single example, it demonstrates there is still plenty of room for step-change improvements in artificial intelligence. It's not just that models may become computationally more dazzling, but more nimble, easier to train, run and embed.

<p>Although this is only a single example, it demonstrates there is still plenty of room for step-change improvements in artificial intelligence. It's not just that models may become computationally more dazzling, but more nimble, easier to train, run and embed.</p>

Altogether it feels like we’re at an inflection point. On one hand Stable Diffusion demonstrates that open-sourcing AI models can ignite creativity around them - especially as media technologies - far more rapidly than the initial attempts to commercialise them  as AI-as-a-service or a via APIs.  Simultaneously, the underlying architectures are still a space of wild invention and likely to become ever more ‘untameable’. Now we’ve established Doom can indeed run on your <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/yes-doom-is-playable-on-a-pregnancy-test" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pregnancy test</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFDlVgBMomQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">potato-powered TI-84 calculator</a>, or even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW5ELKTivbE&amp;feature=emb_title" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ATM</a>, perhaps the next question may be will they run Stable Diffusion and what happens when they do?

<p>Altogether it feels like we’re at an inflection point. On one hand Stable Diffusion demonstrates that open-sourcing AI models can ignite creativity around them - especially as media technologies - far more rapidly than the initial attempts to commercialise them  as AI-as-a-service or a via APIs.  Simultaneously, the underlying architectures are still a space of wild invention and likely to become ever more ‘untameable’. Now we’ve established Doom can indeed run on your <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/yes-doom-is-playable-on-a-pregnancy-test" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pregnancy test</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFDlVgBMomQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">potato-powered TI-84 calculator</a>, or even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW5ELKTivbE&amp;feature=emb_title" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ATM</a>, perhaps the next question may be will they run Stable Diffusion and what happens when they do?</p>

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