Writing is my artistic expression. My keyboard is my brush. Words are my medium. My blog is my canvas. And committing to writing daily makes me feel like an artist.
I’m on holidays and I’ve had the privilege of watching a few sunrises over the ocean. Before the sun rises, but the day has brightened, and before the glare gets in the way, birds nose dive for small fish feeding on the turmoil of the ocean; as waves crash near the shore. I’m reminded of another privilege we all have: we don’t have to spend most of our day seeking food.
These diving birds must constantly be on the move, seeking their next meal. Food is life, and the quest for food makes up a significant part of most bird’s and mammal’s day. We don’t have to do that. We have the luxury of grocery stores, restaurants, refrigerators, and means to store food without it going bad. Much of our innovation and subsequent convenience comes from our ability to spend precious time not in the quest for food.
But it’s not just about innovation and convenience, it’s also about creativity. I think we are on the threshold of a new era of creativity. AI and robotics are going to move us into an era of greater innovation and convenience, and ultimately give us more precious time to design, create, and be artistically inspired.
The quest for food will be replaced by the quest for self-expression. A new chapter is about to be written… it will feel much more like fiction than reality.
I may not be a freestyle rap fan, but I am amazed and in awe of what Harry Mack can do. He has people give him 3 or more words that he embeds in his freestyle, and then he raps about them. The thing that makes him so magical is that he doesn’t just drop the word in his rap, he makes the word provided a theme and then he drops entire bars about it. Meanwhile he also throws in things he sees like what the person is wearing or things in the environment.
It’s truly amazing what he can do. It’s quite literally poetry in motion. It’s rhyming improv that’s creative, lyrical, and spontaneous at a level that seems super human. Harry Mack has refined his art to the point that he raps masterpieces.
I’ll let his words speak for themselves. Here are 3 videos that showcase his skills:
The first one is on Omegle. This is a site where you connect with random strangers and there isn’t a way to know who is coming up next.
The second one is on the street. He just lights up the crowd and impresses everybody!
This final one is on a YouTube Live. One of his fans requests, “Dissect your own bars as you spit them.” This is incredible to listen to!
In a world of flashy outfits and accessories how has the car remained a single colour for so long? I understand that for some people resale value is important, but there are a lot of old cars out there just waiting to become someone’s work of art. We live in a world where so many people do things to stick out, but car paint has stayed monochrome. One colour per car.
I think this is going to change a lot in the next few years. We are going to see some crazy looking cars, and people will use them to express their identity, their uniqueness. Maybe not just artwork, maybe different colours for different parts of the car. Shades of a colour accented with darker hues on fenders and over wheels. A complementary colour on the hood.
It’s coming. Flashy cars for flashy personalities. And crazy artwork for people wanting to express their love for creativity. It’s just a matter of time.
The work of architect Antoni Gaudí is something you will probably have an opinion on, but I think that opinion can vary significantly thinking him a creative designer or a wacky artist. It’s easy to wonder if he every did hallucinogenic drugs when looking at some of his work.
When we saw one of his buildings last night, Casa Batlló, my daughters said it reminded them of Whoville, from Horton Hears a Who.
Today we visited La Sangrada Família, the church that Guadí dedicated most of his life to building and that is still being constructed today. An interesting thing about this church is that the intricate decorations and religious reliefs are all outside to appeal to the masses to come to church.
Inside is grand with vastly open ceiling space, and columns that resemble trees.
And beautiful stained glass windows.
I’m a fan of unconventional design. I love the merger between art and life, pillars like trees, uniquely shaped spaces, and the blend of curves integrated neatly with straight lines. I think Gaudi was brilliant and wish that his architecture had a greater influence on buildings designed today.
Most of the images I use to accompany my blog are created by artificial intelligence (AI). For yesterday’s post on Childhood memories I wrote about a memory of being frozen from the walk home from school on a cold day. I put the following into DALL•E, “A boy walking on a sidewalk in a snowstorm, in an abstract watercolour ” and chose one of the 4 images this AI created:
Impressive to think that this artwork was created by a computer.
Chat GPT is language based… and when I say language based I mean just about any language, including code. Apparently it can write the code to create an APP if you tell it what features you want the APP to have. You can share code in any computer language and ask this AI to find errors. Or you can input an error message you got in your code and it will find the problem.
That’s great for coding, but it’s also very articulate and creative in most languages. I was interested in what it could write and so my first attempt was to have it write a blog post for me. So, this is what I asked, “Read a few posts at https://daily-ink.davidtruss.com/ and write a post that the author would write”. It didn’t do exactly what I asked. Instead it created a promotional advertisement for my blog. Even though I didn’t get what I was asking for read this and see how well it is written:
As a writer, I am constantly on the lookout for inspiration and new ideas. One of my favorite sources of inspiration is reading the work of other writers. Recently, I came across the website https://daily-ink.davidtruss.com/, and I was blown away by the quality of the writing I found there.
The posts on this website cover a wide range of topics, from personal reflections on life and love to thought-provoking discussions of current events. Each post is beautifully written, with clear and concise language that is a joy to read.
One of the things that really stood out to me about this website is the author’s ability to convey complex ideas in a way that is accessible to a wide audience. Whether you are a seasoned writer or someone who is just starting out, you will find something to love on this website.
In addition to the high-quality writing, I also appreciated the website’s clean and simple design. The layout is easy to navigate, and the posts are organized in a way that makes it easy to find what you are looking for.
If you are looking for a new source of inspiration, I highly recommend checking out https://daily-ink.davidtruss.com/. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.
Not a person, an artificial intelligence wrote that!
Here was my second attempt: “Write a short news story about the coming of age of artificial intelligence.”
And this is what Chat GPT came up with in just a few seconds after my query:
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the capabilities of artificial intelligence. This technology, which was once only found in science fiction novels, is now becoming a reality.
One of the key developments in the field of AI has been the advancement of machine learning algorithms. These algorithms allow computers to learn from data and improve their performance on a variety of tasks. This has led to the creation of intelligent systems that can perform a wide range of tasks, from recognizing images and speech, to playing games and even driving cars.
As AI technology continues to improve, it is being used in an increasingly wide range of applications. It is being used in healthcare to help diagnose diseases, in finance to make better investment decisions, and even in the criminal justice system to help predict the likelihood of recidivism.
Despite the many benefits of AI, there are also concerns about the potential negative impacts it could have. Some worry about the potential loss of jobs as more tasks are automated, and there are also concerns about the ethical implications of creating machines that can make decisions without human input.
Overall, the coming of age of AI is a significant development that has the potential to change our world in many ways. As the technology continues to evolve, it will be important to carefully consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of this powerful technology.
Impressive! You literally can not tell that a human didn’t write that article. Wow. AI is going to change the world as we know it… this is absolutely a new level of intelligence.
My youngest daughter just had her last performance as Viola disguised as Cesario in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. I got to see 3 of her 5 performances and this was easily the best one. All the performers were having fun with their roles and the audience was lively and enjoyed the show.
Stage performances are something I’ve grown to love ever since meeting my wife, and I truly enjoy seeing my daughter on stage. But the show itself is such a small part of what goes into a play. Three months of rehearsals with full weekends given up, and arriving home after 10pm four days during the week led to these performances. My daughter said after the show, “I have no idea what I’m going to do with all this time now that I’m done.”
Live performances are like that: Hours and hours of work leading to a series of shows, and then it’s over. Getting to be on stage in front of an audience is the reward, but alas it is fleeting, and the show comes to an end.
An artist finishes with an art piece that lives on. A performer presents their art work on stage and then it is over, and only memories remain. The performance must come to an end, a closing night, a last time to share what hours of preparation went into. The play starts with the well known verse, “If music be the food of love, play on.” But for the stage performer there comes a closing night, and the music comes to an end.
If you’ve seen my blog on social media or on my website (as opposed to in your mailbox), you’ve seen images I created in Dall•E 2. Like these, along with my requests that created them:
“A man walking in a forest path and hugging a tree in a pastel drawing”
“A Picasso drawing of a young man walking in a forest surrounded by clocks”
“A small man on a giant piece of paper trying to write with an oversized pen that is bigger than the person”
“A person standing at the intersection of a path that leads to a choice of a dark, loomy forest or a bright open field in a van Gogh style”
“A transparent head with a tree, an ocean wave, cogs, math symbols, a protractor, and science lab equipment inside the brain.”
“A hand squeezing the film coming out of a reel of film with a movie projector in the background in a vector style”
“A vapourware drawing of a kid running with a kite in his hand.”
“Headphones in the ear of a dark haired man, in a Kandinsky style”
—-
I write a description and it gives me 4 options to choose from. I don’t always get exactly what I had in mind, but if it’s too far off from my expectation then I just refine my wording and try again.
Well now Meta AI has come up with Make-A-Video, which creates video clips from descriptions. The examples on the website download onto my phone as images rather than video clips, so you’ll need to visit there to see them.
This is exciting stuff in the field of video creation and soon it will also become so good that you won’t be able to distinguish it from a real video. The creativity that’s possible is exciting. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg and soon we’ll see all kinds of fascinating uses for this tool.
Artificial Intelligence is just getting better and better and in the field of creative arts this is going to really change the landscape of what is possible.
(Also, I recognize that there are some scary deep fake implications, but for now I’m just excited to see what people do creatively with this tool.)
Tonight is our first event of the year where we invite parents into the school. We are having a meet the teacher event followed by a PAC – Parent Advisory Council – meeting. In preparation I am putting up a wall of photos of our students and staff (the Inquiry Hub community is 100 staff & students). I did this 5 years ago, and 5 years before that, so all of our students from grade 9-12 have not done this with me before.
It’s a black & white portrait of each kid with a quote underneath it. The quotes all start with one of 4 prompts: I want…, I wish…, I hope…, or I dream…
Here is a video describing the project from 5 years ago (starting at the 4 minute mark).
This is the process for getting these photos:
1. Ask students (in a form) to share the response to four questions:
I want…
I wish…
I hope…
I dream…
I try not to give examples. (I learned a couple lessons here. The first lesson I learned the last time I did this is to ask a follow up question: “What’s your favourite answer”, to help guide my choice when I pick their response to go with the photo. The second, hard lesson I learned this time is not to also ask for a school goal in the same form… this resulted in a number of students focusing all of their answers on school goals.).
2. Take high quality headshot photos of students with a blank background. I used a green screen, but a blackboard or even a white wall works. The main secret is to not have kids too close to the background. Another trick is to tell them NOT to look at the camera. Even just a class of 30 faces staring at the camera would look like a mug shot wall, and so looking away from the camera gives a softer, easier to look at collage of faces. (Another hint, set the camera up to take a black & white photo and save yourself conversion time.)
3. I created a black frame on PowerPoint with 4 boxes, having a slightly larger one on the bottom for text (with size 20 font and a light grey text rather than full white). I also set the slide size to 8.5″ x 11″ (the same size as letter paper). Then I add the photo, right-click it and ‘move to back’ behind the frame, then size the photo inside the frame and adjust the placement. (Another tip, once you’ve got the frame with text box set up, and you’ve tried the first photo and text and are happy, duplicate this slide, delete the photo and text so you have an empty frame on the second slide. Now duplicate this slide as your master.)
4. Convert to PDF, then take a Zip drive to Staples or your business print shop of choice, and print on 80 stock photo paper. Doing the prints here will cost under $1 each instead of several dollars at a photo place and the quality will still be great as long as your photos are high resolution and focussed (use a tripod in step 2). This year I shared a link to a password protected file that I opened when I got to the store, rather than carrying a Zip drive, but it took over 5 minutes to download because the file was over half a gig in size!
5. Place the photos on your wall. I did 3 rows alternating 4 and 5 columns of photos on the panels in our hallway. I don’t think they need to be done so neatly, but with the writing on each image, I suggest space between the photos and not an overlapping collage.
Here is part of this year’s wall with student faces blurred with an app. The pictures are very sharp.
The overall effect is pretty powerful and the wall really makes a statement. I love that everyone’s voice in the community is shared.
I first did this with a Grade 9 class 22 years ago, and it’s still a favourite project that I enjoy doing. And with that, I’ll leave you with my photo. Out of respect for privacy, I won’t be sharing clear photos and readable quotes of students, you’ll have to visit the school to see it.
The wait is over, your invite has arrived! We can’t wait to see what you create.
My first request:
A water colour sunset on a beach with palm trees
This is what DALL•E came up with:
Next request:
A photo realistic image of a chimpanzee with the body of a turtle
Next try. This one wasn’t as accurate:
An oil painting of a man wearing a purple space suit in space with a space ship and a planet behind him
Asking it to paint a painting by a known artist:
A Dali styled painting of people at a party
Playing with a few more:
A pastel drawing of a dreamy world filled with Platonic solids
Pixel art of a surfer on a massive wave
An abstract painting of a watermelon planet
There were a few attempts that I didn’t share, just because they were not very interesting or missed the mark and I didn’t want to retry. Next I tried uploading a few photos, and these were generated:
The bottom left looks like a mix of me and Jerry Seinfeld. 🤣
The original of this next one has the sun as well, it’s just hidden by the ‘original’ banner:
Next I uploaded a doodle:
I think I’m going to enjoy using this tool. It’s hard to believe that each of these renderings are created by artificial intelligence, and that in a few seconds five or six different versions of your request are created. Here is one more that I really liked:
A 3D rendering of a man escaping from a colourful vortex
I think I’ll be using this tool to create some of the images I add to my blog from now on.
The past few days I’ve been really stuck on my daily ink. The ideas are not flowing, and when they do come they feel more like essays than short daily writes. But then I’ve wasted too long staring at the blank page to have time to write long, drawn out ideas. So first my writing feels rushed, and then my whole morning routine does too.
This exercise of writing daily has been very positive for me. It has helped me feel creative. It’s not just an outlet for my writing it’s a drive to produce, to create something every single day.
Every. Single. Day.
Well recently I have felt like I don’t have a lot to share. I feel like the things I want to share infringe on the lives of people close to me that may not want their story shared publicly. And most of all I question myself, wondering why anyone would bother reading my daily dribble?
I remember a while back some people were sharing a daily photo. I love photography and tried a couple times to do ‘A Photo a Day’, but my love for photography made me stop both times within a couple weeks. I would look at these forced photos that Ihad taken and think to myself, ‘That’s a photo I had to take, not one I wanted to take.’ Then I’d quit.
I feel that way about writing right now… but I don’t want to quit. I don’t want a period of not feeling creative to undermine a habit I’ve built for almost 3 years now. What I’m fighting isn’t just writer’s block, it’s self doubt that I’d have anything else to share after all this time. Mental menopause preventing me from creating any fruitful work.
I’ll push through. I’ll accept that what I’m producing now will not be my best work. I’ll tell myself that the muse will come back. But for now it’s more of a chore than an expression of my passion for writing. I said earlier that I struggle with sharing stories of others that aren’t mine to share, well the story I can tell is my own. And for now, that story is how I’m struggling to write daily. The story to tell is that I’ll muscle through, and while it’s not easy, it’s not a time to give up either.
Today we visited La Sangrada Família, the church that Guadí dedicated most of his life to building and that is still being constructed today. An interesting thing about this church is that the intricate decorations and religious reliefs are all outside to appeal to the masses to come to church.
