In Review: Dataland at Grand Ave Arts: All Access
To close out the year, I share my experience demonstrating the latest version of Living Encyclopedia to the public during Grand Ave Arts: All Access.
At the end of last year I announced the Living Encyclopedia.1 It is an interface into Dataland’s Large Nature Model, an AI model that is trained exclusively (and, as Refik Anadol Studio puts it, ethically) on nature data. This data is made up of writings, images, audio, and videos. It comes from many different sources; some collected by the studio and some licensed by authorized organizations like The Getty and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Living Encyclopedia presents three distinct modes that you can explore the Large Nature Model: Research, Create, and Dream. Research Mode is most similar to other Large Language Model interfaces like ChatGPT. Create Mode is similar to generative AI interfaces like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion’s Dream Studio. Lastly, Dream Mode is an ambient walkabout of the data that trained the model: visually and sonically. In all, these modes represent AI technology and products that come from a place of artistic inquiry. Artistic inquiry, I believe, make Living Encyclopedia unique. In October, Dataland received the opportunity to exhibit during Grand Ave Arts: All Access. Since the museum is not open yet, Refik and the studio decided to show a “behind-the-scenes” tools and works in progress to expose the public to the approach we are taking to create Dataland. This opportunity became a great milestone to update Living Encyclopedia based on numerous feedback we received.
There were numerous improvements that marked the demonstration of the new version of Living Encyclopedia. First, Research Mode was paired down from its previously technical presentation to look and act more like aforementioned LLMs like ChatGPT. Second, Create Mode was enhanced with a history of previous prompts. Dream Mode ushered in performance improvements. And finally, share functionality was added. If you had a conversation that you wanted to share with someone else or you created an image that you wanted to share, there were ways to save aspects of it to your device for later. Now, however, it is a simple click of the share icon and a permanent URL is created for you to share with anyone who has a web browser. Best of all, the recipient does not need an account to enjoy the content. These features comprise a more complete product experience for Living Encyclopedia. And it showed during Grand Ave Arts: All Access!
I had not shown work in person since the pandemic started. So, I got jitters the night before: part excitement, part worry, part pulling all-nighters in the lead up to the event. The event came and went in a blur. Over 2,000 people came through the Dataland pop-up space and tried the latest version of Living Encyclopedia. This included friends, family, and some familiar faces I had not seen in awhile. Rallying people around a positive and constructive experience, guided by art — this is what excited me about experiencing art. It is also what motivated me to enroll in graduate school in the arts. Dataland is officially slated to open Spring next year. With the reception we received during Grand Ave Arts: All Access, I could not be more excited to invite you to Dataland next year.
Wishing you warm holidays and an art-filled new year,
–Jono
