Manuscripts, Humanity, and AI
Image of a manuscript, generated in MidJourney by Suzette van Haaren
(a few words originally posted on Twitter on March 27, 2023 and then on my blog. It’s resonating there so I thought I would post it here too.)
I’ve been trying all morning to figure out what bothers me about these Mid journey-generated manuscripts without simply sounding like a Luddite, and I think I finally have it.
It’s because my interest in manuscripts is almost entirely about the humanity behind them. Who made them? Who used them and why? What happened to them after they were made? Where are they now? What did they mean in the past and what do they mean now?
A computer generated book doesn’t have any of that context. I’ve talked about the uncanny valley with regard to digitized manuscripts, and this is that, one step further. It’s one thing to digitize a manuscript in a way that elides its materiality, and a whole other thing to create manuscripts that don’t exist materially at all.
I think there are potentially interesting ways to use AI in my work. I’m interested in structure, and have been part of a project, VisColl, to develop models and software to build models of manuscripts. Could AI be used to combine structural models and digital images to create photorealistic imagery of existing manuscripts? Imagine an AI reconstruction of manuscripts cut apart and distributed by Otto Ege. Could it even generate pages that are lost as semi-realistic placeholders?
Just a few thoughts. I’m less interested in generating realistic looking manuscripts than in the potential to leverage the technology to help us understand the use and history of manuscripts that exist in the real world.
Added: If you’d like to hear me talk more about manuscripts and humanity, check out Coffee With A Codex, a weekly 30-minute program both live and posted to YouTube where I present a show-and-tell with books from the University of Pennsylvania’s premodern manuscript collections, and Inside My Favorite Manuscript, a weekly podcast I do in my own time where I talk to people who love manuscripts about manuscripts they love the most.
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i need to get a job asap and i need to save up and i need to summon alice to budapest next year (20 years since was in budapest last time 🙃) so i can Meet Him
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LKJ;ASDFJLKDSAJFSDLK;JFSSDL;JFLSDJFSDDLSDKFJLKSDJLFSDLKFDLSDJJDSV? ? ??v ? ?fd? ? ??? ???? ??
IMMDSMLFSDJDSJJ I WANS NOT EXPECTITNG THISS HELPPPD? ?? ?? DSJFDSLKSLDJSDKLJSD
dsLJKDSFLJKSFDSK BTUT AHHHHHHHHHHH THATNK YOUUUU? ? ?????? HHHHHDSF;LSJSKJDFLKJSDJKLFS
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Shadows is also rooted by a relationship of “unspoken love” between Nandor and Guillermo [...]
“I've always longed for the protection from this tall Adonis vampire and wanting to be a part of his world,” Guillén said in the view of Guillermo.
Will Nandor and Guillermo consummate their love? Will the Biannual Vampire Orgy not burst into flames this year? Without giving spoilers, Simms confirmed vampiric “gay activity” will occur at least twice in season 2.
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w
who considers me a friend
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a bottom, the bottomest of the bottoms, sometimes ur in a 😈 mood nd think u can top, but ur bottombottombottom
t -tGE…THE BOTTOMEST FO THE BOTTOMS…!! i doN T ACCEPT THIS I AM A 100% TOP DONT…ah…i..IM….!!! fdkNDFJD TAMMY STOP EXPOS ING TME LIKE THIS !!!! (hmu girl lets confirm this theory ((; )
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everytime i remember my crush on my high school art teacher ryan i’m literally tht 1 vine w th dude prancing across the room giggling and then landing on the couch crossing his legs sayin “rYan!!!” into the phone
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I present to you...
Stop-Motion Photos!!
[from the Fireman Sam Annual 1988 !]
I LOVE THESE SO MUCH these are ... mostly the reason why i bought the annual before waiting for a better price (fucking $70 for the bastard)
i Cannot under any circumstances wait to receive my daily dose of puppet people /j
Here we go! Teeny Jupiter on an unspecified road! I’ve never noticed that ladder before in the show, i wonder if Pontypandy was sort of built by water originally?? or maybe that road is built across a mini dam; I remember in one of the buzz books there was a story about everyone going to the beach and idk if it specified how close or far it was from the village but 👀 there were houses in the background.
Have i ever said how much i love Normans stupid little haircut.. ITS LIKE HE NEVER COMBS IT its a fuckimg mop turn him upside down and drag him across the floor. no but please give him a lil ponytail or a bun and watch him suffer /hj ALSO THE FLOWERING PLANT GROWING FROM THE TOP OF THAT VIADUCT,, I LOVE HOW MUCH DETAIL THERE IS IN ALL THE SETS!
We can get a good look at Dilys’s hair in this, kind of forgot she has hair OOPS.. but like for real i wonder what it would look like when her curlers were taken out?? hate or love the girl she’s got to have some bitchin’ hair /pos
AS WELL AS SAM, IDK WHAT IT IS ABOUT THESE PICTURES BUT ITS JUST..... SO INVIGORATING TO SEE THEIR FACES UP CLOSE IN HIGH QUALITY LO0K AT THE MAN!! LOOK AT HIS STUPID PAPER MOUTH i want to eat it . and the way his quiff fucking dips down at the end I LOVE HOW UNKEMPT IT LOOKED IN THE FIRST THREE SEASONS LIKE YEAH HONEY GO JUST GET UP AND BRUSH YOUR HAIR WITH A TOOTHBRUSH
Here's Bella, the awesome woaman who didn’t deserve to be stereotyped as an idiot in most of the booksssss 😬 but like... ngl damn she looks fine *wrist flick* not that im a lesbian but......................... /hj
anyways i would love to see her hair upclose its so fucking pretty I LOVE her sense of fashion too bih pleasge let me see the rest of your wardrobe
the puppies :) i have no idea what kind of hairstyle James is supposed to have AT ALL but.. i kind of like to think he styles it a bit after his uncle, but his hair is longer so he makes do with a hefty fuckin cowlick and omf PLEASE with the little hairs sticking out on the crown of their heads i want that utilized more in general please
also also im kinda jealous of Sarah’s overalls girl please who tf made those for you or WHERE DID YOU BUY THEM bc i want pink overalls with a scenic tree in the center
Poopiter once again pulling into the fire station driveway.. love how awkward and unbalanced the house on the left is LOL i also rly like the implications that Pontypandy has a very condensed neighborhood area and the high street (inlcudes Dilys’s shop, Bella’s cafe, the park) is rly the only market place in town n then the outskirts are almost NOTHING
EELIVS MY BELOVED HELLO!! I LOVE this picture for... two reasons mostly, one is because of Elvis thats literally it. jk but GOD im .imfm,,, i love how he’s so tall his shirt sleeves (and sometimes the collar) stick out of his uniform and ig his hair looks so malleable i want to compress it with a hydraulic press. i wonder how much pomade he goes through in a week?? the other reason is that... Jupiter’s tire looks VERY out of place, in the sense that it looks like she’s almost tilted to the side somehow?? Like gurl you dont look like you’re planted on the ground 🙄
AND THEN FINALLY THIS ONE!! This is the exact picture Sam keeps on his nightstand minus Sarah and James, which is super cool to me honestly;;; bc like i can just imagine they were both plucked from the set after their picture was taken and just shoved somewhere else (delicately, they are flowers) Theres two versions of Fireman Sam i love; one is the show and the other is the puppets themselves. i have such a burning desire to go and rob them from whoever owns them and just. holld them 🥺 do i overshare my thoughts? yes i do but this may be the only chance i get and im going at it 100%
..................
im... so sorry for literally only posting random pictures from all the annuals i own and that are also NOT ONLINE FOR PEOPLE TO VIEW... I SWEAR ill upload them all to internet archive at some point
i also need to .yknow WRITE, OR DRAW AND NOT JUST SHARE TEHSE although yall seem to like them :) unfortunately tho there aren’t any other pictures like these in the annuals :(
anyway YES HERE YOU GO another weeks-worth of me rambling about pictures of puppets i love with all my heart
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@hakune (marta): “look, i had nothing to do with that. nothing.”
meme: things said between me and my partner.
status: not accepting.
of course he knows that . he knows everything . it’s funny to watch her scramble though , to see the way panic floods into those wide eyes , all so innocent . he smiles . “ evidence is pointing toward the opposite there , marta . ” if harlan had just kept things the way they were , none of them would be where they are today . they’d still be living as peacefully as it existed in the past . nothing would have brought them to this point , including ransom’s level of desperation . he never took himself as one to commit murder or crimes so heinous it would tarnish his reputation further to this extent ( and send him to hell , if there weren’t already a designated spot for his ass ) , but he doesn’t have much to lose . say he does get caught . he has a good lawyer , still has money remaining , all enough to get him to breathe fresh air again . “ and the evidence is damning , of course . guess you’ll have to find a way to prove your innocence , huh ? ”
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pls delete tumblr.exe from my computer so i can focus on writing for five seocnds thanks
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Episode 9: Zoe and Mac from The Maniculum Podcast!
In Episode 9 of Inside My Favorite Manuscript, Lindsey and Dot chat with Zoe and Mac from the Maniculum podcast, where they suggest ways to adapt medieval texts for TTRPG’s (tabletop roleplaying games). We talk about marginalia, games, and Mac takes us for a dive into the Rutland Psalter. We also talk to Zoe about her storytelling for Pentiment, a medieval adventure video game by Obsidian Entertainment.
Listen here, or wherever you find your podcasts.
If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen to Dot and Lindsey over on The Maniculum Podcast! We talked about digital humanities, book history, and the secrets of women. Find links to listen here: https://www.themaniculumpodcast.com/episodes
Below the cut are page images and further reading from our conversation.
The Maniculum Podcast
The Maniculum Podcast on Tumblr
Pentiment
Book Historian Plays Pentiment! (Allie Alvis Pentiment play through)
Ludohistory Pentiment Playthrough Playlist on YouTube
Perna (oyster) - Der naturen bloeme - Jacob van Maerlant - KB KA 16 - 108v (via Wikimedia Commons)
Sebhat the Ethiopian scribe relates the story of Lazarus in Pentiment (via Obsidian on Twitter)
Saint George and the Dragon, UPenn LJS 102 f. 71r, early 20th century Ethiopian manuscript
British Library Add MS 62925, The Rutland Psalter
f. 14r
Close-up of bottom of 14r
Close-up of top of 14r
f. 57r
Close-up of bottom of f. 57r
f. 88v
Close-up of bottom of 88v
Betsy Chunko-Dominguez (2016) “Playing on Timbrels”: the margins of the Rutland Psalter, Word & Image, 32:1, 131-141, DOI: 10.1080/02666286.2016.1146540 (PDF here)
f. 67r
Close-up of bottom (heh) of f. 67r
f. 66v
Close-up of bottom of f. 66v
How the opening of ff. 66v-67r would approximately appear
The Luttrell Psalter on the BL Website
The Luttrell Psalter film, mentioned at this point in the podcast, is embedded at the end of this post.
Susan Kim and Asa Mittman, Inconceivable Beasts: The ‘Wonders of the East’ in the Beowulf Manuscript. ACMRS, 2013. (Download PDF here)
British Library blog post on Cotton Tiberius B v
Maniculum D23 posts
f. 87v
Close-up of bottom (heh) of f. 87v
f. 64r
Close-up of bottom of f. 64r
Close-up of top of f. 64r
The Book of Kells
f. 88r
Close-up of bottom of f. 88r
f. 16r
Close-up of bottom (heh) of 16r
(I promise I’m not doing this on purpose)
[Images in the 170s]
f. 5v, Calendar page for October
Close up of Scorpio zodiac sign
f. 3v, Calendar page for June
Close-up of Cancer Zodiac sign
f. 78v
Close-up of f. 78v.
f. 70v
Close-up of f. 70v
Further reading on The Rutland Psalter:
Chunko-Dominguez, Betsy. “‘Playing on Timbrels’: The Margins of the Rutland Psalter.” Word & Image (London. 1985), vol. 32, no. 1, 2016, pp. 131–41 (PDF)
Morgan, Nigel. “The Artists of the Rutland Psalter.” The British Library Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, 1987, pp. 159-185 (PDF)
Luttrell Psalter Film on YouTube:
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hier: Xanten - Luftkurort am Niederrhein https://www.instagram.com/p/CFpGPI-IMfm/?igshid=1mhcjczyuyf5j
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https://youtu.be/xU-QIIKb_MU https://www.instagram.com/p/CFIAj_-IMFM/?igshid=4s6c800t5wud
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Hey.. I love your art
imfm ghfg fghhfhghfg ?????? thank you so much im uhh crying ??? thank you so much....
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I JUST SAW THAT TAYLIR LIKED MY POST IM SCREAMINTNFS
SHE HASNT FORGOTTEN ABOUT ME AND DJSIDKS ITS BEEN OVER A YEAR WINCE SHES NOTICED ME AND IMFMS
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hgfhdekdc (sorry if this is kind of silly) imfm I'M LAUGHING AT "fuck the op too" NRHENJ IDK WHY IT'S JUST KIND OF FUNNY THAT YOU'RE TELLING URSELF TO GO FUCK OFF IM
i tell myself to fuck off at least once per day, anon
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