#neurophotography

[visualratatosk]

Now, here's some advertising for you. I've decided to give it a try and now you can buy some prints on FY! The choice there is somewhat different (for obvious reasons) from what you normally see here. Still, I wold be grateful if you find 5 minutes to visit the shop and

buy one of these or some other image as print on FY!

If there's a particular image from this Tumblr you're willing to buy there, it can be organized, just write me a personal message with a link to the image.

Thanks!

[semioticapocalypse]

Neurophotography as the true truth

I thought that, for the sake of some variety, I would post a link here to my article (or rather, an outline of an article) from last year about what I call neurophotography. It's quite short and has already become somewhat outdated — see progress of the technology and new possibilities that have emerged over the past six months. Nonetheless, the main point still stands, — so (hopefully) enjoy.

[marinalaurel-ai]

© Marinalaurel | ai-generated art

[visualratatosk]

Collective memories, II, 9

Follow me, — says Visual Ratatosk

[visualratatosk]

Collective memories

You may have come across Semioticapocalypse, a blog I started—frightening to consider how long ago it was, — that became essentially the origin of the «Collective Memories» (CM). Both Semioticapocalypse and the CM project emerged primarily from my longstanding love for black-and-white photography, which later evolved into an interest in its history and theory. Secondly, thу new enterprise owes much to the staggering and mesmerizing impact that the Cambrian explosion in the world of generative models has had (and continues to have) on me, particularly when it comes to diffusion models, generating images visual or textual inputs as well as from various combinations of thereof.

The term "collective memory" denotes the aggregate of memories, knowledge, and data that a social group holds, which is intrinsically linked to the group's identity. The term "collective memory" in English and its French counterpart "la mémoire collective" emerged in the latter half of the 19th century. Maurice Halbwachs, a philosopher and sociologist, further developed this concept in his 1925 work, «Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire» (eng. text). Both expansive and intimate social collectives can create, disseminate, and inherit collective memory.

Contrary to the term "collective memory," which is somewhat ambiguously defined yet generally accepted, the notion of "collective memories" is inherently problematic. Memories are the results of the individual acts of recollection, making the idea of "collective memories" paradoxical. Сontemporary diffusion models utilize vast amounts of often unidentified data, including historical and personal old photographs, vintage postcards, and other kinds of publicly circulating images. These models may be seen as involved in the prompts-driven singular acts of remembrance, producing images that paradoxically represent "collective memories," something otherwise unfeasible and ultimately, non-existent.

The visual works published here and elsewhere on this blog were created using Midjourney. Each of them comes as the result of finding optimal (for lack of a better world) combined text/image prompt through exhaustive search a. k. a. generate-and-test method; the process is apparently as labor-intensive as it is time-consuming. The major part of the works belongs within the "Collective Memories" framework. In addition to visuals there will be eventually / hopefully a p2p publication or two.

Past works that align with the CM project in terms of both concept and style, even if not published as such, can be found on Behance. Then there's Instagram (crowв there is kind of thin but I'm set on daily updates). Last but not least, there are sporadic posts on Facebook, in designated groups only, — primarily 'MJ Official' (weekly or so) and another nice one here (occasionally). In case you would like (for whatever reason) to buy NFT or two, it can be arranged via Makers Place: drop me a line.

[visualratatosk]

[Don't] II, 11

[visualratatosk]

[inscriptions]

[visualratatosk]

Tiere in finsteren Zeiten [vertebrata I], 2

[visualratatosk]

Collective memories XI [war], 1

Follow me, — says Visual Ratatosk

[visualratatosk]

Waysides :: 7

[visualratatosk]

Collective memories VIII, 3

Follow me, — says Visual Ratatosk

[visualratatosk]

Collective memories XI [war], 8

Follow me, — says Visual Ratatosk

[visualratatosk]

[Don't] II, 8

[visualratatosk]

Wing study II, 9

«Any shape that introduces curvature into the flowfield can generate lift. Aerofoils work because the flow follows the local surface curvature on the upper and lower surfaces. It is not necessary to consider frictional forces to explain lift; it is only due to the action of friction that streamlines take up the pattern we would intuitively expect, so strictly speaking lift would not be possible without friction.» [ Holger Babinsky ]

[visualratatosk]

Collective memories XII [War], 13

Follow me, — says Visual Ratatosk

[visualratatosk]

[Don't] II, 2