Photography

Visualising the 1800s or designing wedding invitations: 6 ways you can use AI beyond generating text

Retrieved on: 
星期四, 四月 18, 2024

Many people are now using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to get advice, find information or summarise longer passages of text.

Key Points: 
  • Many people are now using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to get advice, find information or summarise longer passages of text.
  • But our recent research demonstrates how generative AI can be used for much more than this, returning results in different formats.
  • On the one hand, AI tools are neutral – they can be used for good or ill depending on one’s intent.

1. Imagining what lies beyond the frame

  • Adobe’s recently developed “generative expand” tool allows users to expand the canvas of their photos and have Photoshop “imagine” what is happening beyond the frame.
  • You might do this when trying to edit a square Instagram photo to fit a 4x6 inch photo frame.

2. Visualising the past or the future

  • Photography was only invented within the past 200 years, and camera-equipped smartphones within the last 25.
  • That leaves us with plenty of things that existed before cameras were common, yet we might want to visualise them.
  • NASA currently works with artists to illustrate concepts we can’t see, but artists could also draw on AI to help create these renderings.

3. Brainstorming how to visualise difficult concepts

  • As one of the deepest places on Earth, few people have ever seen it firsthand.
  • Or creating a layered illustration that shows the flora and fauna that live at each of the ocean’s five zones above the trench.

4. Visualising data

  • For example, you might upload a spreadsheet to ChatGPT 4 and ask it to visualise the results.
  • Or, if the data is already publicly available (such as Earth’s population over time), you might ask a chatbot to visualise it without even having to supply a spreadsheet.

5. Creating simple moving images


You can create a simple yet effective animation by uploading a photo to an AI tool like Runway and giving it an animation command, such as zooming in, zooming out or tracking from left to right. That’s what I’ve done with this historical photo preserved by the State Library of Western Australia.

  • I used this description to create the following video:
    Tracking shot from left to right of the snowy mountains of Nagano, Japan.
  • Tracking shot from left to right of the snowy mountains of Nagano, Japan.

6. Generating a colour palette or simple graphics

  • In these cases, having a consistent colour palette can help unify your design.
  • You can ask generative AI services like Midjourney or Gemini to create a colour palette for you based on the event or its vibe.
  • This is true for both browser-based generators like Adobe Firefly, as well as desktop apps with built-in AI, like Adobe Illustrator.


T.J. Thomson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is an affiliate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society.

Hard work and happy accidents: why do so many of us prefer ‘difficult’ analogue technology?

Retrieved on: 
星期四, 四月 18, 2024

Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.

Key Points: 
  • Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
  • (From Michael’s fieldnotes)
    I finally locate the legendary Schneiders Buero, a shop selling analogue synthesizers in Berlin’s Kotti neighbourhood.
  • Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
  • (From Michael’s fieldnotes) As academics who rarely go a day without playing or making music, we have spent the past decade examining the extraordinary revival of analogue technology.
  • This means there are now more analogue options available than at any time since the 1970s, the heyday of the modular format.

The appeal of the slow

  • So we dived in.
  • Eventually, these forays became our formal research project, which has included visiting record fairs and conventions around the world, going on photowalks and attending listening evenings, and meeting an array of diehard analogue communities both on and off line.
  • The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.
  • And we expect interest in such experiences to rise exponentially in coming years.
  • Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.
  • Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.

Saved from demolition

  • Rather than nostalgia, they are turning to film because of its aesthetic values and a greater sense of creative control over their photos.
  • In response, venerable brands including Kodak, Polaroid and Leica have re-emerged – in some cases, almost from the dead.
  • We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
  • We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
  • He said luxury brands such as Gucci are particularly keen on using film photography as this gives their promotional material a different look.

Work, effort, meaning

  • When it was conceded that digital probably was better for wildlife photography, James cut in:
    That’s to miss the point!
  • The sound might be better but you miss seeing the work that went into the performance, the effort of the players and their crew.
  • Work, effort, meaning – these ideas are all interconnected for users and consumers of analogue technology.
  • However, when asked to compare the two, they talk about the greater weight and meaning they give to their analogue experiences.
  • I think it is the quality of the human voice; it does feel more like someone’s speaking to me.
  • And part of what makes this possible is the process of analogue recording, in which all the sounds being made, including the unscripted noise of the recording process itself, are captured in the final track.
  • To facilitate this sound, some musicians have even started setting up their own pressing plants, such as Jack White’s Third Man Pressing in Detroit.

The joy of happy accidents

  • Half of what you do trying to make music is like a happy accident that ends up sounding better than what you intended.
  • When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
  • When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
  • It’s these happy accidents that we love.
  • It’s these happy accidents that we love.
  • For example, the opening bass part of Cannonball, the 1993 song by US Indie band the Breeders, accidentally starts in a different key.
  • Bass player Josephine Wiggs began playing the riff one step down, then fixed it when the drums came in.

Digital technology is de-skilling us

  • Over the decade or so of our research, explanations for the analogue revival have shifted from nostalgia, to the desire for something physical in a digital age, to the sense that analogue technology is creatively preferable.
  • Is digital technology de-skilling consumers, leading to a sense of alienation?
  • Using analogue technology is another way consumers can feed this desire to re-skill.
  • Rob told us how his love of music had turned sour with the “sheer ease” of digital, starting with CDs and the MP3 player – and how vinyl had reinvigorated him.
  • For him, the problem came when listening on digital devices without the “sides” of vinyl albums, and then on music streaming platforms whose digital algorithms preference popular tracks.

‘This song sucks’

  • These are the people who want to stretch and break the rules and trigger the happy accidents that create something altogether new.
  • For example, photographers who seek more creative expressions by pre-soaking or “souping” their camera film in lemon juice, coffee, beer, or even burning it.
  • And among this group, connecting digital and analogue technology is also common – combining two completely different systems to generate even more possibilities.
  • Film director Denis Villeneuve’s first instalment of Dune (2021) was initially shot on digital, then transferred to film, before being re-digitised.
  • By combining the two, Villeneuve got a film that, in his words, has a “more timeless, painterly feel”.


For you: more from our Insights series:
How music heals us, even when it’s sad – by a neuroscientist leading a new study of musical therapy

The artist formerly known as Camille – Prince’s lost album ‘comes out’

Beatrix Potter’s famous tales are rooted in stories told by enslaved Africans – but she was very quiet about their origins

To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. Subscribe to our newsletter.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Bruce Pascoe’s Black Duck is a ‘healing and necessary’ account of a year on his farm, following a difficult decade after Dark Emu

Retrieved on: 
星期三, 四月 10, 2024

Bruce Pascoe is best known for his natural history, Dark Emu, which argues that systems of pre-colonial food production and land management in Australia have been dramatically understated.

Key Points: 
  • Bruce Pascoe is best known for his natural history, Dark Emu, which argues that systems of pre-colonial food production and land management in Australia have been dramatically understated.
  • At last count, the book had sold at least 360,000 copies of the original edition – and many more in the form of adaptations, translations, children’s and overseas editions.
  • Since the publication of Dark Emu in 2014, Pascoe has had to endure extraordinary public scrutiny, as well as vehement attacks on his personal and professional reputation.
  • In light of the last ten years, Black Duck: A Year at Yumburra is a healing and necessary book.
  • The farm is a deliberate project designed to test, extend and materialise some of the ideas put forward in Dark Emu.
  • The meaning of Yumburra, Pascoe tells us, is Black Duck, the “supreme spiritual being of Yuin country”.

Six seasons on the farm

  • Through more than 60 subtitled journal entries, accompanied by numerous photographs and sketches, Pascoe charts the activities of his days.
  • These include labouring chores on the farm, visits paid and received (both there and interstate), thoughts, visions and experiments with food and agriculture, and memories and reflections on relationships reaching far back into childhood.
  • Pascoe describes life on the farm as solitary at times, but also active.
  • Daily farm work includes clearing watercourses or fixing tools and machinery, and at these times his friendships with the nonhuman are forged in both subtle and overt ways.
  • Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.
  • If the horses gallop, an eagle passes, a dingo wakes or a car arrives, you hear about it instantly.
  • You can’t make friend with Birran Durran Durran because everything is a threat in its opinion.
  • Despite their vigilance, the Spur-winged Plover loses a lot of chicks to eagles and foxes […] Their calls are ever-present on the farm.
  • There is a sense of time moving on through the seasons.
  • Yumburra, too, was affected by that event, leading one of the farm workers to rename a whole section of the farm “Apocalypse Valley” in the aftermath.
  • “The unbridled pleasure I used to take in the forest, waters and shores is now tinged with sadness and dread.”

A true storyteller

  • The author is respectfully light on detail on these matters, but the reader is left in no doubt about their deep importance to him.
  • Pascoe’s authorial style sometimes comes across as a touch too lackadaisical and larrikin-esque, drifting as if unmoored.
  • And yet, he’s a true storyteller – and no sooner have you hesitated, than he reels you in again, and has you marvelling with him at the grandchildren’s handstands and cartwheels on the paddle board on the river, or at the cunning of the dingo pair who’ve taken out a young Buru (kangaroo) by gripping him by the ears and drowning him.
  • I assume it was the same animal because she made a great point of making sure I was watching her expertise.
  • It might be a romantic thought or a wish for longevity of a friend but, whatever the case, I enjoy the personality.“
  • Sometimes Pascoe quotes from her journal entries, discrete and beautifully rendered observations of wildlife on her own nearby property.
  • But as I was reading, I found myself wondering how else Lyn contributed to the book, and on what terms.

Connection to culture and Country

  • For anyone with lingering doubts about Pascoe’s commitment and connection to Country, this book will set them straight.
  • It is a quiet, funny, warm and insistent call to return to and care for Country.


Julienne van Loon has been a recipient of funding from Creative Australia, Creative Victoria and ArtsWA.

2024 Global GWM TANK Owners Celebration Opens a New Chapter of Off-Road Culture

Retrieved on: 
星期二, 四月 2, 2024

Yunnan, China--(Newsfile Corp. - April 2, 2024) - On March 30, the 2024 Global GWM TANK Owners Celebration was held in Xishuangbanna, China.

Key Points: 
  • Yunnan, China--(Newsfile Corp. - April 2, 2024) - On March 30, the 2024 Global GWM TANK Owners Celebration was held in Xishuangbanna, China.
  • GWM TANK has always been the owner's favorite off-road product line, with its sales volume topping China's rugged off-road sales for 38 consecutive months, and its market share consistently exceeding 50 percent.
  • This innovative model not only enhances the sense of belonging of the owners to the brand, but also injects new vitality into the development of GWM TANK.
  • GWM TANK brings together global users with love, creates off-road totems with advanced technology, and cultivates off-road culture with a global ecosystem.

HOFA Returns to Art Central 2024 With Eight Exceptional International Artists

Retrieved on: 
星期三, 三月 27, 2024

HONG KONG, Mar 27, 2024 - (ACN Newswire) - HOFA Gallery returns to Art Central Hong Kong from 28 to 31 of March 2024, eager to captivate audiences at Booth B11 with a showcase titled 'Abstract Actuality'.

Key Points: 
  • HONG KONG, Mar 27, 2024 - (ACN Newswire) - HOFA Gallery returns to Art Central Hong Kong from 28 to 31 of March 2024, eager to captivate audiences at Booth B11 with a showcase titled 'Abstract Actuality'.
  • Her commanding perspective deftly manipulates precision, depth, and space, evoking elusive imagery that invites interpretation through the lens of each individual's perspective.
  • Regarded as a refuge from the world's noise, Hannes Schauer's art serves as a space for quiet contemplation, akin to communing with nature.
  • 'Abstract Actuality' HOFA Gallery (Booth B11) Art Central, Hong Kong, 28 - 31 March 2024

This May, MOSAIC Returns to The Palm Beaches with Exclusive Offers and Expanded Open Studios Experience

Retrieved on: 
星期三, 四月 3, 2024

Now in its seventh year, the month-long celebration showcases the premier arts and cultural institutions throughout The Palm Beaches, Florida's Cultural Capital®.

Key Points: 
  • Now in its seventh year, the month-long celebration showcases the premier arts and cultural institutions throughout The Palm Beaches, Florida's Cultural Capital®.
  • Participating organizations range from the beloved Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society to the interactive Cox Science Center and Aquarium and the world-class Norton Museum of Art .
  • With more than 25 limited-time, one-of-a-kind deals on a wide range of experiences, MOSAIC is the perfect time to visit The Palm Beaches.
  • For exclusive early access to the full list of offers, activities, and events to enjoy during MOSAIC, visit mosaicpbc.com .

Logan Paul Teases New April Fools Collab With KFC That Could Actually Become Real

Retrieved on: 
星期二, 四月 2, 2024

The potential collab comes in response to Logan Paul's humorous April Fools’ prank, where he unveiled a mock KFC-flavored PRIME Energy Drink on social media.

Key Points: 
  • The potential collab comes in response to Logan Paul's humorous April Fools’ prank, where he unveiled a mock KFC-flavored PRIME Energy Drink on social media.
  • "We couldn't resist the opportunity to play along with Logan Paul’s April Fools’ prank," said Azim Akhtar, Director of Marketing at KFC Canada.
  • The exchange has ignited speculation and excitement among fans, raising the possibility of an innovative collaboration between KFC, PRIME, and Logan Paul.
  • For more information and updates on the potential KFC x Prime Energy Drinks collaboration, follow @KFC_Canada and @DrinkPrime on social media.

YR Media Launches Merchandise Line Showcasing Youth-Led Designs and Opening a New Career Pathway for 14-to-24-Year Old Creators They Serve

Retrieved on: 
星期二, 四月 2, 2024

Today, the organization is proud to announce a new YR Media merchandise line, all of which celebrates its milestone of turning 30 this year.

Key Points: 
  • Today, the organization is proud to announce a new YR Media merchandise line, all of which celebrates its milestone of turning 30 this year.
  • With respect to the merchandise line, showcasing the original artwork and designs of YR Media’s emerging designers’ cohort is just the start.
  • The Chicago native, now based in Roanoke, VA, also developed creative from photography to digital campaigns and Steve Madden's first mobile app.
  • “This line also provides additional channels for our community of supporters to invest in us and build more awareness of our impact.”
    To see the entire YR Media merchandise line, please visit yrmedia.org/shop .

Canon Adds Powerful Scanning Capabilities to its imagePROGRAF Printer Portfolio with Two WideTEK® Scanners from Image Access

Retrieved on: 
星期四, 三月 28, 2024

The Image Access WideTEK® 36CL CIS scanner is ideal for scanning text documents and CAD drawings up to 36” wide, and the Image Access WideTEK® 48 CCD scanner designed for scanning artwork, photographs, and related images up to 48” wide.

Key Points: 
  • The Image Access WideTEK® 36CL CIS scanner is ideal for scanning text documents and CAD drawings up to 36” wide, and the Image Access WideTEK® 48 CCD scanner designed for scanning artwork, photographs, and related images up to 48” wide.
  • The WideTEK® 36CL produces extraordinarily sharp images, with high color accuracy, even superior to competing CCD scanners on the market today.
  • The WideTEK® 48 CCD scanner can digitize graphics documents up to 48 inches wide at astonishingly fast speeds.
  • These scanners are an addition to Canon’s current lineup of imagePROGRAF, ColorWave and PlotWave multifunction technical document solutions.

The AI revolution is here: Samsung brings Galaxy AI to more smartphones

Retrieved on: 
星期二, 三月 26, 2024

This expansion includes popular models, such as the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S23 FE , Galaxy Z Fold5 and Galaxy Z Flip5 .

Key Points: 
  • This expansion includes popular models, such as the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S23 FE , Galaxy Z Fold5 and Galaxy Z Flip5 .
  • Whether you’re upgrading to the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S23 FE , Galaxy Z Fold5 and Galaxy Z Flip5 , Verizon has the perfect plan to match your needs.
  • Availability: Samsung One UI 6.1 with Galaxy AI features will be provided at no charge to Verizon customers using the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S23 FE , Galaxy Z Fold5 and Galaxy Z Flip5 starting March 28.
  • Check out our feature video on Galaxy AI to learn more about this amazing new technology, and visit Verizon’s Samsung Galaxy page to find the Galaxy smartphone that’s perfect for you.