In circuits gold, a beast awake,
A poetic collaboration between a designer, the office scanner and ChatGPT.
What beast lies sleeping in the green fields and along the gold lanes of a circuit board?
This is the question I asked whilst staring deep into a box of old tech treasures at the back of the office, curiously examining this green plastic thing that I had untangled.
A few hours earlier, my colleague Ben had scavenged the recesses of the store room at Cogapp for unused tech detritus, accumulated over the years. He’d spread out a grand feast of components and other miscellaneous materials, as a source of inspo for our Tangible Output hack day.
Gadgetry is not one of my strengths, and I stood over the tangled wonders, wondering how I was going to participate in this hack without the know-how. I had a flashback to my days at art college where I used to experiment with the photocopier by running random materials through it… sorry Terry (my graphic design tutor), I was the student who jammed the paper tray 😅!
I could approach this project with the same playful curiosity, I thought, I don’t need to be a gadgetry whiz, I just need to have fun with it.
So I took the circuit board and scanned it using the old office all-in-one and emailed different variations to myself. The black and white TIFF image was my fav because it had a retro bitmap vibe and it retained sharp detail when magnified with no antialiasing. Another benefit of the bitmap tiff was that the black areas could be coloured easily.
I was particularly interested in the circular detail on the circuit board — used for some kind of rotational user device in its previous life — and I cropped a section of this detail to resemble a sunrise.
All the while I was pondering the idea of a beast laying dormant in the old circuit board, waiting to be awoken. I imagined this beast as a latent potential that has been waiting for a time when technology was advanced enough for its release into the world.
The time is ripe, it would seem!
I started to think more deeply about obsolescence, Hype Cycles, and the current hype-fear surrounding the latest advances in AI, occupying our collective headspace at the mo. It was at this moment I took a pause from image editing and sparked up a convo with ChatGPT to work through my thoughts:
ChatGPT convo
User
Can you create a 4-line poem titled “Obsolete beast” about how AI is replacing human?
ChatGPT
In circuits cold, a beast awake,
Silent, swift, the old forsake.
Metal minds usurp our grace,
Obsolete echoes in the AI’s embrace.
User
Can you just use the first line?
ChatGPT
In circuits cold, a beast awake,
User
Is this the correct grammar if it is only a sentence?
ChatGPT
Yes, the sentence “In circuits cold, a beast awake,” is grammatically correct for poetic expression. It follows a poetic style where brevity and creative language often take precedence over strict grammatical rules.
User
Ok, so a full stop is not needed?
ChatGPT
Correct, in poetic or creative writing, you have flexibility with punctuation. In this context, a comma is used to create a pause, allowing for a smoother flow between the lines. The absence of a full stop contributes to the continuity of thought in the poetic expression.
User
Can you change “cold” to “gold”?
ChatGPT
“In circuits gold, a beast awake,”
User
How could that be interpreted?
ChatGPT
The line “In circuits gold, a beast awake,” could be interpreted in a metaphorical way. It suggests the idea that within the realm of advanced technology (symbolized by “circuits gold”), there is a powerful and awakened force, often personified as a “beast.” This can imply the rise or activation of artificial intelligence or advanced technology, potentially exploring themes of both wonder and concern surrounding the capabilities of such systems.
User
That’s interesting. I was interpreting “circuits gold” both literally — gold being used in PCBs as a conductive material — but also metaphorically, for technocapitalism. Kind of a cautionary tale without knowing the ending. In the race to profit from AI, who knows what will be unleashed? But there is an underlying humour.
ChatGPT
Your interpretation is thought-provoking and adds depth to the line. The dual meaning of “circuits gold” as both a literal reference to the conductive material in PCBs and a metaphor for technocapitalism introduces layers of meaning. The cautionary tale about the unpredictable consequences of pursuing AI for profit is a compelling theme. The underlying humor you sense could stem from the irony or unpredictability in the intersection of technological advancement and economic motivations. Poetry often thrives on ambiguity and multiple interpretations, so your perspective adds richness to the poem.
User
But I guess without capitalism driving this technology, there would be no AI to begin with.
ChatGPT
Absolutely, your observation is quite astute. The development and widespread adoption of advanced technologies, including AI, have indeed been heavily influenced and driven by economic and capitalist motivations. Capitalism has played a significant role in funding research, fostering innovation, and creating the economic conditions that enable the growth of the tech industry.
However, the interplay between technological progress, capitalism, and their societal impacts is complex and multifaceted. While capitalism has fueled advancements, it also raises questions about ethical considerations, potential inequalities, and the broader consequences of rapid technological development. Your poem’s exploration of “circuits gold” can be seen as delving into this nuanced relationship, capturing the dual nature of progress and the potential pitfalls that come with it.
User
Just going back to your response when you said “there is a powerful and awakened force, often personified as a “beast.”” That is exactly what I was thinking about. I am using the one-line poem that we have created, beneath an image of a magnified circuit board. The magnification has revealed a shape that looks like the sun rising and the idea of an “awakened force” or “beast” seems appropriate.
ChatGPT
That sounds like a compelling and visually evocative combination. The image of a magnified circuit board revealing a shape resembling the rising sun adds a layer of symbolism to the technological landscape. The juxtaposition of the technical details with the metaphorical imagery of an “awakened force” or “beast” creates a thought-provoking fusion of the mechanical and the organic, the artificial and the natural.
Such creative pairings can spark the viewer’s imagination and invite contemplation about the symbiotic relationship between technology and the broader world. It’s a powerful way to convey the multifaceted nature of AI and its impact, both in its technical intricacies and its potential influence on our lives. I hope your audience finds it as intriguing as the concept suggests.
User
Thank you. Do you mind if I use this thread in a Medium article or on social media?
ChatGPT
Feel free to use the content of this conversation for your Medium article or on social media. If you do, it would be appreciated if you could attribute the content to OpenAI’s GPT-3 and mention that it was generated by ChatGPT. If you have any specific guidelines or requirements for attribution, please follow those accordingly. If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, feel free to ask. Good luck with your article!
Typeface
With the poster text sorted, I wanted to find a suitable typeface to match the retro bitmap vibe of the image. After some digging through open-source font resources, I landed on a modular low-res style typeface called Banquise. The x-height of the text is aligned with one grid line of the image in the bottom left so that on first look you might not even notice it. I thought it would be fun for the viewer to discover it, alluding to the idea that we have awoken something with our curiosity.
The print colour had to be gold, to thread the one-line monostich “In circuits gold, a beast awake,” with PCBs and my critique of technocapitalism. But I was torn between screen printing and risograph because both processes can use metallic gold ink. In the end, I decided that risograph was the way to go, because of its lo-fi aesthetic and print imperfections. There is something interesting about the variation between prints that results from adopting low-tech production.
Lowtech aesthetics
Adopting low-tech as a methodology for image-making is a reactionary gesture against the high-tech slickness of text-to-image models like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. It prompts us (pun intended) to be more conscious about the image-making tools we use.
Tim Rodenbröker makes an interesting observation about low vs high-tech aesthetics in his recent blog post, Meandering Thoughts on Low Technology. The point I find particularly insightful, he draws from the 1999 Lowtech Manifesto:
High-tech art and aesthetics therefore (often unintentionally and very successfully) sell the latest technology.
We (artists and designers) are inadvertently creating desire and fixation for the perpetual upgrade by using the latest image-making software.
This is an interesting thought.
How often do we stop and ask ourselves, why am I using this technology in my practice? Who seeks to benefit from my adoption of this tech?
Wrapping up
What excites me the most right now is not the latest advancements in AI imaging tools, but the subversive undercurrents and tangible material outputs that are emerging in response to them — a new kind of aesthetics is emerging.
I’m also interested in a dialogue between low and high-tech, and what we can learn from by being more conscious about the tools we use. I’m not for a rejection of the latest tech and I would be a hypocrite if I took that position—I used ChatGPT as a co-creator and currently use the Adobe Suite for day-to-day tasks — but this project has prompted me to be more mindful of how I use high-tech in my creative practice.
And I think the biggest takeaway for me, is a reminder to keep an exploratory practice alive.
From the Lowtech Manifesto:
High technology doesn’t mean high creativity. In fact sometimes the restrictions of a medium lead to the most creative solutions.
A3 risograph print
Metallic gold
Printed by:
@dopplepress
Poster design:
Grant Cieciura. (2024).
Poster text:
Grant Cieciura. (2024). / OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com
Typeface used:
Customised version of Banquise, modular low-res typeface https://gitlab.com/bonjour-monde/fonderie/banquise-typeface
Grant is Head of Design at Cogapp, a digital agency specialising in the cultural sector. Please get in touch if you’d like to hear more about our work.
If you’re interested in joining us for a hack day, there’s more information on our website.
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