The Reading Room

The Reading Room brings together a number of previous works. The aim is to use it as a starting point for future projects, particularly those starting with an idea for a story.

Although I often use Aria as a key figure, the girl isn’t Aria but Alice. I like to use the concept of Alice, as in science “Alice” is often used as a name for an experiment. If there are two possible paths, one would be called “Alice” and the other “Bob”.

The picture uses AI, although, it is only one of many components on a journey of discovery, creativity and innovation, where nothing is what it seems.

The couch, table, window and Kokomo the cat all started as photographs.

The vases and flowers started as complex fractal images. You can see the difference between the fractals and a flower on the right hand vase.

The idea for the bee, on the left hand vase, came when I was doing Citizen Science teaching AI to recognise pollinators in the arctic. It is a combination of fractals and graphical art. The wings started as photographs of wings I photographed using a beginner’s microscope.

The butterfly shape, on the window, was created using coding that I based on the original code from the “Butterfly Effect” .

The book on the bookshelf “The Game of Portals” started life as a 3D printed model and computer components that made up “The Edge”. Children and a dog looking over the edge of a cliff. This became a story and a set of images. The model and computer controlled lights where photographed to create a starting image. “The Game of Portals” is another project.

Kokomo, is both inside and outside of the windowsill, representing being in two worlds simultaneously (Schrodinger’s Cat ?)

Alice is reading an old book, “Weird Tales of Strange Worlds”, which is another project.

I’ve included a number of the images and items that I created along the way.

The Reading Room

I’ve included a simple AI generated video, made for children, formed from The Reading Room and my other imaginary characters and worlds. AI takes images and reimagines them to piece together a short video. It demonstrates how Deepdream Generator’s AI reinterprets images, rather than using them, and also generates stylised characters. There is far less control of the images, characters or video composition than artists need. So more a bit of fun than a tool for video creation !! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nk3vuPiErgncIfwFII81MMV55vbjlg6n/view?usp=drive_link

The Reading Room (initial introduction to a new storyline for children).

Alice sat on the velvet couch, fingers tracing the cracked leather of the ancient book resting on her lap. It smelled of dust and forgotten magic, its pages heavy with secrets. The room around her was alive in ways no ordinary reading room should be—shadows twisted in corners, vases shimmered in half-real states, and Kokomo, the black cat, flickered between dimensions from his perch on the window ledge.

The window itself was both here and there—one pane showed the quiet library, the other revealed a world of swirling mist and jagged landscapes. Kokomo’s tail flicked as his form shifted, existing in both realms at once. Alice had long stopped trying to understand it. The rules here were as fluid as water.

She glanced at the Chaos Butterfly resting on the window frame, its iridescent wings pulsing in warning. It always appeared before something went wrong. The glow of the Book of Portals from the nearby bookshelf was an invitation, calling her toward adventure—but she couldn’t open it yet. Not until she unravelled the fate of The Adventurers.

The book in her hands, Weird Tales of Strange Worlds, held their story—four children who had once stumbled upon the portals and vanished into unknown worlds. Their journey, their choices, held the key to understanding the shifting dangers ahead. If she could follow their steps, she could find them. And if she could find them, perhaps the unravelling chaos could be stopped.

Flipping open the first page, Alice felt the air in the room tighten. The letters twisted and changed, reshaping into something unreadable for a moment before settling back into familiar script. The book was more than words—it was a map.

Somewhere beyond the veil of reality, The Adventurers were waiting. And the portals, alive with energy, would soon call her name.

Alice took a deep breath. The journey was about to begin.