Wood Carving

This image is an ideal example of how Art and Science, supported by AI can be used to produce an image. It illustrates how many different and diverse techniques can work together. It also shows how work undertaken over years can be reused to create something unique. The journey and processes are of equal or greater importance to the final image.

AI was used from the start but this was a very different and much simpler AI.

The initial idea was to take a number of novel ideas and merge them to create something unique.

Raspberry Pi had just announced a new very small computer. I had just come across a simple AI platform that could restyle images by using a simple style image. This was ideal as I could start with a photograph and restyle it. I could combine art and science. But first I needed to build a camera. I bought a cheap Box Brownie, added the Raspberry Pi and a camera module, programmed it to take photos and set off to The Southport Flower Show.

The image is of wood carvings, sold on a stall at the Flower Show. As I used a non-standard setting on the camera, to create the effect that I was looking for. I modified this by restyling it using AI but ensuring the effect wasn’t too great. This was one of a number of experimental images and one that I hadn’t thought of using.

Years later I was working on an image titled “Just Breathe”. It was computer code that created a swirling animation of lines that changed colour as you breathed. Breath was captured by an environmental sensor that altered the colours.

Moving forward a few years.

I wanted to create something interesting with Dylan aged 10 and Jasmine aged 8. They both knew Scratch, a programming language used by primary schools. The idea was to create a simple Scratch animation that controlled a simple robot. The animation would use complex fractal graphics that rotate and control the robotics. The robot would be used to pour paint and mix it, similar to the Paint Pouring process used by artists. I had decided only to use code and robotics that a primary school child would understand. The easiest approach was to use a Lego Ev3 robot that could easily be controlled by Scratch. It would pour the paint and rotate a disc.

The final image was to be used on a project after first rebuilding the swirling lines based on the output from a different environmental monitor that read the conditions at our sand dunes.

You can see a few of the environmental monitor readings and a snippet of code.

Move forward 6 months. I had been working on an image and story around women of the woods when I thought that combining it with the things we have covered so far would be interesting. I used AI and digital editing to combine everything. It was a long process.

You can see the shape of the main character on the Women in Wood image. The emblems on the shoulder of the girl are taken from the wood carving.

Key Messages

• This image illustrates how work going back some time can be reused. I have large libraries of photos, fractal images and AI enhanced images that can be reused.
• AI is improving all the time but to be innovative requires insights into how things can be reused and different products from previous work integrated.
• The more subject areas you are interested in, and skilled in, the more innovative you become. I like to include photography, fractal images (Chaos Theory), AI, artistic images and stories in my work.
• If you combine elements that are rarely used together you can produce something unique.
• Innovation is addictive.