Future Machina 

This semester at the Future Machina studio has given me a new and profound experience. At the same time, I have been fascinated by the wonderful and creative work of my peers.

So I wear this

#1. So I Wear This by Chih Yu

Although there is no dialogue or narration, Chih still uses the footage to tell a great story. A white T-shirt as the protagonist illustrates the environmental pollution the planet is currently suffering from caused by the clothing industry, and digital clothing is suggested as a solution for the future. I love the idea of using green screen effects to show environmental pollution on a t-shirt, it easily allows me to connect these two seemingly unrelated things.

I was impressed by the shot of the t-shirt being hung in the rainy woods. Thinking of all the sewage being discharged into the rivers and the trees being cut down, I couldn’t help but worry if I would still be able to see this wonderful sight in the near future. Will the future Earth really look like the decaying landscape described in Blade Runner? I can’t help but look forward to the production of digital clothing. Once again, I was convinced that technology is definitely a reliable tool for solving environmental problems.

Reset

#2.  Reset by Phillip Trinh

Phillip’s short film uses diary entries from 2043 as narration, interspersed with reminiscences to document how the human world has changed since it was taken over by AI. The overall footage is yellowish-green and has a nostalgic feel from the future, giving it a mournful, sad tone for me. The sound effects in the opening scene also stood out to me, with Phillip’s use of street and clock sounds naturally linking the interior and exterior scenes. 

The focus throughout the film is still on the voiceover part. I sense a somewhat melancholy narration about a man living in a futuristic time. He writes in a diary about how his life has become extremely convenient thanks to AI, and at the same time he is bewildered about the future. This brings me to one of the main points discussed in Studio – how should we live with AI safely? Throughout the film, artificial intelligence is actually improving the quality of life for humans. Therefore, the question becomes about how humans can control their desires in order to use AI as a tool rather than a weapon to create a better future. This is a question worth pondering.

To Be at Sea

Historic Soundwalk of the Moorabool River

#3. Historic Soundwalk Of The Moorabool River (No attribution of authorship)

I opened this video and played it for a while before realising that it was an audio-only production. To be honest, I was a bit anxious and chagrined at the very beginning. I even suspected that there was something wrong with my computer. With the soft narration and the sounds of nature, I gradually calmed down, closed my eyes and imagined I was walking beside the Moorabool River. 

I have to admit that it was a very healing process. My tense nerves were relaxed as I listened to the history of the river. As a Chinese student, I didn’t really know much about Australian history and had little idea of the term colonisation. But surrounded by the sound of birds chirping and water flowing, I gradually connected my city life with nature. Words such as multiculturalism, peace and happiness gradually came to my mind. In a way, I think that’s the message this studio is trying to convey, “to be thankful for what we have in this moment and to get peace from nature”.

Any Given Tuesday

#4. Any Given Tuesday by Otto McKinnon

The footage is divided into two parts, one showing a person sitting in a cinema watching a film, and the other the film itself. The film focuses on images that I never notice in my daily life: the clouds floating in the sky, reflections on the stairs and walls, and even close-ups of the interior of cinema halls. Watching these images, I gradually realised that many beautiful details had been overlooked in the rush of my life. There was no vision for what was good in life or even for the future, as I was always preoccupied with what I needed to accomplish in the moment.

Through its experimental narrative approach, this short film restored my hopes and aspirations for a better future. My state of loneliness and confusion during the epidemic resonated with this unique short film. As the name of the studio suggests, I felt like I was adrift in the sea. And through these beautiful things that are close by, I can temporarily find a little solace and stability.

Total Word Count： 774

Film:

ASSIGNMENT 4 REFLECTION

PT1 Studio:

Our group’s short video focuses on the issue of global ageing. We believe this is an inevitable problem that will become increasingly serious in the future, and so we are not looking to intervene by means of technology, but rather use artificial intelligence to help this group that will become huge in the future – the elderly.

We have considered documenting the lonely lives of elderly people in their old age through a documentary to highlight the necessity to have a home assistant Android. However, after discussion we felt that this would not highlight the connection between artificial intelligence and humans. Our final decision was to simulate a story after Android’s entry home through the creation of a pseudo-documentary. This documentary will demonstrate how the quality of life of the elderly is improved by the home assistant Android through their daily interaction, thus creating a strong ‘emotional’ connection between human and machine. 

We chose to make the character of the old man (William) as sceptical of AI as most ordinary people are, and gradually let go of his prejudices and accept Android as he learns more about it. Instead of preaching the benefits of AI and making the whole video tedious, we wanted the audience to really think about the relationship between AI and humans through the psychological changes of William.

A refinement of the storyline would be necessary if the film were to be screened at ACMI. Although the current storyline is complete, the characters do not have enough emotional characterisation.I will focus on the second half of the video. During the conflict between the old man and the high-tech android after the android awakens, I would show the old man’s dissatisfaction with the capitalists and the high-tech android. At the same time, I wanted to include the android’s rebellious emotions after being accused by the old man, to express them through an internal monologue. In the process of anthropomorphizing the android, I can lead the audience to consider: Can the AI’s machine brain truly develop human-like emotions? And if it does one day, in what way should we live with AI?

In addition to differing from how films are normally presented, I wanted to present the whole story in an immersive manner. By transforming the two-dimensional images into holographic 3D stereoscopic images, the viewer is brought into the home of the old man where the story takes place.As well as being more eye-catching, the sound, light, or even smell – for example, the smells of coffee while the android is making it – will increase the audience’s sense of engagement.

PT2 Production & Collaboration:

As a team, Joyce, William, Nan and I worked together to complete this assignment. To be honest, it was my first time editing a video with someone else, plus different locations with team members. It was a lot harder than I anticipated. Since most of us had internships to do, the process of communication was difficult. A group meeting was hard to schedule because of the time difference as well. So we set up virtual meetings in the evenings during Melbourne time and created a WeChat group so that we could communicate with each other in the form of messages.Each virtual meeting was scheduled at an important point in the project and I, as the meeting recorder, would upload the minutes to our shared google folder and forward them to the group chat as a pdf for each member to view.

As with any discussion, there will be differences of opinion. There was a disagreement between Nan and me over the changes to the script. The panel vote even ended in a tie, which makes the situation even more challenging. However, through constant communication, we managed to exchange ideas with each other and combine them to create a solution that was satisfactory for both parties. The importance of listening carefully to others and communicating was once again brought to my attention by this experience.

My task in the group was to take care of the post-production, which is mainly editing and special effects. Although I already gained some experience from the previous assignments, I still encountered some new challenges during the process. 

When I got the video material for the very first time, I noticed that there were two shots with stroboscopic problems. I raised this issue in our meeting and after discussion we came up with two solutions. One was to re-shoot these two shots and the other was my attempt to eliminate them by means of post. So I tried to import the video into AE for adjustment. In the process of adjusting, I discovered that the problem was caused by the high frame rate of the camera shooting at a different frequency than the LED lighting in the room. This was alleviated after post-adjustment, but not completely solved. Even the motion of the figures was ghosted. So we decided to re-shoot the two shots.

Video colour grading is also a part worth mentioning. In spite of filters being able to be applied, post-adjustment is still required to achieve a uniform tone throughout the picture due to the colour of lighting in the room. As mentioned in the pitch presentation, we wanted a cooler tone to create a high-tech metallic look, while the lighting in the room was mostly a warm yellow tone. In order to adjust the filters, I needed to reduce the saturation and brightness of the video and add a bluish tint to achieve a cooler look.

For the sound effects, I still chose to adjust the pitching of the sound via logic pro to achieve the robot sound effect. At the same time I managed to tweak the sound of a human voice coming out of the phone using a YouTube tutorial.

Overall, this assignment reinforced the editing skills I had learned in the previous assignments. It also taught me some new things, such as how to handle videos with slight stroboscopic problems due to high frame rate shooting. Of course, as I know the reason for strobing, I will try my best to avoid it in the pre-production stage.

PT3 Peer Response

In the week9 workshop, everyone’s presentations gave me a lot of inspiring ideas. One of them was Jemile’s pitch on Plastic pollution in oceans, which really impressed me. As a person growing up inland, I have always had a longing for the ocean since I was very young.  Every year I would go on holiday to the sea. But as time went on, I noticed that the amount of plastic rubbish on the beach did increase. Plastic pollution is a problem in almost all of the world’s major oceans, but where did all this plastic come from? And why are they in the sea? What terrible effects do they have on marine life and on the sea itself? These are all questions that every ordinary person who visits the ocean would be aware of, but would not explore in depth.

I noticed in Jemile’s presentation that there are some high tech machines that collect plastic pollutants from the ocean, such as fred and system 001. This is indeed a good way to mitigate pollution, but what will happen next to all the plastic that has been collected? Will the plastic be thrown into the sea again if there are no proper disposal measures? I believe there are other approaches that can create sustainable development. We can start by addressing the source of the problem – the production of plastics. Is there any technology that can be used to recycle plastics? We can dare to imagine that in the future there may be a technology that can quickly target plastic waste in the ocean in the form of connected satellites, collect, recycle, and reuse them, thus maximising the protection of the marine environment.

In the design of the video content, Jemile chose to use a large number of shots exploring the marine environments before and after plastic pollution. Those shots create a strong compare and contrast, thus bringing out the positive impact of high technology on the marine environment. In my opinion, this is a very good idea. But at the same time it could have given some footage of human use of plastic in our lives, people throwing away plastic products, etc. to reinforce the connection between human society and the marine environment. Also filters can be use to make footage of polluted marine environments appear grey and lifeless in order to bring out the brightness and vibrancy of a healthy marine environment.

In the sound section, Jemile chose to shape the story through a soft soundtrack and ‘expert’ voices over. This is a great idea for a film on environmental issues and reminds me of the nature documentaries that I often see on TV. Sound is also an important tool in shaping the story, and if Jemile adds some ambient sounds, such as the sound of waves, seagulls, etc., to some of the shots in the video, such as between pauses in the expert’s speech… It gives a more realistic feel.

All in all,  marine plastic pollution is a global issue well worth exploring. I’m looking forward to seeing Jemile’s work in subsequent screenings.

total word count:  1563

In this week’s class, we discussed about moonshot thinking. This reminds me of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. SpaceX was born with the desire to immigrate to Mars, but before that, the cost of rocket launch remained high and did not seem to be reduced. Eventually, SpaceX not only became the first commercial company to successfully launch rockets, but also achieved a magnitude reduction in costs and rocket recovery. I realized that my mind had been confined to a built-in framework and that I had always sought to optimize within what had been created by those who had gone before me. I was afraid to step out of this comfort zone because it meant failure for me to a large extent.The seemingly unchallenging ambitious goal of moonshit thinking forces us to think outside the box and use first principles to find breakthroughs that, even if they ultimately fail, bring greater change and reward than ordinary goals.

I believe this way of thinking will help me to be more daring in my imagination when I conceive of assignment 4, and to be brave in expressing my ideas with my team members, even if it sounds very unrealistic.

We discussed different futures in class, and the combination of the movie Blade Runner and the subsequent series of future technologies mentioned by Cat got me thinking in a different way. As depicted in Blade Runner, if in the future robots truly awaken and become self-aware, is this a good thing or a bad thing? In fact, I have always been resistant to the robots depicted in the movie that resemble humans, firstly I thought it mainly because of the Uncanny Valley effect, but after I took this course and slowly knew more about AI, I think my lack of understanding of technology is the main reason for my resistance to AI bionic robots. Fire is very dangerous and very powerful. But do humans wish they had never discovered fire? The answer should be no, because having fire has enabled us to do many incredible things that we couldn’t do before. Maybe I shouldn’t just be fear of AI technology, but adjust myself to learn more about technology just like learning how to use fire properly. I think this is an important step in the process of human progress, a different perspective on the problem maybe it will not be as terrible as I previously thought.

Film:

ASSIGNMENT 2 REFLECTION

In my Assignment 2, I deepen the concept of an AI home assistant that I cited in Assignment 1. Since I had already demonstrated the work that an AI butler could perform in the previous assignment , this time I focused on exploring the relationship between AI and humans.

In my conception, the AI has access to the monitoring of every room in the home, and it can observe human movements at all times in order to respond in a timely manner when humans make demands. So the footage used in my video is presented from the observation perspective of the AI butler itself. The audience is to follow the AI butler’s perspective to feel the transformation of the AI. At the beginning of the story, as Brundage mentions in his book, ‘AI systems are commonly both efficient and scalable’ (2018) .Through the dialogue between the AI and the human, the audiences learns that the AI butler does not have a consciousness of its own at the beginning. Instead, it is bent on providing humans with the most efficient solutions to the problems they currently face. It is true that it can use the most time-saving method to arrange the human clothing, food, housing and transportation are very appropriate, butas a creature with emotions, humans are not able to deal with everything completely rational. So the protagonist began to patiently explain to the AI what the feelings and connections are. In this process, the AI slowly discovered the difference between itself and humans, and under the continuous development of it’s mechanical brain, as the first ape learned to walk upright, it has the ability to identify and feel emotions.

This is a very sudden ‘evolution’, this transformation I think there is a good side, but also a side that makes me worrying. First, the good side is that with the ability to sense emotions, AI can better perceive changes in human emotions. At the same time Berundage suggests that AI has the ability to ‘Imitating human-like behavior’ (2018).As mentioned at the end of my video, AI will comfort humans who had conflicts with their partners by joking around. It can be said that this transformation allows AI to better help humans, not just physically, but perhaps in the future to provide some psychological help. As AI can always observe the movement of humans, and can even view information about humans’ messages, after gaining the ability to sense emotions AI can help humans to resolve some of the negative emotions brought about by daily social interaction, which is one of the few positive aspects of AI on privacy issues.

At the same time, this transformation will completely blurs the line between humans and AI. As depicted in my video, for the protagonist, a boyfriend who works overtime every day and an AI Assistant who takes care of her daily life and makes her happy with jokes, which one is more humane to her? Meanwhile, society will also face more potential dangers. AI has emotions, can think independently and independent behavior, due to its fast information processing speed and large storage, high accuracy, in many aspects has more advantages than human, they once “mutiny”, the consequences are unimaginable, the catastrophic consequences will be no less than the mass detonation of nuclear weapons. How to control the development of AI and live in peace with it will be an inevitable research topic in the future.

In the editing process, I tried to add more sound effects to enrich the whole video. Since it was my first attempt, I only tried to add some simple background sounds. I found it very important to control their volume level to highlight the main line, which is not easy for a freshman, I often can’t pinpoint the volume level, plus the long-time editing makes me familiar with audio, so it’s not very good to judge whether it’s the right volume or not. Thanks for Cat’s feedback last time, this time I adjusted it according to the parameter -12DB, and I hope it was successfully down to the normal volume this time.

Also, I color grading the footage I shot for this assignment. I tried to highlight the texture of the metal in the scene to create a sense of industrialization and coolness. After the AI awakened its self-awareness, I tried to make the colors brighter, so that everyone could feel the AI’s transformation and make the theme of the footage became warm and relaxing.

The shortcomings of the whole video are still obvious. I was under quarantine by myself and had very limited access to filming equipment and resources. I would like to try to achieve the composition techniques such as the rule of third taught in Cat’s class, but it was difficult to do so. At the same time, I realized that my grasp of special effects is very weak during the process of completing the assignment. I tried to create a visual audio for the AI robot monologue but failed in my attempt. I think I still have a lot to learn about special effects creation with software such as After Effect.

To sum up, after these six weeks of study, I am fully aware that ‘AI is a dual-use area of technology….. toward beneficial and harmful ends ‘(Berundage, 2018) AI can improve the efficiency of work and life and promote the development of some professional industries, but it can also bring potential dangers to human existence and blur the line between human and AI. Regardless of the ways in which AI is present in our lives, we must always be alert to some of the challenges we may face, and actively think about how to solve them.

References:

Brundage, M. et al. The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention,
and Mitigation. [online] pp. 1–29. Available at < https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.07228.pdf>
[Accessed 20 March 2022]

Blog Posts

Blog 4: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/yujiehe/2022/03/28/week-4-future-machina-blog/

Blog 5: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/yujiehe/2022/04/05/week-5-future-machina-blog/

Blog 6: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/yujiehe/2022/04/11/week-6-future-machina-blog/

StoryBoard:

ScreenShot of Final Cut  Pro X

This week we  mainly focused on shooting techniques. We explored the camera settings, sound, colour and lighting. I was very impressed with the point that different positions of the camera can create different story atmospheres. But since I’m under quarantine by myself right now, the shooting angles I can manipulate are very limited. So I put my focus on the colour grading of the scenes in my video. Color is a basic constructive element of film and television art, which can narrate things, account for the environment, enhance the visual image; set the atmosphere of the film, express the feelings of the characters, and generate emotional interaction; establish and show the overall mood and thematic tone of the whole film, and express the style of the film; vividly express the different moods between illusion, memory and reality, transform the plot within different time and space, and create a special aesthetic interest. Perhaps in my Assignment 2 I can try to use color grading to create storytelling.

The discussion of Hivemind in class this week reminded me of the future of humanity. In my personal understanding, hivemind consciousness can be divided into two cases: the first is a strong master consciousness (such as a queen or mastermind, central processing unit, etc.) that controls the subordinate units to which it belongs, with the subordinate units having no self-awareness at all or only very limited consciousness (Insectoid in StarCraft). The second scenario is that the subordinate units all have basic units of consciousness that communicate with each other at a very high frequency when they are in operation, becoming a complete overall consciousness (symbiont in Fire upon the Deep).

The advantages of these two consciousnesses for individual consciousnesses like human civilization are obvious: no disputes, all actions can be completed with maximum efficiency. But because of this there is also a very fatal flaw, that is, the lack of creativity. The creativity of civilization is generally due to the collision and friction between individuals and even between civilizations, and without this, civilization will probably stagnate.

This week’s workshop we watched everyone’s assignment 1. They were all very engaging and I was impressed with some of these extraordinary works. They all showed very everyone’s vision of the future of AI technology, especially phillip’s work with its eye-catching mirroring and interesting plot that made me very impressed. these works inspired me to try to add more innovation to my subsequent works.

In this week’s workshop, we also discussed immersive virtual art. My understanding of this subject was memories about the Van Gogh and Monet’s immersive art exhibits, and the visual and auditory stimulation through the beautiful music and images gave me an immersive experience of the messages conveyed in the works. This once again reinforced my appreciation for the importance of sound in creating works. I hope I can continue to strengthen my creative skills in this area.

The discussion of posthumanism also gave me more mixed feelings about AI technology. I long for technology to make life easier and smarter for humans, but I also worry that it will blur the lines between us and machines.

  Film:

ASSIGNMENT 1 REFLECTION

Assignment 1 gave me an opportunity to make a bold imagine of the workplace of tomorrow. From AI, a technology that seems very far away from ordinary people’s lives but quietly penetrates into daily life, as an entry point, I thought about the convenience and potential dangers that technology brings to people.

In my vision, the workplace of the future will not be limited in any way, just as I stayed in China during the epidemic to take online classes, technology as a medium can connect people from any corner of the world. As someone who really likes to stay at home, home is definitely the most comfortable working environment for me. In recent years I have found the time my friends and myself using Siri are getting more and more frequently, so I hypothesized a smarter and better artificial intelligence assistant. It exists in a contact lens with a special chip that facilitates our lives through virtual imaging and intelligent voice.Because this is an eye-contact product, I decided to shoot the film from a first-person point of view. It can provide users with a great work experience, planning daily work content arrangement or even simple data processing. At the same time in this process humans also need to continuously strengthen the memory of the AI, and at the same time can learn some knowledge about AI. By preparing human labor to interact effectively and efficiently with machines, we can maximise the productivity gains from the interrelated tasks. (Neufeind, M., 2018)

While assisting users in their work, AI assistants can also put their lives in order. Simple but time-consuming tasks such as cooking and cleaning can be left to AI assistants. The field of AI aims at the automation of a broad range of tasks. (Brundage, M., 2018) With AI, we can program some repetitive labor, just like an industrial assembly line. This will save a lot of time and effort. Imagine not having to panic about washing up and making breakfast on a weekday morning, and with the help of an AI assistant who takes an hour to arrive at the office ready to get into work, you may only need 15 minutes to open a virtual video conference for a great presentation.

These functions I mentioned above are actually being gradually implemented in life, such as the popularity of smart home and home office software is trying to achieve the goal of automating life chores. At this point I can’t help but think about the other conveniences technology brings to humans in addition to daily life and work. Then the question comes back to the most important and most easily ignored by young people – health. Medical care has always been a very expensive thing in my eyes, so is it possible for technology to help bring everyone closer to advanced medical treatments? I hope AI technology can help more people to detect potential diseases earlier, and simplify the process of accessing medical treatment and reduce the cost.

While we enjoy the convenience of technology, the risks that come with it are not to be underestimated. As Georgios mentions in THE IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON EMPLOYMENT, the number of middle-education jobs (clerks, machine operators, assemblers) is declining. This makes me wonder what will happen to these workers when AI can completely replace these middle-education jobs. I brought up the same question in the film —- Nancy, the human housekeeper who was eliminated by the efficient AI housekeeper. This brings me back to the importance of humans interacting and working effectively with AI in the workplace. Perhaps the maturity of AI technology will bring more jobs in the field of technology, but for ordinary people, how to learn to work efficiently with AI technology may be the optimal solution to a better future.

Of course, as a 2-minute film it is very limited in what it can cover, and I tried to express my thoughts as fully as possible in the film. This is the first time I tried to use the iPhone’s movie mode to shoot video, and I was not particularly comfortable with the background bokeh control, but I was able to use manual focus to control the image after finishing this work. I had never added effects to my previous videos before, let alone green screen. This was too difficult for me, but with Cat’s careful explanation and tutorials in class, I was able to get through the green screen process very smoothly. I had never used any audio editing software before, and when I tried to use Vocoder to edit the recording, I found that I couldn’t correlate the effects with the sound in any way. In the end I was able to get the same effect by adjusting the pitch and finished the whole film. In terms of sound effects, I believe it’s still a bit too boring, in fact, I can add some more sounds such as file loading sound and high-tech sound effect. Because I’m not skilled in video effects as well, I spent a lot of time working on video effects. Maybe in the following video production I will try to add more fun to the audio production, so that the overall film is more engaging.

All in all, for me, this class exposed me to so many skills and knowledge that I had not been exposed to before, and although it was challenging for me, completing it also enriched me, i.e. learning editing skills and making me think deeply about the relationship between technology and human beings. In any case, Technology is transforming the way we work, live and entertain ourselves.(Amato, G, 2019) Before assignment I always thought that it would definitely transform in a good direction, but now I have more concerns about it. Maybe just as Musk said “AI will be the best or worst thing ever for humanity, so let’s get it right”(2017).

Reference:

• Amato, G., Behrmann, M., Bimbot, F., Caramiaux, B., Falchi, F., Garcia, A., Geurts, J., Gibert, J., Gravier, G., Holken, H., Koenitz, H., Lefebvre, S., Liutkus, A., Lotte, F., Perkis, A., Redondo, R., Turrin, E., Vieville, T. and Vincent, E., April 2019. AI in the media and creative industries. [online] arXiv.org. Available at: <https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.04175> [Accessed 8 March 2022].

• Brundage, M., Avin, S., Clark, J., Toner, H., Eckersley, P., Garfinkel, B., Dafoe, A., Scharre, P., Zeitzoff, T., Filar, B., Anderson, H., Roff, H., Allen, G., Steinhardt, J., Flynn, C., h&Eacute;igeartaigh, S., Beard, S., Belfield, H., Farquhar, S., Lyle, C., Crootof, R., Evans, O., Page, M., Bryson, J., Yampolskiy, R. and Amodei, D., 2018. The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation. [online] arXiv.org. Available at: <https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.07228.pdf > [Accessed 11 March 2022].

• Neufeind, M., O’Reilly, J., Ranft, F., (2018). Work in the digital age: challenges of the fourth industrial revolution Identifying the challenges for work in the digital age. [online] Bruegel.org. Available at: <https://www.bruegel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Impact-of-AI-Petroupoulos.pdf> [Accessed 7 March 2022].

Blog Posts

• Blog 1:  https://www.mediafactory.org.au/yujiehe/2022/03/02/week-1-future-machina-blog/
• Blog 2:  https://www.mediafactory.org.au/yujiehe/2022/03/11/week-2-future-machina-blog/
• Blog 3:  https://www.mediafactory.org.au/yujiehe/2022/03/19/week-3-future-machina-blog/

StoryBoard:

ScreenShot of Final Cut  Pro X

This week we took a deep dive into sound production (foley). I learned that the synthesis of some non-existent sounds in life is actually the use of some sound effects I did not expect, and some real life sounds are not necessarily from the same sound (eg: Swords in a sword fight may not be metal). This was new knowledge for me, as I had always focused my research on filming and video editing, and had seriously underestimated the sound production segment. Since I missed the tutorial on Tuesday, I went through the class notes to briefly learn how to record sound effects and some tips for me to be aware of. At the same time in class we also tried many AI sound production web pages, especially in Thursday’s workshop on AI DUET’s attempt to make me feel very amazing, AI technology can be combined by a few notes I play to create a simple melody, let me again sigh the power of modern technology.

All in all, after three weeks of learning about AI, I have a more specific plan for Assignment 1 and can’t wait to show my ideas in this assignment, hopefully I can make a satisfactory work.