Seed Generator

Video and Photography

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Text

Homer, The Iliad, translated by Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics, 1990).
Monique Tschofen
Al Cunningham Rogers

Music

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Stabat Mater
The Bach Guild, with the Vienna State Opera
conducted by Mario Rossi, 1955
Teresa Stich-Randall, soprano | Elisabeth Höngen, alto

Sound Effects

BBC Sound
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Moon

from Space and Telescope

Project Statement

This work was a response to the advent of large language models. AI image generation starts from “seeds,” which are numeric blueprints that randomize each generation. Generative AI images thus function as a kind memory machine — drawing together vast archives of the cultural past. But what kind of futures can they generate? We know that data centers are being built that will pollute the environment with noise that disturb insect, bird, and human lives; that will drain aquifers, and pollute waterways; and that will be significant generators of CO₂.

So what else can we do? Build communities. Seed Generator is a collaborative artwork in which the gifting of words and images to the creator provided a template for the generation of futures that we would like to inhabit. We turn away from sterilities to the plants we find in our own back yard, resolving climate grief and fear through poetic observation.

The black and white images of plants that open the film were generated in Midjourney in late 2023.