Who are you, and what do you do?
I'm J. Rosenbaum and I make and research all sorts of things to do with AI art. My main area of interest is gender minority depiction and representation, but I am fascinated by a lot of the ethics around AI art. I also lecture about critical AI at RMIT university. I'm waiting on the results of my PhD submission and creating works for some new exhibitions next year. You can see some of the work from my PhD in a 3D virtual exhibition from the link at aigenderperception.com.
I do a lot of work using AI processes and systems combined with multiple layers of custom made code and classification and 3D modeling, Augmented Reality, different explorations into bringing the virtual world into the physical world and vice versa. I like to explore the how and why of machine generated images of gender and working with classifiers and generators to explore why classification is such a fraught area ethically. The current project I am working on on uses classification, Stable Diffusion and augmented reality to explore the labels we use vs the labels AI assigns and how that appears. I’m really looking forward to seeing it as an installation! My gender tapestry project explores the concept of gender as a 3D color space and uses a gender classifier to mix a custom color for the user. My background is more traditional art so I bring with me that foundation of the classics forward into this exciting new age of AI discovery!
What hardware do you use?
I use my trusty intel iMac and M2 MacBook. Having both Mac architectures means that I can work on a variety of different frameworks and framework versions. Although keeping track is often a challenge! I also have a Mac Pro tower that I am looking to convert to a Linux box when I have time. I also use Nectar which is an academic computing cluster based in Australia for some of my longer term research. My iPad Pro is indispensable for creating on the go!
And what software?
My frameworks of choice are largely TensorFlow and Keras so I guess my main software is VSCode and Terminal. I also use Runway ML for video editing and creation, Google Colab for large computing requirements and Discord for Midjourney. I use Blender and Nomad Sculpt for 3D editing and creation, and Photoshop and Procreate round it out for painting, drawing and editing.
What would be your dream setup?
I would love one of those automated chairs that supports my system in an ergonomic position so that I can lie down or sit up. Apart from that I am eyeing off the new Mac Studio setups and NVIDIA eGPUs. I'd love to have a dual monitor setup switching between a huge Linux machine learning workhorse with a massive NVIDIA GPU and a separate Mac system. I'd also love the space to experiment with building custom LED displays and some cool AR and VR systems.