AI Yesterday Issue 01: Positions
The AI Yesterday team would like to announce the launch of our inaugural Issue 01: Positions. We landed on this theme after trying to come up with our own internal definition of AI. The more our team tried to combine our own individual definitions of AI into a collective, focused definition, the more we realized that definitions of AI are plural and reflect the myriad of ways one experiences and interacts with AI. We decided definitions of AI would be more accurately described as positions. Through this framing we’ve used our first issue as a veritable sandbox to host a range of AI positions: filmic and narrative positions, the materiality, spatiality and visuality of AI, and through our GPT-3 enabled bot, a tongue-in-cheek look at AI’s positions on AI.
Over the summer we ran a workshop to foster material for submissions for our first issue. Hosted on zoom, our workshop spanned 12 time zones, 6 cities, 4 zoom breakout rooms and 1 Miro board. Additionally, we hosted guest speakers including Dr. Molly Wright Steenson, Dr. Gina Neff and Joshua Noble who discussed their own positions of AI. Participants included academics, interaction designers, graphic designers, and AI enthusiasts. Collectively, the workshop provided us with material to spark novel approaches to conceiving of our research and practice with AI.
Following the workshop, our team set to work turning the workshop material into thematic areas for the first issue. Along with our creative producer, Elena Jarmosh, we developed a style of working on the zine that allowed us to mimic zine-making’s collaboration as method. Instead of mapping the aesthetics of analogue cut-and-paste zines to digital, we focused on creating an environment where our team could collaborate digitally, supporting each other and learning as we went along. Additionally, Jeff, our GPT-3 enabled bot, got involved in Issue 01, providing some excellent “postions” on AI through questions like, “Does AI have feelings”.
Zoom discussion during our remote workshop
Through the workshop and the development of the first issue, we are building a community around AI Yesterday that is growing, iterating and becoming a space for experimentation and freeform play. The collaboration we managed to foster over a hybrid of zoom and in-person coffees remains paramount to expanding the AI Yesterday world, and we hope will lead to new sites of collaboration and new ways of conceiving of our research and practices outside the conventions of our normal deliverables.
Miro board from our remote workshop
The AI Yesterday Team. Maggie McGrath, Deepak Mallya, Ankkit Modi, Nancy Salem and Laurel Boxall.
