A sequence of pieces going back through time exploring lineage, ancestors, history, memory, remembrance, and loss.

It begins in the present day with me, as one piece in a portrait series spanning three generations of women in my family.

1. "Me / 2020"

2. "Mother / 1994"

3. "Grandmother / Before I Even Was on This Earth"

4. "49 Days". When we arrive at my grandmother, we see her recent journey to the afterlife in the video piece <a href="https://www.altsalt.com/movie/49-days/1">49 Days</a>.

5. "The Time Before-" 

The last piece in the series, a generation from a neural network of a Chinese papercut, represents the imperfection of memory & dissolution of generational history, as time inexorably marches on 

I've been thinking about memory, history that is relayed and recounted by family members through the foggy lens peering through generations past. And why I use AI in my work... As an artist using AI, you experience an extreme loss of control when you put several hundred ""representative"" images of a subject or theme into a neural network. 

The process often goes like: You put in what fragments of an idea or theme you can scrape together, something unexpected always comes out of the machine, and you try to piece it all together. Sometimes it makes sense, often it doesn't. 

It's a similar feeling to when you're grasping for a stable story about generations past, and you're left with a feeling of loss and unrecoverable truth.

Generations

Philippines

Asian American

Caption: Photo of AVDLR taken on an iPhone with illustrations on top.
Initially, I wanted to start this project under the idea of being a “perpetual foreigner,” or the concept that regardless of me being an American citizen and having the tokens of what makes up an American (whatever that means… since the U.S. is a mix of cultures after all), I will always be perceived as “the other''.
As I was working on the project, I was led to a different and more general idea of the modernization of culture; sometimes it feels like culture is conflated with history (in that it is old and static) and we view it as a separate entity all together. I feel like knowledge of culture is often treated as a novelty or a parlor trick, like knowing how to dance tinikling or speak Tagalog, or even something as simple as eating a Filipino dish.
For some Filipino Americans, and for many other second generation immigrants, they aren’t given a choice of being able to celebrate their culture or not. And for many first generation immigrants, they leave behind a culture that continues to change even while they are away: there’s new slang, new pop culture trends, and maybe even a different political climate.
The debate between mainlanders versus the diaspora has been prevalent on social media but has been the worst on TikTok, I’ve found. The word “toxic” is commonly thrown around nowadays but that’s the best way to describe the lack of critical thinking, the apathy, and the refusal to take responsibility for and acknowledge mistakes. It’s difficult for me who sits on the fence of these two identities to be invalidated and for discussions to be halted because the desire to be correct outweighs the desire to learn… well that and the fact that I’ve seen arguments turn into ad hominem attacks. Thankfully I haven’t personally experienced any of this yet, but this is something I keep in the back of my mind that sometimes keeps me from putting my work out there (I’m slowly getting over it though).
To the main point of this work: culture is now. Thanks to the internet (as corny as it sounds), I can be 8,757 miles away from my hometown in the Philippines and still be caught up on the news, pop culture, and memes. But that can’t replace me physically being there and experiencing everything myself. Of course, I acknowledge that this comes from a place of privilege because I have the financial means to live comfortably. However, in a way, I feel lost. After taking a year off of my art and taking a step back, it would seem as though I was looking through my culture through that historical lens I mentioned earlier.
This work is a baby step for me. I think I’m moving in the direction I want my work to go in, both in terms of media and focus. I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to create work. Is it because I lack guidance? Or creativity? Materials? I know that I am an impulsive artist that creates work when the spark happens, but I wonder if there is a way for me to nurture that better…
Anyway, let’s talk about the process and ideas that come into this work. This is a continuation of my photo collaboration project that I did for my senior thesis. I decided to get rid of the square dimensions and go for an 8x10 inches size.
<ol>
<li dir="auto">I knew I wanted to wear the barong, so that was an easy choice.</li>
<li dir="auto">I decided to tuck my hair to mimic choking or the feeling of being overwhelmed or drowning (I think I’ll make another project for this).</li>
</ol>
I love my hair. It used to be down to butt. But I would use it as a femininity marker to compare myself to other women. I knew I did this and I knew it was wrong. I cut it to my chin when I was a sophomore in college. I can’t tell you enough how disgusted I am with myself that I was like that. And doing that did help.
<ol>
<li dir="auto">The typography stickers are slang that’s commonly used today (and some even I use). I had to ask my boyfriend any other terms he knew since I felt like the ones I knew were pretty outdated.</li>
<li dir="auto">If you’re familiar with Japan’s purikura, or photo sticker booth, I’m sure you can see the inspiration. Culture was formed hundreds of years ago, but we insert ourselves into it and shape it today.</li>
</ol>
I honestly didn’t know how to tastefully illustrate on top of this, not that it needed to be aesthetically pleasing, I just didn’t know how to combine the background and the foreground to make it look like a complete piece. I didn’t want to edit the original photo too much but I also didn’t want it to look like it was just a photo.
I’m satisfied with how this piece turned out. I will keep this written piece as raw as possible for genuity purposes (and it would be nice to see where my head was when I look back later).&nbsp;
AVDLR

Acceptance

A woman with her eyes closed and a contemplative expression

A photo of a woman wearing Philippine cultural attire with illustrations and typography overlaid.

A spectacled woman holding a baby; they are both laughing and happy

A woman's bust from behind, with a tattoo on her upper back

Un collage de una mujer en ropa de verano; tres mujeres autoritarias; una niña contra el cielo en la noche; una mujer con sus ojos cerrados; un patrón de geometría sagrada; una pintura de pájaros de pintura al agua chino; una mujer dormiendo; una mujer vestida de poncho; una mujer con una pistola

Dark audio waveforms against a white background

Flags of Ukraine and Trans Rights above an image of Spongebob and Patrick Starr smashing a computer with the title "Letter to Art, Ukraine, Trans Rights, and Doom(scrolling)"

On "Different Folks" and Andean musical fusion

Heritage, music, and creative freedom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMSXQDE8cS0 

Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dtTkGTXLPskuK2T6i_vARm-c4xEosEUjFbsBcimmRlk/edit?usp=sharing 

Letter to Art #4 - Ukraine, Trans Rights, and Doomscrolling (March 2022)

Los ecos de nuestros ancestros que se escuchan
a través del tiempo y el espacio,
nosotros encontraremos la llave para el futuro,
al mirar en nuestro pasado.

¡Se hace un llamado a toda nuestra gente andina y asiatico americana! AltSalt está creando dos colecciones multidisciplinarias de trabajo creativo, y queremos que seas parte del proyecto.

¿Para quien?: Creadores de zines, escritores, diseñadores, creadores de juegos, creadores de videos, músicos, y creadores de cualquier medio artístico que se identifican como andinos o como asioamericanos.

¿Tópico?: Trabajo en equipos o trabajo independiente para someter una publicación basada en la siguiente idea: “Imaginar o visualizar un futuro en que tu cultura, historia y valores han guiado al mundo a una realidad alternativa, y empleando esa energía, crear una pieza artística que se haga sentir a la par con nuestros tiempos.”

¿Cuándo?: El desarrollo del trabajo se puede empezar tan pronto como leas este mensaje. Ofreceremos un taller el 17-18 de julio, para compartir progreso y conocernos como participantes. Los trabajos finales serán sometidos el domingo 15 de agosto. Los días se van volando- empezemos pronto!

Únete a nuestro Discord (opcional, altamente recomendado)

Aviso: También le damos la bienvenida a personas que quieren colaborar entres ambas culturas. Si quieres trabajar en equipo y combinar la cultura andina y la cultura asiática… HAZLO! Destacaremos proyectos que combinan ambas culturas dentro de una parte especial en las colecciones.

Pensar y recopilación de ideas, formación de equipos, empezar a trabajar



Sábado 17 de julio — Domingo 18 de julio

Talleres de fin de semana para socializar y compartir progreso



Domingo 18 de julio — Domingo 15 de agosto

Continuar trabajando en los proyectos y entrega de proyectos finalizados



Presentación colaborativa y lanzamiento de las colecciones

Nuestra Visión en General — Nuestro propósito es visualizar y crear un mundo alternativo a través de nuestra creatividad colectiva. Para crecer en comunidad, debemos ser curiosos en crecer no solamente personalmente sino también con las multitudes con las que nos cruzamos. Esperamos que esta será la primera de muchas iniciativas para crear solidaridad a través de comunidades y compartir conocimiento. Transcendamos los bordes sociales y conectémonos.

¿Por qué estas dos comunidades? Son las que nosotros, los organizadores, somos más familiarizados, y de las cuales somos parte. ¡Esperamos ofrecer un espacio similar para otras comunidades en AltSalt en el futuro!

Abierto Para Toda Gente Creativa — No importa cuál es tu etapa dentro del proceso creativo, o si tus obras son gratuitas or comerciales, puedes inscribirte.

¿Ya has creado trabajo y quieres incluirlo en las colecciones?



¿Has empezado a trabajar en proyectos creativos pero no has tenido la oportunidad de terminarlos?



¿Eres nuevo en el proceso de crear zines o publicaciones creativas?

¡Serás bienvenido a participar! Solo llenar nuestro formulario, inscribirse a nuestra comunidad de creativos en Discord para encontrar inspiración, colaboradores, o guía, e involucrarte con nuestros próximos eventos.

La colección andina busca destacar trabajos creativos y artísticos en medios y estilos de publicación diversos por creadores que se autoidentifican como andinos/andinas/andinxes. Utilicemos el término ‘andino’ para honrar nuestra historia compartida antes de la colonización, aunque sabemos que hoy estamos muchos acostumbrados a identificarnos por nacionalidad (como peruano o peruano-americano). Apreciamos la complejidad rica de identidades representada en nuestra comunidad y damos la bienvenida a cualquiera para participar que tenga vínculos ancestrales o sociales a los Andes (sea Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Perú, Bolivia, etc.) y sus diásporas. La identidad andina también es interseccional y se extiende más allá de una dicotomía indígena, español, mestizo, o latinx/latiné. Por esa razón, somos inclusivos de diásporas diversas como las comunidades nikkei del Perú y de las comunidades descendientes de africanos.

Esta colección es por y para nosotros, nuestros ancestros, y futuras generaciones. Nuestra meta es que se sienta familiar y al mismo tiempo enteramente nueva porque incluye perspectivas diversas dentro de nuestro repertorio de culturas, que tan poco se ve representado en la narrativa dominante.

Este es un espacio experimental para explorar tu identidad individual, tu creatividad, y ser parte de nuestra comunidad. Te invitamos a visitarnos, contribuir y colaborar de la manera que sea más interesante para ti.

C O L E C C I O N    A S I A T I C O A M E R I C A N A

La colección asiaticoamericana busca explorar las diversas facetas de las experiencias y herencias culturales variadas de los asioamericanos a través de medios y publicaciones creativas. Esta colección es para y por asioamericanos, incluyendo aquellos quienes sus herencias incluyen Asia del Este, Sureste, y Sur, las islas del Pacífico, y las identidades multiétnicas y diaspóricas.

En definir una colección, las distinciones entre quien está incluido dentro del ‘nosotros’ es incierto. Dentro de nuestras comunidades, hay desigualdades de poder entre los grupos. Diferencias entre ‘asioamericano’ a través de clase socioeconómico, color, género, sexo, religión, estatus migratorio, historia, y origen nacional produce historias desproporcionadas y desbalanciadas, además de encuentros con violencia estatal. Adicionalmente, llamados para comunidad pueden ofrecer unidad estratégica pero borrar los efectos diferentes de racialización y colonización bajo un término general. En vez de exigir inclusión, nuestra colección ofrece un espacio para compartir narratives que se tratan de diferentes interacciones entre historias y experiencias, con aquellos que se identifican como asioamericanos.

Esta colección busca proveer un espacio para explorar la identidad, fortalecer comunidades y crear una fuente creativa para nutrirnos, llenar nuestras almas, y explorar sin restricciones y extender los límites de nuestras imaginaciones, usando nuestra práctica creativa para reflexionar sobre nuestros tiempos compartidos hacia un futuro de liberación colectiva.

¿Interesado? ¡Llena nuestro formulario!

Para visualizar un mundo alternativo, y
porque nuestra representación es importante,
compartiendo conocimiento y consciencia,
crearemos el futuro.

De izquierda a derecha: Arte por Jessica Tin, Jamie San Andres de Rimay Raiz, Layqa Nuna Yawar, Lia Coleman, Felix Kar-wah Fok cortesía de Shirley Man-Kin Leung, Sandy Enriquez, Adina Farinango y Angela DelosReyes. Patrón de fondo por Artemio Morales con agradecedimiento por las enseñanzas de Zadir Milla Euribe, Música por Jonathan Morales. 

¡Se hace un llamado a toda nuestra gente andina y asioamericana! AltSalt está creando dos colecciones multidisciplinarias de trabajo. Queremos que seas parte de este proyecto.

Mundos Alternatives: Los Andes y América Asiatica

"To Dream and Be Intentional" — Interview with Shirley Man-Kin Leung

Poetry, in the popular imagination, is usually seen as a solo act. The lone poet bares their soul to the world, writes beautiful tortured lines, etc.

When it comes to electric literature, though, what happens a computer algorithm is thrown into the creative process? Does the computer get copyright? And, most importantly, does it get royalties?

Joking aside, some poets these days are embracing the digital and don’t necessarily write poems the old-fashioned way. Here are some innovative poems that turn the idea of poetry – and the solo poet – on its head.

 

1.) Taroko Gorge, by Nick Montfort, et al

<img src="https://altsalt.s3.amazonaws.com/catalog/article/5/taroko1-edited.png" width="723" height="571"/>

Taroko Gorge uses a computer algorithm to generate lines of poetry. The sidebar shows versions by writers who have hacked the code to make spinoffs.

 

At Taroko Gorge in Taiwan, Nick Montfort wrote a poem to celebrate the national park’s awesome beauty. Or, rather, in 21st century style, he wrote a computer program to make such poems for him.

The resulting work, <a href="http://nickm.com/taroko_gorge/" target="_blank">Taroko Gorge</a>, randomly chooses words from a list and endlessly assembles them into stanzas.


But Taroko Gorge is more than a single poem: it’s a platform that digital authors use to experiment, collaborate, and build new works. The code can be easily hacked to write any kind of poem imaginable. For example, in writer Flourish Klink's spinoff, <a href="http://nickm.com/taroko_gorge/fred_and_george/" target="_blank">Fred &amp; George</a>, Taroko Gorge transforms into a Harry Potter fanfic about an encounter between the twins and their… um, “wands.”

The poem’s sidebar lists many authors who have taken up the challenge of hacking Montfort’s original JavaScript code. (My own version, <a href="http://nickm.com/taroko_gorge/54_61_72_6f_6b_6f/" target="_blank">54_61_72_6F_6B_6F</a>, can be found on the page as well.)

 

2.) Pentametron, by Ranjit Bhatnagar, et al

<img src="https://altsalt.s3.amazonaws.com/catalog/article/5/pentametron1.png" width="750" height="746"/>

Move aside, Shakespeare! Make room for... a Twitter bot!

 

"I’m just a squirrel looking for a nut 
You are a wizard harry i’m a what 
Glad to believe in #Jesus, He’s the best… 
From Fresno to Pomona fuck the rest" 
-A couple of random retweets, by Pentametron

Though these couplets have the right rhythm and the rhyme, no, they aren't authentic Elizabethan prose – they were actually strung together by a computer program.

Along with thousands more, these couplets  are the product of <a href="https://twitter.com/pentametron?lang=en" target="_blank">Pentametron</a>, a Twitter bot by <a href="http://moonmilk.com/" target="_blank">Ranjit Bhatnagar</a> that automatically retweets rhyming lines that users have written, consciously or otherwise, in iambic pentameter.

This raises the question, who “wrote” this endless epic poem?

Was it the Twitter users whose fragments were appropriated and put in a different context? Was the “author” the program itself? Or is Ranjit Bhatnagar the author of the work, even though he wrote none of the prose by himself?


 

3.) The Last Performance, by Judd Morrissey, et al

<img src="https://altsalt.s3.amazonaws.com/catalog/article/5/last-performance-1.png" width="1226" height="970"/>

The Last Performance is a poem whose structure is based on a cathedral. Here, we see a zoomed-out view of the "dome" and just a few of the "lenses" that constitute it.

 

<a href="http://thelastperformance.org/cupola_triads.php" target="_blank">The Last Performance</a>, by <a href="http://www.judisdaid.org/" target="_blank">Judd Morrissey</a>, is a digital poem based on architecture. (Note: If using a mobile device inside the piece, tap each link twice to proceed.)

Specifically, The Last Performance is about the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia" target="_blank">Hagia Sophia</a>, a Byzantine cathedral that was converted to a mosque and eventually to a museum. In Morrissey’s textual cathedral, though, words don’t only provide meaning – they also define space.

In the mainstay of the piece, the reader encounters the “dome” of the poem, which consists of thousands of “lenses,” or texts, that were contributed by readers, writers, and collaborators.

Each word in a lens is a hyperlink that leads to another lens. The result is a labyrinthine structure that can be traversed in any number of ways, allowing the visitor to encounter any number of poems written by any number of authors.


 

4.) Bicycle Built for 2000, by Aaron Koblin and Daniel Massey, et al

<img src="https://altsalt.s3.amazonaws.com/catalog/article/5/cover-5/bicycle-888413.png" width="1041" height="720"/>

Bicycle Built for 2000, a performative digital piece, was created by more than 2000 anonymous workers from around the world.

 


	<a href="http://www.bicyclebuiltfortwothousand.com/" target="_blank">Bicycle Built for 2000</a> is the product of 2000 people around the globe working together, albeit without knowing it. (Note: It requires Flash.)


Through Amazon’s <a href="https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome" target="_blank">Mechanical Turk service</a>, hired workers were given a short audio clip and tasked with recreating it with his or her own voice. Put together, these thousands of samples recreate Daisy Bell, a popular song from late 1800s.

Interestingly, Daisy Bell was previously used in 1962 to demonstrate the invention of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_synthesis" target="_blank">computer speech synthesis</a>. Part of the project of Bicycle Built for 2000, then, is to reverse that formula, using countless human voices to create something digital.


 

So there you have it!

Four digital poems that play with the idea of poetry, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Bookmark us or follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thisisaltsalt/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/thisisaltsalt?lang=en" target="_blank">Twitter</a> to learn more about exciting developments happening in digital literature!

When it comes to electric literature, though, what happens a computer algorithm is thrown into the creative process? Does the computer get copyright? And, most importantly, does it get royalties?

4 Digital Poems That Will Make You Rethink What Poetry Is

[Generations]

49 Days

(Interview)

Everyone

United States

Ireland

Peru

Wales

Zine

Visual Art

Essay

Guide

Letter

Slice of Life

Introspective

Perzine

Aymara

Indigenous

Quechua

Latinx

Andes

English

Spanish

A few minutes

Paxsi's Instagram

Exhibition URL

Etsy

A cover image with the text "Making AI Art Responsibly: A Field Guide", & a cute character at the summit of a mountain alongside a flag.

Blue text on white background: "These are the things they took from us, They left us bare These are the things they couldn’t"

The title "Cultural Correspondence" along with the illustration of a hands holding uprooted plants and dirt

Left: a cute blob with a speech bubble saying, "Hi! I'm an artist who wants to use AI in my work!" Right: 4 icons with the text "You'll need: 1) Dataset, 2) Model Code, 3) Training resources, 4) A publishing plan"

A page with the title "dataset". On the left, an illustration of files and papers drifting down from a cloud into a large stack of papers.

A page with the title "Model Code". On the left, an illustration of a stack of blocks, and another block about to be placed on the pile of blocks.

A young person in three different stages of life, in three different outfits

A person playing a guitar opposing a portrait of another person looking at the camera

A woman standing in front of a wall of graffiti

First Generation

Andinx

Quechualish is a zine I made about learning my ancestral language, Runasimi (better known as Quechua).

I made this zine for people like me, who want to learn Quechua and connect to it because it is their culture and ancestry.

It is a short zine with only 4 pages. This zine centers on my experience as a heritage language learner. I'm not yet fluent in Quechua, so I often code-switch between Quechua/Spanish/English, which I lovingly call "Quechua-lish."

I also included some very basic and introductory lessons and short exercises in Quechua if you are interested in learning.

Quechualish: An Indigenous Language Zine

Machine learning tools provide the potential for unprecedented creative expression, but also the potential to cause unintended harms.“Making AI Art Responsibly: A Field Guide” is an illustrated zine composed of questions and case studies to help AI artists use AI techniques responsibly and with care. We suggest that artists using AI should consider themselves part of the broader responsible AI community. As a result, it is important to consider factors such as consent of people represented in your datasets, labor involved in the model development and pre-existing codebase/tools, and AI infrastructure and environmental costs of training machine learning models. We hope that artists will attend to the potentially unintended harmful consequences of work as understood in domains like information security, misinformation, the environment, copyright, and biased and appropriative synthetic media.With this guide, we believe that by reflecting on what is “responsible” for their own creative works, artists can push forward best practices employed by all AI practitioners.Doing so can ensure that they harness the expressive potential of AI, responsibly.The Responsible AI Art Field Guide has been featured by Gray Area, DISEÑA, and Mozilla Festival.&nbsp;

Making AI Art Responsibly: A Field Guide

Part of the Kiona Ligtvoet’s solo exhibition “These Are the Things” at <a href="https://www.latitude53.org" target="_blank">Latitude 53</a>, this document is collaborator Paxsi's contribution to this gentle attempt at navigating intergenerational barriers to grief, tenderness and longing, in the presence of enfranchisement and personal displacement.In their essay, Paxsi, an Aymara and Welsh-Irish writer and artist, reflects on their Aymara roots as it relates to family connection and their trans non-binary identity.From the author:“I am honoured and privileged to be contributing to this collaboration with this piece of writing which expresses my grief and longing for the things that were taken from me, as well as a celebration of the things that cannot and will never be.“As you reflect upon and consume my words and Kiona’s work, please consider contributing reparations to Kiona’s home community, Michel First Nation, for the legal fees required to reclaim their land and status rights. Reparations can be sent as e-transfers to kionaligtvoet@gmail.com, which will be forwarded to Michel First Nation.”

Letter to Miguel, from “These Are the Things”

China

Cantonese

A creative game of telephone, this was created for the <a href="https://www.altsalt.com/community/project/alternative-worlds/1">Alternative Worlds</a> shared collection and contains poetry, artwork, and reflections on our creative processes as they relate to our Andean and Asian cultural heritages.

Located across the United States, each person passed the project to the next, who then responded to the previous piece, building up the collaboration via long distance in a way befitting of our times — digital, cultural correspondence :D

Cultural Correspondence

Free

Paid

Resonate

Book

Artificial-Intelligence

Creative-Coding

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Editorial content by the AltSalt team.

Shirley identifies as a queer, asian-american woman of color. She works as a community organizer in Northern Colorado and as a yoga teacher. When not being self-referential in a bio, you can find her painting watercolors, biking around town, dancing, or reading a book.

Imanalla! I'm Sandy, a zinester librarian in sunny southern California. I started making zines as a way to practice and maintain Quechua, my ancestral language and one of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages of the Americas. I now feel like I have too many zine ideas and too little time, but I try to make it work!&nbsp;I participate in several Andinx community projects like the annual May Sumak Quichwa Film Showcase and oral history collective Rimay Raíz. I love creating spaces for our community to share our cultures, languages, and experiences in the diaspora.&nbsp;In my spare time, I enjoy reading/watching things in the realms of sci-fi, fantasy, or horror. I also like to weave and garden (especially with, you guessed it, Andean potatoes!).&nbsp;

Writing, scriptwriting, andean ethnofuturism, nueva trova, improvised music, folk music, non white centric SciFi, decolonization and decolonising art

Envisioning an alternative world

Letter to Art #4 - Ukraine, Trans Rights, and Doomscrolling (March 2022)

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