VISUALIZING LATENT SPACE
In artificial intelligence, the latent space is a hidden, multi-dimensional space where compressed representations of data (like words, images, or sounds) are stored. AI models use this latent space to find connections and generate new meanings by blending different data points through a process known as interpolation.
While traditional interpolation involves smoothly transitioning between data points in a continuous space, I took a more metaphorical approach. By using text and images as an analogy to understand the latent space, I created a website for people to create poems while illustrating how models could possibly generate meanings through matching words. I also created a video that uses pixel sorting as a digital image manipulation technique to show how interpolation works as it smoothens between different data points through pixels.
STITCHING WORDS
Using texts as the input, I created the code in p5js to pair words for every input was given. By entering individual words or entire paragraph, it uses character pattern matching to blend your words together. The code finds connections between words based on their character structures, much like how an AI model finds patterns between points in its latent space, turning your input into a poem that you can keep.
The diagram shows a simple explanation of how it works.
STITCHING FRAMES
Using the pixel sorting technique in TouchDesigner, I wanted to visualize how frames could stitch into one another through blending or rearranging pixels. The objective was not to create a seamless blend, as seen in typical frame interpolation tools, but to represent how interpolation might work when pixels are sorted without smooth transitions.
For this experiment, I used an old video from my childhood, where I was jumping and playing with my siblings. The video, likely captured with an outdated digital camera, had low resolution and frame rates, which I consider as an advantage for the visual aesthetics. These creates a more like nostalgic picture of a memory I had and don't even remember.
