womsactivity3

Activity 3 'Make Like a Machine'

Learning Objective: Explore how text based descriptions can be used to make artistic representations + consider how the limitations of text impact the realism of these representations.

1. Introduction:

Show students the following text and ask them to guess what object the text describes. Add more information to the description as students discuss.

(Formal Elements Language Only)

* A soft, cuboid shaped object with two rectangles running vertically down one side.

* The rectangles are attached to the cuboid at either end but hang freely in the middle.

* A rectangular ridge runs along the edge of the rectangle on three sides. It is rough to touch.

* The rough rectangular ridge has a small, soft rectangle attached at one end.

(Material Language)

* The cuboid and attached rectangles are made of durable fabric.

* The ridge is made of interlocking pieces of metal.

(Funciton Language)

* You can put things inside the cuboid to safely carry them.

* You can put the rectangles over your shoulders to carry the cuboid comfortably.

Collect students thoughts regarding what object has been described.

Explain that the description is of a rucksack.

Using students reponses/ guesses to the Explain to students how describing objects using only language relating to 'form', e.g. 'The Formal Elements', makes it very hard for us to know what the object is.

Explain to students that, during this activity, we will explore the limitations that using language relating only to 'form' might have on artistic representations.

2. Main Activity:

Ask students to write a description of an object that they have on their person using only langiage relating to 'form'.Explain that students descriptions should meet the following success criteria:

* Use 'The Formal Elements' only to dexcribe the object (Line, Shape, Form, Tone, Texture, Pattern, (Colour is Optional)). They must not described material or function.

* Be as detailed as possible.

* They should not show others the object that they are describing.

Ask students to swap their written descriptions with the person next to them (or another student).

Ask students to make a sculpture of the object described in the description they have been given. They could make this from:

* Air dry clay.

* Plasticine.

* Another modelling material.

Ask students to show the sculpture they have made to the person next to them. Ask students to tell the person next to them what object it was that they described.

3. Consolidation Task:

Ask students to place their sculptures next to the objects that were described and place the text based description in front of the object and sculptural representation. Ask students to walk around the room looking at the sculptural representations and text descriptions and consider:

* To what extent is using language relating only to 'form' an effective way of accurately describing something?

* How do the sculptural representations differ from the objects described in the text based descriptions?

* Are some objects easier to describe accurately using language relating only to 'form'? If yes then why?

Explain to students how these limitations relate to AI, because:

* AI doesn't have any 'conceptual' understanding of text based input.

* AI constructs images using only statistics and probability.

Close by showing examples of text based descriptions and innacurate/ poor representations made by AI.

To view examples click here!