Remixing Generative AI: From Sonic Collage to Midjourney
I once enrolled in an independent study course with sound artist and SAIC professor Shawn Decker. Shawn showed me how to chop up songs and loop the parts I liked. I recall enjoying the process of looping from songs such as Eric B & Rakim’s “I Know You Got Soul”, which heavily sampled Bobby Byrd’s song of the same name. I was basically sampling a sample. I mixed down my new track and played it for rappers at a community center. They asked to use it for their demo tape. Nothing came of that but, theoretically, this experience helped me see remixing as a kind of sonic collage.
And so I just want to create this collage, almost like a Romare Bearden kind of a painting. — Hank Shocklee via NPR in 2015
Collage was a term I heard used by music producer Hank Shocklee who described the process of making songs for Public Enemy, among others. Sampling in music repeats discreet units or sounds to create new patterns. Remixing appropriates and changes other materials to create something new. Methods such as sampling and remixing using machines and tools require certain knowledge, or skills. For example, the MPC3000, a device that was heavily used by legendary producer J Dilla, has 12 touch pads that the producer pressed to play and repeat sounds.
Earlier this month, it was announced that rapper Lupe Fiasco had partnered with Google to develop a new artificial intelligence tool designed specifically for rappers. TextFX is a suite of AI tools that are designed to assist artists in the songwriting process by generating alternate meanings and phrases to words chosen by users. For example, “Unfold” inserts words into other words. I used text generated with “Fuse” to create a prompt for Midjourney.
In Midjourney, users can access the “Remix Mode” to change prompts, parameters, model versions, or aspect ratios between variations. This mode take the general composition of a starting image and uses it as part of a new one. Remixing can help change the setting or lighting of an image, evolve a subject, or achieve tricky compositions. The “Vary (Region)” button appears after a Midjourney image has been upscaled. In the example above I combined both features.
Last week, before the “Vary (Region)” button appeared, I created a series of images using Remix Mode and Photoshop image compositing (collage). All of the imagery was created in Midjourney, then layered and colorized in Photoshop. This process is continuation of the digital collages I did as a graduate student (inspired by Romare Bearden) and is a visual representation of the sonic collages created by music pioneers.