This page is referenced by:

• 1 2023-08-25T15:37:08+00:00 Micol Hebron 5 plain 2023-09-06T16:49:57+00:00
  Email: hebron@chapman.edu
  Website: micolhebron.com
  College: Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
  
  Overview of scholarly research/creative activity:
  Micol Hebron is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes performance art, social media, digital images, video and feminist activism. Hebron employs strategies of consciousness-raising, collaboration, generosity, play, satire, and participation. Her current work explores depictions of the feminine, and sexism in AI images.
  
  Specific projects working on:
  I have been using Midjourney to engage in lengthy studies of the rhetoric of prompts, investigating how large language models interpret and decipher text-based requests for image generations. I use simple and generalized phrases, familiar idioms, and references to the history of art and photography, to research how AI visualizes gendered language and images, specifically with regard to tropes of the feminine. I'm also looking at how emergent AI compiles complex aesthetics, and how it handles visual problems such as natural textures, fluid motion, reflections, smoke, complicated compositions, depth perception, etc. In addition, I have been researching the words and images that are censored or restricted in AI, and have found that through running hundreds of iterations of a single prompt, the AI will generate results that feature imagery that would have been banned (nudity, gore, sexually suggestive images, etc). In other words, AI will generate images that the platform itself would censor. I am not interested in emulating 'reality' or creating images with convincing (or deceptive) verisimilitude, but rather am very curious about what kinds of imagery I can produce with AI that are truly unique and characteristic of AI's way of 'seeing'. I have been focused on generating images of women doing things and of the female experience in history, as women have so consistently been left out of history, and particularly in art history and the history of computing and digital media.
  
  Number of students looking to work with:
  1-2
  
  When students are needed:
  Fall 2023
  Spring 2024
  Summer 2024
  
  What students need to work with Professor Hebron:
  Students with an interest in AI, digital imaging, linguistics, semiotics, and feminism
  
  What students would be doing:
  I am looking for students to help sort images, research AI, study the rhetoric and syntax of prompts, large language models, and neural networks. I also need assistance with data analysis and visualization, website development, graphic design, programming, and visual effects.
  
  Time commitment for students:
  I am open to a flexible schedule and can conduct meetings virtually or in person, as is convenient for both professor and student. Ideally the student(s) would be able to assist with research for 4-8/hours per week. I would need to meet with the student for 1 hour each week and the rest of the work can be done on their own time.
  
  Additional information:
  Students need to know how to use Photoshop and Lightroom.
  They will need to learn to use Discord and Midjourney if they don't already.
  Students with interest and knowledge in digital imagery, AI, programming, computer science, art, and art history are preferred.