The Moment Of Truth
Utilizing artificial intelligence to illustrate a social fiction novel based on a survival story of male sexual assault has engaged a wide international audience and attracted critical acclaim. Addressing the profoundly destructive scourge of pedophilia in human society is at the core of this creative project.
The success of this creative activity and unique production by Scottish Australian artist and author, Alexander Hayes will be measured by how many more men feel compelled to engage with and change their community by also speaking out their life stories.
A social fiction novel, digital animation
and exhibition of illustrations built with AI.
Some Form of Living Hell - illustration in the ‘Moment Of Truth’
Introduction
Based on a factual in-real-life story, Alexander Hayes is paving the way for how victims of crime can reach emancipation through the emancipatory human act of storying. Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) Alexander Hayes will produce a social fiction novel, a digital animation film, and an exhibition of illustrations.
The novel is composed of contextualized and anonymized excerpts from an impact and harm statement submitted to legal representatives in 2021 for the legal pursuit of criminal negligence compensation for sexual abuse he suffered as a boy and teenager.
Arguably, the manner and form of storying as a catharsis process may best be described as a contemporaneous extension of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in the socioethical and psychosocial realm.
Likewise, the digital animation and exhibition components of this creative process are designed to broaden audience engagement with this story and ensure an enduring socioethical relevance of this creative project.
Chosen By God - Illustration in ‘The Moment of Truth’.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Alexander Hayes is a survivor of crimes against humanity - physical and sexual assault. The legacy of these crimes against humanity as wilful acts of criminal negligence whilst in the “care” of a religious institution remains enduring yet, as Hayes reinforces:
“… the very best we can give back to this world is to do good with our story … victims often suicide … survivors often die broken-hearted … but thrivers do something useful with their story by refusing to be negatively defined by it.”
Written in a three (3) part memoir the reader is engaged in both a historical narrative and contemporary re-appraisal of this life story through critical dialogue. The premise of this social fiction novel is to reveal the unethical practices of religious institutions and to question current and past moral perspectives on taboo topics such as pedophilia and related PTSD instantiated from the neuroscience, cognitive science, sociological and psychological domains.
Read more about this case - Leader Media and the Sydney Criminal Lawyers Group articles.
Alexander Hayes - Downing Centre Courts, Sydney Australia in June 2019. Picture: Louise Kennerley
Patrons & Sponsors
Patrons and Sponsors were invited to contribute to this project in 2021 by investing in the generation of artworks as a contributor. The artist Alexander Hayes used the funds to engage commercial service providers and manually generate six-thousand six-hundred (6,600) creative works using neural network architecture text-to-image models VQGAN and CLIP - Vector Quantized Generative Adversarial Network (VQGAN) and Contrastive Language-Image Pretraining (CLIP) algorithms.
In gratis for their support, Patrons, Sponsors, Investors, and collectors will receive upon purchase of their GAN creation, their selection printed on canvas scrim and one (1) copy of illustrated ‘Moment of Truth’ novel.
Acute Anxiety - Illustration in ‘Moment of Truth’.
Publication
This is a creative endeavor that arguably has been enacted as a courageous act of defending innocence, re-establishing trust with society as well as reconfiguring a veritable and ongoing legacy evident through events that distorted and will continue to affect Alexander’s lifeworld.
As an artist, Alexander Hayes emphatically reinforces that this is not what some might consider a gratuitous act of self-immolation or narcissistic adulation. Rather, as an authentic example of human storying Alexander Hayes seeks to empower others also affected by these crimes against humanity.
The novel will be published as a physical book through Tablo Publishing based in Melbourne, Australia with publication and distribution in print across most major retailers. Select works have also been made available in the public domain for machine learning art creation re-use under a CC BY 4.0 license type as an Open Science Framework collection with the Center of Open Science.
Manifestly Evil In Design - Illustration in ‘The Moment of Truth’
Illustrations
Artificial intelligence (AI) has already and undeniably demonstrated great potential in the creative context, and gained increasing popularity in the last decade despite being labeled a contentious medium.
Alexander Hayes has cleverly generated storying excerpts with the power of artificial intelligence (AIART), melding the machine learning creative and structured model text-to-image Vector Quantized Generative Adversarial Network (VQGAN) and Contrastive Language-Image Pretraining (CLIP) algorithms.
Each image in the generation is produced at 2048 x 2048 pixels in PNG image format. Selections are made from each GAN generation to fulfill media publication, digital animation, novel illustration, or physical exhibition obligations.
The Camp Was Totally Silent - Illustration in ‘The Moment of Truth’
Curation & Exhibition
From a vast collection of sum total of six hundred and sixty-six (666) generations, each generation of ten (10) artworks is considered and one (1 ) image is selected as the best representative work befitting that generated statement excerpt.
Each selected work has then been made accessible online in Opensea for immediate public collecter sale or reserve upon notification from Patrons, Sponsors, and Investors. The owner of the artwork retains ownership of the single edition NFT and as the primary artist, Alexander Hayes retains copyright to produce the creative work as a book illustration, frame form in a digital animation, and reproduction for exhibition purposes.
In the Patron and Sponsor context, upon notification of selection, Alexander Hayes reserves the selected work/s and withdraws the availability of offer for sale in readiness for transfer to the owner’s digital wallet.
From My Memory - Illustration for the ‘The Moment of Truth’
Digital Animation
The artificial intelligence art creation (AIART) space is rich with generation art tools, processes, and services that can be employed to animate human storying and produce digital short films and other digital variations.
Alexander Hayes will selectively engage a suite of artificial intelligence tools to create content from those works selected and noted as ‘digital publication’, then edit these into an animated film as an alternative engagement medium in addition to the novel. Excerpts of these animations and explorations will be also published as GANs and social media engagement stings to generate interest in the publication, exhibition, and illustrations.
Dying With Unforgiven Sins - Collection of Karl Ozies
Production
As described in correspondence with Patrons and Sponsors, the creation process is derivative of excerpts from a compensation impact and harm statement, all subject to legal scrutiny and restrictions. The constitution for art creation production and illustration or exhibition selection is, however, based on the most pertinent aspects of this factual story.
These facts have been contextualized and where required, anonymized and elements of the story changed to protect the rights of those who are at risk as a result of this creative process. Patrons and Sponsors have been invited as contributors to this project, assisting the artist in generating artworks using the neural network architecture text-to-image models VQGAN and CLIP exhibited and for sale in OpenSea.
Get Your Clothes Off - Collection of Ormond Dickson
Attribution & Copyright
Conditions
Full copyright conditions and meaningful, legal attribution rest irrevocably with the primary creator and artist, Alexander Hayes.
Sole Copyright
The sole copyright of artwork creation as a GAN image and rights to its publication and future dissemination in any form remains with the artist and creator, Alexander Hayes.
Proof of Creation
The Artist can provide upon request to the Owner a ‘proof of creation’ (POC) or attribution record for artworks generated as GANs for ‘The Moment Of Truth’ publication and exhibition.
Proof of Ownership
The ownership of the GAN as a non-fungible token (NFT) is maintained through the assignment of ‘proof of provenance’ (POP) which is attained through the Polygon crypto blockchain upon transfer of ownership as a registered NFT to the owner’s digital wallet.
Public Domain
A select group of artworks has been made available in the public domain for machine learning art creation or re-use under a CC BY 4.0 license type as an Open Science Framework collection with the Center of Open Science.
Night Terrors - Illustration in ‘The Moment of Truth’
Ownership
The following steps are an explanation of the Patron / Sponsor investment and subsequent transfer of ownership in the digital format. The GAN artwork is uploaded by Alexander Hayes to the OpenSea project repository and a title / token identification is assigned to that NFT.
Each Patron, Sponsor, or Investor navigates through and selects the generated artwork/s by identifier;
The GAN entry of choice is withdrawn from sale from the OpenSea repository and marketplace;
Patrons apply for a crypto wallet eg. MetaMask and with the assistance of the artist, the NFT is then transferred to the owner’s own personal crypto-wallet;
The owner can then on-sell the creation in the corresponding NFT marketplace at any price with no restriction other than resale above the ‘Moment of Truth’ collection floor price.
Reinforce The Reprimand - Illustration for ‘The Moment of Truth’
