The Moment of Truth
A social fiction novel, digital animation
and exhibition of illustrations.
INTRODUCTION
‘The ‘Moment of Truth’ is a creative project comprised of the production of a social fiction novel, a digital animation film, and an exhibition of illustrations by Australian artist and author, Alexander Hayes.
Based on a factual in-real-life story, Alexander Hayes is paving the way for how victims of crime can reach emancipation through the human act of storying and the power of artificial intelligence.
Chosen By God 05 - Illustration for ‘The Moment of Truth’.
This is arguably a courageous act of defending innocence, establishing trust, and reconfiguring a lifetime to reach emancipation, not a gratuitous act of self-immolation nor narcissistic adulation.
Through the emancipatory process of human storying and harnessing artificial intelligence as a mechanism of generating illustrations, this project serves as an authentic example to empower others also affected by these crimes against humanity.
This project ‘The Moment of Truth’ aims to engage a wide international audience through the principles of creativity and mechanisms of imagination, exploring how excerpts of human storying can be generated through the power of artificial intelligence (AIART).
PATRONS & SPONSORS
Patrons and Sponsors are invited to contribute to this project by investing to assist the artist in generating artworks using the neural network architecture text-to-image models VQGAN and CLIP.
Patrons and Sponsors also receive the GAN creation printed on canvas scrim and one (1) copy of ‘The Moment of Truth’ novel.
Interview with Alexander Hayes by Paul Gregoire.
Selected 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.
PUBLICATION
Manifestly Evil In Design 03 - Illustration for ‘The Moment of Truth’
Based on facts and excerpts of written testimony, the ‘Moment of Truth’ novel is written in a three (3) part memoir which engages the reader in both historical narrative and contemporary creative dialogue.
The novel is composed of contextualized excerpts from an impact and harm submitted as a statement in 2021 for the legal pursuit of compensation. The premise of the social fiction novel is to uncover ethical parameters and moral perspectives on taboo topics instantiated from the neuroscience, cognitive science, sociological and psychological domains.
Likewise, the digital animation and exhibition are designed to broaden the audience of this creative project. The novel will be published as a physical book through Tablo Publishing based in Melbourne, Australia with publication and distribution in print through most major retailers.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In the area of art creation, artificial intelligence (AI) has demonstrated its great potential and as a result, this process for creation has gained increasing popularity in the last decade.
Alexander Hayes will employ visual art creations generated from 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.
Finally The Camp Was Totally Silent - Illustration for the ‘The Moment of Truth’
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.
CURATION & EXHIBITION
From My Memory 08 - Illustration for ‘The Moment of Truth’
Each generation of artworks is considered as meeting five (5) separate collection types, all accessible online in Opensea for Patrons, Sponsors, and Investors; (1) Patrons; (2) Sponsors; (3) Publication; (4) Illustrations and (5) Exhibition collections.
A sixth (6) and separate collection of artworks are also available in the public domain for machine learning art creation or another re-use under a CC BY 4.0 license type as an Open Science Framework collection with the Center of Open Science.
Patrons and Sponsors are encouraged to access the entire collection of artworks via the OpenSea repository and upon notification of selection Alexander Hayes reserves the selected work/s and withdraws that from sale in readiness for transfer to the Patron or Sponsors digital wallet. A select group of GAN artwork creations and variations will be curated and form the basis for a physical in-real-life (IRL) exhibition of artworks in late 2020.
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, produced as digital short films and variations.
Alexander Hayes will employ a suite of artificial intelligence tools to create content from those works selected and noted as ‘digital publication’, then edited into an animated film as an alternative engagement medium in addition to the novel.
Dying With Unforgiven Sins 01 - Collection of Karl Ozies
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.
PRE & POST PRODUCTION
‘Get Your Clothes Off 07’ -
Collection of Ormond Dickson
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 are invited to contribute to this project by investing to assist the artist in generating artworks using the neural network architecture text-to-image models VQGAN and CLIP exhibited and for sale in OpenSea.
Patrons and Sponsors also receive the GAN creation printed on canvas scrim when sufficient funds have been raised to print and post these to the investor. Likewise, each Patron and Sponsor will receive one (1) copy of ‘The Moment of Truth’ novel when complete and available through Tablo Publishing.
ATTRIBUTION & COPYRIGHT
Full copyright conditions and meaningful, legal attribution rests with the creator and artist.
Sole Copyright
The sole copyright of that GAN image and rights to its publication and future dissemination in any form remains with the artist and creator, Alexander Hayes.
Proof of Creation
This website provides a ‘proof of creation’ (POC) or attribution record for artworks generated as GANs for ‘The Moment Of Truth’ publication and exhibition.
Night Terrors Sleep Walking 01 - Illustration for ‘The Moment of Truth’
Proof of Ownership
The ownership of the GAN is maintained through the assignment of a ‘proof of provenance’ (POP) which is a transfer of ownership as a registered NFT through the crypto blockchain to the Patron or Sponsors digital wallet.
Public Domain
A select group of artworks 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.
TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP
Reinforce The Reprimand 04 -
Illustration for ‘The Moment of Truth’
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 project OpenSea repository and a title / token identification is assigned to that NFT;
Each Patron or Sponsor 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 the NFT is transferred to their crypto wallet;
The Patron can then on-sell the NFT sync their wallet with an NFT marketplace at any price with no restriction other than with a 10% creator royalty.
Note: This means the owner retains 90% of the sale after the transaction fee of the NFT marketplace or platform.
BACKGROUND
Alexander Hayes is a survivor of crimes against humanity - physical and sexual assault.
The legacy of these crimes against humanity remain enduring yet, as Hayes reinforces:
“… the very best we can do to give back to this world is to do good with our story … victims go down with their story and suicide … survivors peddle through life and die broken-hearted … and thrivers get angry, demonstrate empathy, then actually do something useful with their story by refusing to be negatively defined by it.”
Read more about this case - Leader Media and the Sydney Criminal Lawyers Group articles.
Alexander Hayes at the Downing Centre Courts, Sydney Australia in June 2019. Picture: Louise Kennerley
