Qui est là ?
The I.A. image-prompting machine
The “Qui est là ?” installation is an image-prompting machine.
Visitors stand in front of the machine and type in their “prompt”. An image is generated in real time based on the prompt typed, and appears on the prompter's screen.
The machine's keyboard resembles that of a typewriter, but some of the keys are quite unusual, notably the “Qui est là” key. This “Qui est là” key is surely a key specific to telegraphic exchanges requiring a human operator at each end of the communication, to write and to read messages.
In the light of our times, the “Qui est là” key on the keyboard could only be a key to call out to an A.I., an artificial intelligence that is both vaporous and spiritual, omnipresent. A bit like “Esprit es-tu là?”
The images are totally created by an A.I. generative image-creation program that transforms a text - prompt - into an image.
Image generation tool: Stable Diffusion V2.1
Some time ago, while strolling through the aisles of a historic collection of Telecom objects, I came across an abandoned and completely dismantled keyboard. The keyboard resembles that of a typewriter, but some of its keys are quite unusual, notably the “Qui est là” key. Avec Bertrand Petit, nous commençons à bricoler le clavier pour la transformer en machine à prompt. Et après quelques mois, “Qui est là ?” prend vie.
Et c’est avec amusement, que j’ai lu récemment que Microsoft va opérer un premier changement significatif pour le clavier Windows, inchangé depuis près de trente ans : une toute nouvelle touche de clavier. Ainsi ses futurs claviers seront dotés d'une touche dédiée à l'intelligence artificielle. Comme quoi, il n’y a qu’un saut entre la télégraphie et l’I.A !
2024 – Albertine Meunier
