"Aquifer" is the latest work in the alcohol ink drip playing series, which was started in January 2021 as a way to manage stresses. This work includes fewer of the seeding analog images...and more of just the digital ones.

1. Aquifer
An ingenue’s play in alcohol inks,
alcohol markers, India inks, pencil, glue,
(non)synthetic papers,
digital photography,
light compositing,
neural filters,
and digital image editing…
Shalin Hai-Jew
April 2022

2. 2
Waking

3. 3
Canoe’s Wake

4. 4
Crevice

5. 5
Stream Flow

6. 6
Flutter

7. 7
Late Morning

8. Aquifer
• “Aquifer” is the latest in the alcohol ink drip playing series, started in
January 2021 as a stress relief from the pressures of the pandemic.
• This work is offered for a kind of public workshopping.
• Some of the works in this “slideshow sketchbook” involve the use of
different seeding visuals to befuddle the AI (neural filters). Interestingly,
there is some visual bleed between sequential neural filters even without a
“commit” to the particular effect.
• The various digital image edits, neural filters, and other processes enable a near-
infinite abundance of choices and extreme experimentation.
• It is clear that artifice is in play, but it may be harder to guess how one arrived at the
particular visual state.
• It helps to store the learning into long-term memory for some other application in
the future.
8

9. Aquifer(cont.)
• There are different ways to create a visual that deserves a second
look. One approach is to use anti-physics, something that looks like it
goes against a naïve (untrained) physics. These include “Ripples” and
“Upstream Flow.”
• In the Landscape Mixer neural filter, there are various slider settings
for degrees (times) of day and night, for seasons, with nuanced
understandings of light that really can only be collected through
machine learning and artificial intelligence (at that level of precision).
• I just noticed that there is a “preserve subject” setting, which I applied to one
of the works. I also added the “harmonize subject,” so there is a meld
between my seeding image and the landscape mixer style.
• With so many options, getting to “commit” is hard.
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10. Aquifer(cont.)
• The Landscape Mixer does strive for some illusion of the plausible physical
(of a natural world) whereas the other neural filters are more about style
and artifice. Each has its own strengths depending on the visual context
and the common artist’s intent.
• Still, there is something of an offset fractal in the landscapes, with some
repeating land features. The fake reminds one of landscapes, but one has
to explore one’s memories of the real to see what is faux (sometimes),
something like the spinning top in Inception, something like analyzing
researchers who offer their research and data. One is always checking for
off-true.
• In some of my work, I look for the seams that break the illusions. If you look at some
of the neural filtered visuals, I’ve left the seams in because they add visual interest
and break some illusions artfully.
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11. Aquifer(cont.)
• In the deception research literature, based on what people want to
believe, they are easy to fool.
• So, too, with human vision and eyes. Even when one is aware of artifice
(think models, think Hollywood), one often goes with the illusion, the
glamorous artifice, than the real simply because the first is a preferred
artificial sense of the world.
• In some professions, people have to train out of their own self-
deceptions. (Go with the costly signaling, not the cheap talk.)
• Ironically, in others, people train into them so as to better fool others into
their cons, their faked senses of the world. And people often then fall into
their own traps because reality is hard. The fake is not costless.
11

12. Aquifer(cont.)
• I want to layer in interesting complexity without going overboard. Now, I’m
thinking I haven’t even gotten close to overboard yet, so I’m going to try harder.
• My freehand drawings are somewhat too tentative (due in part on the pencil and the thin
paper), and I am relying on the neural filters and digital image edits and digital painting to
bring the visual interest. Perhaps I should go full ink and try for less subtle. I am obviously
comfortable with all sorts of messy in expressing in inks and paints.
• Some of the born-digital visuals are from a trip to a local zoo. It was on a
weekend on a beautiful sunny day with lots of families out…to see the roboticized
dinosaurs.
• More and more, zoos are showing electronic representations of animals and less of the
physical real animals, it seems like.
• In some of my nature visuals, I am often clone-stamping out signs of people (which otherwise
appear in pretty much every image…except for when I’m on the Konza prairie).
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13. Aquifer(cont.)
• I like references to the invisible, too. In “Two Koi,” one of the two is visible.
The other, based on the neural filter, is hidden. One can infer its actual
location if we watch the koi long enough and understand how they
interact. But it would still only be an inference.
• The visible koi is the alpha.
• The world is patterned but perhaps not that patterned. It is predictable but…
• The past might be prelude, or it might just be sunk costs.
• So much of digital image editing is about troubleshooting, working
problems. One can start with an image idea or just experiment, play. This
is fun, but it’s hard fun. One has to be comfortable with being stumped for
various lengths of time. Then in terms of efficiencies, one works out a
sequence without wasted moves.
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14. Aquifer(cont.)
• There is always wide discrepancy between inputs to make the visuals
and the fast consumption by viewers (a common equation with
entertainment media). A work may take an hour to make, but it’s
consumed in seconds and generally forgotten.
• For the ROI, there is a need for large numbers of viewers to “make sense” in
the open source space.
• This slideshow does not include many of the seeding images on the
(non)synthetic papers. In many cases, only the digital results are
shared.
14

15. On white synth paper
15

16. 16
Mixing

17. 17
Split

18. On digital variants
18

19. 19
Seam

20. 20
At Base

21. 21
Facets

22. 22
Fruity Notes

23. 23
Aspirational

24. 24
Rivulets 2

25. 25
Drifting Moon

26. 26
Home

27. 27
Surface Tension

28. 28
Pink Tree

29. On born-digital variants
29

30. 30
Frozen Pool

31. 31
Tree and Sky

32. 32
Flint

33. 33
Shrubs

34. 34
Native Grasses

35. 35
Dry Brush and Shed

36. 36
Wild

37. 37
Possibilities

38. 38
Intertwined

39. 39
Rockery

40. 40
Japanese Garden

41. 41
Water Cycle

42. 42
Over Water

43. 43
Two Koi

44. 44
Treated Paper

45. 45
Upstream Flow

46. 46
Serene

47. 47
Gentle Time

48. 48
Calm

49. 49
Shallows

50. 50
Night Pond

51. 51
Warmth

52. 52
Time’s Caress

53. 53
Underwater Trees

54. 54
Dozing Mallard

55. 55
Reflecting Pool

56. 56
Sway

57. 57
Stop Motion

58. 58
Stop Motion 2

59. 59
Elements

60. 60
Multiply Imperative

61. 61
Bamboo Wall

62. 62
Wooden Walkways

63. 63
Pond

64. 64
Ripples

65. 65
Koi and Rock

66. 66
First Blush (Spring)

67. 67
Koi at Edge

68. 68
Flowers