Exploring AI Before Direction
Project Puppy Play Mannequins with playing dogs
At a time when AI systems were still unstable, limited, and far from cinematic, I approached them as a space for exploration rather than production.
The focus was not speed or efficiency, but curiosity, experimentation, and visual intuition.
The focus was not speed or efficiency, but curiosity, experimentation, and visual intuition.
Working with early generative tools — Stable Diffusion / ComfyUI, Runway, TouchDesigner, and related systems — I began to explore how algorithms respond to artistic intent.
The process was iterative, improvised, and often unpredictable. Results remained raw, unfinished, and at times chaotic — and precisely in that state, creatively revealing.
The process was iterative, improvised, and often unpredictable. Results remained raw, unfinished, and at times chaotic — and precisely in that state, creatively revealing.
Selected early experiments, including Puppy Play, emerged from this phase.
Rather than fixed outcomes, these works function as open studies — testing prompts, visual behaviours, and the shifting boundary between control and randomness.
Rather than fixed outcomes, these works function as open studies — testing prompts, visual behaviours, and the shifting boundary between control and randomness.
Working with early AI felt less like operating software and more like observing a system in formation.
Each iteration shaped both the model and my own visual language.
Mistakes became material.
Surprise became a design tool.
Each iteration shaped both the model and my own visual language.
Mistakes became material.
Surprise became a design tool.
Early AI experiments · 2020–2022
Stable Diffusion / ComfyUI · Runway · TouchDesigner
Stable Diffusion / ComfyUI · Runway · TouchDesigner
This phase functioned as a digital sketchbook —
a place where ideas remained fluid, aesthetics were not yet defined, and outcomes were intentionally unresolved.
a place where ideas remained fluid, aesthetics were not yet defined, and outcomes were intentionally unresolved.
The title “Puppy Play” reflects this early phase: a process driven by curiosity, repetition and instinct rather than control or outcome.
Future Lab — AI Sketchbook marks the starting point of my AI-driven practice: a foundation built on experimentation, uncertainty and visual research — before direction, before orchestration, before cinematic precision.
