Inauguration of The Aqueous Oracle
Animation created in ComfyUI
One on one interactive installation
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The Aqueous Oracle:
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​News Article: Water, Technology, Art and Design - John Nurmisen Säätiö​​
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​Statement of Intent:​
Over the course of three months, I developed this interactive installation called ‘The Aqueous Oracle’ for Helsinki Design Week (September 2024) with Designers Tomo Morikawa (Parsons School of Design NY) and Khyati Shekhar (National Institute of Design India). This interactive installation aims to raise awareness around AI’s hidden water consumption.
Inspiration and scientific backup: ​
The idea stemmed from the scientific fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI), consumes large amounts of water (Shaji, G. et al., 2023). For instance, a single conversation of 5-50 prompts with ChatGPT consumes 500mL of water (Li, P. et al. 2023). (For more information, read The Conversation’s excellent article).
​​Interactive installation:​​
This interactive installation starts with the audience having to put 500mL of water from their water bottle onto a touch sensor.
This interaction activates an animation. Inspired by Lotte Reiniger and Michel Ocelot’s cutout films, the animation tells the story of a fictional city ancient time far away: “In this city, there was a Water Spirit living in a fountain in the middle of the city who would answer all of the inhabitants’ life questions. But this came at a cost: for the water spirit to answer the questions, the humans would need to offer it magical water from distant mountains, walking for days. Today, the fountain doesn’t exist anymore. The water spirit has relocated into AI. You can ask an AI to answer all your questions but remember, although invisible, it comes with a water cost.”
After this, the individual has 10 seconds to ask their existential question to the Water Spirit. The oracle replies in the form of an animation and reminds them of the question’s water cost. The experience is one on one with the Water Spirit through the use of headphones.
The installation is also self-aware, as the animations and Water Spirit’s voice are made using a form of AI. It helps us question our choices as creatives and at least makes us aware of its environmental impacts. Was it worth using AI for this installation raising awareness around these issues?
Building process: ​​
I made the animations using ComfyUI over the course of two weeks. The process involved developing the right workflow, finding the style and tools with the help of Designer Calvin Guillot. The process of making the physical installation involved strong electronic and coding elements developed by Khyati. It also included 3D printing of an Antique-looking vase for the microphone’s support and printing of an informative water bottle label designed by Tomo. We used Resolume for the final interaction.
Storytelling through Worldbuilding: ​​
The story of the Antique ancient city came through workshops at Aalto. We created a map to depict where this original magical water spirit was born. This was helpful to insert the installation into a wider context, making it more impactful.
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Sources:
​Li, P.; Jianyi, Y.; Islam, M. A.; Ren, S. (2023). Making AI Less “Thirsty”: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models. [Online]. Available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03271 (Accessed 08 October 2024).
Shaji, G.; Hovan, G. ; Gabrio, M. (2023). View of The Environmental Impact of AI: A Case Study of Water Consumption by Chat GPT. [Online]. Available at: https://puiij.com/index.php/research/article/view/39/23 (Accessed 08 October 2024).
Gupta, J.; Bosh, H. and van Vliet, L. (2024). AI’s excessive water consumption threatens to drown out its environmental contributions. [Online]. Available at: https://theconversation.com/ais-excessive-water-consumption-threatens-to-drown-out-its-environmental-contributions-225854 (Accessed 08 October 2024).
Animation of Water Oracle created in ComfyUI