Bernat Cuni Bernat Cuni

Abundant Scarcity

A digital framework to explore Unlimited Finite Mass Ownership, to remove the economical value of ownership from the equation while assuring fair retribution.

Thoughts triggered by the Beyond Cultures of Ownership

I propose a framework aimed to promote collective ownership by removing infinite potential gains from transactional interactions.

The violence of operating with infinite gains within a finite environment is known and well exposed, but the economic frameworks still favours unlimited accumulation of resources (property). Within a finite environment, gains shall also be finite.

Within digital environements, infinitness or endless abundance of content seems the logic, specially when considering in the automated production of media content. On top of the externalised socio-environmental factors that need to be factored in, applying traditional and anachronical ownership approaches to digital content and environments seems futile.

I propose a framework of finite shared ownership that serves as an algorithmical defense for capitalistic speculation and as an equitative distribution of ownership.

We can call it UFMO: Unlimited Finite Mass Ownership

As a pilot, let’s explore this framework within the arts and creative digital production:

If an artist aims to have fair economic retribution for the labor, there are currently several approaches

  • artist is commissioned to do the work, with inherit power dynamics and master-servant relationships.

  • artist creates and then sells

    1. transfer the content to a sole owner capable of paying fair price for the encapsulated labor: selling to collector / gallery / wealthy individual

    2. atomize/reproduce the content at lower price ranges: i.e selling prints / memorablia

All the above scenarios fail as they can:

  • limit access to ownership to wide ranges of individuals or collectives.

  • Allow uncapped generation of wealth that might not be evenly distributed.

To mitigate this, new models need to be explored:

The approach aims to favour fair pricing and access to ownership at scale.

The framework is the following:

  • A creation has a price: that is the cost of production (material and intangible) + the operational costs (environmental and social compensation)

  • This is the price that the artist aims to collect

  • A slicing factor is applied to create initial units of ownership

  • The piece can be owned by purchasing one unit

  • The process goes on until all units are purchased

  • at that point, the artwork is fully paid, equitatively by its all owners.

  • Artist, price and profit is removed from the equation

  • Only ownership and redistribution takes place form now on

  • A new owner can buy a new slice, adding a slice to the total

  • The price of the slide is redistributed with all owners.

  • Each new slide is cheaper than the prior ones

  • The work becomes cheaper every new owner, with a tendency towards 0

Achieve mass infinite ownership, with decreasing entry barriers
The costs are covered, initial owners get refunded, the subject becomes free and can be owned at scale.
With this system, content with high demand becomes free over time, inverting the capitalist practice of chocking demand to extract economic value.
This framework could work in multiple entities/scenarios where the entry barriers to ownership are high.
This framework could serve to redistribute ownership at scale in an accessible way.
- work in progress -
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Bernat Cuni Bernat Cuni

Z ∞

Along the lines of Spider Goats, this satirical absurdist futurism project prototypes possible beings genetically engineered following the blind maximization approach of contemporary technological solutionism.

food crisis + climate collapse + synthetic biology

Along the lines of Spider Goats, this satirical absurdist futurism project prototypes possible beings genetically engineered following the blind maximization approach of contemporary technological solutionism.

Eaglemantis

A hybrid creature merging the features of an eagle and a praying mantis. This combination could result in a powerful aerial predator with the hunting prowess of an eagle and the precision strike of a mantis. It could aid in controlling populations of pests or serve as a natural predator in ecosystems

Dolphingo

A blend of a flamingo and a dolphin, featuring the graceful swimming abilities of a dolphin with the vibrant colors and long legs of a flamingo. This hybrid could potentially be used for marine conservation efforts, such as tracking pollution or studying underwater ecosystems.

GloFish

Genetically modified zebrafish exhibit fluorescent colors due to the insertion of genes from jellyfish and sea coral. These vibrant fish have been developed for both scientific research and as pets

Turtowl

A combination of a turtle and an owl, featuring the slow and steady nature of a turtle with the silent flight and wisdom associated with an owl. This hybrid could serve as a symbol of patience and conservation, raising awareness about protecting slow-reproducing and long-lived species

Dragonwhale

A mythical combination of a dragon and a whale, featuring the majestic appearance and fire-breathing abilities of a dragon with the massive size and deep-diving capabilities of a whale. This creature could inspire awe and fascination, stimulating interest in marine conservation and exploration

Egg-laying goats

Genetically modified goats that have been modified to produce specific proteins in their milk or eggs, potentially used for pharmaceutical production

Enviropigs

Genetically modified pigs designed to produce less phosphorous in their waste. By inserting a mouse gene into their DNA, scientists aimed to reduce environmental pollution caused by pig farming.

Koalafly

A combination of a koala and a butterfly, resulting in a tree-dwelling creature with the ability to glide and flutter between trees. This hybrid could potentially aid in seed dispersal as it moves from tree to tree, benefiting the regeneration and diversity of forests

Lactating rabbits

Scientists have worked on modifying rabbits to produce milk with higher protein content. This research aims to improve the nutritional value of rabbit milk, potentially benefiting both human consumption and the rabbit farming industry.

Allergy-free cats

Cats that have been genetically modified to produce fewer allergenic proteins, potentially reducing the risk of triggering allergies in susceptible individuals.

Chameleagle

A hybrid creature combining the color-changing abilities and camouflage skills of a chameleon with the keen eyesight and soaring abilities of an eagle. This creature could assist in ecological research, studying adaptive camouflage and the interplay between predator and prey in different environments

Anti-malaria mosquitoes

Genetically modified mosquitoes designed to be resistant to the malaria parasite, with the aim of reducing the transmission of malaria to humans

Pandowl

A combination of a panda and an owl, merging the cuddly appearance and bamboo diet of a panda with the nocturnal hunting skills and flight capabilities of an owl. This hybrid could aid in controlling rodent populations or serve as an ambassador species for conservation awareness.

In the process of creating hyperspecialized specimens without a holistic bio-diverse approach, the consequences have been severe. These actions have triggered widespread genetic mutations in multiple ecosystems, leading to the production of bio-failures and hyper-invasive entities. The damage caused by this approach has resulted in irreversible harm to our planet's natural habitats, impacting the diversity of species and ultimately putting the existence of many organisms at risk. The results serve as a reminder that actions towards progress must always be accompanied by caution and forethought, taking into account the larger ecosystem and implications of such decisions.

Mistakes were made:

glossary:

BioSteel was a trademark name for a high-strength fiber-based material made of the recombinant spider silk-like protein extracted from the milk of transgenic goats, made by defunct Montreal-based company Nexia Biotechnologies, and later by the Randy Lewis lab of the University of Wyoming and Utah State University.[1] It is reportedly 7-10 times as strong as steel if compared for the same weight, and can stretch up to 20 times its unaltered size without losing its strength properties. It also has very high resistance to extreme temperatures, not losing any of its properties within −20 to 330 degrees Celsius (−4 to 626 degrees Fahrenheit).

The company had created lines of goats to produce recombinant versions of two spidroins from Nephila clavipes, the golden orb weaver, MaSp1 and MaSp2[2][3] When the female goats lactate, the milk, containing the recombinant DNA silk, was to be harvested and subjected to chromatographic techniques to purify the recombinant silk proteins.

The purified silk proteins could be dried, dissolved using solvents (DOPE formation) and transformed into microfibers using wet-spinning fiber production methods. The spun fibers were reported to have tenacities in the range of 2 - 3 grams/denier and elongation range of 25-45%. The "Biosteel biopolymer" had been transformed into nanofibers and nanomeshes using the electrospinning technique.[4]

Disaster Capitalism in Action: GMOs -> The insidious use of genetic modification technologies by corporations for their own profit, often at the expense of public health and safety. These technologies have been pushed onto unsuspecting communities following natural disasters, often under the guise of aid and development. These actions not only exploit the immediate crises of these communities but also establish long-term corporate dependency that undermines local agriculture and biodiversity. We need critical examination and ethical consideration when it comes to the use of genetic modification and other technologies that can fundamentally alter the natural world.

The dark secret behind cute AI-generated animal images -> The fascinating progression of text-to-image AI models makes them capable of creating realistic and adorable images. While these creations are charming, there is an underlying dark side as many of these images have been created without the consent or attribution of the original artist and can be used to fuel disinformation. There are ethical implications of these technologies and whether or not they need more regulation and oversight.

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Bernat Cuni Bernat Cuni

AI Augmented Design Workflows / workshop

Approaches, ideas and tools used in a workshop about AI + Design Workflows

Below some of the approaches, ideas and tools used.

enjoy.

Why am I talking about this, now?

Because exploring creative ways to use new technologies is my job :)

teaching machines & machines learning

The AI space as a pixel soup to hunter-gather your design building blocks, with intent

The design workflow is already filled by AI tools and processes

GPU ❤️‍🔥 +

DATA (extractivism) ⛏️ = new AI models

⏳ research -> concept -> application

micro-Apps for every workflow

new tools

= new styles

AI as a "mainstreamification" process

Read more -> ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web

AI rise the standards of design

…and this is good, because more people participate, and the world is nicer. (designwise only)

"design" has always been about prompting

Mediocrity is automated

You'll need to do the hard 10% of the job.

Designer + AI

> Designer

Worldbuilding as a framework for designing spaces, objects and fashion

read more -> Worldbuilding

using AI with intent

hack the input/output of your AI systems

Tools:

We used a collaborative space to interact with text and image models

try it -> fermat ws

We also had 15 computers running stablediffusion locally using SD-web-ui , installed with several models and extensions.

And bunch of huggingface spaces setup with large GPUs to run fast and smooth experiments:

extracting depth from image

using physical mockups + photo to guide the image generation process

conversational image editting

We also explored workflow-specific tools as:

And reviewed guides and helpers:

And also talked about what's coming:

in short: AI is good, and you too

🙌

in short: AI is good, and you too 🙌

Glossary & Links

Awesome Generative AI -> https://github.com/steven2358/awesome-generative-ai

Machine Learning for Art -> https://ml4a.net/

AI + Design Usecases -> https://aidesigntools.softr.app/

Diffusion Bias explorer -> https://huggingface.co/spaces/society-ethics/DiffusionBiasExplorer

Stable Diffusion is a deep learning, text-to-image model released in 2022. It is primarily used to generate detailed images conditioned on text descriptions, though it can also be applied to other tasks such as inpainting, outpainting, and generating image-to-image translations guided by a text prompt.[3]

Stable Diffusion is a latent diffusion model, a kind of deep generative neural network developed by the CompVis group at LMU Munich.[4] The model has been released by a collaboration of Stability AI, CompVis LMU, and Runway with support from EleutherAI and LAION.[5][1][6] In October 2022, Stability AI raised US$101 million in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Coatue Management.[7]

Stable Diffusion's code and model weights have been released publicly,[8] and it can run on most consumer hardware equipped with a modest GPU with at least 8 GB VRAM. This marked a departure from previous proprietary text-to-image models such as DALL-E and Midjourney which were accessible only via cloud services.[9][10]

🙋 Continue the conversation in this thread .> https://twitter.com/cunicode/status/1631386323519938574

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Bernat Cuni Bernat Cuni

Lens & Filters

Augmented Explorations
Work done with LensStudio, SparkAR, ARCore, ARKit

Augmented Explorations

Work done with LensStudio, SparkAR, ARCore, ARKit

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Bernat Cuni Bernat Cuni

Artificial Scarcity Store

A daily creation, temporarily available for purchase.

A random creation,
temporarily available for purchase.

Launched Today:
- available for few days, until the next update.

Too Late:
- not available anymore

What is this?

This is a design.store, you can buy what has been launched today, and it will be shipped to your door, like any other online store. *here the details

But beware, today’s item will be replaced by a new one tomorrow; and it won’t be available anymore, ever.

All items are unique to this site, and exclusively deigned by Bernat Cuni.

Mainly it is a store of things that can’t be bought, except for one.

It is an ongoing experiment on design, digital fabrication, consumerism, globalisation, social networks & niche markets.

The Artificial Scarcity Store is supposed to trigger different reactions:

  • Some, moved by a FOMO, might feel unconfortable knowing that today’s piece will become unavailable tomorrow.

  • Others, facing the paradox of choice, might feel uneasy with the thought that tomorrow’s piece could be better than today’s one, and are unable to make a decision.

I’m thankful to you, the ones who get it.

For me, the main driver is crativity.

The Artificial Scarcity Store is a daily challenge where to place my whatevers and sidekick ideas turned into buyable items. The ultimate reason to make them temporarily available is to not clutter my headspace, and have less things to manage.

Technically, I use a network of providers to fabricate and ship the goods.

A design can be turned into multiple items:

  • if it is a graphic that gets printed on a product, I tend to use Society6

  • if it is a 3D model, I usually use Shapeways as a production partner, or I might post it on Sketchfab if it is an asset that could be used by other 3D developers.

  • If it is digital content, like a DesktopWallpaper or a 3D model, I host it locally at this site, or I might use pay-links to make a file downloadable.

Nice?
I hope you enjoy the Artificial Scarcity Store, contact for any question/comment.

Store Details

  • Payments are securely processed and encrypted by Squarespace.

  • Delivery times is about 2 weeks (for US orders), add another week if ordering from the rest of the world.

  • Orders can be cancelled within 24h.

  • Customer service is a priority, if something goes wrong with the product we’ll try to solve it, and issue a partial or full refund accordingly.

  • All items are fabricated by 3rd parties.

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