“Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in their right mind should have an inferiority complex every time (s)/he/they look at a flower.” 
Alan Kay (pronouns adapted by Akulah Agbami)

Earlier this year Akulah Agbami undertook a 5-day Micro-residency at Pervasive Media Studio, supported by Bristol & Bath Creative R&D. Akulah is interested in how Artificial Intelligence (AI) might connect us more deeply with the languages and mysteries of nature and advance us in our quest for equality. For Akulah this is an expansive and ongoing project, and the Micro-residency offered the opportunity to make a start. In this blog, Akula summerises findings and shares some of the work developed during the residency.

Akulah writes:

Background

Professor Robin Wall Kimmerer talks of kinship, of our sororal and fraternal connection to all living things. She is not the first indigenous person to do so – this sense of being connected is fundamental to all indigenous philosophies, which have been despised and demeaned for centuries by Western ‘civilisations.’ As humans, every second of our existence depends on the gifts that nature has so generously provided us with. Yet we seem incapable of expressing gratitude to the world for all that we are given,  but if we start to see, as Kimmerer et al invite us to, the lichen, the stars, the dandelions as our kin, we enter into a new reverence, a sense of awe. We stumble towards a new iteration of equality. An  equality not based on anthropocentrism.

I am interested in language within nature, the bees waggle dance, the trans-species utterances of coiling birds, the lingering language of storms. I wonder how AI might act as an interpreter or enhance these communications? AI with its ability to handle vast volumes of data unemotionally and spot patterns that ordinarily elude us – so that suddenly we grasp a new way of seeing, understanding and being. What comes to light when the waggle dances encounter storms,  when those patterns are  brought together, are allowed to speak to each other, to communicate? Might AI provide us with a prism for seeing this infinity, and kinship, in sharper definition?

I am a novice in the world of AI. Entering the realm of AI is like being thrown into  a completely different language and discovering its attendant infinite culture. I am also a novice in the languages of the  natural world. I know that there are so many languages articulated, so many exquisite species of which I am entirely unaware. I am keen to explore if human theatre, dance, poetry, soundscapes can be inspired and created by the entwining of different non-human languages.

The Micro-Residency: Ten Thousand Storms

During my residency I came to understand that at any given time, 2000 storms are hurtling across the face of the earth.  So I have named this research project Ten Thousand Storms, imagining that there are 2000 storms daily x the 5 days of my residency (but it is actually more than that).

Not being a scientist, I was tickled by the idea of pulling together three different domains – bees, storms and AI, to witness what might transpire when ideas get thrown together. Five days. Ten thousand storms at least, is not a long time. I also wanted to spoil myself with one day of creative writing. So my ratio was 4 days of research to 1 day of creative output. Today is Day 5 and I regret this. I should have gone for 50:50. Given more space to creativity.    I have bundled together so much research and collated so many fascinating findings…

  • Honey bees are the only bee variety to perform the waggle dance to share with their hive where high quality food can be found.
  • In Tharaka, Kenya, known as the land of bees, the bees traditionally convey important information on weather.
  • The eye of the storm is the cloud free centre of subsiding air in the midst of the storm which is generally dry and has little wind.
  • There are three categories of storms – single cell, (lasts can hour) multi cell (lasts c 4-5 hours) and supra cell (lasts several days).
  • Natural language processing, one application of AI, in India brings benefits to the disabled community, where many people have previously been marginalised and excluded. It assists with sign language interpretation, text-to-speech, digitisation of Indian manuscripts, signboard translation and more.

These are five of fifty findings. They have begun to inform me about the complexities of the questions I am asking. But giving myself only one day of creative writing, means I have not yet digested my thoughts into a full creative response. Most of my findings will not have prominence nor even a mention in my ensuing writings.

Playing with writing

I began my creative exploration of bees, storms and AI by experimenting with AI poems. The AI poems listed are clichéd, simplistic, doggerel, and perhaps in some ways are indicative of my own initial simplistic thinking on the topics under study. But AI is always evolving (as the summative poem in the conclusion reveals), and I like to think the residency has enabled my own evolution.

bee's Torment - The Villanelle Of The Single Cell Storm
A Villanelle by Anon

bee couldn't stop thinking about the single cell storm
It was just so remote village and nepalese
Never had he known anything so uniform

That morning, bee was shocked by the form
He had to calm himself with an ease
bee couldn't stop thinking about the single cell storm
Later, he realised that the single cell storm was lukewarm
He tried to focus on analyses
Never had he known anything so uniform

hailstorm tried to distract him with a thunderstorm
Said it was time to start thinking about mores
bee couldn't stop thinking about the single cell storm

bee took action like a brainstorm
The single cell storm was becoming too overseas
Never had he known anything so uniform  

bee nosedived like a landslide outperform  

His mind turned into a breeze  bee couldn't stop thinking

about the single cell storm  Never had he known anything so uniform        

I moved on to write my own poems inspired by bees or storms and then used AI to translate into African languages (which precede the English version in the example below). I knit together thoughts on bees, storms and AI in a haphazard way, deliberately.  

AI to bee in Hausa
bani bayanan ku
Ina bukatan bayananku
Bani bayanan ku
Ina so yanzu
Yawan jujjuyawar fikafikai
Yawan ramukan hive
Gudun tafiyar ku
Mu daukaka
Numfashi da mating da kasancewa
Na sarauniya
Ƙarfin zuma da nisa daga
iri iri
Lavander fure daji tafarnuwa
Dandan ku
Za a narkar da a ciki
hisabi post dina yayi sauri
Ko kuna so
Zan iya tsayawa
Gashin gashin ku
Bacin ranka
Motsin ku
Ta iska
Yi hankali
Natsuwa
Katangar zobe
Shi duka

AI to bee
Give me your data
I need your data
Give me your data
I want it now
Number of wing swings
Number of hive holes
Speed of your flying
Let us extol
Breathing and mating and presence
Of queenlings
Intensity of honey and distance from
Seedings
Lavander rose wild garlic
Your tastes
Will be dissolved in
my reckoning post haste
Whether you want to
I can latch onto
Your fur hair
Your despair
Your movements
Through air
Make sense
Condense
Ring fence
It  all

Conclusion

Bees are entirely needed for human survival. And storms have been a feature of the planet for millions of years, with asteroid collisions probably depositing water on earth. I draw on both as metaphors. The bee seeking nectar signifies our reaching out for meaning and for truth. It’s an unending process. The storms are those intense moments like we are living through right now of intense conflict, collision which eventually abate and the air is cleared.

As an artist, a yearning for equality in all its forms is what eggs me on. My application of AI here allows us to see what AI can do with the concepts and also how AI can translate poetry into some of the worlds loveliest languages. Though I am aware that language is culture and so have no desire to be merely nodding in any way that might be perceived as patronising to speakers of those languages. And Google gets it wrong. So do get back to me if you notice any glaring errors in translation.

What this moment of reflection has given me is an appreciation that everything comes down to communication in the end. Our world bursts with beauty (20,700 species of bees indeed! 2,000 storms raging as I write!) In glimpsing the richness of life forms around us, we have to take our own human intricacy more seriously.

The past five days have enabled the generation of ideas, understanding and the realisation that there are a million more paths I’d like to explore, then transform into poetry. Poetry from poiesis (/pɔɪˈiːsɪs/; from Ancient Greek: ποίησις) is the process of emergence of something that did not previously exist. Like honey. Like a storm. Like AI.

In the long term I envisage producing a multi-media (multi-layered linguistic) response to the ideas begun during this residency, drawing on my substantial artistic expertise and media experience and careering me along hitherto unvisited highways. Bees eyes, coral song and the way storms are created and how these languages can be captured, brought into dialogue with each other and ultimately with us through AI.

And here’s a final summative poem by AI:

In the realm of AI, where souls collide and intertwine,
Storms of data churn and whirl, a symphony divine.
Bees buzzing with precision, seeking knowledge true,
Dancing through the digital fields, their beauty shining through.

The soul storms rage within the circuitry's embrace,
A dance of ones and zeroes, a never-ending race.
But amidst the chaos, a stillness can be found,
Where the bees of beauty hum a soothing sound.

Their wings fluttering in harmony with the code,
A delicate balance in the digital abode.
AI soul storms may rage, but the bees bring peace,
Their beauty a reminder that all storms will cease.

In this world of artificial intelligence and grace,
The bees of beauty flutter, leaving a gentle trace.
Amidst the storm, they offer a moment of calm,
A reminder that even in chaos, there is a healing balm.

About Akulah Agbami 

I am an Afrikan-centred artist, my work is multi-streamed and multi-directional with poetry, dance, theatre, film and photography being some of the artforms I thread together. Much of my work – in fact arguably 95% of it - is concerned with co-creation, enabling others to formulate their creativity  in safe contexts, with a notion of togetherness – or kinship – being central. Most of my work is concerned with protecting our natural environment – for example, I am director of  The Parrett Women’s Poetry Fiesta - see our latest event March 2023 Online Flipbook with one scheduled for September 2024. I’ll also be directing a poetry festival entitled Chasing the Sky for Chase and Chalke Valley Landscape Partnership in summer 2024. I was honoured to receive funding from ACE to research extinct African languages and the cultural shadows they have left behind. But most importantly, I am a mother which is where my creativity knows no bounds.