By Lily Essilfie

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to step into a virtual simulation?

Well, students and collaborators at the Digital Storytelling Lab invited participants to enter a world of glitches, doppelgängers, and shifting realities. On November 10th, I had the opportunity to attend "Post-Reality: A Prototype from the Edge of the Internet," a live experiment hosted at the Elinor Bunim Munroe Film Center.

About Post-Reality

Post-Reality originates from a participatory storytelling experience that explores AI, identity, and the “dead internet” known as The Last Human. Essentially, it is an interactive prototype.

We are currently in the age of media disillusionment, attempting to sort the real from the synthetic. In this session, we take on the challenge by exploring storytelling through new perspectives that include experimental play, speculative design, and collaborative discovery.

Vibe Coding

The experiment began with an overview, connecting attendees' human emotions with the exploration of the world unknown. We were tasked with designing masks imitative of our thoughts and feelings about the “dead internet.” The masks were employed artistically as a vehicle for exploring how we perceive AI.

After designing our own masks, we were broken into groups. For every 5-6 participants, a Columbia student or collaborator was assigned. As a collective, we were tasked with creating a digital artifact. Our immersion guide was Jaiden, a senior undergraduate student. She walked us through the process of vibe coding using Cline, an open-source AI-powered coding assistant.

Vibe coding, a term coined by computer scientist and Open-AI founder Andrej Karpathy, involves giving AI free rein in terms of coding. Instead of manually coding, a person would describe the app, program, or simulation they desire to create, and then AI would generate the task based on the prompt. In other words, Karpathy describes it as “Fully giving into the vibes, embracing exponentials, and forgetting that the code even exists.”

As a group, we landed on a museum heist simulation. The objective was to steal as many real artifacts as possible without getting caught. The fake pieces are worthless, while the real ones have substantial value revealed after retrieval. It was really fascinating working together to string our ideas into a cohesive concept, then waiting for a generative simulation to emulate our ideas.

Watching our ideas come to life gave me mixed feelings. I love working collaboratively to create an idea not fully fleshed out and see where it takes us. However, I could not stop my thoughts from delving further into the future. I could not help but wonder, What does the future hold for us, as a people, as society moves toward a more AI-centered realm?

The Experiment

For the testing portion, the lights were dimmed, which added an air of mystery and adventure. All we really needed were two items: our phones and a pair of headphones. Before we began, a QR code was projected, which all of the participants scanned. Then, we separated, wandering from prototype to prototype. As we moved about the auditorium, masked and full of inhibited curiosity, we used our phones as a guide.

I was only able to test out three prototypes. The one I tried incorporated both audio and visuals to follow along with, which had mainly been generated by AI. First, I tried Everything Mart, located at 1225 Consumer Way, an interactive market where customers can shop for all their loved ones. We placed post-its of our gift for every loved one at a specific point. Then, at the end, we receive a commercial receipt.

Next, I tried an artifact that focused on using art as a way to manufacture human connection. As calming music plays through our headphones, we are directed to listen and sit with the music before we are tasked with creating a drawing inspired by the audio. We had the option to construct our own piece or build upon someone else’s.

Lastly, I tried The Dead Forest, a simulation that challenges us to highlight and face our own individual fears regarding AI and the dead Internet. This artifact compelled me to reflect deeply on the anxiety surrounding AI as it becomes increasingly integrated into our society.

As the testing came to a close, the next segment was the feedback portion. Participants shared their thoughts and feelings when they navigated through each prototype. Some even made connections between the “dead internet” and other socio-political AI concepts.

Honestly, exploring AI through storytelling can evoke a range of emotions: fear, intrigue, excitement, and confusion. However, researching as a collective can help soothe the uneasiness that comes with AI and ever-changing realities. Ultimately, "Post-Reality: A Prototype from the Edge of the Internet" piloted the way participants, including myself, interact with AI, prompting us to think more deeply about the fictitious and the factual.

Conclusion

The Digital Storytelling Lab hosts interactive events, such as this one, once a month, and allows people to also test their own prototypes. Anyone interested in AI and teetering the line between illusions and reality should definitely attend their next event.