honey raku

Generative AI Stealing From and Misunderstanding My Content

in

In preparation for my Morningside University Humanities Speaker Series lecture Clay and Fire: Exploring Raku Ceramics, I was googling raku terminology to take screenshots that demonstrate that some of my artwork and research published within my blog posts are in the top internet search results for a number of raku finishing techniques. (Note: all below Google screenshots have a black background because I browse it using “dark mode” which is a bit easier on my eyes.)

In particular, my honey raku ceramics are the very first three image results and my website is also typically the first or second overall search result!

Screenshot of Google search image results for "honey raku", with my images as the first three results

As I was gathering screenshots of that, Google’s experimental generative AI decided to interrupt with its description of what honey raku is, and I was genuinely surprised when I first glanced at it - it was just a garbled reproduction of my own blog posts. Note that my blog is the first result under its “Learn more” right side panel.

The first Google generative AI stolen, erroneous description of “honey raku”

In comparison, below is a screenshot of the beginning of my blog post it’s pulling from:

A screenshot of a portion of my own honey raku blog post

You may have noticed these errors in the above generative AI description:

  • the image it stole (used uncredited) to illustrate the description is not of honey raku, it’s of ferric chloride and horsehair saggar-fired rakuware which is a different technique

  • the honey isn’t hot, the pottery is hot as it’s coming out from the 1000°C kiln

  • it works best on convex forms because the melting honey rolls off the convex forms but it settles in concavities and then you get large black pooling marks which aren’t as aesthetically pleasing

I downvoted this first generative AI description due to its errors, and then redid the search just to see what would happen. The generative AI “learned” from my downvoting, so it removed some of the misinformation, stole an image of mine to embed, and added new misinformation instead.

The second Google generative AI stolen, erroneous description, this time with stolen imagery as well

In this new description, it’s fixed the image reference and the convex vs. concave misunderstanding, but introduced new errors including:

  • for honey raku, you do not put the hot-out-of-the-kiln ceramic into a pit of combustible materials and then create a reduction atmosphere; that is, however, the process for some other raku techniques

  • it now doesn’t seem to know when/how the honey gets added, but it’s somewhere in the pit and that’s apparently enough

I shouldn’t be surprised; I’ve seen ChatGPT arguing that “strawberry” has only two R’s and generative AI advice to stare into the sun for 10-15min per day because it’s sincerely quoting from satirical newspapers. It’s a first for me, though, to see it explicitly quoting and erroneously paraphrasing me to spread misinformation.

Honey Rakuware

in

I first tried honey raku in October 2023; I didn’t really like my own results at the time, but I learned two main takeaways in the process:

  • you very much want thin strands of honey rather than thick, so that it pulls into beads rather than leaving thick streaks

  • the honey works best on convex rather than concave forms, due to its propensity to run off vs. pool inside

With those in mind, I decided to give the honey raku finish another try atop two orbs, and I brought some honey drizzler sticks and a glass along for better stream control rather than using my earlier, clumsier technique of dispensing the honey via the squeeze bottle. Rotating these while they were insanely hot was asking a lot, so I really appreciated that Wanda was up for the challenge as she did that for me while I applied the honey.

Here’s the smaller sphere:

And the larger sphere:

The resulting pieces’ exteriors were smokier than the interiors since barely any honey made it inside, and the white shining out from the insides was distracting. I carefully stained the interior of the larger orb with India ink, and then watered it down a bit before staining the interior of the smaller orb as well. I love how they turned out; the bead trails of the honey almost look like planetary maps, comet/asteroid tracking paths, or constellations… a little bit like audio visualizations.

I also decided to experiment with a blue copper glaze in combination with the honey raku on a small bowl, even though the concave interior would be a challenge. What you can’t see in the below images is twofold: first, the blue lip is complemented by a blue base line, only visible when you lift the bowl up or get really down low. Second, this piece unfortunately lost the thermal shock lottery and has a number of minute cracks which make it less structurally sound. However, since it’s a decorative, low-fired piece anyway (as opposed to being food-safe or water-tight), the cracks are a permanent asterisk - but they won’t stop me from displaying or using it!

An Obvara Raku Workshop!

in , ,

After asking about it repeatedly for three years, I successfully convinced the lovely folks over at Dakota Potters Supply to allow us to do an obvara raku workshop on October 21, 2023! Obvara is a low-fire scalding-and-sealing process wherein you create a fermented sourdough/beer bath, plunge approximately 980°C naked ceramics fresh out of the kiln into it, wait for them to start to bloom with different tan-to-brown markings, and then arrest the surface carbonization process by rinsing the pieces off in a water bath. Obvara has an even higher chance of cracking due to the extreme thermal shocks involved than non-bath raku processes.

Getting the chance to do raku is relatively rare, and many ceramists haven’t even heard of obvara, let alone had the opportunity to do it - so I’m really grateful for the experience! Joining me on the trip were Morningside faculty Paul Adamson, alumni Calissa Hanson and Deb Murakami, and students Laura Greene, Taylor Greene, and Lauren Hedlund.

In addition, I learned about honey raku from a ceramist at this year’s ArtSplash festival - it’s basically like horsehair, feather, or sugar raku surface carbonization, but with honey! I brought some along and we tried it out too - though I want to experiment with it some more at future workshops as I was so excited about the obvara opportunity that I only kept one textured plate aside for honey raku.

Here are some photos from the workshop itself, soon to be followed by pictures of my finished pieces! I applied for and was granted funding from our Faculty Development Committee to help with my costs, so I made and brought 18 pieces along this go-round - both to make up for any thermal shock victims, and because I didn’t need to apply glaze to my obvara or honey raku ceramics so I could get more processed compared to when I need to apply 1-8 layers of glaze to each piece on-site before firing (for crackle and copper glazes or ferric chloride dips). If you’ve been following my raku workshop production, 18 is about double the number of ceramics I typically aim to bring.