The Ghost in the Machine

“We are spirits in the material word”

Spirits in the Material World

Written by Sting & Performed by the Police

The theme for this month’s column draws from one of my favorite bands and songs from the 1980s: “Spirits in the Material World” by the British rock trio, The Police, written by Sting. It’s the opening track for their 1981 album, Ghost in the Machine, and was released as the third single from the album in 1981. It reached No. 12 in the UK and No. 11 in the US in early 1982. The term “Ghost in the Machine” was originally used to describe the concept of the mind existing alongside and separate from the body. In more recent times, it has been used in several contexts, including the idea that the intellectual part of the human mind is influenced by emotions and, within fiction, as an emergent consciousness residing in a computer. This concept, and the song, embody what I want to ponder in this installment.

But first, let’s talk about music videos. I thoroughly enjoy making them, both for my own songs and occasionally for other songwriter friends. I’ve shot videos in various locations using my iPhone, a GoPro, and a DSLR. My sources have also included footage and stills shot by others, public domain archival footage, and a wonderful online footage repository and music video creation service called Rotor. I’ve created finished videos using Rotor, iMovie, DaVinci Resolve (the free version), and have recently settled on Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Creating videos is a fun, creative way to visualize what is written and sometimes hidden in songs. As I write lyrics, I often visualize a scene for each line, allowing me to more fully realize songs and hopefully reach a larger audience for my work. If you’re interested, I highly recommend trying it. It’s a process that is simultaneously frustrating, illuminating, maddening, and sometimes almost transcendent.

Creating a video doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. Nowadays, you can shoot video with your phone, and with care and imagination, the results can be surprisingly good. You can edit your videos with free tools such as iMovie on Apple products or DaVinci Resolve, which is available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and iPadOS. DaVinci Resolve, though intimidating at first, is a fully capable tool even in its free form. YouTube offers an endless supply of information on creating and editing music videos with these tools. I’m sure there are many other tools for video editing available today, but I’m only mentioning those with which I’m familiar.

If you’re not confident about shooting and assembling your own video, try Rotor. For around $30, you can create a finished music video using their extensive archive of footage and editing methods. While you won’t have total control, you can still create intriguing videos. As an example, check out my video of “Fly to Your Sun” from my latest album Wind of Change. It may not be earth-shaking, but it gets the point across.

However, the real reason I’m writing this installment is to share my discovery of a new and somewhat controversial tool for visualizing some of my songs: AI (artificial intelligence). Recently, I released a video where all the images used to tell the story were created using OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its image-creating tool, DALL-E. I wanted to visually tell the story of “My Hat and Your Guitar” also from my current album, Wind of Change. I had originally planned to film a live-action script in the Texas Hill Country, but costs and logistics made it impossible. So, I took a different approach. I described the various scenes in the song to ChatGPT4.5 (the latest subscription version at $30 a month) in plain language, and it produced images similar to what I had imagined. I then used these images in a video editing program to create a look as though someone were dropping photos on a desk as the song progressed. Here is a link to the results – “My Hat and Your Guitar.” I’d love to hear your thoughts, positive or negative.

It amazed me to enter a simple request, such as “create an image of an old man wearing a western hat and an old woman, both happily singing in a heavenly setting. The man is playing an old acoustic guitar, while the woman sings alongside him,” and receive a picture like this:

When I saw the results and all the other pictures I asked it to create for my video, I began to understand just how amazing this technology was. There was truly a “ghost in the machine,” and that ghost was us. I was witnessing the presence of spirit in the material world. Just as we do with our senses and experiences, these tools have digested huge amounts of human knowledge and output. Then, when requested, they return something quite amazing and almost inexplicable. Could an artist have created this picture from the same request? Certainly. Could they have done a better job? Possibly. But I was able to achieve a result suitable to my needs at a cost I could justify and in a timeframe that met my desire. All it took was a willingness to try something new for creating content for my videos.

It has been suggested that by using AI-generated content in my video, I am betraying human artists. I wholeheartedly disagree with that notion. Technology has always been an integral part of artistic creation. Unless the art is created solely using our bodies, like in vocal performances, dance, or gestures, some form of technology is involved. This includes musical instruments, microphones, recording studios, printing presses, paint, canvas, costumes, cameras, and every other tool we use to create art. If the concern is about computer technology specifically, it’s worth noting that much of our everyday world is created, transmitted, or displayed via such technology. Modern music is almost entirely a product of computers, even when we sing and play our own acoustic instruments. Most modern studios are based on computer technology, including DAWs, effects processors, and programs that facilitate remote collaborations with musicians thousands of miles away. Perhaps the backlash is specifically against AI, which is still poorly understood and often maligned. However, change is inevitable, and as artists, we can either embrace technology or become Luddites. If I use an electronic reverb in my recordings rather than finding a room with the desired acoustic response, am I denying the real art of acoustic design?

I acknowledge that something is always lost when a new technology gains widespread use. But technology in itself is not anti-art. It simply becomes another tool in the artist’s arsenal. The arguments against AI are similar to those once used against the printing press, the automobile, and the internet. Are these advances intrinsically bad? Certainly not. Do they have potential for misuse? Absolutely. Every new technology faces opposition from those who fear change. But change will come, one way or another. So, use AI or don’t – it’s your choice. As for me, I will continue to use every tool at my disposal to create art, and I believe you should at least give it a try. Until next time…

Want to see more videos made on the cheap? Check out my YouTube Channel. Also, for the record I used ChatGPT to check my grammar and punctuation on this column.

Randy Lewis Brown can be reached from his website or via email. 

Randy Lewis Brown may be an over-the-hill, baby boomer and cranky old coot, but he is also an award-winning Northeast Texas-based singer-songwriter and self-proclaimed “performing philosopher”. Despite his years, and an early bedtime, he remains steadfast in attempting to decipher the intersection of spirit, faith, science and the human condition, always trying to maintain a sense of wonder and whimsy in his occasionally clever folk-Americana songs and stories.

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