A new afro-futurism collage model from artist and community leader Greg Liburd

Today, I am stoked to share access to a new AI model from Greg Liburd and interview with him diving into his dreams and Afrofuturism centered artistic practice. Greg is one of the co-founders of Refraction, an artist-owned community that puts together cultural moments centered in the crypto community and leads Black Space Agency, an experimental interdisciplinary Afrofuturist ecosystem. Below you’ll find a suite of insights that define him, his practice, and newly available model on TITLES.

Create with The Collage (Dropout), here

A lot of people know you through your stewardship of Refraction but I’d love to hear more about you describe yourself as an artist outside of this?

I align with Rick Rubin's idea from 'The Creative Act' that art is a way of being. When I view my actions through a creative lens, everyday experiences have so much more depth and color. In a practical sense, I'm a long-time writer, photographer, and filmmaker, with a focus on visual storytelling. I also build small-scale physical works, larger collective installations, such as at Burning Man, and perform as DJ. At Black Space Agency, my Afrofuturist practice expands on my art through tech, enterprise, activism, and collaboration.

When we started talking, you shared your specific focus on Afrofuturist art. I am curious to hear a bit more about this and the concepts you’re hoping to convey with your work?

“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."- Leonard Bernstein

I don't want to frame Afrofuturism as a constraint, since it's a profound cultural movement. But it provides conceptual guardrails that contour my practice. Like Aaron Robertson I view Afrofuturism as "an African diasporic philosophy of participatory counter-design". So my work strives towards the world building I envision from my cultural perspective and beliefs.

Another thing you mentioned to me is your religious pursuit of journaling your dreams. How has that fed your creative process more broadly?

Today marks my 4053rd consecutive entry! It's a thin line between dedication and compulsion. But it's an essential part of how I navigate the world and myself. Through journaling I can articulate thoughts and feelings in modality that helps me zoom out. I wake up, log my dreams in voice-to-text, and use those words for AI image generation, which I then animate. It's like creating a projector for your dreams and, as you can imagine, incredibly trippy. I also use my journal to chronicle and evolve artistic inspiration and concepts.

Bringing things back to Refraction, I am curious to hear about your perspective working with so many artists about how AI is impacting the onchain creative space?

Refraction artists are incredibly inspirational, considered, and brave. We're fortunate to have digital art pioneers in the community that have been working with AI in many forms well before the current 100-foot wave. Of course, there is criticism regarding the ease of conjuring AI works that would have previously been the sole domain of skilled artists. However, the creative universe born from the AI Big Bang is infinite and expanding. I understand why AI is scary. It forces us to confront our own humanity. But at the core, that's how I view the purpose of art. The onchain artists I admire embrace this challenge as an opportunity.

Looking through the collection, one thing I noticed was that it was "Shot + edited in-phone/mind”. How do you view AI as a tool in your own practice?

Increasingly, I am excited about the artistic potential of AI. The pieces I trained my TITLES model on were from a collection of digital works created entirely on mobile. They were my attempt to take everyday shots of my wanderings and transform them into expressive works through collage. This form is important to me as a way to reconstruct history and blend temporalities. It allows me to view the world through a speculative kaleidoscope with curiosity, agency, and optimism. It's mind blowing that the conceptual blood and guts of my work can be borne into new entities through AI. So as a tool, it's incredible to think about being able 2.0 your own artistic canon.

What does having your own model custom trained on The Collage (Dropout) mean to you?

Custom training is like giving previous art new life. It retains the essence of the original while generating something entirely fresh and unique. I can now utilize this model with my Afrofuturism practice for novel works that are still interconnected with the past. That includes some of my sculpture where I create digital collages, print them in high resolution, dissect them by hand, and reassemble them in layers of glass as physical works. What I'm also very intrigued by is how other artists will utilize The Collage (Dropout). I'm honored that others can create with a tool embodying my work, fostering collaboration.

Create with The Collage (Dropout), here

Anything else you’d like to share?

I really appreciate the thought, work, and belief put into TITLES as a platform for artistic expression and enablement. Thank you so much!

WHAT IS TITLES?

At TITLES, we help artists create, distribute, and monetize their own custom AI models. Since launch, TITLES has been used to create over 40,000 creations using artist-trained models each attributing and sharing earnings back with their owners. If you’re an artist or IP holder looking to create your own model with TITLES, reach out to us on Twitter or Farcaster.

Much Love,

- TITLES