Dónde tienen su hogar las aves migratorias?

[asakiyume]

Where do migratory birds have their home?

Below are just three screenshots from a series of 16 photos on the Instagram account of somadifusa (Laura Ortiz), of murals she and the tattoo artist Azul Luna (Instagram account azulunailustra) painted in Bogota, Colombia.

I'm captivated by these images both of traveling swallows, some bearing backpacks and baskets, some with shells on their back like hermit crabs, and of hearts that are also nests, or that morph into shells, or sprout flowers and eyes. "Home is where the heart is," or the heart makes the home.

They write [my clunky translation--see the link at the end to see their original]

I have seen swallows nest in dark passageways, in airports, beneath bridges, in the palm of a hand and in the center of a star. Their wings cover kilometers, crossing the scars of the earth, their free flight reminding us that to migrate is not a crime and that borders are imaginary.

They conclude their post with a Spanish translation of a poem they believe is by Emily Dickinson, but there's absolutely no sign of it in English, and no sign of it in Spanish, either, except their post. Very strange... Please let them not have been taken in by an AI hallucination... please let there be some other explanation

Original post on Instagram

Comments

[sovay]

I'm captivated by these images both of traveling swallows, some bearing backpacks and baskets, some with shells on their back like hermit crabs, and of hearts that are also nests, or that morph into shells, or sprout flowers and eyes. "Home is where the heart is," or the heart makes the home.

They are gorgeous and I join you in hoping that the Dickinson is not AI, since the art is very (avian) human.

[asakiyume]

I can't believe that people who use the physical medium of paint on cement, who are about art by people for people in the most tactile way, would knowingly and willingly use AI. But one of my editing clients had obtained bunches of quotes from famous people, using AI to collect them, and several of the quotes were pure fabrications. They sounded very like something the person had said, but they had never said it. (Or at least, it wasn't a genuine famous quote by the person; obviously I and the internet at large can't guarantee that, for example, Mary Oliver never said X,Y,Z but we can tell it's not a genuine widely know quote with an identifiable original location.)

The Emily Dickinson lines they quote are very Emily Dickinson-esque, but almost too pat? So that's why I worry.

But it's also possible they merely misattributed, or that someone somewhere--maybe they themselves--did an idiosyncratic translation, etc. I'd prefer that to be the explanation.

[sovay]

But it's also possible they merely misattributed, or that someone somewhere--maybe they themselves--did an idiosyncratic translation, etc. I'd prefer that to be the explanation.

People are certainly capable of telephoning translations themselves. I did not imagine these muralists would have AI-generated theirs on purpose! There's just so much junk adrift on the internet and it's not even, like, cool jetsam.

[asakiyume]

No--and I didn't think that you did think that! And I don't either; I was more working out my own reasons for my feelings in my reply.

I just--and this is pure wishful thinking--wish that no one would be taken in by the crap that's out there ... but since avoiding deception means adopting an attitude of extreme skepticism and let's-check-ism, and since that's also a drag and contrary to world of trust ... uh! so exhausting.