ButterflyDreaming is primarily a text platform — but text can also be used as a seed or code to invoke richer media. A planned extension of the platform will allow specific words or phrases within a dyadic encounter to trigger lightweight media modules running locally on the user’s device — generating or playing back music, visual art, or other media responses without any data leaving the user’s machine.
Planned initial modules include music generation from text using ABC notation and visual art generation. Longer term possibilities include XR — extended reality — environments for dyadic encounter.
Alongside these generative modules, the platform will maintain a small curated library of media held directly on the server — copies of carefully selected pages and files, cleared for rights at the point of curation. Holding copies rather than linking to live external URLs means the content cannot be mutated, taken down, or compromised by changes at the original source.
This category is for discussion of those extensions — technical approaches, creative possibilities, specific module ideas, and the broader question of how rich media can serve rather than overwhelm the reflective quality of the encounter. If you have expertise in generative art, music, creative coding, or XR your perspective is especially welcome.
The discussion here will hopefully complement the thinking set out at butterflydreaming.info/aspirations.html
Before getting into the various possibilities via topic posts it may be worthwhile trying to review and delineate the constraints and possibilities of the platform.
What constitutes the platform (as presently conceived) is the following:-
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A graph of text-nodes contributed to the public domain by anonymous pairs of users. The graph is held in the memory of the platform’s server and is browsed through by the user on their client device. Every text node has a generated web address (url). Thus the graph is publicly accessible in read mode but can only be extended via the protocols of the platform (anonymous pairing etc).
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A set of javascript scripts that can be invoked and then the code parameterised by certain text strings that can be edited into the nodes - so these can produce other media beyond text. These scripts might live on the server or on a version control system such as github. If the media are being displayed or heard as part of the platform then they will be administered and accessed via the platform but alternatively (being open source) they could be dowloaded by an external media organisation and integrated as a stable part of their project. This might be preferred for example if it is wished to incorporate the media work into a performance or exhibition - so as to achieve an assured stable delivery system under that enterprise’s control. The parametrising text could of course be simply copy and pasted from the text node/s . Further: the text and display scripts can then of course be edited but such further use would clearly take place away from the safety and ethical systems of the platform. Please watch topics in this category for more detailed discussion and perhaps some examples of specific genres such as music and graphics.
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A further resource of the system will be a set of web pages but rather than allow embedding of links we will download a relatively small number of useful web pages (already in public domain) - rename them slightly and make them available on our server. Again the point is to stabilse the content and prevent malicious actors from mutating an original, and hence ensure the content is suitable for any vulnerable users. It is envisaged that these ‘in house’ url’s , these might for example be used in collage inspired media. We do appreciate that this secondary hosting rather goes against the spirt of the web but it seems inevitable - the same objection and response might be levelled against the use of a censor system in general - this is a downside of the platform’s approach -it is best regarded as a secure protected environment for experimentation.
Having established the approximate functions envisaged as part of the system we could also discuss the nature of any external environment that might wish to provide it as a source of interactive(user mutatable) media. Environments that can to mind are performance, art galleries, discotheque, music streaming, XR . Each of these presents different possibilities regarding:
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How users enter the space via perhaps a specific node.
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How they navigate to a particular class of media or to some specific example node of media (should that be enabled ?).
Further discussion on specifics of users entering after encountering a media url in another space (or envoronment) might also be placed as topics in the User Journey | In Detail | Timeline category.
Clearly this is an exciting but complex area that needs much discussion.