01 / Totem
You choose the goal. AI drives the transition.
Totem explores how AI can understand your present state, choose a useful next move, and express it through words, sound, and rhythm. The goal is a transition you can act on.
The transition
- 01Current state
The starting point: distracted, overwhelmed, fatigued, or something else.
- 02Adaptive signal
A composition of sound, rhythm, language, and attention.
- 03Intended state
A shift that supports the direction you have chosen.
A vocabulary that helps you move.
The idea is to invent language that makes states easier to recognise and transitions easier to attempt. A useful term gives you something to notice, return to, or do.
- Totem
- Your chosen point of orientation: the goal, craft, or principle you want to move toward.
- Mantra
- The path back: a phrase or pattern shaped for your present state. It can change while the totem stays the same.
- State transition
- A move in attention, energy, or readiness that brings the chosen direction within reach.
A starting vocabulary to develop and test through feedback.
One direction. Different moves.
For these examples, the totem is Build. The same direction can call for a different route depending on the starting state.
- Narrow attention
- Return to the totem
Attention is spread across too many things. The proposed signal strips the sound down to one repeated motif.
“Return.”
These are illustrative routes from the prototype, not measured effects.
What exists today
The prototype maps a selected state to a sequence of moves and uses that sequence to compose an audio signal. It can vary the musical style while keeping the chosen direction in view.
The next step is to observe what happens after the signal and use that feedback to improve the next one. That is where the synthetic observer comes in.
Explore the feedback system