"You Are In A Coma" is a project using AI music (and human-written lyrics) to explore ideas of corruption, destruction, death, release, and meaninglessness. All the fun stuff.
This is accomplished via a single-page website and (more directly) a YouTube playlist that is intended to be played with "shuffle" enabled.
To point out a few pieces of the puzzle…
- Tracks such as "The AI Song" and "It's Real" are obvious comments on AI music, and AI "art" in general.
- Tracks such as "Broken Sequins" and "I Don't Wanna Rock" approach the concept of creators who are "forced" into creating art that they don't believe in via interference from corporate entities.
- Tracks such as "Plain Gray Rock" and "Parasystem" attempt to capture and make fun of the aesthetic of bands that purposefully revel in their own lack of value and/or meaning, flexing their own lack of importance.
- Tracks such as "Scary German", "Metaphorical Box", and "Edgelord" poke fun at put-on personas and overblown clichés rife throughout media and the creation of artistic content.
- Tracks such as "Crone Goals", "Cold Fish", "Hate Me Now", and so on, mostly provide a "fun" buffer between the more acidic and on-the-nose tracks.
The act of "Skinwalking" as a variety of diverse artists under a wide array of genres highlights that, from this point forward, formerly deep and meaningful forms of art will be mimicked, adapted, and appropriated by - wait, that was already happening, wasn't it?
Throughout various tracks, "The Void" appears in various forms under various descriptions, usually as a black hole or, of course, a void. In the lore of the ARG, the void is a looming symbol of literal death for comatose patients who are being used to test a brain-implanted AI device. Said device is being tested by generating nonstop "original" music. On the meta level any and all themes of death and corruption are more reflective of the eventual (inevitable?) death of art itself as the popularity and common usage of AI generated art increases.
The question isn't "What is music now?", or "What will music become?", but "What was music?"
The Characters
Spoilers ahead.
Four coma patients are known to exist, as mentioned through "audio bleed" wherein the discussions of researchers around them have bled into the generated song lyrics. These songs include, but are not limited to, 4ORSE and Demorandum.
- A military veteran and homeless man who was set on fire by a group of teenagers as he slept. His influence creates songs with themes of protest and anger toward the government and military, he is referenced in songs by themes of fire. He is the central personality that links the others. His theme is titled Bound to Flame.
- A debased, thuggish man who contracted a ravaging parasitic infection. His influence creates Juggalo-themed songs, echoing his prior fandom of he genre. He is referenced in songs through mentions of insects and parasites. His theme is titled Dead Rover.
- A promising young woman who was struck by a vehicle in a case of pure happenstance. Her influence creates songs with themes of vehicles. She is referenced in songs through acts of █████ due to her after-work activities. Her theme is titled Outta Nowhere.
- A meek and quiet "nobody", at least in her own eyes, who took her own life. Her influence creates somber and grief-riddled songs for obvious reasons. Very directly, she is referenced in songs via mention of suicide and sadness. Her theme is titled Going Up.
Others:
- The Shadow …
- The Machine …
- The Void …