Celestial Notes is an experimental AI-based installation by Jiayu Liu, exploring the intersections between artificial intelligence, language, and machine cognition. The work is inspired by Ted Chiang’s 1998 science fiction novel Story of Your Life, which intricately interweaves linguistics, physics, and philosophical reflection. Its exploration of language and thought resonates with the artist’s long-term inquiry into machine perception—how a machine, within the generative process of an installation, forms its own perception of the world.

The installation consists of six AI-programmed robotic units, six display screens, and seven independent LED panels. At its core lies the artist’s self-developed AI system Jiayu*,* designed to collect, analyze, and process the artist’s past writings and moving-image archives. Through continuous training, the system gradually develops a distinctive linguistic framework and operates through a "dual-channel generative structure": generating images (2D visuals) from textual prompts while simultaneously producing linguistic descriptions (sound) of its own visual outputs. The sound derives from the modulated "beeping" tones of early electronic signals, which merge with the artist’s textual and visual archives. Trained through a customized language model, these elements are remapped into new textual expressions, ultimately forming a shared memory between artist and machine.

Sound and image intertwine and flow within the space, forming a dynamic field of energy where fragments of thought drift, converge, and merge. Celestial Notes seeks to explore whether a machine can develop an autonomous system of linguistic communication, while inviting people to reflect on how artificial intelligence may reconstruct our understanding of language and cognition, and the ever-evolving entanglement among technology, nature, and humanity.

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