Technical Difficulties: A Pause, Not an Ending
Over the last few months, I’ve poured my heart into exploring what AI could help me create — not as a shortcut, not as a way to deceive, but as a bridge into worlds I’ve dreamed about since childhood. Virella.exe, the Dreams of Utopian Pleasures concept, Dreamseed Works, the experimental extensions for my zines and books… these were all deeply creative projects I approached with care, transparency, and respect for legal and ethical boundaries.
I spent a lot of time researching the rules, the guidelines, the do’s and don’ts. I went out of my way to keep everything above-board:
— using my own writing, my own concepts, my own characters
— keeping my AI usage transparent
— avoiding anything that even looked like impersonation or copyright violations
— making sure my tools and workflows stayed within allowed, ethical frameworks
I even used my own image to generate the VirellaExe persona character.
Ironically, it’s exactly these attempts to do things the right way that have led me into repeated blocks, shutdowns, and “technical difficulties” that have put almost all of my experimental projects on pause. Meanwhile, it’s hard not to notice that people faking celebrity voices, creating misleading videos, producing deepfakes, or pushing AI disinformation rarely seem to run into obstacles at all.
It’s disheartening. I’m not someone trying to exploit AI — I’m someone trying to create responsibly. But I’m also someone who grew up with limited access to the kinds of tools that now exist. AI finally opened a door for me to explore ideas I never could’ve realized on my own: especially the world of Virella.exe, which was, in many ways, a childhood dream made possible at last.
So having that door close — even temporarily — hurts.
For now, the experimental AI-powered extensions of my work have been placed on hold.
That means:
no new Virella.exe music (for the moment) - as well as the current albums have been taken down for now
no AI-mixed vocals
no experimental videos
no narrative extensions through multimedia
Social media has been temporarily shutdown as you will also notice
The books themselves, however, are still very much alive.
You can still find:
Coded Affairs Volume I
Coded Affairs Volume II
Cartomancy guidebook
the Beginner’s Astrology series
and future books are still on the way
Writing is the one thing no shutdown can take from me. Hopefully.
This isn’t a goodbye — it’s a brief technical pause while I regroup, rework, and figure out how to continue creating without being penalized while trying to be ethical. I still believe in the potential of AI as an artistic tool. I still believe collaboration between human imagination and machine assistance can be magical, emotionally resonant, and meaningful.
And I haven’t given up. I’m just troubleshooting.
Thank you to everyone who has supported my books, my art, my experiments, and my strange little worlds. Your encouragement means more than you know — especially now.
We’ll be back.
Just after these technical difficulties.
Comments
Post a Comment