The Ephemeral Art of AI: Generating a Personal Song That Exists Only in a Moment
Imagine creating a high-quality, professionally produced song—something you’d expect to find on Spotify or YouTube—but it’s meant for just one person and a single moment in time. No broader audience, no future plays, just a fleeting, deeply personal experience shared between two friends. That’s exactly what happened when I used Suno to compose a song for a friend, and the experience left me both fascinated and a bit disoriented.
The Spark: A Mushroom Color Atlas and a Homesteading Heart
It all began when I stumbled upon a Mushroom Color Atlas—a comprehensive guide showcasing the vibrant colors that different mushrooms can produce when used as natural dyes. Knowing my friend's passion for nature, homesteading, and all things fungi-related, I couldn’t resist sharing it with her.
Her excitement was immediate and infectious. She replied:
“Yeah, it’s totally wild… in my heart I’m a homesteadin’ girl, so I really would love to nerd out on this and test all the mushrooms.”
Her words painted a vivid picture of her enthusiasm for foraging and experimenting with natural dyes. Inspired by her message, I decided to create something special—a playful, loving song that celebrated her mushroom obsession.
Crafting the First Song: Celebrating the Mushroom Queen
I first generated some lyrics with ChatGPT and with the help of an AI songwriting service called Suno.ai, which uses advanced algorithms trained on thousands of songs, I transformed these lyrics into a fully produced track.
Lyrics Excerpt:
[Verse 1]
A lady of the forest, a soul of the land,
Tonya’s heart beats wild, with basket in hand.
She dives into nature, she’s earthy and free,
Testing every mushroom that grows by the tree.
[Chorus]
Oh, Tonya’s got a spirit bold and true,
In fields and forests, she finds what’s new.
From dyeing with fungi to living off earth,
She’s a mushroom queen, embracing her worth.
When I sent the song to my friend, it was more than just sharing music; it was sharing a uniquely tailored experience that resonated with her passions. The production quality was on par with professional tracks, yet it existed solely for us, in that singular moment.
And for her, the experience was wild, it affirmed an ambition which is so present and alive in her that hearing it in a well-produced but quirky folk lullaby was mind-blowing to her.
The Strange Beauty of the Moment
As I reflected on the experience, I found it both exhilarating and somewhat unsettling. Here was a song that, by all standards of production quality, could belong on mainstream platforms. Yet, it was crafted for an audience of one, with no intention of broader release.
My mind grappled with the concept:
? Should I share it more widely?
? Does it need to be part of an album or playlist?
? How do I fully appreciate something so transient?
There was no pre-existing framework for processing this kind of creation. It didn’t fit into the usual categories of music consumption or sharing. The realization that there was nothing more to “do” with it was both liberating and disorienting. It felt as if the song resided in a cognitive blind spot—a piece of art that defied conventional norms.
Going Deeper: A Second Song and Meta-Reflections
To explore these feelings further, I decided to write another song—this time focusing on the very experience of creating ephemeral art and the cognitive dissonance it induced.
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Lyrics Excerpt:
[Verse 1]
I made a song for a moment, just passing through,
No place for it to settle, no crowd to view.
It’s polished and real, but it’s just for now,
A tune that drifts off, without where or how.
[Chorus]
It’s a song for the fleeting, for the here and gone,
A spark that’s not meant to be held for long.
With nowhere to live and nowhere to grow,
It’s complete on its own, and it’s strange, you know?
This song encapsulated my reflections on the transient nature of the creation and the challenge of relating to something so outside the norm.
Analyzing the Experience Through Baudrillard’s Lens
To make sense of this dissonance, I turned to french philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s theory of Simulacra and Simulation, which explores how representations of reality can become reality itself or even replace it.
I was first set onto the philosophy of Baudrillard by the move The Matrix where the book Simulacra and Simulation is visibly perched on a bookshelf in Neo's room at the beginning of the movie. And not by coincidence, since the movie itself is a pure Baudrillardian exploration in it's essence.
1. First-Order Simulacra: Reflection of Basic Reality
The initial song is a direct reflection of a genuine moment—a personal interaction transformed into art. It represents an authentic experience without pretense or alteration.
2. Second-Order Simulacra: Masking and Distorting Reality
In the traditional sense, songs are shared widely, becoming part of a collective experience. However, this song resists that trajectory. By existing only within our private context, it challenges expectations and disrupts the usual model of music consumption.
3. Third-Order Simulacra: Absence of Reality
The song becomes a hyperreal entity—so personalized and transient that it almost doesn’t “exist” in the broader cultural landscape. It’s more of an idea or a moment than a tangible object, pushing it toward the realm of the hyperreal.
4. Fourth-Order Simulacra: Pure Simulation
Created by AI, the song simulates the authenticity of human-made music. It questions what is “real” in art, existing as a pure simulation disconnected from traditional frameworks. It’s an original piece, yet also a product of algorithms trained on countless other songs.
The Cognitive Dissonance
This framework helped me understand why my mind kept trying to find a “home” or further purpose for the song. We’re conditioned to assign roles and trajectories to our creations—be it sharing, monetizing, or building upon them. The song’s resistance to these conventions created a subtle tension, highlighting how unaccustomed we are to art that exists purely for the moment.
Embracing the Unframed: Letting Go of Expectations
The crux of my experience lay in the struggle to accept the song as complete in its transience. My instinct was to “do something more” with it, but there was nothing else needed. It was a finished piece, meaningful in its fleeting existence.
This realization invited me to reconsider how I perceive and value creative endeavors. Not everything requires a broader audience or a lasting presence to be significant. Sometimes, the beauty lies in the impermanence and the intimate connections we forge through these ephemeral creations.
Conclusion
In an age where technology enables us to produce high-quality art instantaneously, perhaps we’re also being challenged to redefine our relationship with creation itself. The experience of making and sharing the song with my friend was more than an artistic exercise; it was an exploration of connection, perception, and the boundaries of how we experience art.
By embracing the moment and letting go of conventional expectations, I found a new appreciation for the fleeting and the personal. It’s a reminder that some of the most profound experiences aren’t meant to be captured or prolonged—they’re to be lived, cherished, and then released.
Reflecting on this journey, I invite others to consider the value of co-creating with AI for the sake of the moment. In a world saturated with content vying for attention, there’s something profoundly refreshing about art that exists solely between you and someone else, just for now.