‘Aweh Force’ action figures go viral
● Capetonians are having a giggle and snort over a series of action figure characters created by an author using artificial intelligence (AI) to capture the quirky characteristics of life in diverse suburbs across the city.
Charlie Human started what has since evolved into a collection of action figures by prompting AI programs in an effort to capture the village atmosphere and laid-back essence of Noordhoek — where many of his friends live — for a bit of fun.
The result was an action figure wearing wooden beads with a third eye on his forehead and holding mushrooms — presumably the psychedelic variety. It resonated so well after going viral on social media that residents in other suburbs begged for their own characters.
And so the “Aweh Force” was born.
Human has a master’s in creative writing and his supervisor was award-winning South African author Lauren Beukes. He has worked for magazines, written scripts and authored three novels. His big break came with his international bestseller Apocalypse Now Now that “didn’t quite make yacht money, but earned me enough to buy a house in Fish Hoek”.
Human recently started a software company called We Are Human with a friend, specialising in finding ways for businesses to interact with AI.
“I had been following Midjourney and Dall-e and the development of these new image-generation programs that were released to the public at the end of 2022. I started playing with them and have been amazed at how well they have developed and how the quality has improved,” he said.
“As a writer, it’s great to have a language interface to create things in a way that uses natural language as a programming tool.”
The programs generate images based on natural language descriptions or prompts.
Human still lives in Fish Hoek and in a playful moment created the spoof character to depict life in Noordhoek and shared it with friends. They challenged him to create a character from his neck of the woods. What emerged was a leathery man with a mullet, smoking a cigarette and holding a scruffy dog. “The idea was tongue-in-cheek and I posted it on my Facebook page.
“Next thing I was spammed with requests from friends asking me to create more characters from their suburbs. I didn’t realise the reach it would get ... it got shared and spread like crazy,” he said.
Unaware of the interest his figures were drumming up, he embarked on a December camping trip with friends and “in the middle of nowhere, where we didn’t have connectivity”, encountered other campers talking about them.
“I was very surprised to hear people I don’t know talking about the images. I even got an e-mail from the Sunday Times.”
Upon returning home Human found people had been sending him photographs of real-life residents replicating his stereotypes, along with amused messages from followers declaring “I swear I know that character” and “I almost dated that guy”.
“Bobby Skinstad posted it on LinkedIn and a guy contacted me with the idea of making 3D printouts of the characters. But I decided the characters are far too detailed and nuanced for that to work and I don’t want to simplify them,” he said.
He is now partnering a business to exploit merchandising options — creating prints and T-shirts featuring the images.
“The funny thing is that all the characters are completely made up, and so copyrighting or trademarking them as AI creations is an interesting question.”
His most recent characters include the Rondebosch (campus edition) featuring a woman student with a blue afro carrying a copy of Das Kapital and a Starbucks coffee. The Milnerton (market edition) is a tattooed, bejewelled woman with multicoloured hair asking: “Can I interest you in a hunk of raw quartz crystal, a porcelain hedgehog, or a carton of menthols, mah angel?”
The collection includes a blonde, dreadlocked Scandinavian exchange student; a mean-faced, tattooed man in wraparound sunglasses titled “Fourways on Holiday: What you looking at, mah boi?” and one for Stellenbosch with the caption “Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your terroir perfectly balanced”.
“It’s been an interesting ride. It was just supposed to be a bit of fun, but it really took off and it has been great. I am sure at some point I will start a whole new collection.”