AI for Collage Source Credit Ledgers

As of 2026-10-19 · the AZET team. We operate azet.io and publish this educational guide for fun and reference. All collage fragments, source records, and credit drafts below are invented illustrations, not actual submissions or customer work.

A collage may contain several pieces from one source and one piece whose origin you cannot remember. A tidy credit paragraph can hide both situations. A source ledger should make them visible before you try to write that paragraph.

The practical task is tracing fragments back to supplied origins. It is different from naming the finished artwork or describing its appearance. An AI text assistant can be asked to organize the records and flag gaps, while you keep responsibility for checking each connection against the source material.

Separate sources from fragments

Create one source record for each original item in your working packet. Give it an ID such as S01. Record the title, creator name, location within the source, and any credit wording actually supplied. Use “not recorded” when an item is missing.

Then create fragment records such as F01 and F02. Each fragment points to a source ID and describes the portion used. This allows three fragments cut from the same sheet to share one source record without pretending they came from three independent works.

Keep layout position in a separate field. “Upper left” is useful today but may be wrong after the next rearrangement. The fragment ID should survive that move. A small annotated layout sketch can connect the stable ID to its current position.

A hypothetical collage with one unresolved origin

Imagine a practice collage called Window Study. Its invented source packet contains a maker's own blue striped drawing, a maker's own photograph of folded paper, and an old loose clipping with no recorded origin. These are fictional materials for the exercise.

The source ledger might begin as follows:

Source ID	Supplied origin	Credit detail	Open item
S01	Maker's blue striped drawing	Maker's name recorded in packet	None recorded
S02	Maker's folded-paper photograph	Maker's name recorded in packet	Photo date not recorded
S03	Loose clipping	No creator or title recorded	Origin unresolved

The fragment ledger assigns F01 and F02 to S01, F03 to S02, and F04 to S03. F01 is a long strip; F02 is a small triangle. Those shape descriptions help the human locate them without using placement as their identity.

Suppose F02 moves from the lower edge to the center in layout version two. Update its position and layout reference. Do not create a new source or erase the earlier layout reference. The change concerns arrangement, not origin.

An illustrative internal credit draft could read: “Striped fragments F01 and F02: maker's drawing S01. Folded-paper fragment F03: maker's photograph S02. Fragment F04: source unresolved.” This draft exposes the missing information. It does not make the unresolved source complete by giving it polished wording.

A prompt for checking the connections

Review my collage source and fragment records using only the
supplied packet. Preserve every source ID and fragment ID.
Return a fragment-to-source mapping, missing credit details,
and an internal credit draft with unresolved items visible.
Do not invent creator names, titles, dates, or source locations.
Do not infer permission or publication readiness from a credit.
Flag fragments with no source, sources cited under conflicting
names, and duplicate IDs. Keep layout changes separate from
changes to origin information. Do not silently merge records.
Packet: [paste source rows, fragment rows, and layout version].

The request deliberately separates a credit from other decisions about using the material. This article is a recordkeeping exercise. It does not determine what may be published, and no source should receive a reassuring status merely because its creator has been named.

If the assistant proposes that two sources are identical, inspect them yourself. Similar colors, titles, or filenames are reasons to compare records, not enough to merge them. A mistaken merge would attach the wrong origin to every fragment that follows it.

Verify from the finished layout backward

Place the current layout beside the fragment list. For each visible fragment, locate its ID, follow its source ID, and find the source item in your packet. Then work forward from each source to the fragments that cite it. The two passes can reveal different gaps.

Check removed pieces too. A fragment absent from the current collage should be marked unused in that layout, not silently removed from the history. Otherwise a later credit draft may mention material that no longer appears, or lose the explanation for an earlier version.

Keep the human-checked ledger as the record. Treat generated credit prose as a draft derived from it. If the prose and ledger disagree, return to the materials before choosing which wording to retain.

FAQ

Should I list the same source twice for two fragments?

Use one source record and two fragment links in this proposed system. The final credit wording can be shorter, but the working ledger should preserve both connections. That makes a later removal or substitution easier to trace.

What should I do with an unidentified clipping?

Keep an unresolved source entry with the details you actually have, such as a saved scan or a note about where the clipping was found. Do not ask an assistant to supply a plausible creator. A plausible name would conceal the original gap.

Does recording a credit complete every check before sharing?

No. This ledger answers where your recorded materials came from and which details remain missing. It does not settle other publication decisions. Keep those decisions separate rather than converting a filled credit field into a general clearance label.

A dated AZET note

This workflow is a general illustrative exercise, not a documented AZET capability. The October 3, 2026 maker introduction describes azet as an AI assistant with an email waitlist. That historical baseline supplies no verification of today's live status or source-ledger features.

For the AZET waitlist, visit azet.io.