The pace of technological change is breathtaking, bewildering, frightening and mundane. The old saying that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic and then once here, is merely commonplace – is dually experienced most everyday. In a matter of decades, we’ve gone from saying to computers will never understand language, draw a picture, compose a song or pass the Turing test to doing all those tasks on our phones and we make a collective ho-hum.Hence, we choose to focus on the fun, the radical positive and the potential for technology to bring people together and make new amazing things and statements.
This piece is an homage to our past and our future. It features some of the best creative minds of the past and leverages the most advanced Deep Learning AI and hardware available now to place the viewer next to our revered subjects, as if drawn by them. It is a reminder that creation has always happened in scenes and collectives and that our creative fore-bearers are the foundation upon which we stand. Plus, as we move ever towards the Enlightened Singularity, the hope that our grandchildren will be able to live with better and better facsimiles of us is teased here in crude selfies. Snap away!
In the first instance, we play homage to Vincent Van Gogh.
NOTES
This artwork debuted at Dara’s Dinner (www.dara.network) held in Bangalore India. It is supported by the British Council, India.
Team:
Artists: Hasan, Sean Blagsvedt, Archana Prasad
Production: Nitya Amarnath
Medium:
2 GTX 1080 graphics cards, bright computer box, chroma key green cloth, cameras, stands, projector
Referenced Code:
Gene Kogan, Realtime style transfer
Between.Today 