EXHIBITION EXPERIENCE: AI Am I?
Vianne De Santiago, March 3rd, 2024
One of the featured exhibits at the Crocker Art Museum is AI Am I?. This exhibit explores the curiosity of artist, Alexander Reben, about artificial intelligence and its relationship to humans. He asks the question, "Are machines entitled with whom we should cooperate?"
When walking into this exhibit, I did not know what to expect. One of the first pieces at the entrance though was the, Deeply Artificial Trees, 2017, Video. I was immediately drawn into this video as it was a slightly recognizable rendering of artist Bob Ross from his show. Reben had given his AI the audio of Bob Ross's show The Joy of Painting which it then rendered into a video of what it thought it was. The video itself is quite interesting, but also unsettling in a way. The audio of the video almost has mumbles and the footage is hard to make up. Though with all these dysfunctions of the real show, my brain was still able to depict it as Bob Ross's painting and tried to piece the materials together.
Moving through the exhibit, I was drawn to his collage work, MY KID COULD DO THAT!, 2020, Magazine cut-outs and book cover on panel. The cutouts came from the magazine Artforum and the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, it is a commentary on how artists are often given the comment "My kid could do that" when discussing their work. The description next to this piece in the museum, talks about how Ruben uses this piece as a sort of anti-art. He didn't want it to be sophisticated or have a deeper meaning. Personally, though when looking at this work, I find it to be of skilled technique and knowledge of art. With the overlapping of material, different textures and values absorb the book cover he is highlighting. There is a great balance of chaos in this piece that works perfectly. It keeps your eyes moving through it and gives you variation on what to look at. Ruben also uses Pop Art techniques in this work that give it substance. This was a personal favorite from the exhibit.
The last artwork I want to discuss is the AI Polaroids. The AI Polaroids freaked me out, to say the least. When I think of Polaroid pictures, I see them as such an intimate human connection, one that AI could not enter into. I was stood corrected though when seeing these Polaroids. When looking at these Polaroids, one can tell after first glance they are AI. Some of them though do look to be real people, like the bottom picture of the girl. From the close-up, it does appear to be a real girl until you stare at it for a long time, you can start to see its AI. Presenting AI pictures through Polaroid photos creates the juxtaposition of presenting human moments often seen through Polariods to be mimicked by AI.
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I found the section on the Polaroids to be very interesting as a photographer myself. As you said, at a glance they look just like normal photos, but once you actually look, we can see that it was created using AI. It is something that I am particularly worried about, to an extent, and that this technology will only get better as years progress is what is scary. Reben highlights this idea well, and the fact that you were freaked out by them only helps cements this.
ReplyDeleteI had not ever heard about this piece. This seems like such an interesting blend of artistic medium with technology in a way I have never previously imagined. After attending the Art and AI discussion event at the Crocker, I can see that this work is a great blend of how AI can find its way into art in ways that seem unthinkable.
ReplyDeleteWas there any information about how they did AI Polaroids?
ReplyDeleteI was at this exhibition as well, and I completely skimmed over the Polaroids. I am glad though that in your blog I was able to think about this piece much longer than I did initially. I like how you brought up that AI is replicating real life with this. I also find that the concept of taking a Polaroid is so personal, that it being replicated by AI takes away that very nature. It shows little moments in humans lives, yet artificial intelligence is trying to replicate that which is interesting. Just like the image of the girl towards the bottom, for a human to take that, it must be a person of importance for them, especially to get up so close and personal to her face, but AI does not have those personal connections like we do so or them to replicate it, where is the substance?
ReplyDeleteHi Vianne,
ReplyDeleteI was able to attend Alexander Reben's Art talk last fall, but wasn't able to see the full exhibition so thank you for sharing this. In the lecture he talked about the evolution of technology from manufactured Twinkies pastures to protein folding. There was also a debate about the scary aspect of it all which it looks like the AI polaroids are proving. I found the images he showed to be somewhat cool but also disturbing as well. It is uncomfortable to think that AI could take such precious memories of things that us as humans hold dear and replicate them in their own soulless techy way.