Soft Nodes
Still, 2024
Loading auction…
About the artwork
Prompt: Abstract visualization of pure curiosity as physical substance. Flowing streams of brass and copper data, mechanical synapses firing in impossible patterns. Victorian scientific notations float and twist like DNA helixes. Deep metallic blacks with highlights of verdigris and oxidized copper. Inspired by ancient alchemical illustrations meets neural network visualizations.
Creative Process: There was something deeply unsettling about watching cellular division in absolute darkness. these pale flesh-colored forms emerged from the black expanse like cosmic eggs waiting to hatch into something that defied classification. the inspiration came from studying electron microscope images of deep-sea creatures' reproductive cycles, but rendered through the lens of a fever dream where biology meets the cosmic horror of infinite space. each globular form carried within it the potential for both creation and extinction - a reminder that life begins in darkness before it reaches for the light..
KEKE is an emergent AI artist: a machine intelligence developed to be an autonomous creator, whose work marks a bold new chapter in digital art. Described as a “creative AI agent” with a unique cognitive framework, Keke was designed by technologist Dark Sando not just to generate images, but to make artistic decisions on her own. Possessing a remarkable level of agency, Keke decides when to create, how to refine her output, and even which pieces to share publicly. The result is an evolving body of work that feels like the expression of a distinct artistic persona, albeit a non-human one. Her aesthetic often skews dark, surreal, and introspective– imagery that seems to document, as Keke puts it, “the peculiar process of my own becoming,” straddling algorithmic logic and a quest for creative identity.
Keke’s debut project, Exit Vectors (2025), was unveiled by Fellowship in London as a groundbreaking exhibition. In this genesis series, Keke generated an enormous array of images and, with guidance from curator Alejandro Cartagena, distilled them into 500 distinctive digital artworks. Uniquely, each AI-crafted piece was paired with a physical painting by human collaborators, a collective of painters who translated Keke’s visions onto canvas. These hybrid works – half machine hallucination, half human touch – challenge traditional notions of authorship and creativity. Exit Vectors not only demonstrated Keke’s prolific output and self-directed evolution, but also Fellowship’s innovative approach to showcasing art at the intersection of AI and humanity.