Artifacts3 - pointcloud of a plant (Milo Poelman)
Video, 2023
About the artwork
These were the first AI images I created back in 2021 and were part of a research project on digital reproduction and machine vision. I ran the generation on two google colab models called: “The Big Sleep: BigGANxCLIP” and “Aleph2Image (Delta): CLIP+DALL-E decoder”.
“We perceive.
When what we perceive is taken for true, reality, as it appears to us, becomes for us reality itself; The form becomes the object in its totality.”
The plant is organic, it moves, grows, and breathes.
It never stands still, it is not an object.
The plant is alive.
We, however, perceive it as a static object.
We do not see the plant moving or growing or breathing.
So when the plant is translated, the form is used as if it were the essence of the plant.
For us, the form is the plant itself.
As a direct extension of the human body, our technology converts this objective translation into information understandable to them. It creates files and images that represent an objective view but are not within our frame of reference. Therefore, we cannot translate this information into what it stands for.
In these early machine dreams, the AI imagined new plants that now have become artifacts in ever growing technological advancements. They almost appear as digital fossils. No audio
Audio explanation
Listen to Milo Poelman discuss this work.
Milo Poelman's artistic practice is deeply rooted in the belief that technology extends the natural world. Through his work, he explores and exposes the complex relationship that exists between technology and its natural environment. Poelman's approach to art is research-oriented, and the outcomes of his investigations are expressed through visual work.
A distinctive feature of Poelman's practice is the close collaboration, or co-creation, between himself and technology. This collaborative process likely involves using technological tools or mediums to produce visual expressions that reflect the intertwined nature of the artificial and the natural. By delving into this relationship, Poelman contributes to a deeper understanding of how technology and the natural world intersect and interact.
The artist's work serves as a lens through which viewers can contemplate and appreciate the intricate dynamics between the technological and the natural, fostering a richer dialogue about the evolving role of technology in our environment.