Something quite unique to digital art is the sometimes almost symbiotic relationship between the generative artist and their AI partner(s). While we’re often confronted in popular culture with situations where the human/machine connection is destructive for one or both, it gives me hope me to find that this certainly does not need to be the case in art. A shining example is the work of Finnish creator Jenni Pasanen. Her painterly forays into GAN (Generative Adversial Networks) and AI-art exemplify how the vision of an artist can be pushed in a unique direction by a strong partnership with new technology. I’ve chosen to highlight this piece of her mask obscura series, called Noon.
The artist underlines that her goal is not letting human emotion limit the imagination of a piece and the dreamy and poetically intriguing reality she creates underlines the success she is able to achieve in perfecting her methods. The power of this piece is strengthened by its the feeling of motion and movement, even though a moment is captured it still feels as if the masked protagonist is still swaying in its ethereal dance. There’s something almost ritualistic to this piece, capturing a mythology we might not quite be ready to grasp but are entranced by even more. Do androids really dream of electric sheep? Perhaps Jenni’s work will help lift the veil on the answer and even if it doesn’t, the process will be a delight to witness.
