Anne Spalter

Welcome to The Wormhole, an online residency where I explore the creative process as enhanced with so-called “artificial” intelligence and see where it takes me. I hope you join in to follow in real-time whatever twists and turns it takes and see where we end up on the other side.

Just as the Dadaists and Surrealists called upon the random and the unconscious, I feel the computer and its algorithmically-generated suggestions help me explore deeper into my mind.

The iPad drawing posted today–Fire Highway–is based on a composition generated by feeding an Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm generic images culled from the web and a “style” image set comprised my paintings.

I used the iterative computer-based image-making process to make a composition using my content and style that I would never have arrived at on my own. The process is enjoyable and surprising. It’s like having a prosthetic brain device that dreams for you while you are busy doing other things.

Initial Images (for shapes and contours)

Boats

Highways

Style images (colors and "feel")

Paintings

Technical part

The specific process I used was generously made available by a beta version of the playform.io platform, a project spearheaded by Professor Ahmet Elgammal (founder and director of the Rutgers University Art and AI Lab, Rutger, NJ, USA). This particular algorithm uses the shapes and contours of an initial image set and iteratively morphs it to approach the colours and feel of a second image set. The process uses a General Adversarial Network or GAN, constantly changing the initial images until they become valid members of the second set (in the computer’s mind).

Selected Results

Composition Basis

Additional Info

To go deeper down the rabbit hole–the paintings I used for this are based on compositions using other algorithms, so this is all many layers deep. In my next post, I’ll explain how I made those during a residency at Mass MoCA.

Production Notes

I’m also experimenting with different iPad apps. This drawing was made with Autodesk SketchBook because I thought I would use their “natural media” brushes, but I didn’t end up using those at all: soI may switch back to the Adobe apps, which are the ones I have used in the past. I may also be using traditional media, but the iPad is excellent for travelling during holidays.