Art Breeder

Video made by merging AI images created using Art Breeder, an artificial intelligence called a GAN or Generative Adversarial Network. This software is trained with millions of images that have been labelled as, (for example) cat, tree, cicada etc, until it has a condensed ‘model’ of those items. The GAN then attempts to fool another AI that has been trained to identify real cats, trees and cicadas by generating fake images using the model. This improves the model as the two AI’s compete.

Art Breeder uses the model to generate fake images. It calls these models ‘genes’. Therefore, in this example there will be a gene for a cat, a tree, a cicada. If the cat and tree genes are ‘crossed’, an image is generated from the new model.

I became familiar with the genes, and learnt how to cross genes which would represent certain themes, objects, places or colours I recalled from dreams. Much like our recollection of dreams, the images are unclear, merged and nonsensical. It felt like I was extracting screenshots directly from my dreams to present in the waking world.

Many of the images are obscured, blurred and blended just like the recollection of memories these spaces evoke.