Anatomy of an Artist and Their Artificial Self

ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST AND THEIR ARTIFICIAL SELF

BY LELIA BYRON IN COLABORATION WITH NICOLÁS GARCÍA TRILLOS

RIT BEVIER GALLERY 2024

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES WHO POSED FOR REFERENCE IMAGES FOR THE PAINTING OR WERE THERE TO CONSULT WITH ABOUT DIFFERENT IDEAS AND PROBLEMS: RITA CASTANHEIRA, KA IAN HOI, BO FAN, MATT JACOBS, LEON BUNGERT, TRE’MAR BAPTISTE, KONSTANTIN RIEDL, SIXU LI, NICOLÁS CERQUERA. THANK YOU TO ANNIKA KECKHAVER. THANK YOU TO JOHN AASP, SHANE DURGEE, AND THE BEVIER GALLERY STAFF. WE HAD THE INITIAL IDEA FOR THE TOPIC OF THIS EXHIBITION BACK IN 2019. AT THE TIME, HOWEVER, THERE WAS NOT TOO MUCH INTEREST IN TALKING ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THROUGH ART FROM ART INSTITUTIONS. WE’D LIKE TO THANK RIT, WHO, ON THE OTHER HAND, WAS ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT THE PROJECT FROM THE MOMENT WE MENTIONED IT A FEW YEARS AGO. THIS EXHIBITION IS SUPPORTED BY THE ANNA BALLARIAN VISITING ARTIST SERIES.

RIT BEVIER GALLERY 2024

ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST AND THEIR ARTIFICIAL SELF TEXT BY LELIA BYRON AND NICOLÁS GARCÍA TRILLOS

In the midst of expanding media attention surrounding artificial intelligence, some voices have expressed concern about the risks that this set of technologies, highly dependent on the collection of data, impose. Within these voices, some describe dystopian scenarios similar to plots from 20thcentury science fiction novels. Other voices, less alarmist than the previous ones, are skeptical about the true capacity of these technologies and point out that the success stories around AI, at least for the moment, have been overstated to benefit the voracious commercial interests of large companies and investors. Yet, regardless of the overall perspective taken on the topic, AI technologies are already deeply impacting and transforming human behavior at individual and collective levels: how people spend their leisure time, how people communicate with each other, how preferences are shaped, how information and misinformation have influenced a variety of collective actions, and how decisions are made, from judges making decisions about parole to people choosing clothing sizes when shopping online.

This exhibition, consisting of a series of hand-made paintings made by artist Lelia Byron and an installation of images produced through the use of AI technologies made collaboratively with Nicolás García Trillos, Professor in the Statistics Department at UW Madison, seeks to explore the relationship between AI technologies and the

creative process of an artist and, more broadly, examines a fundamental question: how does a creator respond when they see their own creation come to life and find themselves being shaped by their own creations?

The exhibition is structured in three parts that evoke the architecture of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Byron and García Trillos use this allusion to Dante and his work to convey a path that begins with isolation and confinement and rises up toward reunion and expression.

The allusion also allows them to explore the inversion of roles that is latent in the relationship between human beings and AI: creations can become creators that can then acquire the ability to shape their creator, who in turn becomes a creation.

All in all, the visitor to this exhibition is invited to embark on a creative journey emulating that of the artists’, who, like Dante, have gone in search of personal and mysterious corners of the anatomy of their human condition.

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ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST AND THEIR ARTIFICIAL SELF - PART 1

ANATOMIES FROM ARCHITECTURES

INSTALLATION OF 500 UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHS, RED STRING, AND PAINTED MATS. 2024.

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RIT BEVIER GALLERY 2024

While passing through the Ante-Purgatory, Dante hears the following words from one of the souls: “Whoever you are, walking as you go, turn your face towards me and try to remember if you have ever seen me in the world.”

FOR THE INSTALLATION, BYRON AND GARCÍA TRILLOS USED A PRETRAINED APPLICATION THAT ALLOWS YOU TO SPECIFY TEXT AND OTHER IMAGE PROMPTS TO GUIDE THE GENERATION PROCESS.

THESE WORDS COULD ACT AS A SUMMARY FOR THIS INSTALLATION, SINCE THE 500 PHOTOGRAPHS THAT FORM IT PORTRAY PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST IN REAL LIFE AND WHO, INSTEAD, WERE GENERATED BY A COMPUTER.

In choosing their prompts, they sought to create a wide variety of selfie-like images exploring specific color patterns, different photographic and light qualities, different time periods and locations, different climatic conditions, and most importantly, images that tell diverse stories from a wide variety of “people.” In this network of sometimes seemingly familiar faces, they are both in conversation with each other and simultaneously disconnected from one another.

In general, the image generation process has two phases. The first is the training process, where millions of images of real people (mostly taken from selfies sent by social media users) guide the optimization of a learning model and its architecture. The second phase is the generation process itself, where random noise is converted by the trained model into the image of a human being.

The images used during the training stage, those that belonged to real people, then become like shadows of the people they represent—shadows that are now confined to living in the memory of a server or a computer to obey the whims of it and its users.

HOWEVER, THE ISSUE OF THE GENERATION OF HUMAN BEINGS IN THIS INSTALLATION GOES BEYOND THE SIMPLE GENERATION OF IMAGES, AND IN PARTICULAR, THE INSTALLATION SEEKS TO DRAW ATTENTION TO THE FREEDOM WITH WHICH THESE NEW TECHNOLOGICAL PLATFORMS CAN USE PERSONAL DATA FOR PURPOSES WITH HARMFUL SOCIETAL CONSEQUENCES.

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ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST AND THEIR ARTIFICIAL SELF - PART 1

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RIT BEVIER GALLERY 2024

DETAIL VIEW OF A FEW OF THE 500 UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHS. 6

ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST AND THEIR ARTIFICIAL SELF - PART 2

THE ANATOMY LESSON

OIL ON CANVAS, 5 X 5 FEET, 2024.

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RIT BEVIER GALLERY 2024

INSPIRED BY THE PAINTING THE ANATOMY LESSON OF DR. NICOLAES TULP

BY REMBRANDT, THIS PAINTING SEEKS TO CAPTURE THE PROCESS OF INTROSPECTION OF THE HUMAN BEING CONSIDERING HOW EMBEDDED WITHIN HER BEING ARE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TECHNOLOGIES.

depth, and it is even less clear what treatment to follow once the diagnosis is known after such an inspection. Is it removed, are some elements adjusted for a partial change in anatomy, or is the diagnosis simply ignored?

Rembrandt’s disturbing painting, commissioned in 1632 by the Amsterdam surgeons’ guild, has an It is clear that the inspection even more disturbing realdoes not have to be very life backstory. The scene deep to be able to detect portrays Dr. Tulip, those the presence of these attending an anatomy technologies in the daily session, and, in the center, lives of human beings and the body of a man who see some of their effects had a death sentence. At on them, from inducing that time, anatomy sessions people to buy unnecessary open to the public occurred consumer products to with some frequency. In suggesting individuals them, anyone interested through dating applications. could observe everything It is not very clear, however, that each person carried what would be found if the inside. inspection were more in-

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ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST AND THEIR ARTIFICIAL SELF - PART 2

OIL ON CANVAS, 5 X 5 FEET, 2024.

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RIT BEVIER GALLERY 2024

PERSEPHONE’S HEART Far from being simple spaces for efficient communication, social networks have become spaces where their users spend long periods of time in their lives.

Some consequences of this permanent connection include depression, anxiety, and a pronounced and enveloping sense of loneliness.

IN THIS PAINTING, BYRON SEEKS TO CAPTURE THIS SENSATION AND CREATES A PARALLEL BETWEEN IT AND THE MYTH OF PERSEPHONE, WHOSE HEART, IN THE SHAPE OF A POMEGRANATE, IS PORTRAYED IN THE CENTER OF THE PAINTING. ORDINARY STORIES.

Persephone, who eats the fruit given to her by Hades, is condemned to live in a cycle of life and death. When summer arrives, Persephone heads to the underworld, where she stays until the beginning of a new cycle, when she returns to this world with the arrival of spring. No one accompanies her in this endless cycle. Not even Hades, whom, in some versions of the myth, Persephone had finally come to accept.

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ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST AND THEIR ARTIFICIAL SELF - PART 2 OIL ON CANVAS, 7 X 5 FEET, 2024.

ACT 1: THE MESSAGE IN THE FIRST ACT OF THE IMAGINARY PLAY REPRESENTED IN THIS PAINTING, A GROUP OF FRIENDS DISCUSS THE CONTENT OF A MESSAGE SENT

BY ONE OF THEM TO THE REST OF THE GROUP. Initial disagreements lead some members of the group to a higher level of disagreement, and the group eventually divides into sides. Disenchanted and apathetic, the woman in the middle sees that the possibility of an end to the discussion that began with the message is receding.

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RIT BEVIER GALLERY 2024 OIL ON CANVAS, 7 X 5 FEET, 2024.

ACT 2: THE END OF THE CONVERSATION THE PLAY’S DIALOGUE IS NOW IN FULL CHAOS. Each of the friends has already established their own position and begins to view the others with suspicion. There is no way to listen to distinguish one voice, as all you can hear is increasing shouting. The conversation has come to an end. The actors leave the stage. The audience applauds and then leaves.

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ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST AND THEIR ARTIFICIAL SELF - PART 3

REUNITED OIL ON CANVAS, 20 X 9 FEET, 2024.

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RIT BEVIER GALLERY 2024

Just as he must have felt satisfaction in sentencing his political enemies and other historical figures with adverse interests to his own to confinement and isolation in his writing, Dante must have felt extremely emotional when imagining his passage through the world of the divine hand in hand with his love, Beatrice, who had died several years earlier.

This painting, created as a single 20x9 ft. panel, depicts the happy, although impossible, reunion of real people from Byron’s life. The photographs that served as the artist’s reference for

this painting cover multiple Ultimately, the painting time periods and places serves as a contrast to the that the artist keeps in her images in Anatomies From memory.

Architectures, and asks us In the face of distance, to consider the difference uncertainty, and the between generating irreversibility of some painful moments in life, images through artificial creativity can often emerge intelligence and creating as a powerful human artwork that can portray resource. This creative power can transform both a very specific conflicting emotions such individual point of view as happiness and sadness into a single painting and, and relate to universal in the end, materialize questions surrounding impossible situations, such as bringing together humanity. people who live in different places and times, some of them already deceased.

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