Mario Klingemann’s Memories of Passersby I (2018) uses generative adversarial networks to create an endless series of portraits based on training images from historical paintings. Using portraits painted by the great European art masters, the machine cycles out new faces by creating a feedback loop that makes new faces forever. This exhibit is not prerecorded or a projected video, everything is live.
There are two screens, one that will show more female-looking portraits and the other showing more male-looking portraits.These portraits give an almost haunting, eerie feeling; the figures are pale, gaunt, and stare straight ahead at you.
Klingemann’s aesthetic of digital art is in contrast with the common use of digital art to make a polished, shiny, or bright aesthetic piece.
This video of an interview with Klingemann takes a deeper dive into the exhibit and this article briefs over the history of generative art, including a short paragraph on this exhibit.
S21 DSGN-264 401 