‘…'Latent Spaces' is the product of years of exploration into the convergence of art, science and technology. Experienced in four parts, each ‘space’ will explore a different world within the multitudes of connections in the mind of artificial intelligence, which goes beyond the limits of any of our collective imaginations…’
Markos Kay
Today I was 69.
To celebrate we went ‘up to town’ and being aware that our trips to London have perhaps begun to follow a predictable pattern, we opt for something new.
We get to Canary Wharf a couple of hours before our booked slot at the ‘Latent Spaces’ exhibition at Crossrail Place. We wonder around the area seeking independent coffee and patisserie, under leaden skies. None is available so we opt for Pret, invariably the least worst option in my recent experience.
At the appointed hour we are allowed entry and given a short pre-flight briefing. Something about three rooms and the suggestion we might ideally spend around ten minutes in each. No flash photography is allowed, but shoot as many stills and as much video as you like, fill your boots.
We set off through a forest of hanging neon lights to a room marked with a number 1.
Inside are four or five pairs of ‘insight through light’ seekers like ourselves all seated on the bare floor, backs to the wall for support. Slightly deflated we join them. Projected on several of the walls and reflected about the place we are treated to a montage of AI generated animal-like and plant-like ‘organisms’. Some are vaguely possible, many are anatomically unlikely with extra eyes in improbable places.
You quickly realise it’s the eyes that are just about keeping the show afloat. Without them to give you anthropomorphic focus you’d likely be quickly exiting the room. The images continue to unfold accompanied by loud sonorous mood music.
At this point I figure it out.
The music is certainly intentional and bears the hallmarks of being the product of a musical human mind. I suspect the one to two minute video clips have simply been culled from the output of an AI bot programmed to produce an endlessly evolving stream of animal and plant like entities.
And just like watching a super fast, highly destructive, computer generated car chase or a huge Tolkien battle sequence with thousands of tiny violent protagonists, the disconnect between what we are seeing and the emotional response it evokes quickly becomes apparent. My brain recognises the incongruity and redirects my attention elsewhere. I find myself studying the other people in the room.
Room 2 and 3 are slight variations on the Room 1 schtick and by this time the game for me is up.
One element of the exhibition I did enjoy was a montage of AI generated faces. These featured many ethnicities and most appeared to have cyborg attributes with visible wires and circuitry. Maybe some were straight up robots with disarmingly human faces ?
I don’t regret the time we spent experiencing this exhibition. It was certainly thought provoking. It certainly didn’t in any way live up to the lofty claims made for it on the glossy www.illusionaries.com web site.
It did make me realise that we artists have no reason to fear AI generated art though. Material created without the agency of the artistic human mind is ultimately just random noise.