Poppies

Art Project

Ongoing

Art Project

Poppies

Ongoing

Artworks that are generated with AI … is it art?

In this project, I’m trying to find out.

More and more, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing a role in art. Lately, OpenAI published the DALL-E algorithm. It can be used to generate imagery based on written text. Eg. you type “a landscape with trees and a blue sky” and it will generate images with … a landscape with trees and a blue sky. Also, you can upload any image, and the software will generate variants of your image.

The latter is exactly what I did with the “Study for Poppies” image.

Below are two examples of how the algorithm transformed the original into a new image.

Now, the obvious question this raises is: is it still art?

To be very honest, I really do not think the generated images are very bad or very un-artistic. One thing is striking, though. The software also transforms my signature, as if it were an integral part of the scene depicted. It does transform it into characters – most of the time – but it does not ‘understand’ that it is my signature.

My conclusion, so far, is that these transformed images can be a helpful tool for artists who want to generate ideas based on an original artwork.

steps

Nov 30, 2022

A little bit of fun

Working Studio, Amsterdam

I tried another “generative AI”, in this case Stable Diffusion 2 by Hugging Face (https://huggingface.co/stabilityai/stable-diffusion-2).

Inserting the text “Case Greenfield artist” generated these three examples:

Funny, right? Personally, I like the lady in red most, haha. And just to be sure, the man/artist/painter in the other image is NOT me, it’s a random person generated by the AI, who doesn’t even look like me …

But, honestly, they’re all a bit weird, right? The lady has some weird body parts, the painter seems to have two right arms, and what is ‘CASSE GRETED’? And who is Cae GarrefielDO?

Nov 29, 2022

Poppies as watch faces

Working Studio, Amsterdam

Here’s a new idea. On the Apple and Samsung – and probably other – smartwatches, you can add your own watch faces. Now, I was thinking of offering the poppies variations – not the varivariations – as watch faces.

That will look something like this:

Like it? Let me know!

Nov 26, 2022

DALL-E is out of creativity

Working Studio, Amsterdam

Finally, I completed the “varivariations” with my new credits for DALL-E (still 14 credits left). It is the 24th batch of each four generated images. Derivatives of derivatives of … etc.

Here’s the result of this batch:

Disappointing, right?

Yeah, I thought so too.

It’s more of the same.

It looks like DALL-E is converging to this image of psychedelic mushrooms …

Nov 11, 2022

What next, NFT’s or physical?

Working Studio, Amsterdam

So, I was thinking. What next?

First, I will complete the last four varivariants. Simple.

But then?

I can, of course, create NFT’s of the digital artworks:

Original – Generate one NFT of the Study for Poppies
Variants – Generate 96 NFT’s of the 96 variants
Varivariants – Generate 96 NFT’s of the 96 varivariants

But, maybe more interesting, I can create physical artworks of these 193 artworks.

I’m thinking of three ways:

Photographs – Make photos of the 193 digital artworks on photo paper, create one or more series, uniquely signed and framed
Prints – Print the 193 digital artworks on paper or on canvas, create multiple series, uniquely signed and framed
Paintings – Make 193 (or less) unique hand-painted paintings of the digital artworks on canvas, uniquely signed and framed

I haven’t decided yet. I could, of course, do all of the above …

And, there’s something else. As I have published the Study for Poppies, 24 of the 96 variants and 24 of the 96 varivariants online, anybody can simply take these and use them to generate variants themselves using DALL-E 2. So, I’m wandering, are those newly created artworks then mine or theirs? Just wondering …

Nov 7, 2022

Created an online exhibition

Working Studio, Amsterdam

Today, I created an online exhibition for the Poppies art project.

You can watch it here: Poppies online exhibition

Nov 5, 2022

Created 92 Varivariants

Working Studio, Amsterdam

This afternoon, I got a new idea. I was wondering how far the AI algorithm could be stretched. So, I did the following.

In 24 batches, each time I took the last of the four generated variants. Then, I used that one as the new original, the input for the next batch. 24 times. Just to find out how the design would evolve. (Actually, I did nor run the 24th batch, because I ran out of free credits; first I have to pay for new credits. Haha.)

You can find the result below under The 24 Varivariation Originals. These are the 24 new originals in each batch. I call these works “varivariations”, because they are derived from the derivative from the derivative of … etc. So, I speak of eg. the 17th derivative; this then is the 17th batch.

And, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed. It wasn’t very creative, in my opinion. And also, it somehow seems to converge. It tends towards a bit of psychedelic mushrooms. Not very creative. Also, the colors tend to become very sharp and harsh.

Nov 5, 2022

Created 72 more Artificial Poppies

Working Studio, Amsterdam

This morning, I created 72 more “Artificial Poppies”, variants of the original “Study for Poppies”.

I’m still thinking how to use these. Two possibilities are:

Create NFT’s – so, 96 in total – for all of the Artificial Poppies and make them available as 96 unique digital artworks
Print the 96 Artificial Poppies on high quality photo paper, sign each one and make them available as one or more series of photographic artworks
Or maybe, I will do both
Or, still something else

I haven’t decided yet.

Oct 25, 2022

Wrote a story about Artificial Poppies

Working Studio, Amsterdam

Today, I wrote a short story about AI generated art, using the Poppies art project as an example.

You can read the story here: Artificial Poppies

Oct 23, 2022

Created the first variations with DALL-E 2

Working Studio, Amsterdam

So, today I started working with OpenAI’s DALL-E 2. Just to get a first flavor of how it works. What I did is the following. Nothing shocking or complicated. Just experimenting.

I took my digital artwork “Study for Poppies” as the starting point.
On the webpage https://openai.com/dall-e-2/ you can then easily upload the file.
And then simply select “Create variants”.
In every batch, DALL-E 2 then creates four variants of your original artwork.
I created 24 copies in six batches.
I have published the 24 first variants on this page (below under The First 24 Artificial Poppies).