Grant Della Silva
Recent advances in artificial intelligence force us to question what
it means to be an artist, and what art really is. Machine learning
algorithms trained on human experience will reflect some portion of
that experience - which makes it all the more important for us to
reflect upon how precious nature is, upon the mistakes of the past,
and upon the future. Is art truly "art" if it comes from a machine? Is
the artist the programmer or the machine itself? Does the art come
from the organic and historic structure of our cities, or from the
tools we have created, or from the wielder of the tools of industrial
automation, or from the photographer of the elephant? And does the
elephant have a name?
A dreamlike elephant emerges from a single piece of wood. This
piece was created using machine learning, custom map tiles crafted
for artistic merit, and using an industrial laser cutter. The map
of Kigali is transformed, losing its structure but perhaps taking
on new and deeper meaning. This work does not contain much
mathematical content, but that is the nature of modern artificial
intelligence - to produce wondrous results devoid of insight.
Created in part with data from OpenStreetMap contributors
(https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright/) freely available under
the Open Database License (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/).
Elephant photo credit to Amar Hussain.