generative art
As a generative AI artist, my process varies depending on the starting point. Sometimes, I begin with a photograph I’ve taken, using it as a base to guide the AI's transformations. Other times, I dive directly into working with the AI, starting without any reference image and allowing the process to evolve freely. I relish the vast openness in outcomes from of this process, finding unexpected joy in the fusion, stumbling on details, textures, and moods that neither I or the AI could achieve alone. I try to shy away or hide the glitches, the obvious errors in some of the generated output, as for me they make explicit statements of the current state of this technology.
Hermit
A series of AI transformations based on the photograph below that I took over two decades ago in a remote village while travelling by motorbike through the then state of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Ruminator
I took this image of a pensive and ponderous worker in an sculptor’s studio in Hyderabad, India. Below are some of the ai transformation generated from this photograph.
Visions of the Devi
One of the hallmarks of the deities of Hinduism are their multifarious complexity. Rather than posit these divine beings as personifications of binary and oppositional qualities such as ‘good’ and ‘evil’, ‘sinful’ and ‘saintly’ etc., Hindu dieties are deeply nuanced, embodying a spectrum of attributes that reflect the complexities of human nature and the cosmos itself. They often possess characteristics that are seemingly contradictory—fierce yet compassionate, destructive yet nurturing, detached yet deeply involved in worldly affairs. This multifaceted nature allows each deity to transcend the simplistic categorizations of the popular discourse, offering a more holistic and even ambiguous representation of divinity, evoking reverence and piety simultaneously with ambivalence in the human mind.
Probably none are more diverse in this regard as the Mother Goddess - the Devi. It is said that envisioning - "receiving a vision," or "being graced with a vision" - of the Devi, is a cornerstone element of the very advanced worshipper in establishing a connection with Her. While there are extremely specific symbolisms associated with particular forms of the Devi, her manifestations are known to be infinite. Thus, the actual vision a worshipper may receive on the long journey could be deeply personal and entirely subjective, reflecting the unique interplay between the universal nature of the Devi and the individual seeking her presence.
So I felt it only appropriate to task today’s young, naive and yet fast evolving AI technology with simply envisioning and imagining (not remotely re-imagining, yet) this cardinal divinity.
A fascinating part of this process was the following. Despite repeated and explicit prompts to the AI to depict the goddess in their intense, angry, battle-ready, bloodthirsty aspects - known as as 'Urga' (Sanskrit) or ‘fierce’ forms - the AI consistently returned images that are more consistent with the 'Sukshma' (benign, loving, endearing) forms of the Goddess you see in this collection.
This revealed two things to me: on the one hand, it reflects the guardrails and guidelines embedded in today’s leading AI, which downplay negative, aggressive, or disturbing imagery. On the other hand, as a result of these measures, it underscores the still very limited imagination of our most advanced AI tools in comparison to the vast richness of human cultural heritage. Our leading AI remain bound within starkly and narrowly binary views of darkness and light, good and evil, fierceness and benignity.
In the Hindu tradition, the purpose of these fierce and aggressive deities is not only to emphasize their overwhelming nature but mainly to allow the worshiper to see beauty, care, and connection with these fearsome forms. Indeed, millions of Indian worshippers engage with these deities daily, doing so without repulsion. It is well understood in the Hindu mythological pantheon, and indeed explicitly emphasised in multiple key texts of the tradition, that the main enemies and foes these dieties are engaged in conflict with is with the enemies within - the battle is primarily an internal spirtual battle, and the victory that is seeked is over those verily dark and malevalent forces within oneself that stand in the way to our own growth, understanding and positive enrichment.
In context of this much more nuanced perspective, the AI responses highlight how far our most advanced technology is from accessing anything close to the global collective unconscious, particularly in its historical dimension, even if those limits are superficially and externally imposed by widely agreed upon external constraints.
Another problematic aspect of the AI-generated images is the consistent portrayal of these goddesses as physically ‘young’. While age and appearance can be fluid, many Indian goddesses are traditionally represented as very old, ancient, and even haggard. This representation reflects a deep appreciation for the full spectrum of human life and a respect for elders, deeply entrenched values in Hindu culture. However, the AI consistently responds to any prompt for "goddess" as youthful, highlighting the deep influence of non-Indian biases and popular Western notions in shaping the generative responses of today.
This raises important questions about the permissiveness of our society in integrating the richness of human tradition and experience into our most advanced AI tools. It also highlights the complexities of the ethical guardrails necessary when deploying such technology on a global scale.
Like Arthropoda -interfaces of the embodied mind
This series is a speculative exploration of wearable technology that reverses the minimalist paradigm of today, drawing inspiration from arthropods - whose exoskeletons embody both inner capabilities and adaptations to their environments. The images envision interfaces that celebrate individuation and cultural expression, inspired by non-human and multi-species intelligence, and the interplay between environment and embodiment.
The sleek uniformity of current wearable technology is based in the ‘disappearing technology’ paradigm, where technologies are seen to ‘recede into the background of our lives’, erasing individuality in favor of functional simplicity. Even so, as visible in the increasing proliferation of global tattoo culture, the artist imagines wearables that emerge in an oppositional paradigm to the popular one. This is about merging personal identity and agency with environmental adaptation, much like an Arthropod. Further, the artist sees advanced biomimicry and material science enabling jewelry, clothing, and tools to become dynamic extensions of the body and the self, blending utility with cultural and ecological meaning. In doing so, the artist embraces the organic, the industrial and the synthetic, in an attempt to convey the environmental setting within which such embodied interfaces may emerge.
