Lynn Hershman and My Art Making Project.
- Joy Mistovich
- Nov 11, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: May 26, 2024
Concept Map:
My previous blog post focused specifically on Lynn Hershman, some of her major themes and ideas, as well as how she combines the use of Art and technology simultaneously. However, in this post, I will focus primarily between Lynn Hershman’s incorporation of AI and more detail pertaining to her specific AI projects, a dive into combining AI with artistic creation, etc.
In a New York Times opinion article, “A Creator (Me) Made a Masterpiece with A.I.” by Farhad Manjoo, he connects AI with Art and looks on the positive, rather than the negative side. He states that AI will not eliminate the necessity of human creativity, but rather, expand this phenomenon. In other words, he discusses his own experience with creating AI with the software Midjourney and how it’s expected to impact current and future artists alike. Most significantly, he describes the challenges that arise in some cases for an AI if the system creates artwork that is similar to a well known artist or genre. (Manjoo, 2023).
In a second New York Times article, “An A.I.-Generated Picture Won an Art Prize. Artists Aren’t Happy.” by Kevin Roose, which discusses an artist winning a prize at the Colorado State fair for incorporating AI into his artwork, there was a huge backlash against him. Some individuals believe that due to AI, humans will no longer be able to create truly rigorous art pieces, and art as we know it may be taken over by AI. However, on the other hand, other individuals believe that humans and AI work in tandem and become collaborators, rather than enemies. I believe the second instance is true, since as humans, we need to provide a written, detailed description pertaining to a specific prompt that the artist is asking the AI to generate. In Jason Allens case, he became extremely interested with combining his artist passion and AI and because of this, he decided to test the Midjourney software. He produced hundreds of images and later decided to enter the Colorado State Fair Art competition, and he ended up winning a blue ribbon. Allen told the judges from the start that he would be using specific type of software to create his artwork, since the category included anything using digital software. In the final paragraph of the article, Roose states that even if they didn’t know this was AI software, he would still have won the prize anyway. (Roose, 2022).
In “Embodiments of Autonomous Entities: Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Artificially Intelligent Robots, Agent Ruby and Dina” by Eana Kim, she discusses some of Lynn Hershman’s big ideas relating to AI, surveillance and personal identity. The following quote is taken directly from Lynn Hershman and Eana Kim’s thesis, “I’ve always been attracted to digital tools and cinematic metaphors that reflect our times, such as privacy in an era of surveillance, personal identity in a time of pervasive manipulations and the essential quest of all living things for communication, connection, and interaction.” (Kim, 2018, p. 1). “Up until her recent interest in artificial intelligence and genetic research, including regenerative medicine, bio-printing, and DNA programming, her work has integrated the latest technologies, referencing scientific development from Xerox (which prompted her later long-standing interest in technology when she was sixteen years old), to laserdisc, motion sensor, webcam, sound machine, touchscreen,facial-recognition software, voice-recognition software, virtual reality, and internet.” (Kim, 2018, p. 7).
In Hershman’s work entitled “Agent Ruby”, she focuses on the idea of a main character typing answers into the search platform coming out with answers. Hershman refers to the phenomenon between AI and Humans as “techno-humans.”
In the article “Artist Lynn Hershman Leeson is the Original Cyborg Artist” by Madeleine Seidel, she focuses on how Lynn Hershman combines technology and art, as well as other key concepts. Twisted, which focused on performance art and sound, as well as the galleries opening into a DNA double helix. Also, in this exhibit, she had several audio recordings of breathing in her “Breathing Machine” series, which also showed various clay figures. (Seidel, 2021). For the past 60 years, Hershman has been involved creating artwork that is on the cutting edge of science and technology, since she grew up in a house with a scientific and art background. One of her other performance art pieces “Roberta Breitmore” focused on the aspect of an alter ego and embracing a unique character that isn’t her own. After seven years of performing this character, she had evidence that this individual was almost an extension of herself. Over time, other individuals she met also decided to play Roberta Breitmore.
For my art making project, I decided to use Lynn Hershman’s theme of AI and technology and art integration to create my own interpretation of a “City of The Blind.” Since Hershman was one of the first artists to incorporate AI concepts into her work years before it became popular, I decided to focus on combining AI, technology, creativity, and the aspects of blindness. I first searched for an AI art generator site and came up with the website “img2go.” I started out with a rough description in the prompt box of what I was imagining the image to look like. Here are several prompt ideas I considered and how I altered my writing as I went along.
“A blind girl with brown hair, and she is wearing glasses and holding an iPhone in the left hand and in the right hand holding a white cane with a guide dog standing nearby. The dog is holding a laptop and a braille piece of paper. The guide dog is also wearing sunglasses and staring at the blind pedestrian. They are walking across a crosswalk. Create this in an animated style”
“A blind pedestrian crossing a city crosswalk with a cane in the right hand, with a guide dog walking beside. The dog is holding a laptop and Braille sheet of paper. Side angle that shows entire crosswalk going across image”
“A blind pedestrian crossing a city crosswalk with a long white cane in the right hand, with a guide dog walking beside. The dog is a golden retriever and is wearing a backpack. Side angle that shows entire crosswalk going across image”
As I was working on creating prompts from the Img2go site, an agent told me what each image looked like and how well the AI was able to create the image. He also asked me what type of rendering I wanted to create from the list of options, including an artistic, animated, or realistic scene, to name a few. I decided to go for a combination of artistic and the animated Pixar theme. In the first instance, this image was one of the first AI generated images, but the problem was that even though I stated specifically for it to generate an image with only one guide dog, it still came out with two dogs instead.
An agent and I downloaded the image and began editing, so we were able to erase the extra dog in the picture. Also, I realized if I had the AI generator create anything written, it would end up as hieroglyphic text. I wanted to try and insert a piece of braille paper into the image, but instead of braille, it came out to be extremely blurry and distorted. Then, I used clip art to incorporate a braille page and edit the size and appearance of the paper. I also took the same steps while including the laptop and sunglasses. For the street sign, I decided to add the text quote “City of The Blind” to complete the city-like feel of a blind individual walking on a city street near a cross walk with buildings and vehicles. This relates to Lynn Hershman’s work, since when she used her passion for technology and creativity, including AI and science to challenge and adjust her artwork. Most significantly, creating AI art is not only the specific aspect of having the AI itself generate the work. There is so much more that goes into changing and editing specific images. The way things are written in a prompt is most significant, and with my writing background, I understand that using imagination and creativity, along with a great deal of detail, will aid in this process. Without a specific writing style or details, creating this type of artwork would be challenging or nearly impossible. Here is my final project.
References:
Lynn Hershman Leeson. (n.d.). Lynn Hershman Leeson. https://www.lynnhershman.com/
Roose, K. (2022, September 2). An A.I.-Generated picture won an art prize. Artists aren’t happy. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/technology/ai-artificial-intelligence-artists.html
Manjoo, F. (2023, August 25). Opinion | A Creator (Me) Made a Masterpiece With A.I. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/opinion/ai-art-intellectual-property.html
Kim, E. (2018). Embodiments of autonomous entities: Lynn Hershman Leeson’s artificially intelligent robots, Agent Ruby and DiNA (Pp. 1–8) [Thesis Embodiments of autonomous entities: Lynn Hershman Leeson’s Artificially intelligent robots, Agent Ruby and DiNA].
Hershman Leeson, L. (2021, July 16). Lynn Hershman Leeson is the original cyborg artist (M. Seidel, Interviewer) [Review of Lynn Hershman Leeson is the original cyborg artist]. In ID Vice. https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/n7bq48/lynn-hershman-leeson-twisted-interview
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