October – December 2020
Homo per Machina misuses machine learning models to reproduce human portraits the way that machine learning models ‘see’ them. With SPADE-COCO and SPADE-Landscapes, the app modifies photos, telling SPADE where to place and object by drawing a shape with its corresponding color. Misusing these tools by feeding in portraits as if they were those drawn shapes gives a proxy for what the models ‘see’ in us.
Process
I started misusing the SPADE models in October and felt aesthetically compelled by the images and textures I could generate. Further experimentation led me to start inputting human portraits as a way to reflect on the technology, pushing the limitations to critique the romanticism of artificial intelligence.
