AI Hong Kong, AI Brno - Collecting Memories
2022, KUMST Brno, Czech Republic + PRÉCÉDÉE, Hong Kong
PROTOTYP Festival 2022
Courtesy: PROTOTYP 2022 Festival | KUMST Brno
Photo: Michal Bernátek, myphoto.cz
AI Hong Kong, AI Brno - Collecting Memories is an exploration of memory, place, and the collective subconscious through the lens of artificial intelligence (AI). This work utilizes the vast capabilities of the search engine to gather a digital archive of images from two distinct yet resonant cities: Brno and Hong Kong. These collected visual fragments form the dataset for a machine learning process, specifically employing a 'learning without a teacher' approach, where patterns and structures are discerned autonomously by the AI.
The core of this project lies the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), a sophisticated architecture capable of synthesizing and generating images that transcend mere replication. Through this method, the AI produces visuals that are imbued with a latent instability, a hallucinatory quality that renders the familiar landscapes of Brno and Hong Kong into ethereal, dream-like visions. These images act as a digital echo of the cities, conjured by the collective consciousness of their inhabitants and visitors, blurring the line between reality and the imagination.
The motif of self-reference is intricately woven into the fabric of this work, symbolized by the palindromic number 121 - the precise count of images from each city that the AI processes. This numerical symmetry not only emphasizes the cyclical nature of memory and experience but also serves as a conceptual anchor, grounding the otherwise fluid and transient visual narratives generated by the AI.
In this project, the interplay between technology and human experience is foregrounded, inviting a philosophical inquiry into the nature of memory and the role of artificial intelligence in its reconstruction. The GAN's output, images that are simultaneously familiar and otherworldly, suggests a new form of collective dreaming, where the boundaries of individual memory dissolve into a shared, digital subconscious.
This work challenges viewers to reconsider the ways in which we remember and reconstruct our environments, prompting reflections on the authenticity and fluidity of memory in the digital age. It poses questions about the potential for AI to capture and reinterpret the essence of place, offering a poetic meditation on the convergence of technology, culture, and human perception.