Average Human / Mean Identity
The work is the result of a hybrid process that combines traditional darkroom work with AI (Artificial Intelligence) image processes, transcending the boundary between the digital realm and the physical world.
In the enlarger, where negatives would typically be placed, a smartphone is installed. 200 AI-generated human faces flicker rapidly on its display. This sequence of images is projected onto photographic paper as a multiple exposure. The paper then is processed in the photochemical baths as usual.
The deceptive precision of the AI-generated faces is shattered by the 200-fold superimposition, revealing an eerie collective. It is the unveiling of the principles of the underlying algorithms and AI image processes.
It’s a photograph into the virtual space, where the enlarger becomes the camera.
The smartphone display serves as a portal between worlds, a partition that separates and yet connects the virtual and the real. Upon closer inspection, fine details come to light: the pixels of the display forming a uniform grid. Fingerprints and delicate scratches also become evident, emphasizing the realm of the user and our everyday world.
This work is a manifesto exploring the boundaries between the analog and digital worlds, advocating for the preservation of human creativity and individuality in a time shifting in the opposite direction.
In July 2023, three prints were made. Each of them differs because the process is not precisely reproducible. Contact me if you are interested in a print.