Machine Expression
Paintdrops
Expressive
Artificial intelligence
Machine Expression is a curated selection of AI-generated paint drops created from a paint drops collected from my studio. The piece uses AI in a bespoke, personal, almost hand-made process to create an infinite number of hybrid paint marks which are part physical, part computational space.
To make the artwork, I created a dataset of thousands of paint drops for the AI to learn from. This involved exploring the composition of the dataset in a way that became an unexpected and experimental part of the creative process. The balance of colours, the types of paint marks, even their location in an image influenced the AI paint drops.
Supported by Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England
The artwork began with a question I have thought about for a long time: if a machine could make a gesture, what would it be. Machine Expression presents the result, and it is an infinity of hybrid expressive computational gestures created from my own. The work explores AI as being approachable and even familiar, rather than threatening or intimidating. I was struck, however, by the ease with which the programme produced thousands upon thousands of unique paint drops.
