Nov 162023
 

Scott Eaton giving Out of Distribution talk at View Conference 2023Talking about the making of Spherical Enumeration

I recently gave a talk at the VIEW Conference, in Turin, titled:

Out of Distribution: Thriving Creatively in the Age of AI

The talk gives my current take on the state of AI and how we, as artists and creatives, need to think about situating our work in relationship to this ever-more-disruptive technology. (the talk now available on-demand on the VIEW Conference’s plaform here). The talk blurb:

In this densely illustrated talk, Scott explores how we can maximize our human creative potential in the face of the tidal wave of capabilities from the latest AI tools. He explores the trajectory of the field of AI, covering the critical ideas that have led us to where we are now. He asks the question on everyone’s mind – what space will be left for artists and creatives as more powerful AI inevitably arrives, and how should we think about situating our work and careers in the face of this constantly accelerating technology? Scott showcases his recent projects and gives examples and anecdotes from his own work with machine learning over the past seven years, including a behind-the-scenes look at his recent takeover of Times Square.

Scott Eaton on stage at the View Conference, showing himself holding a stack of sketchbooks.Talking about the importance of drawing in one’s creative practice. Mini-me and large me, juxtaposed.

Jan 022023
 

Meta AI

I recently completed a year-long artist residency with Meta’s Fundamental AI Research Lab (FAIR). While I’ve always had mixed feelings about corporate Meta (formerly Facebook), I have nothing but respect for the research that FAIR does in AI and machine learning. It was a privilege to spend time within that organisation pursuing a number of interests in art, creativity, and machine learning.

The work was largely experimental, often extensions of explorations I had started prior, but I appreciated having the time and resources (read: compute) to investigate more deeply. The work included investigations into human pose estimation and tracking, interpretability of vision models, geometric abstraction, color theory, and generative networks. The focus was not so much on advancing any state of the art in machine learning, but more on utilizing and extending existing ML tools and techniques to make new creative works. I will post a few of the more interestesting experiments here when I find time.

Perpetual Now II, installation by Scott Eaton, large outdoor screen, reflecting in watera still from Perpetual Now II, Living Canvas, Dublin, 2022

One of the moving image pieces created during the residency recently finished a three month run on the Living Canvas in Dublin Ireland (the largest outdoor cultural screen in Europe, approximately 4x20m, see above). A second work, Intersections, will premiere in New York City later in 2023.

Mar 142019
 

Scott Eaton preview of creative AI artworkclick for larger

On Thursday, March 28, I will be giving a talk at London’s CreativeAI meetup at Somerset House previewing the last two years of my experiments using AI and machine learning to create figurative artwork. People close to me know I have been working on this, unannounced, for quite a while and I am excited to show the work for the first time in public. The second speaker, Andrew Brock, will also be showing some mind-blowing work done while interning at Google’s DeepMind last year. The evening promises to be a visual feast!

The talks are open to the public, but spaces go quickly, so register now. Also for your calendar, my work will be shown in its entirely at an exhibition at Somerset House from 20-23 June. More information will be coming in the next couple weeks.

CreativeAI @ Somerset House: REGISTER HERE