scotteaton

Artist + AI lecture at Oxford University

 creative AI, machine learning, news
Dec 132019
 

Oxford University campusThe spires of Oxford

I’m just back from a trip to Oxford where I gave an afternoon seminar on my explorations with art and machine learning to an amazing group of researchers and distinguished professors at Oxford University. The talk reviewed the last three years of my artistic experimentation using machine learning (AI) as a creative tool for art making and showcased an eclectic range of successes and failures. I’ve been sharing some of the work here, but mostly finished pieces, so it was nice to dust off some of my earlier, formative experiments from the recesses of my hard drive. I’ll try to start uploading more of these here in the coming months. Even though they’re unfinished, they were important developmental milestones and each succeeded/failed in interesting, instructive ways. Stay tuned…

Special thanks to Prof. Alexei Efros for arranging the visit. It was great to chat ML, tech and art with a group of super-smart computer scientists, engineers, and thinkers.

crisp winter day in Oxford

Figures & Form talk, THU Malta

 creative AI, news
Oct 082019
 

Scott Eaton giving creative AI lecture MaltaStill from ‘Entangled II’

I was privileged to be invited to speak again at the THU conference in Malta, this time on the main stage talking about my explorations using machine learning (AI) as a ‘creative collaborator’ in my artistic process. The talk, weighing in at a hefty 75 minutes, explored the genesis of this body of work, my early steps (and missteps) in this emerging medium, and how I’ve started integrating it into my artistic practice.

Scott Eaton Figures & Form AI lectureHyperbolic Composition I with drawing underlaid (left)

The talk included a behind-the-scenes look at the inspiration, production and labour that went into the pieces for the Artist+AI: Figures and Form exhibition. I was also excited to show, for the first time, a number of my fun, early experiments that compelled me to dig deeper into the potential of these new tools.

Scott with mind map planning the Figures & Form exhibitionAI musings from a sketchbook
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Essential Anatomy at SUPERCELL

 anatomy, news
Sep 252019
 

I’ve recently returned from a fun couple of days running an Essential Anatomy masterclass for the talented artists at SUPERCELL in beautiful Helsinki, Finland. Readers might know SUPERCELL as the genius developers behind hit mobile games Clash of the Clans, Boom Beach, Clash Royale, and Brawl Stars. They have a reputation for expressive, cartoony character designs, so why the big interest in anatomy? Well, every figurative artists, even cartoonists, needs to drill down into the fundamentals of anatomy in order to build a foundation solid enough that they can stylise and abstract the human figure in a compelling, ‘believable’ way. Continue reading »

Wall of Caffeinated Diversions

 AI, creative AI, drawings
Aug 172019
 

Caffeinated Diversions on display at Scott Eaton's Artist+AI exhibition at Somerset HouseCaffeinated Diversions, 50x archival prints, 21x15cm

People who know me know that drawing in essential to my creative process. Over the last couple years I have been using part of my morning drawing time (yes, with a coffee… or two, or three), to create input drawings to test my Bodies neural network, which I trained on a portion of my BodiesinMotion.photo library.

Caffeinated Diversions close upclick for larger

The idea behind this “AI tool” is that I train it to learn the correspondence between my drawing style and photographic representations of the human figure, in this case photography carefully lit and shot by me in the studio. Then, once trained, I can use it to dynamically ‘paint’ my drawings in the style of my photography. It is a wondrous interaction, and there is a magical space where I can draw very stylized or abstracted figures and the neural network infers some very interesting anatomical results, always beautifully lit and shaded. The images here are from my wall of Caffeinated Diversions, fifty of the most interesting results from these morning experiments. The grey line drawings are my hand-drawn inputs, the coloured images the output of my Bodies network.

Wall of AI augmented drawings by Scott Eatonclick for larger

Beyond just the final images though, a large part of the magic that has captivated me when developing and using these AI tools is seeing the final image emerge as I draw it. Here is compilation of timelapses from these drawing sessions:

Human Allocation of Space – Artist:AI exhibit

 AI, creative AI, sculpture
Jul 072019
 

Human Allocation of Space, 2019. Bronze, 50 x 75 x 25 cm, edition of 5

A new sculpture which debuted at my Artist+AI: Figures and Form exhibition. This bronze (as with all works in the show), was created in collaboration with AI tools that I’ve trained as my ‘art assistants,’ in this instance one that translates my drawings into three-dimensional form.

I created this piece by drawing a ‘blueprint’, effectively the instruction set, which directs the AI to build volume, planes and edges in a certain way (based on the way that I originally trained the network, which is a sort of alchemy itself). Below you can see a side-by-side comparison of the ‘blueprint’ and the final sculpture. A video showing the process of creating the final bronze casting can be found HERE.

ai generated sculpture from Scott Eaton's drawing - blueprint for Human Allocation of Spacecomparison of ‘Blueprint’ and resulting bronze

Humanity (Fall of the Damned)

 ART
Jun 192019
 

click for larger

TITLE: Humanity (Fall of the Damned)
MEDIUM: Archival print on Aluminium
DIMENSIONS: 210 x 165cm
EDITION: 5
DATE: 2019

Inspired by Peter Paul Reubens’ altar piece, Fall of the Damned. Hand drawn but painted using my bespoke “Bodies” neural network. Featured in my Artist+AI:Figures&Form exhibition at Somerset House, London in 2019. Subsequently exhibited at Ars Electonica & the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG).

drawing for Scott Eaton's Fall of the DamnedThe ‘cartoon’ for Humanity

Scott Eaton's Humanity (Fall of the Damned) at the Vancouver Art GalleryHumanity (Fall of the Damned) at the Vancouver Art Gallery

Artist+AI: Figures & Form exhibition

 creative AI, news
Jun 112019
 

Invitation to Scott Eaton's Artist plus AI: Figures and Form exhibitionclick for larger

EXHIBITION OF WORK
19-23 June, 2019
10-5:30pm daily
Somerset House, New Wing, room G16

My new exhibition showcasing work created in ‘collaboration’ with AI is running from the 19-23rd of June at Somerset House in London. It is a free, but ticketed event, so you will need to book in advance. Please get your tickets HERE.

“This exhibition showcases the recent work of artist Scott Eaton combining the latest in generative artificial intelligence (AI) with the centuries old practices of drawing and sculpture. The show’s featured works are the result of the dynamic interaction between Scott’s traditionally-trained hand and the AI tools he has ‘taught’ to work as his assistants. In this show, Eaton, an interdisciplinary artist with backgrounds in sculpture, anatomy and design, underscores the impact AI is set to have on the art-making process.”

Behind the Scenes 1 – Humanity (Fall of the Damned)

 AI, creative AI, drawings
Jun 102019
 

Scott Eaton's Fall of the Damned, work in progress.

Behind the scenes – prepping a piece for my “Artist+AI: Figures & Form” show opening next week at Somerset House. Suffice it to say, this will be a LARGE composition (22,000 x 17,000 pixels!). My drawing hand aches.

Show is free and runs from 19-23rd of June, so squeeze in a visit to Somerset House if you are near London.

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