Mar 212020
Machine Learning & Creative AI
Since 2016 I have been using machine learning to explore novel applications for creating art. This work is not 'text prompting' to make images (which has become popular recently), but rather buiding custom datasets and training bespoke models to employ as my art tools. This is a selection of work borne out of these explorations.
Mar 202020
My webinar, hosted by Nvidia, is now available on-demand. I talk about my latest work using AI (machine learning) as a “creative collaborator” in my artistic process. I show an eclectic range of successes, failures, and just crazy experiments that I’ve done over the last few years while exploring the capabilities and limitations of this emerging technology.
Free to register and watch.
WATCH HERE
Dec 132019
The 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
Oct 082019
Still 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.
Hyperbolic 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.
AI musings from a sketchbook
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Aug 272019
Aug 172019
Caffeinated 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.
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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.
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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:
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.
comparison of ‘Blueprint’ and resulting bronze
Jun 112019
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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.”
Jun 102019
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.
May 202019
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Drawing, painted using two variations of my Bodies neural network. “Making of’ below.
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May 152019
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Drawing, painted using my Bodies neural network.
Apr 162019
Daily experiment – what happens when you mix bodies with hands (not mine) and add the magic of neural networks? We didn’t know, until now.
Joking aside – the magic of this emerging artistic medium (using AI, machine learning, deep neural networks, whatever you want to call it) is the ability it gives us to remix domains, effectively combining visual ingredients into a cauldron, the way a chef experiments in the kitchen, to see what happens. The results are sometimes good, sometimes awful, but there is adventure to be had. It is a new type of visual exploration, and gives us new components for our creative processes.
Experiments coming frequently until the June 18th exhibition.