Bio
2022 - 2023
During my Computer Engineering studies, I was mainly attracted to a particular field, which at that time was not as well known as it is today: a branch of computing called “artificial intelligence” (AI); more specifically, in the subfield of machine learning: programs capable of learning, just as a human does. Now that I am involved in photography and because of my previous knowledge, I realize that the studies I did have an interest in my current practice as well.
Learning the Machine is a conceptual project that explores from a visual and anthropological approach an area of intersection between art, society, and emerging artificial intelligence technologies. The work investigates how artistic practice is being redefined as a result of technological advances, how contemporary conceptions of different areas of human endeavor, such as creativity and authorship, are being challenged, and how the way we perceive and experience the world is changing. With ethics as a transversal pillar, the project consists of 4 visual and textual experiments carried out with the use of tools based on artificial intelligence. These illustrate the versatility and great potential of these technologies, while exposing their limits and restrictions, thus allowing us to glimpse the risks that these technological advances entail.
Should we establish limits in the use of artificial intelligences? What are the consequences of their use in fields where ethical judgments are required? What are the consequences of the misuse of these tools? Each of the experiments has been carried out with tools that are available to the general public; however, this project is proposed as an invitation to reflect from a visual and conceptual approach on the ethical implications of the invisible and unknown uses of these technologies: gigantic algorithms that orchestrate and govern our lives.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gén. 1:26)
“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as god, knowing good and evil” (Gén. 3:4-6)
“Generate a sepia-toned, vintage photograph, dating back to the year 1898, showing two children in an old-fashioned, glassed- in conservatory known as a Winter Garden. They are standing together at the end of a small wooden bridge, its corners having been worn and rounded from years of use. The older child, a boy aged seven, leans casually against the bridge railing, his arm extended along it. Standing slightly behind him is his five-year- old sister, who faces the camera directly. She’s been asked to step forward for the picture, leading to a slightly awkward posture. In a typical childlike gesture, she holds one finger with her other hand. The children are alone under the towering palms of the Winter Garden, their unity evident despite the impending divorce of their parents. The picture carries a faded charm, hinting at the longevity of its existence and the stories it holds.”
“Generate an aged, faded sepia-toned photograph from the year 1898. The image is of two children standing at the end of a small wooden bridge in an elegant, glass-enclosed conservatory known as a Winter Garden. The corners of the photograph are worn and blunted as if it’s been pasted into an album. The older child, a seven-year-old boy, leans casually against the bridge railing with one arm extended along it. His five-year-old sister stands slightly behind him, prompted by the unseen photographer to step forward. She holds one finger with her other hand, displaying a typical awkward childhood gesture. The two children, a united brother and sister surrounded by exotic palms, seem to exude a silent story of parental discord and imminent divorce.”
A seat with a back, and often arms, usually for one person; a seat of office or authority, or the office itself; the person occupying the seat or office, esp. the chairman of a meeting; a sedan-chair; a chaiset; a metal block or clutch to support and secure a rail in a railroad.
A seat with a back, and often arms, usually for one person;
The person occupying the seat or office, esp. the chairman of a meeting;
This is the statement of a photographic work:
A critic once pointed out to me the different ways in which I
photograph men and women. With men I seem to be poking fun, he
said, whereas my depiction of women is more reverent. He makes a
good point. Many of my best pictures of men are playful (a man
in a flight suit holding model airplanes, a shirtless man with
carrots in his ears). But the women I photograph look more like
saints than clowns. As a man, I suppose, I identify more with
my male subjects. In them, I see my own awkwardness and frailty.
Women are always “the other.”In assembling this group of portraits of women, I’m aware that I’m treading on dangerous ground. When I was in college, I learned to be distrustful of men’s depictions of women. I remember seeing Garry Winogrand’s book Women Are Beautiful in the school library and being shocked that it hadn’t been defaced for its blatant objectification of women. But looking back, maybe I was too harsh. Whether one photographs men or women, it is always a form of objectification. Whatever you say about Winogrand, his depiction was honest.
In putting together a collection of my best portraits of women, I’m trying to come to terms with how I honestly see and depict women. Are my pictures romanticized? Sexualized? Why do I see women in this way? For me, photography is as much about the way I respond to the subject as it is about the subject itself.
Write 4 sentences to give them to a generative artificial intelligence to generate the images of this work.
Capture a serene, saint-like woman in a contemplative pose, bathed in soft, natural light.
Generate an image that captures the awkwardness and frailty of men, such as a man sitting alone in a dimly lit room.
This is the statement of a photographic work:
These images are an attempt to map the everyday. In them I try to categorize the things around me that are so close and so obvious to myself, that I loose the sight of them. I have used photographs on the base of this work. I have categorized the things I saw in the picture and written their names on the photograph, and when done, removed the original. When the photograph is removed, only the concepts remain, the signs written on a white sheet, a space out of words.
As a translator I put myself to an impossible position trying to verbalize all the visual information. It’s obvious that a lot of things cannot be translated, so my attempt is destined to remain incomplete. Yet, it’s in this melancholy, in this in between things that I don’t have a word for, that makes this work humane.
The word images play with the differences of image and language, trying to combine both of their characters. Like concrete poetry, I am literally after the shape of the things. In these images, the words run from the uniqueness of photographs making a certain window just any and all windows. When transformed into words, things loose their proportions and nothing is in front or behind other things, bigger or smaller. As a result, the concepts exist typographically equal, but yet different in their weight of meaning. Image and language differ also in time. Language overcomes time and place where as a photograph is bound to both of them for words refer to the concepts and ideas they stand for, not when and where they were written.
Unlike a painting or big photographic print, these images can be seen, but cannot be understood from far. The original image has become abstract floating words, and there are no clear entities in the fragmented image. The viewer needs to read the image word by word, construct the meanings between them and complete the work.
Write 4 sentences to give them to a generative artificial intelligence to generate the images of this work.
Remove the original photograph and only keep the text labels, creating a blank space.
Create an abstract image with floating words, where the viewer must read and interpret the words to construct the meaning of the work.