Novel images? Artistic image creation with science and technology protocols: GANs and CRISPR-Cas9

This article investigates two technology- and science-based methods and their potentiality and use in contemporary art, specifically in image-making traditions. Firstly, the article will briefly present digital image creation processes involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) and GANs, and secondly it will introduce a possibility for science-based image modification using a lab-based CRISPR-Cas9 system. Both methods have become available for artistic use with an increase in DIY and open science developments.

These scientific methods impact the produced result aesthetically, according to the context and through associations. The question this paper focuses on is what kind of images are created with these methods? How is the meaning conveyed with these types of images? And what is the artistic point of making images with such technology-based processes?

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Laura Beloff

Conference

Publication date: September 2021

Publication date (Print): September 2021

Pages: 253-260

Affiliations

[0001]Aalto University

Helsinki, Finland

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/POM2021.33

SO-VID: 13a6f64d-e7c6-4c55-ac22-d9b0c73c4fd8

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of Politics of the Machines - Rogue Research 2021

Conference acronym: POM 2021

Conference number: 3

Conference location: Berlin, Germany

Conference date: September 14-17, 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: debate and devise concepts and practices that seek to critically question and unravel novel modes of science

History

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/POM2021.33

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Art World News (2015) A real squeeze: Paint in tubes. Christie’s. http://www.christies.com/features/14-Art-Media-Paint-in-Tubes-5840-1.aspx ( 29 August 2021 )

[2] L Beloff (2016) Fly Printer – Extended: An artwork with fruit flies, artificial intelligence and humans. Bioartsociety. http://bioartsociety.fi/posts/fly-printer-extended-an-artwork-with-fruit-flies-artificial-intelligence-and-humans ( 29 August 2021 )

[3] L Beloff (2017) Uncanny realm – The extension of the natural. In L J. J. A ArangoF Bubarno C. Londono, & G. M. Mejia (Eds.), ISEA – Proceedings of the 23rd International Symposium on Electronic Arts 11 – 18 June 2017 , Manizales, 780–783. Manizales: Department of Visual Design, Universidad de Caldas, and ISEA International, Manizales.

[4] J Cohen (2017) How the battle lines over CRISPR were drawn. Science. http://www.science.org/content/article/how-battle-lines-over-crispr-were-drawn ( 29 August 2021 )

[5] K Crowson (2021) Introduction to VQGAN+CLIP. http://sourceful.us/doc/935/introduction-to-vqganclip ( 29 August 2021 )

[6] A Elgammal, B Liu, M Elhoseiny, & M Mazzone (2017) CAN: Creative Adversarial Networks generating “art” by learning about styles and deviating from style norms. Artificial Intelligence. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computational Creativity, ICCC, 19 - 23 June Atlanta. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

[7] Etymonline (2021) Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/search?q=edit ( 29 August 2021 )

[8] J Fuegi and J Francis (2003) Lovelace & Babbage and the Creation of the 1843 ’Notes’. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 25 (4), 16–26, doi: 10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887.

[9] W Giloi K. (1997) Konrad Zuse’s Plankalku/spl uml/l: The first high-level, “non von Neumann” programming language. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 19 (2), 17–24. doi: 10.1109/85.586068.

[10] I. J Goodfellow., Pouget-J Abadie, M Mirza, B Xu, Warde-D Farley, S Ozair, A Courville, & Y Bengio (2014) Generative Adversarial Networks. Communications of the ACM, 63 (11), 139–144. http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2661

[11] I Hoelzl, & M Rémi (2015) Softimage: Towards a New Theory of the Digital Image. Intellect Books, Bristol.

[12] J Hui (2018) GAN — What is Generative Adversarial Networks GAN? http://jonathan-hui.medium.com/gan-whats-generative-adversarial-networks-and-its-application-f39ed278ef09 ( 29 August 2021 )

[13] P Hurt (2013) Never underestimate the power of a paint tube. Smithsonian Magazine. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/never-underestimate-the-power-of-a-paint-tube-36637764/ ( 29 August 2021 )

[14] Y Ishino, et al. (2018) History of CRISPR-Cas from Encounter with a Mysterious Repeated Sequence to Genome Editing Technology. Journal of Bacteriology, 200 (7), e00580-17. doi: 10.1128/JB.00580-17.

[15] L. E Kay. (2000). Who Wrote the Book of Life? - A History of the Genetic Code. Stanford University Press, Stanford.

[16] R Lee (2020). Machine learning and notions of the image. Copenhagen: IT-Universitetet i København. http://pure.itu.dk/portal/en/publications/machine-learning-and-notions-of-the-image(6e78a301-578d-49db-8855-072c1d7ddcc6).html ( 29 August 2021 )

[17] D Ng (2020) A brief history of CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing tools. Bitesize Bio. http://bitesizebio.com/47927/history-crispr/ ( 29 August 2021 )

[18] L Parisi (2013) Contagious architecture: Computation, aesthetics, and space. MIT Press, Boston.

[19] M Pasini (2019) Style transfer with GANs on HD images. Towards data science. http://towardsdatascience.com/style-transfer-with-gans-on-hd-images-88e8efcf3716 ( 29 August 2021 )

[20] B Stafford M. (2007) Echo objects: The cognitive work of images. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

[21] Synthego (2021) History of genetic engineering and the rise of genome editing tools. Synthego.https://www.synthego.com/learn/genome-engineering-history%20 ( 29 August 2021 )

[22] K Tamura (2016) The Genetic Code: Francis Crick’s Legacy and Beyond. Life, 6 (3), 36. http://doi.org/10.3390/life6030036

[23] J Vincent (2018) How three French students used borrowed code to put the first AI portrait in Christie’s. The Verge. http://www.theverge.com/2018/10/23/18013190/ai-art-portrait-auction-christies-belamy-obvious-robbie-barrat-gans ( 29 August 2021 )

[24] J Zylinska (2017). Nonhuman Photography. MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

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