Thread by David Rees

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1/ Dreamscapes is a @braindrops_art collection of 500 AI artworks by @xsteenbrugge . I recently (not so recently now!) spoke with him about these works and his art career.

We discussed everything from brain scans to music and the definition of art.

Here is what I learnt👇
2/ The artworks are “an attempt to recreate the fantastical dreamworlds we all experience overnight through the lens of AI”. They are created using language interpretation AI, where the artist uses words to create each piece.
3/ The digital works have a surreal nature, a recognisable trait of AI work, but there is a specific style that runs through the entire collection. This comes from Xander writing parts of the code himself, altering it to get the outputs he is searching for.
4/ True to their name each piece has a Dream like quality, encompassing landscapes, portraits, objects or some mix of all three. Categories often fold into each other, a cloud becoming a face or a building becoming a horizon.
5/ The concept of Lucid Dreaming, being conscious you are dreaming, is an overriding narrative throughout the collection. The feeling of finding yourself aware that what at first appears recognisable is in fact entirely impossible is present in each artwork.
6/ It is this same feeling we each have when waking from a dream. When we are asleep we accept the strangeness of the dream for reality but upon waking we wonder how we did not realise it was dream sooner. It is this questioning of what we experience that Xander explores.
7/ Xander is the classic mix of Artist, Coder, Researcher, YouTuber and Engineer. He has been working with Deep Learning neural networks for over ten years, applying them to real world problems.
8/ His introduction to machine learning came from his studying Brain Computer Interfaces for his Engineering thesis. Using EEG recordings from paralysed subjects where ML was used to identify the parts of the brain responsible for moving specific body parts.
9/ Seeing ML helping fully ‘“locked in” patients become able to communicate with the outside world was what triggered him to explore what else this technology was capable of. This has led him to create a YouTube channel teaching ML to over 75,000 subscribers
10/ His journey into Machine Learning and Digital Art resulted him building the audio visual AI website WZRD. This site allows you to augment your audio into an immersive video experiences with impressive results.

wzrd.ai
11/ To get an idea of what this looks like have a watch of Xander’s artwork “The Egg”

vimeo.com/369537979
12/ The balance between builder and artist is something that is at the forefront of Xandeer’s mind and is a common debate amongst the AI art community.

It’s a controversial topic but for Xandeer “the code is art".
13/ It’s why he has kept the code he has used for Dreamscapes private for now, resisting releasing it as open source. He explains the process of creating as being iterative, slowly adding aesthetics into it and responding to the outputs he receives from the programme.
14/ He describes this development with the AI as collaborative, at times “it really feels like there is a 2nd person being part of the creative process and this person is often very surprising”.
15/ Much like how an oil painter responds a painting in front of them, he reacts to what the AI produces. Refining, directing and encouraging the style that emerges. Creating a visual that offers a new experience to the viewer.
16/ This visual captures the raw experience of an immersive visual that is truly novel, creating a moment of pause causing a point of reflection and total absorption in an art piece. This is especially true in the 13 video pieces.
17/ These perfectly looping Mp4s warp and distort whilst always managing to maintain a cohesive whole. These pieces really exhibit what Xander’s work is capable of and it is a shame there are not more of them.

18/ The collection brilliantly highlights the sense of recognising the absurdity of a dream even though moments before you were immersed and participating within it.

Here, the viewer is aware of the impossibility each artwork but is still transfixed by them.
19/ The titles of the works carry added importance as they hint at the seed words that created them. They also drive the narrative further, playing with familiar concepts of dreaming: Inception, Dreamportal, Sleepwalking or wakedreaming?, Dreaming of the city.
20/ But whilst the world Xander pulls you into is entrancing, what is really masterful is his craftsmanship with the tool he uses. His ability to create unique, recognisable style using Machine Learning is what really stands out from the collection.
21/ As so many artists use ready made AI tools there is a certain “flattening”, as Xander describes, to the work produced. What he is able to do is show that by understanding how the code itself works he is able to unlock far greater possibilities of what can be achieved.
22/ Whilst being slightly coy about what the future holds he has hinted that part of his code is being used for the AI Abraham, a project started by fellow BrainDrops artist and Founder @genekogan. This exciting project aims to build an autonomous AI artist
23/ Make sure you keep your eyes on that, until then enjoy exploring the Dreamscapes collection and this pioneering artist.

If you have any questions or comments/feedback just let me know

opensea.io/collection/dreamscapes-by-xander-steenbrugge
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