Paint By Numbers

German artist Mario Klingemann uses neural networks and complex machine learning algorithms to create art. His work featured recently in Gradient Descent, an exhibition of art created with artificial intelligence, at Nature Morte in New Delhi.

How did you get into artificial intelligence?

I had been fascinated by AI since I read The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky in the 1980s. Unfortunately I had to wait almost 20 years until the hardware and the science had reached the level where it was possible to make visual art with it. To me what we call ‘AI’ is a toolkit of complex instruments that allows me to transform and translate the complex information of the world between different media.

What is your process?

In AI art, rules are not defined by literal instructions, but by training neural networks on a set of data—often images—that I select. This selection involves thousands of images that I have to find and categorise. Also, there is often a process involved where I translate the images into a different representation, so the model “understands” my intentions and what is important to me about that data.

Does this mean that a computer is creating the work?

My role is that of an artist. I observe the world and transform or filter what I perceive in the hope that I have something relevant to contribute to the discourse. In a world that is increasingly dominated by technology, maybe AI is able to help find patterns and new perspectives in the complexity.

What is your art about?

My art is about human perception and our understanding and definition of what art is. I am interested in exploring how meaning and emotion can emerge even if there’s no intention. AI is my petri dish and laboratory to research these questions.

If AI is without feeling, is it possible to qualify what it does as art?

I don’t think that canvases or pianos can feel but nobody questions their role in art. AI in its current state is just an instrument or transformer in the hand of human artists and as such just a catalyst for human creation. For me, there is no question that this qualifies as art.

FOR GERMAN ARTIST MARIO KLINGEMANN, NEURAL NETWORKS AND COMPLEX ALGORITHMS ARE NO DIFFERENT FROM PAINTBRUSHES AND CANVAS