Meta Folklore: A Study of Distance, 2024
computer animation, 5′
I have chosen an earlier work of mine, the GAN* model, as the point of departure. Meta Folklore generalises a database of over twelve thousand photographs of assorted location, cultural and temporal provenance, all depicting non-academic three-dimensional representations of the human body. While I customarily refer to the model as a source of inspiration for my own sculptures I later produce with the use of 3D printers**, my intent herein was to explore its inner structure. Each neural network-generated image is defined by a specific point in 512-dimensional Cartesian space. The space allows the notion of distance to be defined, the work itself investigating its meaning on the visual level.
* GAN – Generative Adversarial Network – neural network architecture type capable of generating new data conforming to learned patterns.
** Simon’s sculptures are a fantastical vision of universal modern-day folklore; while generated with the use of Artificial Intelligence, they are all based on genuine sources. 3D-printed figures have been created on the basis of a neural network authored by the artist. The continually expanded database – a collection of photographs depicting assorted figural ethnic sculptures from varied cultures and periods – is processed with the use of machine learning with intent to generate new and diverse pattern mutations. While ostensibly futuristic, the forms seem intuitively intimate and familiar, as if logically deduced from a longstanding tradition of non-academic figural sculpture., “Janek Simon. Works. Meta Folklore”, Raster 2022, https://en.rastergallery.com/prace/meta-folklore/.
Janek Simon (b. 1977) – conceptual artist, occasional curator. His interests include cultural geography (the issue of differences and distances between locations in particular), anarchism, and self-created technology and its political potential. Lives and works in Warsaw. Showed works i.a. at the Manifesta 7 and Liverpool Biennial, in Guangzhou, Prague and Ljubljana, as well as at solo shows at the Arnolfini Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol, the Casino Luxembourg, and multiple public institutions across Poland. Awarded the Grand Prix of the 2007 edition of the “Spojrzenia/Views” Competition. Nominated for “Polityka” Passports. Co-author of the Goldex Poldex autonomous art space in Cracow.
photo: Adam Gut
