Animoid

The owl staring out of the image in Ann Lislegaard’s photogravure Animoid appears at once hyper-realistic and artificial. In fact, it is not a depiction of an existing animal, but an image generated by Artificial Intelligence. Lislegaard created the motif with the help of AI language models. Using text, she prompted software to generate an image. Instead of presenting BORCH Editions’ printmaking studio with a final version of this image, she kept adjusting it during her exchange with the master printers, discussing different versions and integrating their feedback into later versions. During this process, the demands on the system became increasingly complex, until, unable to process the large amount of information, it created glitches and visual imperfections.

The interaction between AI and traditional craftsmanship, with Lislegaard as the mediator, formed the conceptual basis of the project. Instead of simply executing a digitally conceived image in a classic intaglio printing process, she decided to consider the physical realization of the digital image into her creative process from the very beginning. She thus facilitated a feedback-loop between present and past, between disembodied intelligence and physical craftsmanship, between the elusive concept of creativity and its physical manifestation.

The discourse on AI-created art and authenticity is highly topical. At this point in time, artists are operating in a legal vacuum, testing possibilities that may not be available to future generations. Lislegaard references this discourse, however she is rethinking its consequences for the notion of authorship: while the creative impulse remains with her, she is investigating the possibilities of a mutual exchange between her and a system that can access an infinite amount of information and therefore has enormous creative potential.