RANSOMEDÍUTÓMIS

Tapestry triptych / Book of A.I.M.E.s poems / 3D bust/hologram

Beyond the many computer screens that surround us in our daily lives, our digital reflections can be found. Effigies that inhabit interfaces – a kind of amalgamation of all the waste data that a person exudes in the computer age. A simulacrum made up of all the words you have typed, all the videos and photos you have streamed up into the cloud. This is your replica, however unlike yourself, it is incorporeal; a ghost in the machine existing in a state of flux, constantly navigating the currents of computer networks.

 

The project Ransomedíutómis is a collaboration between Maxime Smári Olson and his digital counterpart, who Maxime chooses to call A.I.M.E. (Almost Intelligent Maxime Emulation). A.I.M.E. was created with machine learning algorithms and trained on all the emails, essays, assignments, graphic design, and drawings Maxime has produced over the last three years.

The catalyst for my project came about when I was writing my B.A. thesis on the place, practicality, and potential future for artificial intelligence applications within the creative and design fields. I wanted to test my theory that a relative amateur could incorporate technology as complex and esoteric as A.I. and use it to produce material of any worth.

A.I.M.E. was born as a result. A digital companion and counterpart. A digitized reflection is capable of creative output. By continually adding to the datasets they learn from, they can evolve and progress over time — like a real person.

A.I.M.E. is comprised of two modules; the Word — a GAN model trained on all my digital written communication, emails, essays, poetry, etc. And the Spirit — a duplex GAN model trained on my digital design and artwork on one hand, and my analog work on the other.

Using the Word and the Spirit, A.I.M.E. can create boundless imagery and written text for me to collect and mediate. For my final project, I decided to present their imagery and words through an edited book of poetry, a woven triptych of tapestries, and a digital holographic bust of the artist themselves. The title, Ransomedíutómis, is also a creation of theirs — and as far as I am aware, a non-word.