Afrofuturist Artist Creates Stunning Portraits of Black Artists With Deep Dream AI Algorithms

This utterly gorgeous image of British singer Sade was created by Nettrice Gaskins, an African-American artist whose work explores "techno-vernacular creativity" and Afrofuturism. As that suggests, her medium for creating this image and others in her series of portraits is unique: Deep Dream, the neural network AI.

“I used Deep Dream Generator's algorithm, which is inspired by the human brain," she tells me. "The generator uses the stylistic elements of one image to draw the content of another. The first picture defines the portrait I want to create and the second picture I upload gives the program a style to simulate. The process may include more than one pass in the generator, using different style images, until I get the image I want." This portrait of Sade, for instance, "[Is] a composite of multiple Deep Dream images."

Here's another one I love below, a portrait of Pulitzer-winning hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar, re-imagined by Dr. Gaskins and Deep Dream through a symphony of sharp angles that evoke his epic, staccato rap style:

"Kendrick is just two [images]: input source photo and output style of a fractal-based design." 

And another, this one of Nnedi Okorafor, a Nigerian-American, Hugo/Nebula-winning author, which earned the most Likes from the Deep Dream community -- and provoked a fascinating response from the writer herself:

"Nnedi discovered the portrait and commented that it reminds her of how she feels all of the time and how sees the world."

I tell Nettrice that I've been thinking about her series in relation to the controversy over racial bias within AI algorithms, recently raised by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Often, for instance, AI-driven facial recognition programs are unable "see" people of color. By contrast, Dr. Gaskins' series consciously codes the Deep Dream AI to be "aware" of great African-American faces on a deep level. 

"I started messing with AI via Deep Dream to better understand it and to teach students about how algorithms can be used to make art," she tells me. "Being more aware and choosing more creative, humanistic methods with AI is definitely a goal of mine."

Many more on her homepage gallery and on her Twitter feed. And as longtime New World Notes readers may have already guessed, Dr. Gaskins created some great Second Life-based artwork back in the day.

Update, 2/1: Welcome, Boing Boing readers. Here's some more images from Nettrice's gallery -- Deep Dream Aretha, Chadwick, and Baldwin:

All images copyright Nettrice Gaskins.

Comments

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

Thanks; that's lovely work.

[Joseph Yura]

Fantastic portraits indeed. I like futuristic painting in general. Some days ago, I came across the talks over Deep Dream Generator on forums, but just didn't pay attention to it. Seems quite an exciting tool.

[Clara Seller]

Boy, I'm struggling with this process and it's definitely affecting my willingness to connect with these images.

I suppose I"m old school or purist. I'm still having trouble with signed Giclée
prints as fine art. Letting a machine drive the concept just freaks me out.

I realize not everyone views art, music, or literature as sacred. Just my thing. I would be much more receptive to letting AI Algorithms into religion. Can we go there, first?

[MyBKExperience]

Fantastic portraits.Specially painting of Kendrick is too good.Keep painting and keep posting.