A Canvas of Curiosity and Controversy
Cindy Sherman, the renowned photographer celebrated for her captivating self-portraits, has dipped her toes into the tech pool and sparked quite the conversation. Her latest muse? Artificial Intelligence, specifically through the use of the Lensa app. As someone who's always pushed the boundaries of self-representation, Sherman now turns to AI to explore new versions of herself. And let me tell you, the digital art world has not remained indifferent.
Sherman recently spoke to The Art Newspaper about her newfound love affair with AI. “I am really curious about AI and what it does to images,” she said. Imagine this: you upload a selfie into a face-tuning app like Lensa. The AI takes over, generating different avatars based on your uploaded image. From anime and cosmic versions to apocalyptic renditions, the possibilities seem endless. And in Sherman’s case, these aren't your run-of-the-mill beautified selfies; they're bizarre and intriguing "double manipulations." Basically, she's experimenting with how much she can distort and change her image before it becomes unrecognizable or takes on a whole new meaning.
Instagram as a Sketchbook, Not a Gallery
However, not everyone is enamored with her digital escapades. After sharing some of her AI-generated experiments on Instagram, she faced a wave of backlash. Some followers seemed to think Sherman was debuting a new official body of work, to which she responded with a comment saying, “People, I’m just fooling around, sheesh, it’s not my ‘new’ work.”
Sherman likens her Instagram account to a sketchbook rather than a gallery. She's merely exploring the bounds of her creativity and dabbling in what AI has to offer. “It's a distortion and a mirror,” she notes. Interestingly, Sherman admits that her playful tinkering with AI somewhat influenced her upcoming show in Zürich. The AI-generated avatars weren't just weird; they were "surprising," with oversized heads, six-fingered hands, and other peculiar features that made her consider the "strange distortions" she could introduce into her traditional collages.
Despite the fun and artistic opportunities that AI presents, there's a darker undertone to consider: the ethics of how these AI algorithms were created. These algorithms use a vast database of images from the internet—many of which are copyrighted and used without permission from the original owners. The debate over the use of AI in art, especially given these ethical complexities, isn't going to be resolved overnight.
So, is Cindy Sherman's foray into AI a brave new world for art or a Pandora's box of ethical dilemmas? That's for you to decide. But one thing's for sure: Cindy Sherman continues to push boundaries, whether with a camera in her hand or a smartphone running AI algorithms. And regardless of whether you love or loathe her new direction, it certainly has us all talking.
You can check-out the new Lensa generated self portraits over on her Instagram: www.instagram.com/cindysherman
