artonomous b00000010 (2020) is an original portrait after practicing on several dozen studies. The robot is an artificially creative machine that paints with brush on canvas. While it can already paint portraits at human parity, photographer Kitty Simpson and A.I. Artist Pindar Van Arman have teamed up to train it on the subtleties of fine art.
What artonomous learns from the artists is dependent on their input and direction. The input is, for all practical purposes, “the truth” for the robot. Kitty and Pindar are attempting to teach the robot what is beautiful, evocative, what the characteristics of a desirable face are. Based on these inputs, the robot creates its own version of evocative portraiture, and this gets wired into its bias. It is easy to assume that our direct environment is a mini version of the world at large, but in reality, it is not. It is our own bubble where we live around people similar to us in race, socio-economic, and religious identity. Kitty and Pindar are attempting to train the robot responsibly, as they would raise a child, with diversity beyond their own limited view of beauty. The paintings they create together are a work in progress and a result of the carefully curated training.
