Artificial Impressions

Artificial Impressions (2023–2024) explores how artificial intelligence offers a tool to experiment with interpretation, highlighting both creative potential and the current limitations of AI processing. I created 16 screen-printed artworks from novel excerpts, blending personal memories, pop culture references, and AI interpretations. Through this process, I investigate how idealized images simplify reality to evoke a sense of familiarity, blurring the lines between memory, imagination, and perception. Drawing inspiration from French Impressionism and remix culture, the project reflects on how technology reshapes familiar narratives, raising questions about nostalgia, originality, and the evolving role of AI in artistic expression.

In 2023, artificial intelligence transformed writing, design, and art, enabling creators to develop ideas independently of collaborators. While this innovation has opened new opportunities for creativity, it also presents challenges reminiscent of past technologies, often leading to unintended consequences. A major concern is the threat it poses to many artists’ jobs and the commodification of ideas that may have taken a lifetime to achieve. Reflecting on my childhood, I feel nostalgic for a time before the ubiquity of the internet, social media, and, foreseeably, AI. Yet, I’m also intrigued by the ethical complexities and potential of machine-assisted art.

Inspired by AI’s current capabilities, I developed Artificial Impressions in 2023–2024. I recognize that AI will evolve far beyond the scope of this project, but I am fascinated by its current limitations, awkward interpretations, and faulty processing. My initial inspiration came from French Impressionism—a movement once deemed controversial and unattractive. I was captivated by how its techniques distilled human encounters into brushstrokes that captured light, time, and movement. Intended to reflect everyday life, this style invites viewers to interpret their own perceptions, deepening their connection to what it means to be human.

Dada’s Exquisite Corpse anticipated modern remix culture, where contemporary art often reuses and reimagines past themes and imagery. Many artworks feel derivative or pay homage to earlier art movements. The same is true in cinema, where reused styles and sequels feel overly familiar—take the 33 Marvel Cinematic Universe films released so far. Plato viewed art as an imitation of reality, a step removed from the truth, and cultural remixes seem to exacerbate that idea. Rather than creating in isolation, artists are inevitably influenced by a collective subconscious shaped by historical and cultural artifacts, blurring the lines of originality and ownership.

The concept of the idealized image frequently appears in art and entertainment, where references are distilled to their purest forms and exaggerated to evoke stronger reactions. In Looney Tunes, the dynamic between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner exemplifies this idea, using sounds and visuals to emphasize these idealized forms. For instance, when the Road Runner prepares to sprint, its legs spin rapidly like car wheels before it takes off, creating a cloud of dust that conveys a sense of acceleration. Accompanying sound effects, like the iconic “beep beep” and crashing noises, enhance the sensation of a race, drawing from relatable references of the 1950s.

Personal memories and pop culture references fueled my exploration. I vividly recalled a dream featuring dust bunnies in an attic, only to later realize it was a scene from the 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro, which features soot sprites—tiny black creatures that wander empty houses, leaving dirt and dust behind. This distant memory had faded so much that I mistook it for my own creation. In the 1998 science fiction noir thriller Dark City, the character John Murdoch is implanted with false nostalgic memories by the Strangers, alien beings that inhabit bald, albino human corpses. One of these false memories involves a postcard of Shell Beach, which serves as an artifact confirming the fabricated memory and triggering fragmented, idyllic images of a seaside paradise. The Strangers use these implants to observe whether humans act based on their memories or exhibit free will.

Although this project does not focus specifically on false memories, it explores idealized scenes that evoke a sense of familiarity, whether the memory is real or imagined. The idealized image is paradoxical: it simplifies reality while refining it to create a stronger emotional impact. This is similar to how I once misremembered soot sprites from My Neighbor Totoro as part of a dream or how the postcard from Shell Beach in Dark City evokes fabricated nostalgia. We encounter this idealization in everyday life, such as the romanticization of Paris or the portrayal of jeans as working-class attire, showing how our perceptions are shaped by a blend of personal memories, subconscious desires, and broader cultural narratives.

Drawing inspiration from vivid excerpts in novels, I created loose collages using free stock photography, built 3D structures, and applied premade filters to develop the base image. I then used Dreamstudio, a web-based AI software, to guide the images through prompts, either unifying or interpreting the scene, resulting in idealized landscapes. These landscapes blend personal experiences, cinema, literature, science fiction, and imagination. I applied a pointillism filter to these images, echoing the French Impressionists’ focus on controlled abstraction while making them suitable for screen printing. This technique bridges the gap between our media-saturated world and our perception of experience, blending the human experience of subconsciously fabricated environments with the unpredictable interpretations of AI.