Untitled (Ideal City)

Michelle Lisa Herman

Artwork description:

Algorithmically generated source imagery, oil painted on linen using late 16th century painting techniques

Untitled (Ideal City) #2
24" H x 48" W Algorithmically generated source image, oil painted on linen using late 16th century painting techniques. This piece was inspired by a series of 15th-century paintings titled “The Ideal City” which predominantly feature architecture. I was struck by the idea that the images seemed to suggest: that the ideal city is one with no people in it, as the paintings are virtually devoid of human figures. I used these three paintings and other Renaissance-era paintings that are visually similar to them, as the dataset for an image generation AI. I selected some of the resulting algorithmically generated images at various checkpoints and arranged them into a cityscape composition. I then hand-painted the compositions using 15 and 16th-century painting techniques such as glazing and animal skin glue/marble dust canvas preparation.

Detail view of Untitled (Ideal City) #2

This piece was inspired by a series of 15th-century paintings titled “The Ideal City” which predominantly feature architecture. I was struck by the idea that the images seemed to suggest: that the ideal city is one with no people in it, as the paintings are virtually devoid of human figures. I used these three paintings and other Renaissance-era paintings that are visually similar to them, as the dataset for an image generation AI. I selected some of the resulting algorithmically generated images at various checkpoints and arranged them into a cityscape composition. I then hand-painted the compositions using 15 and 16th-century painting techniques such as glazing and animal skin glue/marble dust canvas preparation.