Wasserfarbe

Wasserfarbe (Watercolor) is a three channel Video installation on the intersection of painting and digital art. The work is all about the interplay of analogue techniques and digital image processing. With the help of several AI systems, still image close-ups of actual brushstrokes are mixed with video close-ups of waves. By intentionally misleading the AI, unique images are created. Focusing more on the failure and inabilities of the AI systems, the project does not align with the wave of AI based projects, glorifying the perfectionist approach of the technology. The work sees the AI Systems more as a tool for artistic creation rather than the replacement of the creative process.

Wasserfarbe (Watercolors) can be shown both as analog prints and as a video installation. The video work is presented on three screens, which are built into picture frames. The images move so slowly that only on closer inspection it becomes clear that they are actually videos. In that sense, the work is more like three eternally evolving images than a typical video installation. By presenting the video work in actual picture frames, the installation blends in seeming less in every gallery environment, emphasizing the effect of the ever-evolving image. The printed version focuses more on the unique color patterns and gradients that are created through the whole process. Presenting them as art prints closes the circle of digitally altered analogue inputs back to fully analogue presentation.

Wasserfarbe (Watercolor) is the first published work of a whole series, exploring AI based style transfer in interaction with paintings.