sergio albiac generates typographic collage portraits from code and transcribed voice

sergio albiac generates typographic collage portraits from code and transcribed voice
all images courtesy of sergio albiac

throughout his creative practice, artist sergio albiac has investigated the use of code as art through portraiture projects like ‘stardust‘ and ‘art is motion‘, made from hubble telescope imagery, and data collected from LEXUS drivers, respectively.

with his latest project, albiac questions: in a post-selfie time where machine learning algorithms convincingly turn photos into imitated masterpieces, how can computer code be used as a medium to tell stories about human identity? ‘I am portraits’ uses cloud computing, real-time machine learning services, and custom generative computer code to creative figurative interpretations of individuals participating in the project.

I am portraits
video courtesy of sergio albiac

albiac invites people to personally engage with the artwork through his experimental platform and virtual portrait studio, ‘beyapp‘ (beyond appearance). users are asked to sit for a picture, then describe themselves and their personality to the software. using the web speech API, the voices are transcribed into text, then transformed and complemented by related literary and philosophical passages — all in near-real time. the resulting generative collage portraits contain a typographic texture interrupted by unexpected associations and random, letter-based accidents.

as a first experiment on this new platform, a modified version of the ‘I am portraits’ is now free and open to everyone for a limited time.

the artist investigates the use of code as art

‘I am portraits’ uses cloud computing, real-time machine learning services, and custom generative computer code

figurative interpretations of individuals participating in the project are generated

albiac invites people to personally engage with the artwork

participants can interact via an experimental platform and virtual portrait studio called ‘beyapp’

users are asked to sit for a picture, then describe themselves and their personality to the software

using the web speech API, the voices are transcribed into text

text is transformed and complemented by related literary and philosophical passages