How to become an image
Diplom Praxis
Prof. Eike König
3. Juli 2020
How to Become an Image is a machine-learning project. The focus lies on questions surrounding what constitutes a digital image and to what extent the latent pattern hidden between the pixels can be reproduced. I chose yoga pictures because they convey associations of physicality. It is interesting to observe that this physicality can only be sustained in the digital world as an image. For this undertaking I downloaded 11,000 yoga pictures from Instagram. These images became the source material to train a machine to recognise a pattern and then to reproduce it. For that reason, all the images in my Diplom project are generated by a computer. I was not responsible for decisions regarding how the images should look. This process was left entirely up to the computer. However, I could exert some influence on the result of the training: I had to decide beforehand which images would form part of the data set. I selected four different yoga poses to make certain that the program had access to sufficient information or pictures. The purpose was to create images that would become a hybrid of the yoga poses. In so doing, images could be produced that present bodies in twisted, impossible poses.
Diplom Theory
Prof. Dr. Marc Ries
My theoretical work was concerned with the topic of digital crowds. I wanted to investigate how people can experience each other as a mass in the digital sphere. While individuals can, through their physical body, experience a sense of being part of a mass of people, such as when partaking in a demonstration, this feeling is absent in the digital sphere. It should therefore be made perceptible in another way, such as through click numbers or likes. People can however also feel that they are part of a large group through memes.
CV
2020 Diplomausstellung, Hafenspace, Offenbach
2018 Blockadia*Tiefsee (V), Rathaus Offenbach
2018 MMK Sunset x Opencreek Hotel, MMK 2, Frankfurt
2017 Emotional Impact, Zollamt Gallery, Offenbach
2016 Incomprehensible Mix of Pain, CrossMediaNight, Offenbach
2016 Offenbacher Kur-Konzert, Dreieichpark Pavillon, Offenbach
2016 Performing Joyce Sno, Banksy, Offenbach
2015 Out of Range, saasfee* Pavillon, Frankfurt
2015 Private Blessing, Zollamt Gallery, Offenbach
