What happens when artificial imagery is pixel-perfect, infinite, and immediately personalized? When your TikTok feed is not just algorithmically targeted to your exact interests but algorithmically generated in real-time?
In PUPPIES, ClownVamp explores the optimistic side of this equation to highlight both the light and the dark. A lifetime lover of dogs and, perhaps most relevantly, dog GIFS, YouTube videos, TikToks–and really, any form of cute puppies doing cute things–he imagines what his own feed might look like in a fully optimized AI-future.
Containing 111 images of men and their best friends, PUPPIES explores the bewildering nature of excess cuteness in the age of AI. When artificial imagery can cause us to crack a smile or let out a real-world giggle, can there be too much of a good thing?
In the final innings of the uncanny valley, this work uses the latest advances in additive upscaling to provide fantastical details. The final 16K resolution images show angelic puppies doing things that only a human could love and only a machine could imagine. The occasional AI artifact or oddity gives us a hint that we are seeing something too good to be true. Still, these machine marks are also a marker of this moment – we are mere months away from image generation advances that will serve to make these idiosyncrasies extinct.
But, for now, let us revel in one thing that humans and machines both want more of: puppies.
Prints:
Collectors can purchase archival pigment prints of their pieces at 40 x 40 in. or 20 x 20 in., at cost. Printed on 285 gsm Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl paper, the prints are available unsigned, and with a certificate of authenticity issued by the artist. The 20 inch prints are available for $80 and the 40 inch prints for $260. Connect your art-holding wallet after the mint to wovn.xyz to order a print.