Writing / Artist statement
Latent: notes after Paris Photo
Retrospective notes describe prompting, selection, naming and the comparison between a digital negative and a photographic print.
Jack Butcher · 26 November 2024 – 27 November 2024 · 10 selected posts
23:03:20 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
with the final auction now up and running for Latent (https://t.co/SJHLcdHKoo) I'll write up a few disparate/post-rational thoughts on the collection to try and cover the bits missed in the more polished write-ups, share a few dots that connected looking backwards etc https://t.co/QTQGFk5250
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23:06:46 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
the first and most obvious is the concept of latent space as an all consuming conceptual rabbit hole the root of this idea/execution is to make obvious the massive overlap between mechanical photography and images generated via neural networks
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23:16:40 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
one of the biggest reflections, in the same way you leave your house with a camera and don't know what you'll end up having the opportunity to photograph - the neural network as a medium can function like this but with an order of magnitude more randomness
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23:19:47 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
first one, "prompting the environment" is to do with the broad assumption that working with a neural network to generate images is about describing exactly what you want it to do, which is how I interfaced with it originally "a person on a horse looking at x"
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23:22:54 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
the final 80 pieces in the collection are derived from around 8,000 outputs, 1% or so making the cut there are also dozens of visually disparate pieces born from the same prompt - an inversion of the assumption I started with
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23:29:11 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
and in hindsight, a prompt is really describing the parameters of a dream, tapping into a subconscious mind much vaster than my own the best way to describe the process is something like "exporting frames" from a dream, then curating based on what resonates with you personally
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23:40:53 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
one point I don't think I mentioned anywhere else, is that I tried to explain the concept to an LLM in parallel, then set some parameters for naming the works, then let it go to work 80% or so of the works it got first time (I agreed with the choices), the other 20% we rerolled https://t.co/srgM2PHs0f
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23:54:22 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
there were multiple instances in conversations that I had in person that felt like a genuine epiphany had occurred when making this comparison the visual treatment of the digital piece (white on black) is a choice made to emphasize this idea https://t.co/vbxkJrHOrY
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00:15:07 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
@visualizevalue and the work following that, attempts to involve the network itself in shaping the artwork latent nods back with both its edition size (80 checks) and persistent composition (outputs loosely conform to the opepen silhouette) https://t.co/7daW7RaF5f
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01:46:04 UTC · Original post on X · Link to this transcript
@visualizevalue @martin_klipp @CirrusGallery as true to the process as physically possible without having a physical negative as input, printed on Silver Gelatin via a chemical process traditionally used in black and white photography https://t.co/GXjPKKHtiJ
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