UV Island

Technologies like machine learning programs have enabled computers to be creative through neural net algorithms. 3D printers are beginning to replicate the surface level detail long-relished by painters. As technologies like these continue to advance, it is important to reconsider what is human about painting.

Through the Automatic Painting series, I play with elements of computer-authored art while asserting the role of the human hand. I 3D scan an everyday object, and the computer generates images that represent a flattened out version of a 3D model of that object. Next, I meticulously paint these images to get a painting with machine aesthetic but painterly textures.

To further explore, the relationship between the computer’s artwork and the human made artwork I have created a virtual space mirroring our own. This introduces a symmetry line between the physical and virtual worlds.

Monuments

The Automatic Painting series is paired with another series of paintings steeped in observation, recording mundane spaces. These paintings feel empty one lingering on a threshold of a restroom, others on the detritus found in public spaces. In each of these paintings a real space is mimicked in paint. The ability of painting to simulate place is considered while being paired with a virtual scale model of the gallery that is an arguably more engrossing complete simulation.

Download the virtual gallery exhibition (for Windows or Mac) at: https://austincaskie.itch.io/public-space-one

Learn more about Austin: www.austincaskie.com