This write-up is a reproduction of my original gallery on Deca.

Generative art and post-photography are two exciting fields of art that have come to the fore amidst the groundswell of creativity in recent years brought about by NFTs and generative AI technologies. In both fields, man and machine are intimately entwined. Artistic expression is mediated by algorithms, which while created and honed by humans, have now the space and agency to transcend our creative vision and challenge our pre-conceptions.

William Mapan’s Strands of Solitude is a generative art series of 400 pieces, curated and launched on the Tonic platform. The series is framed as “a meditation on connection and isolation in the digital age”, borne out by its intricate compositions featuring highly-distorted elements that are nevertheless underpinned by a strong visual coherence. Though each piece is algorithmically generated, they all retain a palpable sense of humanness, reflecting a seemingly hand-made quality through the use of organic forms and rich texture.

Roope Rainisto’s REWORLD is a series of 500 works created using generative AI methods and launched as part of a larger post-photographic group collection titled “Post Photographic Perspectives” on the Fellowship platform. The series explores society’s complexities through the lens of the machine, depicting familiar subjects and settings in a distinctly non-human manner. Each piece appears to unravel our perceptions of reality, but also contains a glimpse of new, alternative possibilities.

Despite exhibiting starkly different visual profiles, Strands of Solitude and REWORLD converge in the conceptual terrain that they traverse. At the heart of both series lies the tension between boundaries and possibilities, which governs how each piece came to be and what they may become. Through the pairings below, this tension is played out across both series, and projected on broader questions about the individual’s place in society and the relevance of the human imagination in a world where machines too can dream.

Strands of Solitude #330 | Feeding Hand

The dense composition in #330, seemingly set in motion by the use of flow fields, reflects the circulation of entities and energy that drive human society.

As our urban landscapes trend towards the monumental, not unlike the scene depicted in "Feeding Hand", the amount of energy that must be consumed to power this expansion will surely be staggering.

Can we then afford to bite the hand that feeds us?

Strands of Solitude #227 | Handmade Art

The human touch has always been an essential component of art. But as #227 hints at, what if machines can reproduce this hand-made quality, and do it better?

Is the scene in “Handmade Art” a foreboding of what would become of the human hand—an aimless side-show, reduced to making detritus?

Strands of Solitude #385 | Symbolism Failure

As we train our algorithms on the world, they will have to perceive and interpret our landscapes, our constructions, and our symbols. #385 and “Symbolism Failure” suggest that they may do so in discordant, dissonant ways.

But how will we know what our algorithms really see?

Age of Ads | Strands of Solitude #286

In our rapidly digitalising society today, it is almost impossible to escape the reach of advertising, exemplified by the cluttered billboards in “Age of Ads”.

But the hunt for profits can also be a tremendous source of creativity, holding the potential to dazzle and add colour to our lives, à la #286.

Where will this competition for attention take us, as we move into a world turbo-charged by AI?

Strands of Solitude #52 | Age of Enlightenment

Nirvana is often portrayed as an elusive thing—an ungraspable state, a fleeting moment, like the burst of reddish hues in #52.

In “Age of Enlightenment”, it seems to come all of a sudden, as a soul-ripping rupture in one’s identity.

Can enlightenment itself be automated?

Dual Mirror No. 1 | Strands of Solitude #162

The human gaze is limited within the space we have carved out within the natural world, as “Dual Mirror No. 1” suggests.

But #162 flips this state of affairs around, with its Echo Chamber characteristic conjuring an artificial boundary that seemingly constrains and subjugates a swath of nature.

What will our relationship be nature be like when everything becomes algorithmically-driven?

Strands of Solitude #305 | Crisis Climate

The heavy black hues in #305 evoke the stain and weight of pollution in our natural world. But our environment can also fight back and stop our machines dead in their tracks, as “Crisis Climate” demonstrates.

Can man, machine and nature work better together to preserve this world we all call home?

Strands of Solitude #192 | The Magician

The Conflict characteristic in the Strands of Solitude collection, which allows a second colour palette to appear within the piece, creates space for moments of magic to emerge from the algorithm.

The burst of grey tones at the heart of #192 is an example of this characteristic in play, with a sense of motion almost in sync with the bubbles conjured in “The Magician”.

What other magic remains hidden amidst the lines of code that underlie our algorithms?

Where Are You | Strands of Solitude #134

“Where Are You” depicts seemingly identical individuals on the lookout for something, somewhere. They could very well be searching for a flash of inspiration out of all that monotony, like the dash of green hues in #134.

When everything we have is within the realm of algorithmic possibility, is there still room for us to seek the exceptional?

All The Same | Strands of Solitude #339

In “All The Same”, the long shadows of the crowd create the impression that everyone is moving in the same direction, in unison towards the same end.

While this connotes the overwhelming influence of a herd mentality, #339 offers the perspective that cohesion and coherence can also have a transcendent beauty—where each individual part melds into a collective whole, aligned in flow and momentum.

Is there a singularity that our algorithms are leading us towards?

Strands of Solitude #172 | Male Dominance

The flesh-coloured elements in #172, seemingly disjointed and tossed around, share some resemblance with the transmogrified bodies in “Male Dominance”. They certainly serve as a harbinger of the growing impact of generative AI in the intimate and private spaces where we satiate our erotic desires.

Will we still yearn for the human flesh in reality when we can generate its representations infinitely?

Strands of Solitude #252 | Magic Hour

The gentle, relaxed tones in #252 evoke a similar vibe as the setting in “Magic Hour”—a state of tranquility far removed from the vicissitudes of the world.

When our algorithms are in a constant process of evolving, what sort of equilibrium can we expect to achieve?

Tomato Colored Tracksuit | Strands of Solitude #258

The subject in “Tomato Colored Tracksuit” defies our social conventions, wearing an eye-catching orange attire and carrying a giant tomato in the middle of the countryside.

What invisible forces would have laid unseen here, repressing this vivid expression of the self?

Will AI set our individuality free, or as #258 seems to reflect, will it only strengthen the cages that society pushes down on us?

Strands of Solitude #288 | Blue Lagoon

The crisp, distinctive swirls in #288, marked out by their blue and yellow hues, evoke the uplifting, heady feeling of heading on a vacation—perhaps to a beach on a warm, summer day like the one shown in “Blue Lagoon”.

Will we still feel this lightness of being when we know that our leisure activities are increasingly governed not by our own decisions, but by the unknown ways of our algorithms?

Strands of Solitude #31 | Treading Water

The resemblance between #31 and “Treading Water” is uncanny. Both depict a human figure within a bounded space, amidst what appears to be a body of water. It is unclear whether they have done so of their volition or were kept there against their will. Regardless, this solitary state seems to provide an appropriate setting to contemplate one’s place in society.

But when we have to keep struggling to stay above the relentless cacophony of noise and data in the world, how can we preserve the space for solitude and introspection?

Crescent Moons | Strands of Solitude #60

The illuminated wire structures in “Crescent Moons” sparkle against the night sky—evocative of the light rays propagating through the network of fibre optic cables that bind our society today.

But this connectedness also has the potential to tear us apart, scattering us like the bits and particles in frayed cables that #60 seems to conjure.

Connected or alone—in a world where our actions are determined by technologies beyond our control or even comprehension, what remains of human agency? As we continue charting a path within this momentary flicker of existence that is life, will our instincts, honed over millennia of human evolution, be eventually displaced by our algorithmic creations?