Me myself and I

20.03.2024 - 23.03.2024, Galerie Lisi Hämmerle in Bregenz/ AT
photographic works
various dimensions
2021/ 2022

In her artistic work „Me myself and I,“ Claudia Larcher explores innovative approaches at the intersection of art and artificial intelligence by utilizing a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to delve into the concepts of identity and self-perception. Larcher feeds the GAN with a selection of 350 digitized analog photographs from her personal family archive up to the age of 24. This AI system generates new images that both represent the artist and distort her through algorithmic interpretation.

The artificial intelligence analyzes the data, learns patterns and structures, and produces images that could be described as „fake identities.“ These identities are grotesque reproductions of the self, strangely distorted by the limited data foundation, thereby reflecting the inherent limitations of machine learning processes in dealing with the complexity of human physiognomy and identity.

In an act of reversion, Larcher transforms these digital portraits into the medium of Polaroid photo- graphy, turning the ephemeral digital product into a tactile, enduring object. The reversal from digital to analog, from perfectly calculated data back to a form traditionally associated with spontaneous and authentic snapshots, questions the authenticity and permanence of digitally genera-ted art.

The resulting montage of Polaroids is not only a collection of self-portraits but also a critical examination of the boundaries and possibilities of artificial intelligence in contemporary creative practice. Larcher‘s work situates itself in the discourse on the processing and representation of the self in an increasingly digitized world. It raises questions about the definition of the self in a time when our images and thus our identities can be fragmented, multiplied, and manipulated – both by ourselves and by the algorithms that shape our digital age.