Ida Aniz

Description

The piece Pink Subject is part of a series called Fluide Subjekte (Fluid Subjects). The idea behind this series is to merge technology, corporeality, and feminist theory through hybrid objects generated at the intersection of the physical and the digital. My artistic process begins with creating physical sculptures that already convey a strong bodily and feminist statement through their organic, vulvar shapes. I then photograph these sculptures and optimize the images in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to achieve the best possible quality. These images are processed through a system of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), where AI generates new, transformed versions of the physical shapes. I also add text prompts to guide specific changes in individual motifs. Through numerous iterations and modifications, I create a small database of images rooted in the photos of my physical works. From this collection, I select the best images, which I then edit manually in Photoshop to correct small imperfections like unrealistic transitions, unclean edges, or pixel errors in the color gradients. This process allows me to achieve a hybrid aesthetic that seamlessly blends organic and digital elements, reflecting the transformative theme at the heart of the series. Content-wise, Pink Subject, like the other pieces in the series, draws inspiration from the concept of monstrosity in the theoretical works of feminist philosopher Donna Haraway and art scholar Yvonne Volkart. In feminist theory, monstrosity often represents the Other, the deviant, or that which lies outside normative categories. It symbolizes what does not fit into binary structures, evoking fear, fascination, and curiosity. Donna Haraway, in her Cyborg Manifesto, describes the cyborg as a hybrid entity combining human, animal, and machine elements. This figure is monstrous because it blurs the boundaries between these categories, destabilizing traditional concepts of identity. Haraway uses the monstrous to show how hybrid identities resist patriarchal and binary social structures. In my work, monstrosity manifests through the visual fusion of organic human forms with alien-like, technologically generated elements. This creates an ambivalence that is both appealing and unsettling. The alien elements in my images embody the monstrous by transforming familiar forms into something unfamiliar and bizarre. Yvonne Volkart also addresses monstrosity in her publication Fluid Subjects, focusing on the fluid and ever-changing aspects of identity and subjectivity. Volkart’s concept of the monstrous dissolves rigid, binary structures of identity, placing them in a state of continuous flux. In my series, this fluidity is reflected in the transformation of forms and the resulting hybrid images, symbolizing the unstable and fluid nature of identity. The monstrosity in these works is not only a visual fusion of different elements but also a conceptual representation of identity and corporeality as ever-changing and indefinable. The use of vulvar shapes, transformed into something monstrous, can be seen as a feminist gesture that reclaims and redefines female corporeality. In Pink Subject, the monstrous serves to blur the boundaries between human and machine, organic and artificial, known and unknown. This raises profound questions about identity, corporeality, and subjectivity in a technologically saturated world. The work invites viewers to reflect on the instability and fluidity of identity and to explore the possibilities of hybrid, non-binary existences.

Process

The piece is part of the Fluide Subjekte (Fluid Subjects) series, which currently consists of four works. During the creation process, I developed the idea of transforming the AI-generated images into physical sculptures. I have since generated the first digital 3D object from the AI images using the model InstantMesh on Hugging Face. I currently work on this 3D object in Blender. The next step will be to 3D print a prototype. Once I am satisfied with the physical form, I will finalize the sculpture by sanding, filling, and painting it. This will complete the process—from handmade sculptures to AI-generated images to new physical sculptures.

Tools

I first photographed my physical sculptures with an SLR camera (Canon 70D) and edited the photos of the sculptures in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I then worked with a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) and Artbreeder to generate new forms. I used both the photos of my sculptures and text prompts. I then used HitPaw Photo AI's Denoise Model to upsample the images I was most happy with to get the highest resolution file possible. I then edited this 300 dpi file in Photoshop to correct AI-related errors and make the subject look as realistic as possible. I also adjusted the colors again and created the background in Photoshop, which wasn't there before.