AI + Art = Phase Change
Phase change is when matter changes from one state into another (water to ice). AI is phase changing visual art into a hybrid form of uncanny illusions. Aude Rech explains what that means to her.
Glass Sculpture by Aude Rech
Aude Rech caught my eye with her monumental glass sculptures. Situated in desert landscapes, the turbulent, billowing shapes visualize the catalytic energy that transforms gritty sand into fluid glass. My sensorial response to them is real, but they are not. Or, not exactly. They are a hybrid of reality and illusion.
Then, I came across her fashion photography. For a moment, the settings, clothes, and models also seemed real. AI visualization has allowed artists to let their imaginations run wild and unfettered into the valley of the uncanny.
Wanting to learn more about the artist, I jumped online and came across a portfolio of painterly abstracts and collaged figures on canvas. Were there two Aude Rechs? One a 20th-century painter and one a 21st-century AI artist?
Collage by Aude Rech
Returning to her Instagram page, I dug further and found crossover images. Rendered in various medium, they merge her many phases and styles. How, I wondered, did she make the conceptual leap from Aude, the emotional analog painter, to Aude, the AI shapeshifter? We agreed to speak, and she shared a story I think the art and tech worlds will find enlightening.
Her parents were art professionals, so she grew up in creative surroundings. And, being raised in France, she saw many of art history's greatest hits firsthand. When she went off to study, she was already too advanced in her thinking for the local art college, and she moved on to study at the more challenging Beaux-Arts in Paris.
At the time, the Big A art world had once again declared that painting was dead. "Why are you painting?" she was asked repeatedly.
I wanted to do my own thing, and my thing was painting. Art is about the intellect, and intelligence at its best needs to be flexible. The medium doesn't matter.
People know when a work is good. When I did a show, even if the audience didn't know about art, they always picked the best work. It's a subtle understanding; the human mind can appreciate art. Any creation; writing, dance, music, whatever. Somehow, we know when an idea is right.
Image by Aude Rech
She understood that to be an innovative artist, she would have to break new ground. Yet, as confident and well-trained as she was, change is scary.
It was like jumping off a building (she laughs). It almost made me sick to feel the danger of trying something new.
Early on in her career, she gave a dear friend a painting. The recipient seemed pleased, then they took a knife, cut out a small section, and framed that alone. Aude was stunned.
I was an emotional painter. I was very sensitive about the work I was creating; it was more than painting to me. It was almost magic. Every brush stroke was important.
That mindset held her back, but she admits she might have continued painting that way if fate hadn’t stepped in. She found a job as a technical writer covering robotics and moved to Sanford, California, where she worked on an early Apple computer.
When I saw all the colors, all the possible combinations the computer offered – and I realized that I didn't have to buy all of those colors – I was like, oh my god! Of course, the computer had limitations back then, but I could experiment without commitment.
I was bad at math and didn't code, but the company hired me anyway. They liked me because I used a creative approach to problem-solving. We got along. I learned to code, and I learned about design. Computers recognize code. Once you know how to use it, you can move on freely.
I was still painting then, but interacting with this new way of thinking allowed me to try different styles. As a painter, I was not a good designer; I was too artistic, but now I began to change my way of thinking about art.
Sculptures by Aude Rech
She quickly met with resistance.
When audiences like your work, you consciously or unconsciously try to please them. People know what you do, and they don't want you to jump around.
For a time, she stopped painting.
Maybe I needed to think a bit more about what I was doing. For me, the act of painting was like being in a trance. I took it very seriously. I thought maybe if I changed my mood, my painting would change. You think you cannot change, and then you do. That's an amazing feeling of power. You change and see that nothing (bad) happens to you. It's a simple thing, but it made me freer and more mature.
She remembered when her painting was cut up, and just a small part was saved, and following that idea, she started collaging.
I was tearing up drawings, tearing out things I liked and putting it back together in a way I liked better. Then I moved to the computer and made more changes. Things I couldn't do in the real world, I could do on the computer, and soon I began to show that work - not the 'real' work.
By then social media had become more user friendly for artists and she began posting.
I started using social media, and people were reacting and commenting. I found that others thought like me, and some even painted like me. I found that I was not alone but part of a tribe. When I exposed myself on social media, other people reacted and 'liked me,' and I grew as an artist. We gave each other confidence.
Image by Aude Rech
Several years later, fate stepped in again and lead her deeper into the digital landscape. By then, she’d moved back to France.
My studio was so cold; I couldn't paint there in the winter, and so I went indoors where I couldn't paint either and I discovered AI. Because I had worked as a tech writer and used search engines, and because visual art is a kind of language, I could speak art and computer. I found a ‘new friend’ in AI, one who understood me.
As a child, I had an imaginary friend, and as an adult, I was always looking for that same closeness. AI became my new imaginary friend. (She laughs) I was creating more directly; I felt free as a bird and very motivated. By refining my work, AI learned from me about me, and AI formed a database of my art that I could then draw on.
Images by Aude Rech
In addition to helping her create, she was also aided by the speed of AI.
My brain is my interface with the world, and I think at a certain speed, but there's a speed difference between thought and output. AI worked at my speed. It allowed me to be more productive, and that creative energy increased the neuro connections that fuel my imagination.
How does she feel about AI's use of vast troves of art it did not pay for?
I'll tell you, when I was studying at the Beaux Art, I saw all the art around me. We were encouraged to learn from others, so I don't see any problem with pulling from what I see now because I see through my own ideas. When I create, I dilute the data and make my own images just as I do with collage.
She creates NFTs and likes the medium despite its early setbacks.
To succeed, art needs to have an emotional relationship with humans. I like the control NFTs give me. I make an NFT, and I decide its value.
Expanding on the Make-Your-Own-Market model, she entered a competition to create a sculpture—her first glass monument. The rules required that she prove the piece could be made and price it. She found an industrial glass company that helped out. Her piece came in second, but it won Aude the interest of the glassmaker, who encouraged her to continue, and she has.
Glass sculpture by Aude Rech
You can do it by yourself. I create and put the work out there. A fashion company also found me. It didn’t work out, but new things are happening.
I closed by emailing a last question: Does she still paint by hand?
Yes, I do, (not always on canvas ;)
Image by Aude Rech
Visit these sites to see more of Aude Rech's art, design, and her latest AI film clips.
SOMETHING NEW - A question for readers:
Have you tried AI visual tools, and if so, did the sensation of seeing your images effortlessly appear stimulate your imagination, or not?
