AI Beetle (2020/2021) featured in October 2021 edition of Art Press
Frederik De Wilde’s recent work AI Beetle (2020/21), for which he paired a conceptual exercise with questions about post-nature, features in an essay by renowned art critic and curator Dominique Moulon for the October 2021 issue of Art Press.
In his exciting overview, titled Intelligence in Art, Moulon reviews the work of Frederik De Wilde, alongside work by Refik Anadol, Memo Atkin, Hito Steyerl and Egor Kraft. Moulon highlights different aspects of AI Beetle such as pattern recognition, computer vision, and digital surveillance.Moulon on Ai Beetle
The beetle is covered in new patterns created by an algorithm, but the algorithm is hacked, so it tricks itself. “Pattern recognition is a branch of artificial intelligence that Frederik de Wilde is investigating this year with his online exhibition Next Nature_Post Camouflage. As computer vision devices proliferate, far beyond the industries where they first appeared, he looks for ways to fool them into thinking up camouflages, and he does so using artificial neural networks combined with evolutionary algorithms. The three-dimensional beetles he adorns with the resulting camouflage patterns make it impossible to see them as the work of any machine vision device with artificial intelligence. To the human observer, they are still beetles. The machine no longer recognises them as beetles. Artificial intelligence is used here against itself, reinforcing our ability to look at what a machine cannot see,” writes Moulon.More information
The full article is available in French and in English in Art Press #492, Paris, octobre 2021, p.42-47.
To learn more about Frederik De Wilde’s ai-driven work, including critical takes on genetics, deep sea mining and NFT’s, follow him on Instagram.