Artist Statement
The goals with my practice are to challenge the way people think about machines, and how we need to work with them to help keep Earth habitable for human life.
In my work, I use site-specific photography to custom train a machine learning model, resulting in a distinct stylistic texture. I study how computer vision models trained on modern art interpret photographs from Paris, France. These photos steered the stylegan2 model towards natural, landscape environments, while contributing its own machine interpretations of the form and structure of the city. By exploring and experimenting with 2 different generative models, I’m exposed to visuals that make me think about how our interactions with the environment continue to fuel climate change.
My practice consistently surfaces themes of evolution, the cycle of life, death and rebirth. These topics help me seek collective futures where co-creating with machines could help accelerate us towards climate restoration.
Biography
Jacob Perez is a new media artist from Austin, Texas, who uses digital photography, code, and light projections as mediums to explore futuristic environments and their impacts on nature.
Jacob has a design and data science background from working in the tech industry for 10 years as a user experience designer and researcher. He uses personal moments, memories, and everyday items in his art to explore how our lives have and will change due to the rapid pace of technology and what our role is in guiding it towards positive outcomes.