2023
Acrylic, UV print, aluminum artist's frame
121.9 x 162.6 x 3.8 cm
Winsing Arts Collection

2023
Acrylic, UV print, aluminum artist's frame
121.9 x 162.6 x 3.8 cm
Winsing Arts Collection
Anicka Yi’s Quantum Foam Painting series consists of algorithmically-generated “paintings,” which build upon her exploration of the “biologized machine” concept. Having experimented with soap painting” from 2013 to 2015, Yi returned the medium in 2020 to investigate how machine intelligence might lead to painting’s further evolution.
Trained on imagery from her earlier works, machine-learning algorithms created forms that recall blood cells, algae clumps, and undulating ocean floors. These elements were then layered digitally to produce compositions that suggest electronic, aquatic alien creatures. The paintings’ unique titles were also created through collaboration with machines. Yi developed a text-based model that combined inputs from poetry and scientific research with titles from her previous works. After finalizing the English titles, she encrypted them into a code that appears uniquely alien.
Through this algorithmic approach to painting, Yi questions the perceived purity of painting as an artistic medium, the autonomy of the artist, and human subjectivity. In doing so, she proposes a new ecosystem of human-machine coexistence without clear distinctions between entities. Nevertheless, Yi wonders, “Will super-intelligent machines need art? Probably not.”
