free association

Software engineer Alex Mordvintsev, contributor to the neural framework behind DeepDream, has collaborated with his invention to create a rather beautiful (machine learning’s aesthetic can sometimes be slightly off-putting and nightmarish) and mesmerizing series of swirling vortices that pulls one into a zooming tour through Western art history. With the canon of this particular tradition at their disposal, the computer and Mordvintsev (I wonder how fair or honest it is to call the programme a tool and the user, the medium the virtuoso) were able to match colour, resolution and brushstrokes seamlessly to make a nearly perfect transition from one iconic painting to another embedded within.