Originality of the avant-garde: Notes on the index – #B121 Photograph - Limited Edition of 16

These are not your typical cyanotype photographs. They are created using AI-generated images via Stable Diffusion, resulting in unexpected and unusual pictures. Despite this, they share a family resemblance within the three different series. These technological beings, born from familiar images reworked via obscure algorithms, are strange, convoluted, and uncanny in many ways. Yet, they also possess a unique beauty, sometimes eerily unsettling but always captivating. AI-generation procedure The image generation involves using unusual prompts or descriptions, such as excerpts from theoretical texts like The Originality of the Avant-garde by Rosalynd E. Krauss. Each quote addresses a specific issue in contemporary art; the resulting images capture these issues. The images are generated programmatically using the first 150 digits of the number pi as seeds. They are then resized using ON1 Resize AI and adjusted in Capture One Pro, with the prompt added to the resulting image in Affinity design. The final digital negative is output using the PiezoDN technique. Finally, each image is printed on watercolour paper and sometimes toned to achieve the intended tonal scale. Cyanotype photographs: the process These images are not mere photographs. They are a testament to the meticulous artistry of the cyanotype process, which dates back to 1842. A solution of photosensitive iron salts is delicately painted upon watercolour paper. Once dry, a digital negative is carefully sandwiched with the paper and illuminated with ultraviolet light. The resulting blue image is a cyanotype photograph, a unique and captivating art form showcasing the skill and effort involved. These have subsequently been toned in a solution from red pine bark, which tints the paper and gives the image a characteristic reddish-brown hue.