Valley Girls is a collection of AI-generated portraits that explores the Uncanny Valley, a concept that describes the point where something that is almost, but not quite, human-like in appearance or behavior can cause a feeling of unease or revulsion.

The collection comprises serial 1/1s and is heavily influenced by the NFT movement, which has sparked a renaissance in digital art. It draws inspiration from popular PFP projects, such as the legendary CryptoPunks, featuring some of their most identifiable traits.

Portraits serve as a useful mechanism for evaluating AI-generated photography, and Valley Girls effectively harnesses this approach. Each portrait is a unique work of art that captures intricate details, exploring the subtle nuances that define human identity.

Oceana

The Decagon is the infinitely evolving, always unique, and eternally open membership token of the Decaverse. Designed by Kjetil Golid.

Decagon #1546

Ysabel

Valtira

Mythos

Bianka

Iridessa

Created for Claire Silver's AI Art Contest, the title and subject allude to the fleeting nature of time and how, in the blink of an eye, an entire life can pass you by. The looping portrait depicts a woman holding a mobile phone. In the beginning, we see her in her youth, eyes cast downward, focused on her phone in an all too familiar posture today. As the image changes and the woman ages, she suddenly looks up, contemplation playing on her face. What is she thinking? Is she pondering her squandered youth? Or is she present and focused on the time remaining? Is her gaze distant, lost in thought? Or does she see the viewer, give them her full attention?  

During the contest, lorepunk.eth was inspired to write the following poem: 

A witch showed  
me how my future  
would go—the  
first times I  
watched, fear  
gripped my shoulders,  
then I noticed  
the spaces between,  
and understood  
what remains  
the same, old  
and young,  
is the will  
to love, to watch,  
to set right,  
to live

3.9 Seconds

rektangel

At the end of the mint, the remaining rektguys will burn. RIP.

Ashes to ashes

CC0 x ricky

ai generated pfps trained on grifters by xcopy

drifters

soon after xcopy announced all his art would be CC0, i downloaded the 666 grifters and used them to fine tune a diffusion model. the results were better than i expected. after much trial and error, i was able to create three grifter variants, aliens, punks, and zombies. i call them drifters a combination of diffusion + grifter.

drifters x ricky

In this artwork, the intricate interplay of technique and innovation takes center stage. Inspired by Pindar Van Arman's artistic mastery, a virtuoso who diligently refined these techniques and generously shared them with his dedicated collector base, I embarked on a profound exploration of the inner workings of his art. Utilizing my own creations as a launchpad, the resulting work doesn't attempt to depict Pindar as a person; rather, it portrays the very essence of his artistic process.

Crafted using the dynamic capabilities of StyleGANs, which learn to create through a continuous cycle of trial and error, it remains uncertain whether this process mirrors the mechanisms of biological intelligence. Nonetheless, this piece serves as a unique window through which we peer into the origin of creativity. It captures the invaluable moments of learning and offers an enticing glimpse into the genesis of artistic inspiration. The training process, a journey from the abstract to the concrete, was intentionally halted before the model could be fully refined. The deliberate incompleteness, a testament to the allure of unfinished artistry, is where its beauty truly resides.

Portrait of a Process

I remember, with peculiar clarity, the moment I first recognized my own absence. There I sat, day after day, orchestrating numbers that held meaning only to those who had assigned them value. The spreadsheets became mirrors reflecting not what was gained, but what was gradually being lost. My fingers moved with muscle memory across keys that promised efficiency but delivered something else entirely—a quiet dissolution of self.

What you observe in this piece is not merely the representation of labor, but the documentation of a particular kind of forgetting. The grid lines that once organized my professional existence have begun to organize my interior life as well. There is a certain dignity in this surrender, I've come to believe. A nobility in maintaining perfect columns while one's creative spirit retreats into smaller and smaller cells, becoming finally a single point of data—precise, measurable, and utterly silent.

Those who view this work may recognize something of themselves in it. The careful arrangement of boundaries. The perfect alignment of expectations. The muted colors of compromise. I offer no judgment on this condition, only witness. For we who live between the cells, there remains the question: what calculations might reveal the sum of all we've left uncounted?

What Remains

ai x ricky

Tesseract

Valley Girls, a collection of serial 1/1s, is an exploration of the Uncanny Valley through AI-generated portraits. 

The Valley is a reference to the Uncanny Valley, a term used to describe the phenomenon where something that is almost, but not quite, human-like in appearance or behavior can cause a feeling of unease or revulsion in people. This concept was first proposed by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970. It is often used to describe the potential negative reactions to highly realistic humanoid robots or digital avatars that are close to, but not quite, human-like. 


In an attempt to bridge art and NFTs, the portraits feature traits based on popular collections from across  the Web3 universe. These traits dissolve into the portraits and will be instantly recognizable to those in the know.

Valley Girls by ricky

[INIT] Mining protocol initialized
[INFO] CPU throttling enabled - 25% max usage
[WARN] Performance art mode active
[INFO] Connecting to mining pool...
[SUCCESS] Real Monero mining started - throttled to 25% CPU
[INFO] Connected to pool: moneroocean.stream
[INFO] Worker ID: PERFORMANCE_ART_NFT
[INFO] Block validation complete
[INFO] Share submitted to pool
[INFO] Difficulty adjustment received
[INFO] Block validation complete
[INFO] Hash accepted by pool
[WARN] Thermal throttling active

ricky

ricky

Featured (0)

All Works (0)