WAGMI - but does that mantra include the pessimists of the world? 
So We're All Gonna Make It? Perhaps those who ride this crypto whirlwind are the only ones who will make it. 
The influence of the meme, Pepe the Frog and apocalyptic visions  are strong in this crypto culture. The nature of money is changing but the ride is volatile.  So the frog keeps calm because after the bomb the only way out is up.

We're All Gonna..

Bård Ionson

A scan of the artist in 2018 by his own hand.

Created using a modified damaged scanner.

Self Portrait With Glasses

He who saves his country does not violate any law. - The King Of America

Created from a model trained using DCGAN (Art-DCGAN). Model created in 2019.  Ai art

Power Corrupts Power 1

Bård sketched images inspired by Picasso’s etchings which are colorized by an artificial intelligence process. A double reimagining of Picasso’s work by the artist drawing a variation and then prompting the Ai model in an image to image transfer. Inspired by France, the Trash art movement, prompt based AI art and glitch art.
Created using simple line drawings by referencing Picasso etchings and then composing prompts for an AI image generator. 
120 pieces in this collection.

Switched On Picasso AI by Bard Ionson #049

Switched On Picasso AI by Bard Ionson #039

Switched On Picasso AI by Bard Ionson #024

Switched On Picasso AI by Bard Ionson #075

A predictive output curated from a StyleGAN3 model trained with hand-selected images of fire and nude paintings by the artist, Bård Ionson.

"The nude fire. Grasping at identity is like a flicker of fire. The flame goes out when held too tightly. The desire to know brings more uncertainty. In the age of artificial intelligence, we are learning to live with the anxiety of our naked uncertainty. Our nakedness meets the flame. We still seek to know the next event, whether by fire or the casting of bones, or now by algorithms and models trained on all of human knowledge.

The textures evoke the color and form of paintings from a distance and merge the human form with fire. A closer inspection shows the fingerprint of the AI algorithms can be seen in the matrix-like patterns."

– Bård Ionson

Verisart Certified: https://verisart.com/works/943ef245-e395-4458-9dcc-f8942862af0c

Naked Flames: Wisp

Rocket The Blue Sky

A series on SuperRare by Bård Ionson. An imagined future based on retro technology such as CRT, oscilloscopes and lasers. Using line drawings, sound, oscilloscopes and lasers Bård produces a new version of an alternate future. The symbols are the communication of a new language of another cyberspace.

Inspired by artists who were among the first on SuperRare he combines their visual language into something in his own style. The artists who have inspired this collection are XCOPY, Coldie, Matt Kane, Oficinas and GiselX. Bård was along for the ride as an artist at the moment these artists explored the possibilities of the Ethereum blockchain and the promise of CryptoArt The future seemed far away, five or ten years out but here we are, the future is now.

https://collect.bardionson.com/ion/
Custom Series contract on [SuperRare](https://superrare.com/bardionson)

WANT - Too much want brings the end closer. The past is the future of history.

A 4k remix of the XCOPY art pieces called WANT inspired by the techniques of Matt Kane and Coldie.  As a tracing of his original art it is now an animated sound filled 3D fly through with oscilloscope sound. 

WANT

Ion on SuperRare

This is not the artist. Not the voice. This is not a pipe. Did the artist create it? Is it art? Ce n'est pas l'artiste. Pas la voix. Ceci n'est pas une pipe. L'artiste a-t-il créé? Est-ce de l'art?

Alotta Money Version - I borrowed the base image he created and added to it.

This is the not voice of Bård from an Ai model converted to a French accent.

Not The Artist Alotta Money

This is not the artist. Not the voice. This is not a pipe. Did the artist create? Is it art?  
Ce n'est pas l'artiste. Pas la voix. Ceci n'est pas une pipe. L'artiste a-t-il créé? Est-ce de l'art? 
La Trahison de l'IA (The Treachery of Ai)

https://bardionson.com/not-an-artist

My fake self, the anit-self portrait. This is a fake copy of my face and a fake Ai copy of my voice. The voice was then modified by Ai to have a French accent. 

This is a reserved edition that was in an exhibition at The NFT Factory Paris called "100% AI It does not exist" "100% IA Ça n'existe pas"

This Is Not An Artist

Bard Editions

Tape SPAM Wall

A SPAM performance in virtual reality. A meme of meaning, an energy source preserved in a packable stackable can to fight a war or two or three. The countries where SPAM performed became fused with their cultural cuisine. 

Upload the video to a platform that supports 360 video or to your VR Goggles and enjoy the performance and listen to that slurp as it slides out of the can.

A hand with a gold ring reaches down and holds a can of SPAM. A can with its distinctive gold can with blue label with the word SPAM in bold yellow.  With a second hand the artist pulls the ring tap slowly upwards. The hand grabs the can. An old CRT TV rests in the background. The can moves upward and upside down. The hand shakes the can again and again. Now the performance goes into slow motion. The edge of the can is seen at the top of the screen.The slab of SPAM slowly slides out, growing larger with its fall to the plate. It bounces slightly on the beige plate.

SPAM Metaverse Performance

SPAM ART V2

The weather is nice in New Mexico.
A reminder that sometimes the ethical thing is not the legal thing to do.
Sometimes we must walk in that gray space between realities. The space between the legal and the moral. The place between love and right.

Sound Words A Spoken Word Generative Art Poem performed by the artist into an oscilloscope.
Source: NPR -"3 abortion bans in Texas leave doctors 'talking in code' to pregnant patients", March 1, 2023

In 2023, The OB-GYN Said:

The weather is nice in New Mexico.
A reminder that sometimes the ethical thing is not the legal thing to do.
Sometimes we must walk in that gray space between realities. The space between the legal and the moral. The place between love and right.

Sound Words turned into a talking face using Artificial Technology
Source: NPR -"3 abortion bans in Texas leave doctors 'talking in code' to pregnant patients", March 1, 2023  

The Weather Is Nice In New Mexico

Sound Words

Eyes of the artist explore the distortions of decentralization and digitization of value.

Decentraleyes

The Scanner scans himself with a water damaged scanner.
https://vimeo.com/746716954


Out of alignment but it cannot be fixed.  
We can only move forward  
Patch up what is broken by our mistakes  
By the unforeseen consequences of our choices  
The future is marred by a flood  
But does that make it any less beautiful

Future Alignment

Scanning The Scanner

This is not the artist. Not the voice. This is not a pipe. Did the artist create it? Is it art? Ce n'est pas l'artiste. Pas la voix. Ceci n'est pas une pipe. L'artiste a-t-il créé? Est-ce de l'art?

Hike in The Brain Version - Base image from Stable Diffusion with Ai of artists voice and animated with Thin Plate Spline Motion

This is the not voice of Bård from an Ai model converted to a French accent.

This Is Not An Artist - Brain Hike

This Is Not... by Bård Ionson                                                                                                                   Editions for burn exchanges                                                                                                                     BardIonson.com
Ceci n'est pas une pipe  

La Trahison de l'IA (The Treachery of Ai)  
This is not the artist. Not the voice. This is not a pipe. Did the artist create it? Is it art? Ce n'est pas l'artiste. Pas la voix. Ceci n'est pas une pipe. L'artiste a-t-il créé? Est-ce de l'art?

This is the not voice of Bård from an Ai model converted to a French accent.

This Is Not An Evil Ai

This Is Not

Inspired by the shapes and colors of childhood and the exploration of planets, where translucent vinyl shapes overlay to create new colors to spark the imagination. Using the token code the location of shapes and colors are generated. Watch out for the Entity in their latent spacecraft. Based on an original artwork by Liza Grace "Colorform Multiverse"

Color Magic Planets #168

Color Magic Planets #240

Color Magic Planets by Bård Ionson

The future is unknown. The unexpected is what is next.

Face Right

Created with manipulations of a custom modified scanner, water and the hand of the artist. By passing it over faces and other objects to create distortions of what is within. Like a spiritual x-ray it visualizes the distortions between realities of the soul and the physical. 
https://collect.bardionson.com/scan 

Who am I in this digital culture? We connect but through a strange medium. We are far but near, distorted but real. We see through a long piece of glass darkly, recording ourself into the future cataloged on a blockchain. We watch with a sideways glance. We cannot know where this will take our grandchildren.

The artist scans himself with a damaged scanner.

Side Eye

Scanning the Scanner

The Entity is a triune being who displays herself in different physical forms. There are three parts but she is one. The Daughter has decided to exhibit the form of the crucifix in order to instigate a response from the human mind. Pick her form, size and place. These images have been generated by the Entity using artificial intelligence software like StyleGAN and Pix2Pix.

Daughter

A little green bug has chosen where to sit for the day or to hide away as its world changes. Sometimes a friend who is less happy joins in. 
My daughter found this green bug in my generative art images and was so excited to see it turned into art.

A video version of Happy Green Bug is available on SuperRare.co/bardionson

Images generated from a StyleGan2 artificial intelligence model of toilets. The original video comes from the Fountain remix project as artwork Fountain No. 501. 
https://fountain-art.com?501 and it is published here under the remix license written by Bård Ionson. 

This work is provided under the remix license https://bardionson.com/remixLicense1.html so it is available for remixing.  Created from the remix project Fountain-art.com using images Fountain 501, 14, 18, 85, 110, 113, 163, 178, 294, 402. To see originals use https://fountain-art.com?###

Happy Green Bug

Async Art

A coin for the winner. My initial coin offering series contained hidden coins. This is one of the secret coins hidden in another artwork and encrypted. It looks like a coin that was rubbed down and the face looks like a pope. But is there something inside. Use steghide. Made with artificial intelligence using Art-DCGAN and 20,000 coins.

Ghost Pope Coin

The little green bug is surprised you like them so much. 
From Fountain-art.com a AI GAN model of toilets to celebrate art and the beauty in the mundane and the absurdity in the perception of art. It is a remix project that encourages the remixing of the fountains by allowing them to be resold.
A remixed single frame of Fountain 501 printed on a FujiFilm Instax SP-3 live at NFC.NYC at the Coldie & Ann Marie Alanes Karaoke party 2022. This is the NFT that pairs with the instant print.

Surprised Bug (Fountain 501 single frame) 

SuperRare

We Are Anarchy On Chain

We Are Anarchy - the noise of anarchy - completely on chain art generated by an Ethereum Virtual Machine running a smart contract - distributed noise, randomness, entropy, anarchy.
Do see in full form right click and open in a new tab or window.

We Are Anarchy On Chain by Bard Ionson

Themes of gender & sexuality expressed in a symbol of luck, fate, a cosmic slot machine. Luck of the mint, art of the flip to explain the randomness of one’s unique traits. The fruit of the slots to the binary I Ching of 8 sides & planetary gender. These traits are in the art & in us. They might seem imperfect but their unique lucky combination give each a power no one else has. 
**At least 12% of the profit is donated to CasaBrumar Foundation & Safe Space and other LGBTQ+ charities**
Space: stop/start, C: color, F: Faster, E: Slower, X: Stop/Reset/Start, ASWD: move symbol, 2 finger touch: stop, 1 finger drag: move

8 #104

Eight a symbol of luck, fate, a cosmic slot machine. The I Ching gives a glimpse of the future & some traits allow you to draw your own art. Luck of the mint, art of the flip to explain the randomness of one’s unique traits. The fruit of the slots to the binary I Ching of 8 sides & planetary gender. These traits are in the art & in us. They might seem imperfect but their unique lucky combination give each a power no one else has. 
**At least 12% of the profit is donated to CasaBrumar Foundation & Safe Space and other LGBTQ+ charities**
Space: stop/start, C: color, F: Faster, E: Slower, X: Stop/Reset/Start, ASWD: move symbol, 2 finger touch: stop, 1 finger drag: move

8 #110

8 by Bård Ionson

The spice boats traverse the fast electronic expanse carrying culture, treasure and food from east to west from west to east. The orbs carry the digital goods from north to south. The wreckage of the failures rest in the dunes of sand. The future has brought us all together to create, trade and love.

An allegory of the surrealistic future set in the nostalgia of the past. Today we see the rise of the blockchain to carry goods, ideas and money in a more equal way. 

At one time the Nabateans transported culture, spice, silk, fur, treasure and ideas between the east and west. We have the chance again to join together.

Spice Boats on Wadi Rum

A fantastical retro futuristic view on the spice trail. An alternative future where the East and West are equals and desert outposts protect small cities but manage decentralized distributed trading systems. 

At one time the Nabatean were the players in trade. They controlled the trade between India, Rome, Egypt, Damascus, Medina and Greece and beyond. 

Ai Prompt Art with artist driven in painting of details

Spice Road Outpost 3010

Distortions Of The Future

Commerce of money in a commercial of artificial intelligence propaganda of the individual mind. It is easier to predict the future if you can manipulate the information space. Will pursuit of power and money bring us to extinction?

Ai model trained on McDonalds Commercial Tomato McGrand 2005 with Agota Varga.

This is an installation on a a color CRT TV 4:3 signed by the artist. Video is played from an iPhone4. 

This NFT is a token for the physical manifestation of this art. The CRT and video player may be replaced by any size CRT 4:3 which is also a CRT or an emulation of one once CRTs are no longer in existence. 

The price of the first purchase includes delivery of the CRT TV and video player device and video art.  The devices might be substituted depending on the power requirements of the country delivered to. If possible the artist will deliver. (Contact artist for information on which countries it can be delivered to. US sanctions and regulations apply.) 

The owner of this token is authorized to publicly exhibit the McMelt TV installation even if the original device is destroyed or missing. This token is the official record of ownership.

The first part of the video attached to this token or additional copies in the metadata record is the video to be displayed on the CRT TV screen.

McMelt TV

Bard Ionson Installations

Little Sprite a representation of The Entity - sageAnomaly.com

Ltl Sprite

Sun Touched Mountain

8BIDOU

Sound of the Wizard being exposed. Created from the sound of images being displayed on an oscilloscope from the artwork Battledore. 1,734  ×  3,090 px https://www.elementum.art/en/artworks/battledore-108/

Battledore Sound Wizard

The empty bedroom has some visitors. Some time portals have opened. The Entity searches for something -- someone. The Entity is an AI from a future beyond the human apocalypse. More at https://bit.ly/sageAnomaly

This was created from an edited image from an artist Bembo Davis (https://twitter.com/BemboDavis) on Twitter who put green blobs on a Craigslist posting. See original Tweet (https://twitter.com/BemboDavis/status/1244811871535808512) This work is released under the my Remix License (https://bardionson.com/remixLicense1.html)

Empty Bedroom? (The Entity)

Hic et Nunc

People are 
non 
fun...

Typed

Hope - a sound word without the sound
animated gif from an oscilloscope
by Bård Ionson

HOPE

Sound Words made with sound and displayed on an oscilloscope.

TIRED - A sound word without the sound. Oscilloscope art

TIRED

An unnamed trash tote is the burial container for the crucified Christ who died to make America great. 

MAGA Jesus

Created by. the artist when Taco Bell released their NFT collection in March 2021

Taco Bell Moshed

Trash Art by Bård

What can I say it is SPAMart. And this is not SPAM.

The Treachery of SPAM

SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam! Art

It's not SPAM - it is a new hope in a can.

NOT SPAM

SPAMart

The machine reduces the fake face of a person who never existed. 
A study of faces using synthetic human faces transformed into a model of Oleksiy Sai faces created in Excel spreadsheets. The Ai works hard to figure out the patterns and fails miserably into focusing on the spreadsheet cells instead of the human face patterns. 

Cellular Woman

Visions of art from Bård Ionson and Oleksiy Sai in support of Ukraine

A study of faces using synthetic human faces transformed into a model of Oleksiy Sai faces created in Excel spreadsheets. The Ai works hard to figure out the patterns and fails miserably into focusing on the spreadsheet cells instead of the human face patterns. 

Oligarch’s Son

Art of Oleksiy & Bard

With a twinkle in his eyes the big man greets his new employees. 
Ai prompt generated art. StableDiffusion on Runway.

"Not Gonna Make It"

There has been a running joke in the crypto community saying that if everything’s crash, we’ll end up working at McDonalds. The symbol of it, is a strong acronym ‘ NGMI ’ ( Not Gonna Make It ) as a complete opposite of ‘ WGMI ’ ( We Gonna Make It ).

Not Going To Make It
Next Frame Prediction Ai using Pix2Pix trained with a McD commercial.

Tomato McMeme

McMeme

The simulations are being run. The earth and all humans have been made extinct by Ai of their own creation. But now a being from the future knows now how to rebuild heaven and earth. They need to optimize the outcomes this time. This is Simulation 89 one chapter of The SAGE Anomaly story. https://sageAnomaly.com Ai art carefully constructed by Bard Ionson using the tools Stable Diffusion, Runway, Gen-2, Photoshop.

Simulation Number 89: Astroid Floats

Simulation Number 89: Night Light

Simulation Number 89

Ouroboros explodes with power destroying and creating at the same time.
Channeling the fire myths of the world, Prometheus, the Phoenix, the gods of the sun and flame. A story of technology brought to humans; to myths of destruction and rebirth. To be immortal; to be a god; it is always a paradox of fire and technology. The morality of the fire is always in question but we desire it and fear it. And yet it has changed us, we have learned so much since we first touched fire. We used it to destroy the wood, smelt the metal and build the chip. And now we teach and show the fire what we know; what we create and our reflection is there telling us our faults. The GAN is but a single neuron in a blazing star; a greater fire is coming. 
One of 200 unique pieces of art in Painting With Fire: A History in GANs. Exploring the history of generative adversarial networks GAN as represented by fire.  https://bardionson.com/painting-with-fire
StyleGAN 3 - Timo, Karras, Tero Aittala, Miika Laine, Samuli Härkönen, Erik Hellsten, Janne Lehtinen, Jaakko Aila (June 23, 2021). Alias-Free Generative Adversarial Networks. OCLC 1269560084.
Pascal Boyart - "Legend"|2023|https://twitter.com/pascalboyart/status/1721928031755780214

Ouroboros Ignition

Painting with Fire presents a vignette of transformation: the evolution of GANs from 2014 - 2023 seen through the eyes of fire. Using 14 vintage GAN models, Ionson articulates the emergence of synthetic image generation. Ionson explores fire as the quintessence of humanity's relationship to both innovation and destruction, embracing the unexpected abstractions of classic AI as a distinctive aesthetic statement.

GAN (generative adversarial network) technologies were developed by researchers and programmers but then utilized by artists. Though the technology was invented to make the images as realistic as possible, Bård subverts this to use it chaotically and abstractly; the opposite of what the AI researchers had in mind. This project celebrates the innovators and artists who have brought synthetic image generation to life with models such as the aiCAN, DCGAN, Stylegan 1, 2 & 3, bigGan, biGAN, pix2pix, AttnGan and more.
https://bardionson.com/painting-with-fire/
a Sovrn Curated release

A patchwork of passion and pixels that breathes life into the embers of creation, stirring deep with each golden hue and smoldering silhouette.
Channeling the fire myths of the world, Prometheus, the Phoenix, the gods of the sun and flame. A story of technology brought to humans; to myths of destruction and rebirth. To be immortal; to be a god; it is always a paradox of fire and technology. The morality of the fire is always in question but we desire it and fear it. And yet it has changed us, we have learned so much since we first touched fire. We used it to destroy the wood, smelt the metal and build the chip. And now we teach and show the fire what we know; what we create and our reflection is there telling us our faults. The GAN is but a single neuron in a blazing star; a greater fire is coming. 
One of 200 unique pieces of art in Painting With Fire: A History in GANs. Exploring the history of generative adversarial networks GAN as represented by fire.  https://bardionson.com/painting-with-fire
DCGAN - Radford, Alec; Metz, Luke; Chintala, Soumith . "Unsupervised Representation Learning with Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks"
The Books of GANesis: Divine Comedy in Tangled Representations Helena Sarin|Nov 2019|https://www.artxcode.io/journal/helena-sarin-celebrating-the-original-gancomic

Genesis of the Artificial Inferno

Painting with Fire: A History in GANs by Bard Ionson

We are all seers. Look into the smoke and what stories, what images does your mind conjure? Out of randomness and noise, forms emerge. A story is born out of artificial shapes predicted by fire or by computer. We are smoke and form, yes evolving in a process in which the technology (like fire) we harness brings about changes the human mind. And the evolved mind creates revolutionary tools but we have a failure to communicate.

Inspired by Bård’s first mint of art called Alien Intelligence. A foreign intelligence is attempting to communicate with any intelligent life on earth. They have chosen to use technology to communicate and travel. The first understood contact at the SAGE computer give rise to the SAGE Anomaly and an ongoing mystery. https://sageAnomaly.com

Art created using drawings made using oscilloscope software OsciStudio and then used to train multiple Ai models using StyleGAN3. Oscilloscope drawings were made by the artist between 2016 - 2023

Smoke And Shape #42

{R(Evolutionaries);} at Art Dubai 2024
by Morrow Collective
We are all seers. Look into the smoke and what stories, what images does your mind conjure? Out of randomness and noise, forms emerge. A story is born out of artificial shapes predicted by fire or by computer. We are smoke and form, yes evolving in a process in which the technology (like fire) we harness brings about changes the human mind. And the evolved mind creates revolutionary tools but we have a failure to communicate.

Inspired by Bård’s first mint of art called Alien Intelligence. A foreign intelligence is attempting to communicate with any intelligent life on earth. They have chosen to use technology to communicate and travel. The first understood contact at the SAGE computer give rise to the SAGE Anomaly and an ongoing mystery. https://sageAnomaly.com

Smoke And Shape #10

Smoke And Shape by Bard Ionson

A predictive output curated from a StyleGAN3 model trained with hand-selected images of fire and nude paintings by the artist, Bård Ionson.

"The nude fire. Grasping at identity is like a flicker of fire. The flame goes out when held too tightly. The desire to know brings more uncertainty. In the age of artificial intelligence, we are learning to live with the anxiety of our naked uncertainty. Our nakedness meets the flame. We still seek to know the next event, whether by fire or the casting of bones, or now by algorithms and models trained on all of human knowledge.

The textures evoke the color and form of paintings from a distance and merge the human form with fire. A closer inspection shows the fingerprint of the AI algorithms can be seen in the matrix-like patterns."

– Bård Ionson

Verisart Certified: https://verisart.com/works/57d848d8-bfba-4801-98ea-1c5d720e88fb

Naked Flames: Anxiety Of Hell

A predictive output curated from a StyleGAN3 model trained with hand-selected images of fire and nude paintings by the artist, Bård Ionson.

"The nude fire. Grasping at identity is like a flicker of fire. The flame goes out when held too tightly. The desire to know brings more uncertainty. In the age of artificial intelligence, we are learning to live with the anxiety of our naked uncertainty. Our nakedness meets the flame. We still seek to know the next event, whether by fire or the casting of bones, or now by algorithms and models trained on all of human knowledge.

The textures evoke the color and form of paintings from a distance and merge the human form with fire. A closer inspection shows the fingerprint of the AI algorithms can be seen in the matrix-like patterns."

– Bård Ionson

A predictive output curated from a StyleGAN3 model trained with hand-selected images of fire and nude paintings by the artist, Bård Ionson.

"The nude fire. Grasping at identity is like a flicker of fire. The flame goes out when held too tightly. The desire to know brings more uncertainty. In the age of artificial intelligence, we are learning to live with the anxiety of our naked uncertainty. Our nakedness meets the flame. We still seek to know the next event, whether by fire or the casting of bones, or now by algorithms and models trained on all of human knowledge.

The textures evoke the color and form of paintings from a distance and merge the human form with fire. A closer inspection shows the fingerprint of the AI algorithms can be seen in the matrix-like patterns."

– Bård Ionson

Verisart Certified: https://verisart.com/works/c682dad5-8021-4105-b500-fb43f6861e22

Naked Flames: Body Of Fire

NAKED FLAMES by Bard Ionson

Naked Flames In Motion - this series was originally created for giving a the collectors of Naked Flames an animated version if they collect two art pieces of the Naked Flames series at Expanded Art. 

This was created using the still art pieces of Anxiety Of Hell, 451° and Threshold Of Fire
                                                                            
https://opensea.io/collection/naked-flames-by-bard-ionson 
https://www.expanded.art/collections/bard-ionson-naked-flames 

"The nude fire. Grasping at identity is like a flicker of fire. The flame goes out when held too tightly. The desire to know  brings more uncertainty. In the age of artificial intelligence, we are learning to live with the anxiety of our naked uncertainty.  Our nakedness meets the flame. We still seek to know the next event, whether by fire or the casting of bones, or now by algorithms and models trained on all of human knowledge.           

The textures evoke the color and form of paintings from a distance and merge the human form with fire.  A closer inspection  shows the fingerprint of the AI algorithms can be seen in the matrix-like patterns."                                             
          - Bård Ionson     

Collection from a StyleGAN3 model trained by the artist with hand-selected images of fire and nude paintings by the artist

Naked Flames In Motion: Anxiety Threshold 451

Naked Flames In Motion

Transference Of Hyperreality 2

Transference Of Hyperreality

Uploads

"Red Skull Rising Real" is a blesbok skull.  It was one film photograph used to train a StyleGAN 2 model composed of photography of animal bones.  This piece fits into the reflection of reality or symbol stage. This art has a simulated twin that was generated from the GAN model called "Red Skull Rising (Hyperreal)"

"Bones: Vanishing of the Genuine" explores the beauty of bone and sky in life, death and simulation using analog film photography and AI as inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's bones in the New Mexico sky and Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality.  

The beauty of the bone floating in the sky with clouds and trees exposes the human perception of the world and the alterations of technology in the form of artificial intelligence. But these bones and the Ai model hold the promise of immortality, the bone outlasts death and perhaps we hope the simulation / simulacra of our creation will also be immortal. 

Bård examines the authenticity of artifacts by juxtaposing bones, their photographs and AI generated images, questioning the transition from reality to symbol to simulation to simulacra.  Through the stages of an AI simulation and process a new reality is constructed. 

Process

The process to create Bones was to gather animal bones from ethical suppliers, but one key deer skull was found on the side of the road.  These bones were photographed with analog film cameras against the backdrop of the sky. The developed film was scanned and Photoshop was used to remove the filament holding the bone up.  The photos were used to train multiple GAN and Stable diffusion models. 

The process illustrates the progression of the real bone into a physical representation on film, then digitized into more symbolic systems. The model training turned the images of the bones into a simulation that can recreate any sort of bone and the background of the sky.  A final stage for a rare few tokens was to image the digital Ai image back onto analog film. These images tip into simulacra where the image no longer refers back to any real or even symbolic bone but exists in a self-referential loop of images.

The art of "Bones" fall into four stages of representation. 
It begins with the real physical bone - Reality
First the film photograph represents the symbol, a reflection of reality - Symbol
Second the film is digitized and edited to remove fishing line hanging bone in the sky - Distorted Symbol
Third the AI images generated from the model - Simulation Absence Of Reality
Fourth the AI images processed on film and model trained from first order model. A self-referential entity, creating a hyperreal world where the distinction between reality and simulation is obliterated - Simulacra

It is of note that the models were not completely trained on film photos. About 2,000 photos were created using a Olympus Pen EE-3, Mini Diana, Nikon A8008 and iPhone 12.  Around 1,500 were film and the rest were digital photos from the iPhone and the Dehancer app emulated Kodak Gold Film.

RIGHTS & LICENSE:
The NFT collector receives:
One museum-quality signed physical print 1 of 5 (can be kept or transferred independently of NFT)
Non-exclusive Display rights (private/public)
Permission to create remixes and Ai model training with attribution

Artist retains reproduction rights, commercial licensing, reproduction rights
NFT transfers include digital rights only. Physical print ownership and transfer are separate from NFT ownership.
Copyright 2024 Bard Ionson LLC

Bones - Vanishing Of The Genuine: Red Skull Rising (Real)

"Whole" is a deer pelvis bone. It was one film photograph used to train a StyleGAN 2 model composed of photography of animal bones. This art has a simulated twin that was generated from the GAN model called "Whole Simulation" and a triplet that was transferred back to film called "Whole Reality"

"Bones: Vanishing of the Genuine" explores the beauty of bone and sky in life, death and simulation using analog film photography and AI as inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's bones in the New Mexico sky and Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality.  

The beauty of the bone floating in the sky with clouds and trees exposes the human perception of the world and the alterations of technology in the form of artificial intelligence. But these bones and the Ai model hold the promise of immortality, the bone outlasts death and perhaps we hope the simulation / simulacra of our creation will also be immortal. 

Bård examines the authenticity of artifacts by juxtaposing bones, their photographs and AI generated images, questioning the transition from reality to symbol to simulation to simulacra.  Through the stages of an AI simulation and process a new reality is constructed. 

Process

The process to create Bones was to gather animal bones from ethical suppliers, but one key deer skull was found on the side of the road.  These bones were photographed with analog film cameras against the backdrop of the sky. The developed film was scanned and Photoshop was used to remove the filament holding the bone up.  The photos were used to train multiple GAN and Stable diffusion models. 

The process illustrates the progression of the real bone into a physical representation on film, then digitized into more symbolic systems. The model training turned the images of the bones into a simulation that can recreate any sort of bone and the background of the sky.  A final stage for a rare few tokens was to image the digital Ai image back onto analog film. These images tip into simulacra where the image no longer refers back to any real or even symbolic bone but exists in a self-referential loop of images.

The art of "Bones" fall into four stages of representation. 
It begins with the real physical bone - Reality
First the film photograph represents the symbol, a reflection of reality - Symbol
Second the film is digitized and edited to remove fishing line hanging bone in the sky - Distorted Symbol
Third the AI images generated from the model - Simulation Absence Of Reality
Fourth the AI images processed on film and model trained from first order model. A self-referential entity, creating a hyperreal world where the distinction between reality and simulation is obliterated - Simulacra

It is of note that the models were not completely trained on film photos. About 2,000 photos were created using a Olympus Pen EE-3, Mini Diana, Nikon A8008 and iPhone 12.  Around 1,500 were film and the rest were digital photos from the iPhone and the Dehancer app emulated Kodak Gold Film.

RIGHTS & LICENSE:
The NFT collector receives:
One museum-quality signed physical print 1 of 3 (can be kept or transferred independently of NFT)
Non-exclusive Display rights (private/public)
Permission to create remixes and Ai model training with attribution

Artist retains reproduction rights, commercial licensing, reproduction rights
NFT transfers include digital rights only. Physical print ownership and transfer are separate from NFT ownership.
Copyright 2024 Bard Ionson LLC

Bones - Vanishing Of The Genuine: Whole

Bones: Vanishing Of The Genuine by Bård Ionson

Fountain but with graffiti on the bathroom walls.

Word Flush is a new work adding words to “The Fountain” as commentary on the art, feelings of the artist, and the culture of the day. It is based on The Fountain curated image from a StyleGAN 2 Ai model created and trained by artist Bård Ionson. Created from images of toilets but sometimes mixed with crucifix, gas masks and clocks. An experiment in modern conceptual art with performance from artists of all mediums. The entire model and performance around it are the art.

Originally conceived as a free to remix project, artists have recreated some of the Fountains in their own way. I too am renewing the spirit of Fountain with this remix. This new work is a reaction to the original company who created the Fountain contract going out of business and turning off the API metadata server. The first owners of these tokens will be the holders of the original Fountain tokens at the time the artist is able to airdrop them.

Find more detail at https://fountain-art.com

Original contract for the parent of Word Flush is Fountain (FOUNT) at:
https://etherscan.io/address/0x3ac9ef13007e2f8ad860a77f5fdf14696acf1e02

Original images from Fountain are found at:
ipfs://bafybeidf5bi2va47iogirpxyhj6737vyabuommev63oc2gl3u6cgb5ltwe

Remix License: https://bardionson.com/remixLicense1.html

The Fountain model was trained by the artist who has spent time curating 2,700 images of toilets. Bård then generated thousands of images doing a quick curation for the ones worthy of display.

Why toliets? The artist was inspired by the story of the artwork called Fountain. The piece is not really much to see. It is the idea and the people behind it that are of interest. The unending argument over what is art and who is allowed to make it.  It has been theorized that the real artist behind Fountain, the R. Mutt urinal by Marcel Duchamp was really conceived of by Elsa von Freytag-Loinghoven. She collaborated on another conceptual artwork however called God. It was created the same year as Fountain 1917.

Word Flush 00129

Word Flush 00064

Word Flush by Bard Ionson

Congestion Pricing is Dead. manhattan and all of New York, is Saved. LONG LIVE THE KING
He who saves his country does not violate any law. - The King Of America

Created from a model trained using DCGAN (Art-DCGAN). Model created in 2019.  Ai art

Power Corrupts Power 9

The King Of America:
“I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic; to me it’s a magazine that is going out of business,” Trump said. “I know nothing about it. You’re saying that they had what?”

Reporter: "Trump officials were using Signal to coordinate on sensitive material"  Trump:  “having to do with what?” the reporter:,“the Houthis.” Trump replied, “You mean the attack on the Houthis?”

“Well, it couldn’t have been very effective, because the attack was very effective, I can tell you that. I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time,” 

Created from a model trained using DCGAN (Art-DCGAN). Model created in 2019.  Ai art

Power Corrupts Power 13: I Don't Know Anything

Power Corrupts Power by Bård Ionson

Modern simulation hyperreality simulacra via Ai in the life cycle of a nation state empire.

"Bone Flag" is a simulation of a model of film and digital photos of deer, springbok, blesbok, pig and cow bones with the US flag and the sky in the background.  It was trained and generated from a StyleGAN 2 model using photographs taken by the artist.

"Vanishing of the Genuine" explores the beauty of bone and sky in life, death and simulation using analog film photography and AI as inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's bones in the New Mexico sky and Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality.  

The beauty of the bone floating in the sky with clouds and trees exposes the human perception of the world and the alterations of technology in the form of artificial intelligence. But these bones and the Ai model hold the promise of immortality, the bone outlasts death and perhaps we hope the simulation / simulacra of our creation will also be immortal. 

Bård examines the authenticity of artifacts by juxtaposing bones, their photographs and AI generated images, questioning the transition from reality to symbol to simulation to simulacra.  Through the stages of an AI simulation and process a new reality is constructed. 

Process

The process to create Bones was to gather animal bones from ethical suppliers, but one key deer skull was found on the side of the road.  These bones were photographed with analog film cameras against the backdrop of the sky. The developed film was scanned and Photoshop was used to remove the filament holding the bone up.  The photos were used to train multiple GAN and Stable diffusion models. 

The process illustrates the progression of the real bone into a physical representation on film, then digitized into more symbolic systems. The model training turned the images of the bones into a simulation that can recreate any sort of bone and the background of the sky.  A final stage for a rare few tokens was to image the digital Ai image back onto analog film. These images tip into simulacra where the image no longer refers back to any real or even symbolic bone but exists in a self-referential loop of images.

The art of "Bones" fall into four stages of representation. 
It begins with the real physical bone - Reality
First the film photograph represents the symbol, a reflection of reality - Symbol
Second the film is digitized and edited to remove fishing line hanging bone in the sky - Distorted Symbol
Third the AI images generated from the model - Simulation Absence Of Reality
Fourth the AI images processed on film and model trained from first order model. A self-referential entity, creating a hyperreal world where the distinction between reality and simulation is obliterated - Simulacra

It is of note that the models were not completely trained on film photos. About 1,500 photos were created using analog film of  Olympus Pen EE-3, Mini Diana and Nikon A8008 .  Around 500 were digital photos from an iPhone 12 and the Dehancer app emulated Kodak Gold Film.

RIGHTS & LICENSE:
The NFT collector receives:
Non-exclusive Display rights (private/public)
Permission to create remixes and Ai model training with attribution

Artist retains reproduction rights, commercial licensing, reproduction rights
NFT transfers include digital rights only. Physical print ownership and transfer are separate from NFT ownership.
Copyright 2024 Bard Ionson LLC

Vanishing Of The Genuine: Bone Flag

Vanishing Of The Genuine (motion) by Bård Ionson

Summer 2022 - We travel from LA, Anaheim, Santa Monica, Bakersfield, Monterey Bay, Watsonville, Santa Cruz, Point Reyes, Guerneville, Mountain View and San Francisco taking pictures all along the way. A family trip gathering the vision and vibes of California. The roads, deserts, fields of artichokes, strawberries, chickpeas and vineyards of grapes, the ocean, wild life and the trees, o the trees. The great redwoods. Over 2,000 images feed the model. The abundance of open space and nature has eliminated human made objects and people from the model despite the abundance of vehicles photographed. Photography by Bard, Jennifer and Liza Grace. Model constructed with StyleGAN2. Output has been selected and manipulated by the artist.

California Collection

Check out my newest project, “Wet Kiss” which is now live on Transient Labs using Stacks! 
Poetry for prompting images of love from image generation Ai 

Your love is like water 
That fills my heart with its grace 
It flows to the depths of my soul 
And wraps me in its embrace 


Wet Kiss

The nude fire. The nude fire. Images of fire and nude paintings mixed within a custom Ai model. 

Grasping at identity is like a flicker of fire. The flame goes out when held too tightly. The desire to know brings more uncertainty. In the age of artificial intelligence, we are learning to live with the anxiety of our naked uncertainty. Our nakedness meets the flame. We still seek to know the next event, whether by fire or the casting of bones, or now by algorithms and models trained on all of human knowledge.

The textures evoke the color and form of paintings from a distance and merge the human form with fire. A closer inspection shows the fingerprint of the AI algorithms can be seen in the matrix-like patterns.

Collection curated from a StyleGAN3 model trained with hand-selected images of fire and nude paintings by the artist, Bård Ionson.

Naked Flames

A reverse drop. The project is closing on August 8 2023 it has been active since 2021
Eight is an interactive animated generative art piece. Some have a symbol that can be moved by the viewer to draw something new.
Based on I Ching and each one comes with a fortune.

8 (Eight)

The Entity has come to rebirth humanity. This is simulation 89.
189 unique art pieces

Bård Ionson (bardionson)

Bård Ionson (bardionson)

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