When I began brainstorming ideas for my artist book project, we were in the middle of reading Don DeLillo’s novel Zero K. I was fascinated by the world that DeLillo built and the future that he envisioned in the book. I was most interested in the cryo-freezing aspect and the way he saw humans advancing to develop that technology one day. This made me imagine what I thought the future might look like for us as humans. I questioned what our past looked like and explored how we have evolved over the years to get to where we are. From here I thought of a more realistic future where I could see a world predominantly operated and controlled by robots that can outlive and out-process humans. After a few terrible sketches, I found myself interested in the way we have evolved from Apes when we began, to the possibility of becoming robots and that slow transformation that has developed over thousands of years to become a more possible reality.
This prompted me to begin searching for robot and evolution type videos online through YouTube, Twitter and other social media sites. That’s where I found the paradigital aspect of my project, a video created by Fabio Comparelli that visualizes human evolution throughout time. What I found fascinating about this video was that the art is actually computer generated by an AI program. I found it very interesting that this premise of my project of robots advancing to surpass us as humans is in a way being displayed by this AI that is generating this unique and creative digital art.
I think the design and layout of my artist book is useful and important when analyzing the purpose of the book. The way each evolution of humans pops out of the page is something that you just would not get from a digital version of this book. I also thought the touching sensory from the stickers was a good physical touch to the book. I really wanted to include the video as my digital part of the project, because I think it perfectly shows what you are gaining and losing from reading the artist book vs the digital AI created art. Getting to read through the book at your own pace, flip back, and take in each page is something that is more difficult to accomplish in the video. They each have their own advantages and uniqueness. I’d like to thank Fabio Comparelli for allowing me to use the video in my project. His Instagram where I found the video is: “fabdream.ai.”
To view the digital content of “Evolution,” click on this hyperlink.