Soustraction : éclairage public (85,23 %) 1 / 10
Soustractions are images computed from a photograph and its reproduction generated by an artificial intelligence algorithm. By relating these two supposedly identical images, Soustractions show neither the originals nor their copies, but what separates them by revealing their discrepancies, and from these differences, they bring out residual forms and textures that may contain what escapes these computationally generated images: a form of intention, of gesture, perhaps even what Walter Benjamin called the aura…
The starting point for each Soustraction is a photograph I have taken in my everyday life. This photograph is then fed into a mainstream artificial intelligence system (ChatGPT) so that it provides a detailed description of it, with the aim of reproducing it. This description is then provided to a separate instance of the system so that it can reproduce the image as faithfully as possible. Next, these two images are subtracted from one another pixel by pixel, highlighting the differences between two supposedly identical images.
Louis Frehring
Louis Frehring (born 1994, Strasbourg) is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist based in Rennes, France. His work sits at the intersection of digital arts and visual arts, focusing on the meeting points between technology and human experience.
Through a practice that stages technological systems, hand-crafted counterfeits, and material chimeras, he demystifies and untangles complex technological systems, exploring the hidden mechanisms within technologies that are built and perceived as "black boxes" to encourage a deeper understanding of their societal impact.
