Gene Kogan

Year
2017

Medium / Material / Technic
Video excerpt, color, 30 sec.

»Neural Synthesis« was created for the NIPS4creativity.com exhibition accompanying the annual Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) conference in 2017, and is a result of experiments with neural channel synthesis. Gene Kogan set up the Machine Learning for Artists (ml4A) notebook, a collection of free educational resources. It contains an in-progress book by the artist and is complemented by a set of over forty instructional guides maintained by collaborators, interactive demos and figures, and video lectures.

The ml4A notebook introduces »neural synthesis«, the technique of synthesizing images using an iterative process which optimizes pixels to achieve a desired state of activation within a convolutional neural network.

The notebook and the instructions regarding the making of such a piece are online and free. This database is a tool that helps push knowledge and creativity across the world.