A la Recherche

This project, "À la Recherche," narrates the fictional story generated by artificial intelligence about an individual. The narrative unfolds throughout miscellanies, tracing the stages of life from birth to death. Mirroring our lives, as they are created from human data, texts, and images converse, probing the notions of identity and aesthetic norms. This generated entity, embodying everyone or no one, encapsulates and challenges the method of creating with a tool that knows nothing but to mimic what it's presented. The intent is to critically reflect on the use of artificial intelligence technologies in graphic design, birthing this project.

Opposing the fascination towards the tool, we aim to dissect the construction logics of images through mimicry. Thus, we constructed and trained a DCGAN using images collected from Instagram. These images all represent a singular aesthetic canon, aiming to question and illuminate the emerging norms within these images of women and men, captured from similar angles and framings. Similarly, the texts generated through OpenAI tools emerge from a broad spectrum of writings. The project spans a six hundred and thirty-page book, a typographic specimen created around a typography generated for the edition's chapters, a series of posters crafted using the same tool as the one used for our images, and a website chronicling all our research and reflections on AI.

"A la Recherche" aims to propose a poetic vision of creation through artificial intelligence, leveraging its flaws to underscore our aesthetic norms. Additionally, this project challenges the notions of identity and the life cycle of our societies as seen through the prism of AI. It also offers reflections that enrich the contemporary debate surrounding the extensive use of these tools.

It has been over a year since the inception of this "À la Recherche" project, a year during which AI has evolved to become an integral part of our daily lives. Numerous inquiries we had at the time have been resolved, while new elements of response have emerged. Nonetheless, in this environment where AI takes on an increasingly significant role to assist or replace us, the sensitive and the beautiful must resurface through a creative vision of their utilization by the designer.