Video self-portrait made using circuit bent hardware + AI

“Derealization Won't Save Us” is one of a series artworks from the ‘Amaranthine Reveries’ collection by Ellie Pritts. These are AI animated self-portrait videos exploring the boundaries between our physical bodies and the essence of who we are at our core. In Pritts’ practice using themselves as source material with AI, they find that the AI feels much more empathetic to who they are than they are to themself. The outputs are devoid of inner criticisms and body dysmorphia, an unexpected but ultimately very liberating result.

“Derealization Won't Save Us is part of the exhibition ALGORITHMIC EMPATHY. THE PROMISES OF AI, presented by EXPANDED.ART and VerticalCrypto Art at EXPANDED.ART in Berlin, 18-23 April, 2023.

17 artists explore the vast potential of future relationships between AI and creative expression to hypothesize on the not-so-distant future.

In a world where technological advancements happen in the blink of an eye, AI is being pointed to in the cultural zeitgeist as an example of a potentially bleak and ominous future. It is worth considering, however, the ways computers and machine learning can push forward creativity, human connection and philosophical dialogues.