Keep running: AI paintings of evolving horse portraits

Abstract

"Keep Running" is a collection of human and machine generated horse paintings using the generative adversarial network technology. The artworks are produced during the lockdown period in the Middle East due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Horses are significant symbols in the Middle East region culturally and historically, representing strength, endurance and persistence. These are the spirits that keep us running during the difficult times, even when we are facing many physical constraints in daily life. Nowadays, many AI-generated artworks are either photo-realistic or very abstract with distorted faces, fragmented figures and a combination of unknown objects. What technically unique in our work is to produce a series of AI-assisted paintings that shows distinguishable features and forms of horses, while creating aesthetic and even sentimental values in each horse portrait. Each of our art piece is presented in a 2x2 grid format that shows how an AI horse painting is evolved over the generation process. We believe that the machine learning process could unite human creativity with AI technology to produce a series of unique and aesthetic paintings - even these artworks were created in a large scale and mass production method that is never been possible before. With the artistic and technical novelty in our artworks, we also wish to pay a salute to the pioneers like Eadweard Muybridge and Andy Warhol, who first popularized the use of machines with camera and silk-screen printing technologies in art-making, redefining the meaning and expanding the horizon of art.