Do androids dream of lounging by the pool?

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Swimming pools are often a shorthand for prosperity, as equally established as the white picket fence as part of the suburban dream. A promise from the glossy ads of yesteryear, swimming pools convey leisure, opulence, and abundance. But as dreams continue to be deferred, they morph into uncanny semblances of unachieved goals.

 

The image of Bing Crosby lounging forlornly by a turquoise pool in the 1953 film, High Society, remained with artist, Nicholas Fadely, beyond the first watch. Sullen protagonist in melancholic repose is one Nicholas would be reminded of throughout his life, due to the relationship pop culture has with pools as an architectural accouterments of success. We seem convinced that it is lonely at the top, and that the top can be conveyed by the glimmer of a pool and an empty martini glass.

 

This Forlorn nostalgia and longing for the unattainable was something Nicholas set out investigate, first by delving into the history of representation of pools in art.

As he continued researching and began setting the parameters of the series, the Dalle-2 AI became available to the public with the purpose of generating new images based on a combination of text prompts and existing data online. Users plug in various terms to Dalle-2, and in return receive new images the AI is able to assemble with its access to cataloged and tagged images on the internet. In a way it distills the collective consciousness around terms into images that may or may not represent it.

 

The series uses artificial intelligence to imperfectly form images representative of a cultural longing for success represented by outdated forms. The idea of an AI itself longing for the glamour of days long past as it strove to improve itself had an odd resonance of truth on its mirrored experience.

 

As we gaze into the warped images reflected by technology, which distortions are a product of the mistranslations of machines and which are merely revealed in the source material?