Aristarkh Chernyshev. Fluid Transformations. 2023-2026

Fluid Transformations. Looped video, duration 1'12", Mp4, 4K

The Fluid Transformations project consists of a series of videos featuring a moving anthropomorphic figure, which appears before the viewer in new states each time. These transformations reflect the search for a balance between the technological nature of our civilization and the desire for harmony with nature. The figure shifts from an organic state, encompassing flora and fauna, to various cultural symbolic states, ranging from neon lights to whimsical ornaments, from technical structures to cosmic nebulae. The series continues the tradition of European mannerism and symbolism, a prominent example of which is Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Fluid Transformations is, if one can say so, a modern Arcimboldo on artificial intelligence steroids.

The source material for this project was the Metaconsumer project (2021), which is dedicated to the critique of consumerism. In it, consumer waste in the form of packaging sticks to people moving among the shelves of goods in a supermarket. Frames from these videos served as the ideal basis for generating new images in additionally trained diffusion neural networks. Thus, the idea of