<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Dear friends, artists and curious minds !</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Some thoughts on artificial intelligence,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">on effortless ‚<i class="">aicons</i>',</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">and my best wishes</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">for the year to come.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">See text below.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Timo Kahlen</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">Timo Kahlen / AI</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">x + 1</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">AI-generated images, 2023</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">from the ‚aicons‘ series</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">It’s all too easy. Effortless, generated at the spur of the moment - ex tempore - by artificial intelligence from a minimal input, my short written prompt spit at the machine - and diffused, composed, rendered online within split seconds, as multiple variations of iconic images - call them ‚aicons‘, if you will - capturing my attention, entangling my emotions and twisting my beliefs. All too easy, no sweat and tears, appropriating - summa summarum - all avant-gardes of the past, all visual trash of the present, and all diffuse and imagined dreams of the future: pressing this ‚learnt‘ imagery into algorithms, speeding it through neural networks, and consuming time and energy on countless servers located all around the globe - with the profane goal (amongst others) to quench my (insatiable) thirst for new images, for new emotions, and for new swells of endorphins, as I click at my very own, (seemingly private) ‚individual’ output on my personal, hand-held digital display. </i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">The history of art will repeat itself. AI-generated images assume a powerful, yet ambivalent, ‚mediated‘ visual presence. On the one hand, they entangle our emotions, projecting déjà-vus of scenes and motifs we have experienced before, simulate a liveliness and warmth, stimulate a form of recognition and take on a ‚photographic’, assuringly documentary stance. On the other hand, we detect traces of manipulation, of deceit: a distorted hand, an inconsistency in perspective, a misfit proportion, a blur where it should not be. We come to understand that the camera-less, virtual compositions have no physical and no time-based existence, no depth beyond the smooth surface of our digital display, no tangible quality or assessable value. They are not ours. Are not ‚original‘ in the best sense of the word, but mere variations - out of countless others, generated by each new user with each new click - of what has existed before. Virtual ‚Doppelgänger’ images generated impromptu and without effort, shared and replicated, to be - once again - ‚learnt‘ on by machines, ad infinitum, to reiterate and to re-write the history of art.</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">Timo Kahlen</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">Berlin</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">January 1, 2024</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">_______________________</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class=""><span class=""><font size="1" class="">I apologize for unintentional glitches or cross-posting.</font></span></div><div class=""><font size="1" class=""><span class="">If you wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter, please send an e-mail to <a href="mailto:mail@timo-kahlen.de" class="">mail@timo-kahlen.de</a> </span><span class="">with ‚unsubscribe‘ in the header.</span></font></div><div class=""><span class=""><font size="1" class=""><span class="">Möchten Sie den Newsletter nicht mehr erhalten, senden Sie bitte eine Mail an <a href="mailto:mail@timo-kahlen.de" class="">mail@timo-kahlen.de</a> </span><span class="">mit dem Betreff ‚unsubscribe‘.</span></font></span></div><div class=""><span class=""><span class=""><font size="1" class=""><br class=""></font></span></span></div><div class=""><span class=""><span class=""><font size="1" class=""><br class=""></font></span></span></div><div class=""><span class="" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class=""><br class=""></span></span></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>