Vague Recollection #45 by Mario Klingemann, 2022

Vague Recollection #45

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
Price range: $

Mario Klingemann

2022

NFT/Digital

Description

Vague Recollection was commissioned in “Reflections in the Water,” an online exhibition of AI-generated art curated by Luba Elliott for Feral File in October 2021—around a year before generative AI hit the mainstream with the launches of Stable Diffusion and ChatGPT. Klingemann had already been experimenting with art-making algorithms and AI for many years, and the rise of blockchain brought his work to new audiences.

Vague Recollection extends Klingemann’s ongoing investigation into the creative possibilities of latent spaces—in this case, using time vectors to explore how neural networks understand time. The work consists of a neural network embedded in a web browser. In each of the 88 pieces in the series, a grayscale image of an abstract, fog-like texture gradually shifts to form a vague impression or “recollection” of a human face, which then dissolves back into abstraction.

Feral File initially used the Bitmark blockchain to mint digital art as NFTs, but subsequently moved tokens to the Ethereum and Tezos chains preferred by collectors. _Vague Recolleciton #45 _is one of eighteen that were minted on Ethereum in January 2022.