almost invisible
ABOUT THE WORK
When I first began exploring generative AI imaging tools, my first inclination was to probe the data set to get an idea of how the AI thought. As an obvious starting point, I tried my own name and the title of one of my series, curious if it would generate images similar to that work. It did not.
Instead, the AI produced variations of bizarre Asian figures in static poses, devoid of any meaningful context. Yet only one word in my prompting could be construed as Asian: my last name, "Yip". Was this a manifestation of some sort of data bias, an indication of how Asian-ness is represented in a Western-centric AI model?
As I continued experimenting, I found that the AI's final results were rather grotesque and overcooked. To counter this, I began interrupting the AI’s thought process, not allowing images to fully form. The new images were vague and incomplete, yet somehow improved and decidedly more compelling.
The resulting series of indistinct yet distinctly Asian figures resonated with me as an echo of Asian Invisibility: the experience of existing in Western society yet often going unseen or being reduced to stereotypes, and the struggle to assert presence in a world that frequently renders you invisible.
EXHIBITS
2024
Pixel Perceptions, 10/26-1/19, Noorderlicht, Groningen, Netherlands
2023
Every Day We Have to Invent the Reality of This World/AI Post-Photography, 10/7-3/3, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA