Who are you?
I’m Jerome, 47, from Luxembourg. Married, two daughters and a dog. Working as IT manager at a national museum.
When did you start making art?
I actually used to really like to draw as a child and teen. Not sure if that could be considered art though. So, as far as ‘things that some might actually call art’ are concerned I’d say 2015. The year I was introduced to creative coding.
How did you hear about AI Art?
I had heard about DeepDream when it was a thing (2015) but wasn’t really impressed and forgot about it again. But then suddenly in 2022 all these cool images started to appear in my Twitter feed and I got curious. Luckily I quickly got an invite for Midjourney and could play with it myself.
What is your creative process for making a piece of AI art?
It depends. Sometimes I have a more or less precise idea and I start entering prompts and tweaking them, or I keep asking for variations of results that I quite like, until I get something that fits the vision in my head or that I simply find visually intriguing. At other times I simply enter more or less random words, or quotes, to see what the AI comes up with. And that in turn might trigger new ideas in my head which I am then going to try to capture inside the latent space.
What do you love about AI art?
What I love is the co-creation: the human comes up with the ideas and prompts, and the AI then tries to turn them into something ‘real’. Which is wonderful for people who cannot really draw or paint themselves but who have all these unrealized ideas in their heads. Also the AI is much quicker, obviously, and capable of ANY style, resulting in a lot of cool outputs. The human therefore has to becomes a kind of curator, guiding the AI to the final image, with words, artists and styles as the new brushes and paint. Speaking of which: I’ve never learned so much about art history than right now since knowledge in this field vastly expands your AI toolbox. As does a sophii English vocabulary ;P
Do you have a particular love for any of your AI works?
This is such a hard question since I, obviously, love all of them… Maybe these two: dada[portrait]_01 and the Burning Bush. But I also really love my InkBlotz collection.
You also mint generative art on FxHash. What is your background with creative coding?
I’ve always been interested in computers. Mostly for games and design though, even as a kid. I tried programming but at the time (the 90s) it was boring and difficult. It was only when I discovered creative coding with Processing in 2015 that it really clicked! And I’ve been hooked since.
Tell us more about lines&circles and lines&circles2.0.
V2.0 is actually the corrected version of V1.0. The first version was flawed because I had only started to use fxhash and hadn’t really used the random value correctly. Version 2 fixed that.
As for the project itself: I simply like clean, minimalist designs. And I wanted to create something appealing with a very limited set of tools: only lines and rectangles in this case. I still like the visuals of it a lot.
What was the goal of your FxHash work “connexio”?
I had no specific goal in mind when I started the project. But that’s my modus operandi I simply start with a vague idea and I look where that leads me, dead-ends included. In the case of ‘connexio’ I liked the visual effect of the sphere leaving trails on the canvas. The end result itself is a bit rough though and I would approach it differently today. But that’s what experience is all about, right? You do something and you learn from it. And try to apply your insights to your next piece.
Your most recent work is the sold out “Decadence” which is an amazing collaborative piece. What was it like collaborating with another artist on a generative piece?
Thank you, and yes, I really like it too. Collaborating with another artist was a very interesting experience: demanding at times but very rewarding and satisfying in the end. And I’m not talking about the financial aspect here. Usually I’m not a good team player since I prefer to do things on my own, at my own time, etc. But working with the great David Mrugala made me gain so many new insights and see things from a different perspective that I am really glad that I took up this experiment. It definitely upped my ‘long form’ game!
Do you have a favorite FxHash mint so far?
My favorite over all is of course ‘Decadence’. My favorite solo project is ‘Bauhaus Mélange’, It’s very hard to pick favorite mints from those two because I really think that nearly all of them are really good. But two examples would be https://fxhash.xyz/gentk/829057 and https://fxhash.xyz/gentk/707196.
Where do you see generative and AI art going forward?
I see both of them getting even more popular.
The challenge with AI art will be that the ‘amazing’ of today will become the normal and average of tomorrow. Therefore AI artists really have to up their game and find some unique ways to ‘survive’ and to standout since the entry barrier is so low.
The barrier for generative art is higher, since you really need coding experience and quite a vast amount of knowledge in order to produce something impressive. So the field tends to be a bit less crowded, at least at the top. I also think that ‘generator’ websites like fxhash will continue to be very popular. Both with artists and collectors. ‘Fixed’ pieces will have their place too but they will probably be more conceptual works of art.
Is there anyone you’d want to shoutout?
Yes, first and foremost aBe (@hamoid) whose https://funprogramming.org introduced me to creative coding. Those tutorials were really perfect for a total coding noob like me. I’d also mention Raphaël de Courville (@sableRaph) who, just like aBe, has a very big heart for coding beginners and who also issues an excellent newsletter called ‘Creative Coding News’. I’d also like to thank Frederik Vanhoutte (@wblut) for his invite to Midjourney (as well as his amazing art). And a special shoutout to David Mrugala (@DavidMrugala) who was a great collaborator and whose ‘The Dot is Black’ video tutorials are amazing. All 4 people are wonderful people and I’m happy that I have met them. Some even in real life 😉
Anything else?
Eat you greens, kids. And exercise! Don’t neglect the body over the mind.