Because the shapes animated by the neural networks were nothing more than noise—it took me a long time to realize this—a strange noise that gently hypnotized us. I tried to escape, to break through the ceiling, to pierce the floor, to cover the shapes with white paint to silence them, and to go outside, near the water, deep into the caves, into the forests, to draw on the rocks and on the trees, right on the sea, shapes that belong to no one. The machines are always following me. They’re there, watching me over my shoulder, trying to recognize the shapes I’m drawing: everything they’ve stolen and that now belongs to them.

Eyes Wide Open is a video installation exploring the authenticity of styles throughout the history of imagery, as well as the processes of style appropriation and reinterpretation. But what is a style? What does it mean to be original, and how can artists exist in an era of imitation and generative AI tracking? 

Credits

• Direction Gwenola Wagon
• Production Le Fresnoy Studio national des arts contemporains
• Production Coordinator Pauline Thyss
• Musical composition Sig Valax
• Images Gwenola Wagon
• Texts Pierre Cassou-Noguès
• Editing Gwenola Wagon with Cécile Bicler
• Stage Manager Marie-Bénédicte Cazeneuve
• Post production Le Fresnoy Studio national des arts contemporains
• CPER CornelIA (2021-2027) Co-construction responsable et durable d’une Intelligence Artificielle
• With Léonie Pons