苅部太郎

Taro Karibe

This exhibition will showcase “Aim an Arrow at the Rock in the Ocean” series and the Artist’s new works “Typical World” series. Both works draw out the biases inherent in image-generating AI, prompting a reconsideration of visual experiences in contemporary society. The Typical World series utilizes Stable Diffusion, the technology that was used for the creation of this work, is currently one of the most common Al tools for image generation in the world. It was developed by a certain company in a certain region, and the images it spits out are based on the specific views and values of someone, somewhere. As such, the generated images seem to be visualizing a world that is entirely fictional, but they do in fact amply reflect social norms, political and religious systems and biases that exist in reality. For my own Al-based generation of images, using “typical” as a prompt, I followed that with a word that I had chosen according to my own ideas, which resulted in a number of pictures of what Al wants us to believe to be showing an ordinary world. The things in that “Typical World” interact on various levels with those in the real one, while specific world-views are amplified in the process. In a cave where all light has vanished, it is difficult to discern one's own shadow from those of other people.