AI systems are pattern-finding machines. Upon feeding one a set of data (images), visual pattern recognition is achieved in part through hierarchical extraction of features. If a set of data has consistent features, it's easier for the system to learn, and replicate, the pattern.

I began thinking of "Old Masters'" works as pattern and asking whether I could reduce these consistent elements and accumulate them as a mass of so-called genius. I compiled existing AI-generated images of figures in the "style" of William-Adolphe Bouguereau and began picking out the body parts most confidently replicated. I cross-referenced them with actual Bouguereau paintings in order to assess the AI's accuracy to the originals and decided upon a small library of body parts.

In this work, I'm considering how the AI bubble, amongst other displays of violence, drives water scarcity and increases carbon emissions; hyper-categorization and binaries as white supremacy; and the myth of individualistic merit and achievement.