Automata is a collection of AI portraits created using Midjourney AI. "Automata" or automatons can be defined as "a mechanical figure or contrivance constructed to act as if by its own motive power; robot." The idea of an automaton appears frequently in Surrealist imagery and is often used to evoke a sense of the uncanny -- something that is familiar yet distinctly foreign. With this collection, I used keywords that described humans and robots simultaneously, trying to create a balance between animate and inanimate. The results from my experimentation created creatures that definitely evoked a sense of the uncanny. I envision these subjects as rejected beings, thrown away or decommissioned by their owners for their failure to perform their intended purpose or function.

This collection was heavily inspired by imagery from the Japanese anime "Ghost in the Shell," which is a reference that I seem to revisit frequently in my work. "Ghost in the Shell" addresses issues about what it means to be human in a post-human world, and how we relate to AI, robots, and cyborgs. Humans constantly feel the need to anthropomorphize technology and AI into images of ourselves - we construct robots to appear human-like, having bodies that bare similarities with our own. The desire to find human-ness in technology can quickly turn into something that is more like a monster than a human. This is my attempt to showcase what that concept visually looks like, and no better way of doing that than to use AI as the tool for creation.

I should note that my description of this series was heavily informed by Steven Brown's text "Machinic Desires: Hans Bellmer's Dolls and the Technological Uncanny in 'Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.'" (2008)

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