Potential Herbarium: streptogranum aellocaulis

This GAN-generated pastel, part of the Potential Herbarium series, materializing many forth and back trips between the real and the data space. After training a GAN on more than 4 million herbarium boards, we generated many fascinating imaginary plant shapes. We used this raw material to create dozens of hand-drawn oil pastels, reproducing the very specific, anti-Darwinian shapes. We then trained a 2nd GAN on these pastels, and thus generated this "impossible plant pastel". The name of the plan was also generated with Markov chains trained on thousands of Latin plant names. streptogranum aellocaulis will be displayed in spring 2021 on the streets of Paris, as part as the Pole Gallery project. The collector of this 1/1 piece will receive a photograph of this street installation, creating a link with a ephemeral, real-world experience. Ref. AV-2021-U-78