‘Hyperdimensional Attractions Series’

In his latest series of video works, ‘Hyperdimensional Attractions’, AI artist Mario Klingemann journeys into the latent space of BigGAN, a cornucopia of hybrid beings and unanticipated visuals.

Mario Klingemann’s artwork is characterised by the desire to continuously explore uncharted territories, both technologically and visually. In every new installation or video work, this Munich-based artist pushes his AI models to present images capable of surprising or disquieting viewers, images a human brain might never have imagined.

For this work, Klingemann has turned to the most powerful AI tool available to date: BigGAN. Developed with the backing of Google, the largest version of this gigantic generative adversarial network contains a massive 355.7 million parameters, up to four times more than previous models.

As Klingemann explains, “This model is almost like a universe in itself. It is very high dimensional and in a sense it has the whole world inside it. Animals, objects, nature, devices… Everything is in there.”

A virtual universe filled with visual promise

“For BigGAN there are no hard boundaries, everything is connected,” explains Mario Klingemann. “There is no difference between a dog and a bird or some abstract shape. Everything is on a gradient and made from the same parts.” This virtual universe is fluid and immense. Like a natural scientist of the 19th century, Klingemann embarks on a journey of discovery, shared with viewers through Hyperdimensional Attractions.

“There are textures that are familiar but things don’t add up. This is the space I like being in. Imagine you have this universe which has all these promises. You might just discover something new.”

The three body problem for 21 bodies

In the physical universe, the gravity of the sun keeps our planet in orbit while in turn, the gravity of the earth keeps the moon circling too. These movements formed the basis of study for what is known in physics and classical mechanics as a “three body problem,” in other words, any problem that models the motion of three particles.

So what happens inside the immensity of BigGAN? Here there is no central body; orbits are chaotic and unpredictable. As Klingemann explains, “It’s like the three body problem but in this case there are 21 bodies involved and instead of three dimensions it happens in 1128 dimensions.”

Curated journeys into unchartered space

In the hyperdimensional universe of BigGAN, each coordinate represents an image. Some are familiar, a dog or a mushroom perhaps, but others are intriguing forms that inhabit the in-between spaces, the non-physical worlds where “dog” and “mushroom” have no meaning. These are non-existent beings, artificial intelligence outputs revealed by Mario Klingemann.

“What I’m doing in this series of videos is that I curate the journey,” says the artist. Klingemann establishes the initial conditions — the “planets” of the three body problem — then sets the system in motion. The result is a mesmerising visual journey in the form of three on-screen images in continuous movement. “There are no hard steps, everything can transform into anything else.”

A hand-picked selection of hypnotic works

Hyperdimensional Attractions is the result of painstaking experimentation and curatorial decision-making from AI artist, Mario Klingemann. “I have these different videos but in reality I had to make hundreds of them. I picked those where I found the result to be the most satisfying for me, those that had the right transitions and where things didn’t drift off into strange lands that I felt didn’t fit with the theme.”

‘Hyperdimensional Attractions: Bestiary’, part of the permanent holdings at Colección SOLO Madrid, explores hybrid plant and animal imagery. ‘Hyperdimensional Attractions: Sirius A,’ meanwhile, takes viewers to bizarre locations where man’s best friend appears in curious new forms.

This triptychon shows the translation of the famous “Three Body Problem” into the hyperdimensional latent space of BigGAN. The trajectories of the three virtual cameras are controlled by their reciprocal attractions and makes them traverse the inner universe of a GAN like interplanetary probes that transmit images of the creatures and artifacts they encounter on their journey back to the screen. This is what happens in ‘Hyperdimensional Attractions: Zero Viscosity,’ the last of the three videos of the series.

These visual journeys have a musical quality, a gradual, morphing rhythm which contrasts with our hectic day-to-day. They are invitations to be captivated, to witness a whole new world in continuous evolution.