Künstliche Ökologie

The book »Artificial Ecology« presents »One Hundred Views from the Cosmos of the Positive Extraction and Reproduction System«. These one hundred images were generated with Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). As basis served 3500 Portraits of individuals, which were compiled from online platforms. The hand-picked selection is generally considered positive in its visual appearance. Algorithms act in interactive exchange with their environment. Through their calculations they shape their (and our) environment. Our environment determines and changes us. What we extract from the environment and return to it ultimately affects us. Alexander von Humboldt (»Views of Nature«, »Cosmos«) and Ernst Haeckel (»Art Forms of Nature«) combined scientific research with phenomenological approaches and subjective impressions in their works. With the one hundred views from ""Artificial Ecology"", an attempt is made to reproduce positive features from visual data. Different networks and different input parameters result in different images. The result is a genealogy of neuronal networks that can be investigated phenomenologically through their output.