Generative Monsters: Dylan Schenker

Dylan Schenker is a second year PhD student at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Originally from the US, he attained his MA at Temple University in Philadelphia. His MA thesis, titled "The Construction of Identity and the Evolution of Desire through Synthetic Media", considered what influence technological developments such as deepfakes and generative AI had on questions of both identity and desire. These interests have expanded into a more general exploration of transgressive AI aesthetics and their impact as they become increasingly widespread. Prior to academia, he worked as both a trend researcher for Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve and as a freelance writer with work in publications such as VICE and CreativeApplications where he covered technology-based art and design.

The AC•SM research group and the ALGOFOLK project invite Dylan to give a talk and a lead a workshop titled:

Now is the time of (generative) monsters

Now is the time of (generative) monsters. Since its introduction generative artificial intelligence (GAI) technology has been vexed by critiques over its tendency to produce flawed visual media. In its early days superfluous or misshapen hands were held up as examples of why confidence in its creative potential was misplaced. Though the technology has since improved these so-called hallucinations precipitated a practice of experimentation antithetical to the standards of aesthetic convention. The extreme output produced by the Discord server Unstable Diffusion is case in point: their pornographic channels push the human body to such morphological excess it results in what can only be described as monstrous. To browse a channel such as Synthetic Horrors within the server is to bear witness to a mangle of erotically-charged incoherent bodies in impossible positions. The monster as symbol of border transgression and excess is uniquely situated to assess the generative production of what amount to assemblages of diffuse data from otherwise disparate sources. This presentation seeks to shed light on the monsters produced within this community, among others, and what it signals about the culture from which they emerge. My presentation will draw on the scholarship of, inter alia, Patricia McCormack and Jack Halberstam to consider how GAI not only makes what can be called monsters but through their production both automates and accelerates the production of meaning outside the boundaries of conventional cultural categories. The maelstrom of latent space in this respect is a laboratory to conjure new forms of identity and desire.

The talk will be in English, and will be followed by a Q&A. Lunch will be provided for registered attendees, and a 2-hour workshop will follow in which we will collaborate on a bestiary of what we collectively consider to be representative examples of AI generated monsters.